Leadership Books I Recommend. And Some I Wouldnāt
I originally wrote these reports a little over a year ago. Itās possible that my opinion of the books has changed since then, but probably not.
Scoring is based on leadership value, i.e. if youāre looking for tips on any given aspect of leadership, how useful will you find this book. Assuming, of course, youāre me. Some of you may not be.Ā
Keep in mind my general definition of āleaderā: Anyone who is responsible for the behavior, development, and/or well-being of one or more employees. Itās a little more concrete than some, and that factors into my appreciation of the following books.
Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
Iāve found value in everything thatās come out of the Harvard Negotiation Project and this book is no different. The authors present some excellent points about how to approach communication when thereās just no easy way to go about it. One of their earliest statements sums up the situation nicely: Thereās no polite way to throw a hand grenade. Points worth noting are the distinction between the speakerās intentions and the impact of their words (as the listener we can really only know the latter, while we make assumptions about the former) and the importance of describing a situation objectively while still talking about mutual contributions to the situation.
Startup CEO by Matt Blumberg
The author is a repeat tech entrepreneur with 14 years at his recent venture, Return Path, and he packs a lot of firsthand experience into this book. He covers everything from jotting down an idea on a napkin all the way to building a board, hiring C-level executives, and selling the company. As such there is probably greater breadth of material here than youāre likely to need, but wherever you find yourself in the timeline of a company thereās a chapter that will be applicable to you. I was particularly appreciative of Blumbergās personal examples, such as the time he spent an exorbitant amount of effort validating the hire of an executive only to have her flake out and rescind her acceptance on the first week.
12 by Rodd Wagner and James Harter
The Gallup Organizationās seminal book ā First, Break All the Rules ā introduced the common characteristics of managers in successful businesses, as defined by decades of research across multiple industries. 12 is the follow up. It contains many firsthand accounts and provides a trove of numerical findings to back up the importance of respecting and developing your employees. For the uninitiated, the title refers to the Gallup Q12, a survey of 12 questions that represents a significant part of the foundation of contemporary understanding of employee engagement.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
I realize that Dr. Maxwell is globally respected as a leader in leadership (which is why I determined to read this book) but I found his material to be lacking in two major areas. First, his definition of leadership is influence. Period. Thatās very broad, and focuses fairly little on the concrete day-to-day aspects of leading within a game development company. Second, Dr. Maxwell falls prey to the same trap that afflicts many authors who employ the term ālawā ā his definition is fuzzy. When people use a phrase like ālaw of gravityā (though itās actually just a Theory, but I digress) they usually mean, āYou donāt have the option of disobeying this.ā Nobody gets to arbitrarily float. But a law such as āyou must obey posted speed limits while drivingā can be broken. There are just implications that are imposed when you do break it, but nothing truly prevents you from breaking it. And day in and day out many of us actually break it without ever seeing any of the implications occur. Dr. Maxwellās tone and subject matter would have us believe that these irrefutable laws are of the gravity type when in fact they are of the speed limit type. His points are valid ā effective leaders should abide by these ā but his verbiage is questionably chosen.
This book is even shorter than mine, and mineās pretty darned thin appeler un chat un chat. But Jason makes up for length with meaning and expressiveness. He speaks from firsthand experience at 37 Signals, creators of popular software such as Highrise and Basecamp, and he pulls no punches describing his viewpoint on how to run a small company. Keep in mind he approaches the material from that standpoint (running a company) more than from the perspective of being a people leader.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Remember the old geezer whose death sparks the plot of the movie Gladiator? Thatās Marcus Aurelius, one time senator and emperor of the Roman empire. I highly recommend approaching this collection of the emperorās thoughts with a firm grip on the true definition of Stoic philosophy, as Aureliusā words almost all spring from that well. Itās not truly a book, and thereās a fair amount of meandering between the categorized observations, but for anyone without a firm foundation upon which to base their ideas of integrity and personal behavior, Meditations is a decent place to start. Just be prepared for a common underlying premise real darned similar to ābecause Midichloriansā.
True North by Bill George
If youāre looking for a compilation of firsthand stories about people leadership (as I was), this book will be a letdown. I would say itās more aptly described as an attempt to define must-have moral guidelines using examples and counterexamples from an almost exclusively homogenous cast of older white male corporate leaders. The Venn diagram of the set of ardent admirers of this book and the set of people wearing āWhat Would Lee Iacocca Do?ā wristbands is a perfect overlap. The author steps in the same bear trap as Dr. Maxwell (see above) when it comes to trying to lay down irrefutable laws, and the demographic of supporting characters is neither diverse nor particularly applicable to boots-on-the-ground leadership. Probably the best takeaway for me is that I need to learn more about Jack Welch, because oh my gosh everyone thinks the world of him. Seriously, he probably is an amazing leader.
AMA Guide to Management Development by Daniel Tobin
I first learned of the American Management Association when I discovered that this organization is where Epic Games sends its managers for initial training. That drove me to check out this book and Iām glad I did. Itās well organized and addresses many topics that are pertinent to mid- and large-sized game companies, publishers and developers both. There are concrete tools in here that will help organizations prepare aspiring leaders (e.g. the learning contract) as well as critical concepts that a healthy company needs to embrace regarding the nature of a learning environment. Thereās a fair amount of fluff (you can breeze through many early pages describing which leadership attributes are most applicable at which levels of an organization) but a surprisingly small amount of self-promotion (this is a book written by the AMA to talk about the value of AMA practices). I intend to implement some of this material in my own one-on-one coaching.
