Reading & Resources

Inspiration and guidance comes in many forms: from colleagues, mentors, coaches and collaborators. Below are some exemplary thought leaders who have taken the time to write about leadership. These are books that have enlightened even a resistant reader into reenergized leadership and teaming.

Employee Engagement

  • The Dream Manager


    Achieve results beyond your dreams by helping your employees fulfill theirs.

    Author: Matthew Kelly

    “ An organization can only become the-best-version-of-itself to the extent that the people who drive that organization are striving to become better-versions-of-themselves.”

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  • The Power of Stay: Interviews for Engagement and Retention


    This book provides an easy-to-use tool to uncover, anticipate, and resolve issues and concerns before your best employees leave.

    Author: Richard P. Finnegan

    “Stay interviews do three things that surveys do not. They bring information that can be used today, they give insights for engaging and retaining employees, including top performers, and they put managers in the solution seat for developing stay plans.”

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  • 12 Elements of Great Managing


    Based on Gallup’s ten million workplace interviews - the largest worldwide study of employee engagement.

    Authors: Rodd Wagner & James Harter

    “ Behind each of these [12 elements] is a fundamental truth about human nature on the job. The correlations between each element and better performance not only draw a roadmap to superior managing; they also reveal fascinating insights into how the human mind — … reacts in a relatively new artificial world of cubicles … . … the most successful managers harness the drive, virtuosity, and the spirit that come with employing humans … .

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  • Strength Finders 2.0

    From the cradle to the cubicle we spend more time on fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. This book helps you identify and leverage your strengths.

    Author: Tom Rath

    This book includes a quick insightful read on leadership and employee engagement, followed by a favored assessment and guide to working with others. Included: A Personalized Strengths Discover and Action Planning Guide for applying your strengths in the next week, month and year; a more customized version of your top five theme report; 50 ideas for action (10 strategies for building on each of your top five themes.

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Performance & Results

  • The 4 Disciplines of Execution


    Wanting to see more “results”? This book Guides Leaders and teams with “a simple”, repeatable, and proven formula for executing your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind.”

    Authors: Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling, Scott Thele, Beverly Walker

    “Why is execution so difficult? After all, if the strategy is clear and you as the leader are driving it, won't the team naturally engage to achieve it? The answer is no and it's likely your own experience has proven this more than once.”

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  • Appreciative Leadership

    Focus on What Works to Drive Winning Performance and Build a Thriving Organization.

    Authors: Diana Whitney, Amanda Torsten-Bloom & Kae Rader

    “Leadership driven by principles and integrity are more important today than ever. Appreciative Leadership shows how to blend principles of collaboration, quality, and service for both long-term achievement and practical daily impact. …”

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Leadership Development for
Results and Relationships

  • Boundaries for Leaders


    Cloud leverages his expertise of human behavior, neuroscience, and business leadership to explain how the best leaders set boundaries within their organizations—with their teams and with themselves—to improve performance and increase employee and customer satisfaction

    Author: Dr. Henry Cloud

    “You can cast a great vision, get the right talent, yet be leading in ways that people's brains literally cannot follow, or sometimes even make work, much less their hearts.”

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  • Dare to Lead

    Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

    How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture.
    Author: Brené Brown

    “Our research led to a very hopeful, very clear finding: Courage is a combination of four skill sets that can be taught, observed and measured. The four skill sets are: Rumbling with Vulnerability; Living into Our Values; Braving Trust; Learning to Rise.

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  • Start with Why

    How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
    Author: Simon Sinek

    Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential and more profitable than others? Why do some demand more loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?

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  • Martin Luther King, Jr. On Leadership

    Inspiration and Wisdom for Challenging Times

    Author: Donald T. Phillips

    This book is part history and part guide to becoming a great leader. … [This book] chronicles the life and actions of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and identifies the key leadership skills he displayed such as: Practice what you preach; Take direct action without waiting for other agencies to act; Give credit where credit is due; Laws only declare rights, they do not deliver them … and much more.

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  • Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams and Why People Follow

    Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow

    Authors: Tom Rath & Barry Conchie

    … The book identifies three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths, and investing in other’s strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership.

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