I read a front page article in a recent Sunday New York Times about a classroom teaching method for literacy called the Reading Workshop Approach. The teacher encourages students to pick their own books to read based upon their passions and interests. Students then respond to their choices in a journal and in dialog with other students and the teacher. (Yes, no assigned reading lists!)
The article inspired my thinking around a whole host of questions around my own reading habits: Why do I read? How has that changed for me as I’ve grown older? Who has influenced my reading habits? Is it important to develop a shared literary canon as a nation? Finally, and more pertinent to this blog, what have I read that inspires my understanding of leadership?
There is no shortage of books on the topic. A quick search on Amazon.com with the key word “leadership” yielded 365,339 results. Some famous and not so famous leadership gurus are at the top: John Maxwell, Patrick Lencioni, and Daniel Goleman are a few I happen to be familiar with. (Where are the women on list?) Many books promise any number of steps (usually under ten) towards becoming a better leader.
Missing from the list are the some of the greatest writers of our western literary heritage.
I am a procrastinating graduate student who is just a Plan B paper short of a masters in leadership from Augsburg College. My favorite course in the program was the first one required of every incoming student. The seminar, Visions of Leadership, was taught by the chair of the English department and based on the Great Books idea that primary sources are used as the tool to learn along with active discussion and dialog. We read everything from Sophocles, Aristophanes, Moliere, Shakespeare to more contemporary authors such as Henrik Ibsen, Graham Green, Flannery O’Connor and Chinua Achebe. The stories and characters provided rich examples of leadership gone right …and wrong…discussion about the works was never in short supply.
Later courses would present more “standard” leadership reading by gurus of our day. While these book are instructive, the characters and situations of the Visions course have stayed with me on a deeper level.
What books and authors are informing your leadership? A roll call of my Facebook Friends and LinkedIn contacts yielded the following list:
- The Fifth Discipline – Peter Senge
- Teaching Smart People How to Learn – Chris Argyris
- The Empowered Manager – Peter Block (Block has a new book out: Community: The Structure of Belonging. Has anyone read it?)
- Peripheral Visions, Learning Along the Way – Mary Catherine Bateson
- It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy – Michael Abrashoff
- Courage to Teach – Parker Palmer
I also received recommendations on movies and television characters, but I’ll save that for another day.
Jeff – Thanks for the call out of the Success magazine. I’ve not read it and will take a look.
BTW I noticed that Jim Collins has a relatively new book entitled How The Mighty Fall. I’m curious if anyone has read it. (Sheila, have you?)
By far, the greatest source I have found for leadership reading is through Success Magazine (www.successmagazine.com). In this month’s edition alone are articles/contributions from Jim Rohn, Deepak Chopra, Brian Tracy, Dave Ramsey, Robert Kiyosaki, Mark Sanborn, Stedman Graham, Steven Covey, Jeffrey Gitomer, Harvey Mackay and Ken Blanchard. In addition, the magazine also has a section reviewing business and leadership books.
I loved the “Great Books” program when I was in grade school. I am so glad to see your leadership version and will be adding some of these to my fall reading list. Another fun list to look at is the long list of books penned (or “ghost penned”) by the so-called corporate gurus responsible for our current economic mess. Many of these golden parachuted execs. “words of wisdom” have, in hind sight, expose the short sighted leadership style or “greed is good” mantras that deeply damaged the long term viability of the corporations and the faith employees had in management.