Jump-start your new year with the past year’s best thinking
So many books, so little time. If you’re like me, the number of appealing books published every year is overwhelming. These are the five books from this past year that I believe are the most important for leaders — with ideas and principles that will help take your team to the next level in 2016.
CULTURE
Primed to Perform
Subtitle: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation
Authors: Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi [interview scheduled 1/15/16]
Big Idea: Why people work determines how well they work. It’s a damaging myth that indirect motivators like pay, incentives, and perks will positively shape organizational culture. Instead, successful organizations inspire the three most powerful motives for work — play (enjoying the work itself), purpose (valuing its impact on others), and potential (believing it moves you toward your personal goals).
Why It Matters: Leaders now have a holistic model for measuring and shaping culture — a framework, language, and metric that has been statistically proven to predict and drive long-term business success.
FOCUS
Getting Things Done (GTD) — 2015 Edition
Subtitle: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Author: David Allen [see interview]
Big Idea: The brain is for having ideas, not for holding onto ideas. For greater focus and creativity, you and your team need to get stuff out of your heads, into a reliable system.
Why It Matters: GTD is a flexible system for organizing time, information, and projects in a way that allows you and your team to continually adapt based on the needs and priorities of the given moment. That’s crucial in today’s rapidly changing business environment.
CHARACTER
Return on Character
Subtitle: The Real Reason Leaders and Their Companies Win
Author: Fred Kiel [see interview]
Big Idea: Virtue is its own reward, but that’s not all. Practicing integrity, compassion, forgiveness, and responsibility is also smart business.
Why It Matters: Leaders with a reputation for moral character consistently deliver nearly five times greater profits, plus 26% higher employee engagement and reduced risk.
DECISION-MAKING
Holacracy
Subtitle: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World
Author: Brian Robertson [see interview]
Big Idea: Companies and nonprofits need a new “operating system” to continuously evolve and delegate authority to the optimal levels of the organization, engaging the entire workforce as decision-makers.
Why It Matters: Today’s business environment is so complex, and changes so rapidly, that organizations can no longer rely only on formal leaders to acquire information, predict the future, and cascade decisions to the rest of the organization.
ENERGY
Are You Fully Charged?
Subtitle: The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life
Author: Tom Rath [see interview]
Big Idea: For long-term health and success, energy is a more effective personal goal than metrics such as weight or achievement. Choose work, activities, and foods that give you a high level of energy throughout each day.
Why It Matters: When you and your team are fully energized, you are sharper, more creative, and more productive — and you’re more enjoyable to be around.
Jesse Lahey, SPHR, is the host of the podcasts Engaging Leader and Workforce Health Engagement, and he is CEO (chief engagement officer) of Aspendale Communications. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. If you know anyone who would benefit from this information, please share it!
