With today being October 1st, I want to provide for your as a resource my 2018 Fall Reading List. A portion is pictured above. If you do not have a reading list, I highly recommend each of these. They are already making me a more effective leader. Everyone is different but I continually try to rotate my reading from sports (enjoyment), business (work), Christianity (theology and leadership development), military (high-stress leadership) or some combination of the four. By rotating between these four topics, I feel it helps keep me rounded as a leader.
Below is a brief synopsis of each and how they could help you as well. You can click the link to learn more and purchase.
- Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey Nieuwhof. Carey has written a masterpiece! As Founding Pastor of one of North America’s most influential churches, he wants to help you avoid and overcome life’s seven hardest and most crippling challenges: cynicism, compromise, disconnectedness, irrelevance, pride, burnout, and emptiness. These are challenges that few of us expect but that we all experience at some point. If you have yet to confront these obstacles, Carey provides clear tools and guidelines for anticipation and avoidance.
- Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL by Michael Lombardi. One of my favorite books of 2018. Why do some NFL franchises dominate year after year while others can never crack the code of success? For 30 years Lombardi had a front-row seat and full access as three titans–Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick–reinvented the game, turning it into a national obsession while piling up Super Bowl trophies. He provides the blueprint that makes a successful organization click and win–and the mistakes unsuccessful organizations make that keep them on the losing side time and again. For more on this book, read 30 Leadership Quotes from the brilliant book Gridiron Genius.
- Why The Best Are The Best: 25 Powerful Words That Impact, Inspire, And Define Champions by Kevin Eastman. Kevin takes you behind the scenes and share an up-close look at how and why the best are the way they are. Why the Best Are the Best examines strategies to help you overcome mistakes and failures, as well as ways to turn them into your own personal success plan. More importantly, this book will help you see that these same mindsets, habits, and strategies are not just for elite athletes or the otherwise famous. We can all insert them into our lives and careers to help us become our best.
- Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope. This book tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times.
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. Angela takes us into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, Angela shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.
- The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway. Great book! For all that’s been written about the Four over the last two decades, no one has captured their power and staggering success as insightfully as Scott Galloway. Instead of buying the myths these companies broadcast, Galloway asks fundamental questions. How did the Four infiltrate our lives so completely that they’re almost impossible to avoid (or boycott)? Why does the stock market forgive them for sins that would destroy other firms? And as they race to become the world’s first trillion-dollar company, can anyone challenge them?
- No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity by John Maxwell. In his newest book, John Maxwell identifies 17 core capacities needed in increase your capacity. Some of these are abilities we all already possess, such as energy, creativity and leadership. Others are aspects of our lives controlled by our choices, like our attitudes, character, and intentionality. Maxwell examines each of these capacities, and provides clear and actionable advice on how you can increase your potential in each. He will guide you on how to identify, grow, and apply your critical capacities. Once you’ve blown the “cap” off your capacities, you’ll find yourself more successful–and fulfilled–in your daily life.
- Astroball: The New Way to Win It All by Ben Reiter. I loved this book! Astroball is the inside story of how a gang of outsiders went beyond the stats to find a new way to win—and not just in baseball. When new Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and his top analyst, the former rocket scientist Sig Mejdal, arrived in Houston in 2011, they had already spent more than half a decade trying to understand how human instinct and expertise could be blended with hard numbers such as on-base percentage and strikeout rate to guide their decision-making. In Houston, they had free rein to remake the club. No longer would scouts, with all their subjective, hard-to-quantify opinions, be forced into opposition with the stats guys. Instead, Luhnow and Sig wanted to correct for the biases inherent in human observation, and then roll their scouts’ critical thoughts into their process. The numbers had value—but so did the gut. The strategy paid off brilliantly, and surprisingly quickly.
- Five-Point Play: Duke’s Journey to the 2001 National Championship by Mike Krzyzewski. I picked this up in a used bookstore for $6 and I received an exponential return on the investment. Quality leadership lessons for team building and individual performance are timeless. This is an incredible book!
- The Hospitable Leader: Create Environments Where People and Dreams Flourish by Pastor Terry Smith. Successful leaders today don’t dictate; they invite. They don’t dismiss; they welcome. They don’t neglect; they care. Now more than ever we must pay attention to the soft side of leadership if we want hard results. As leaders–from parents to CEOs–we must learn gracious leadership to truly, positively, change our spheres of influence. In this passionate, powerful book, pastor and leadership mentor Terry Smith fleshes out five vital principles you need to become a hospitable leader. He shows that this type of leadership is not superficial niceness or allowing people to do whatever they want. Hospitable leadership is result-oriented because it’s motivated by genuine love. It’s how you create environments where people and dreams can thrive, where vision turns to action, and where great things happen regularly. Here is everything you need to become the type of leader people want to follow.
I hope you enjoy these books. Many have made a significant impact in my leadership.
Once again, my book Timeless: 10 Enduring Practices Of Apex Leaders is available for purchase. If you have ever wanted to become the leader God created you to be, this book is for you! By combining leadership lessons from biblical heroes like Jesus, Daniel and Joseph, along with modern day leaders like Bill Gates, Nick Saban, Kobe Bryant and multiple pastors, Timeless will equip and inspire you. This book is not to be read alone. Discussion questions are included in each chapter allowing you to develop those in your circle of influence. Release date is March 13th. Click HERE or on the image provided and order your copies TODAY.