Books on Leadership for the Proud, Inflexible, and Hard-Headed

Going from a top contributor to team leader can be a disorienting experience. There is a whole world to learn and never enough time. During that journey, I stumbled many times. Painful lessons were learned and relationships were damaged (but thankfully also mended).

I tip my hat to three books that had a profound impact on how I lead. Without them, I would be proud, inflexible, and hard-headed (or at least more so than I am today).

I share them with you in the hopes they speed your journey.

A book for the proud leader.

As a leader it can be way too easy to jump into “solutioning” (otherwise known as offering rapid-fire solutions when talking with your team).

It feels good (who doesn’t like to feel like they have all the answers?) but in time it can create unnecessary dependencies. Why should your team learn to solve their own problems if you’re always there to do it for them? Then when you’re overwhelmed and burned out because you’re solving everyone’s problems, will you admit who is to blame?

But there’s a trick where you can flip the daily conversations you have with your team into moments where you help empower them. Bit by bit, you can coach them to become independent thinkers and build a culture of engagement on your team.

The Coaching Habit can teach you how to do this. It gives a handful of simple questions (my favorite is the AWE question) that can make coaching feel natural, not a chore. In turn, you develop a stronger team.

A book for the inflexible leader.

Motivating performance is the goal when you lead. But it can be all too easy to lean on your most comfortable leadership approaches and be unaware of how different styles can create different results.

The unadaptable leader is one who doesn’t go far. A one-size-fits-all approach can cause your team to disengage and underperform.

Again, another trick: a diverse team requires a diverse set of motivators. The section titled “Leadership That Gets Results” in HBR’s On Managing People will help you understand that you shouldn’t treat all your team the same and how to switch styles to get the best results. As you get more flexible you’ll see how it generates better performance while bringing morale and engagement along for the ride.

A book for the hard-headed leader.

As a kid, I was a hard-headed learner. It seemed like I had to make the mistake myself to learn. Never could I just hear the wise advice from my parents and learn the lesson the easy way. As I entered the world of leading a team, this had to change.

There are some very common mistakes that most new leaders make and there is no reason for you to learn these lessons the hard way. Making these mistakes costs you significant time in your career advancement and lose strong team members along the way.

The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make is a wonderful book to learn about key mistakes before you’ve made them. Chapter three is worth the price of the book alone. It’ll help you see how we wildly underestimate the power of affirmation and how to adjust your approach for each member of your team.

Marketing leadership requires more than technical skill.

As a marketing leader you have to do, teach, train, coach, lead, respond, report, win, and so much more. These books can speed up your time in the “this is hard” phase and get you making real progress.

Adopt a coaching mindset. Adapt your leadership style. Avoid common pitfalls. Don’t learn these lessons the hard way (I’ve done that for you).

I hope these books guide your progress on becoming the leader your team deserves.

♥ / ϟ