22 Jul Five Recommended Authors
Truth Tellers
Lee McIntyre: Post-Truth and On Disinformation
Today’s communication landscape is characterized by disinformation that is easily amplified via social media.
Lee McIntyre’s advice is relevant and important for both strategic communication professionals and leaders. He writes:
“…simply telling the truth can have a powerful effect. The truth can be an effective weapon against disinformation, but it has to be told – loudly and repeatedly – by its allies. Truth too needs amplification.”
“The repetition of true facts does eventually have an effect.”
Robert Caro: The Power Broker
I strongly recommend reading Robert Caro, especially now, in the age of disinformation, because he cares so deeply about two things – the truth and the craft of writing. Your knowledge of New York, politics, and power will be greatly expanded after reading this masterpiece by this legendary writer.
Leadership
Ranjay Gulati: Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies
It can be tiresome to read corporation after corporation claiming they’re serving something other than their bottom line; people know when other people aren’t being authentic.
Ranjay Gulati wisely acknowledges the many forms of inauthentic purpose: “convenient purpose,” “purpose-on-the-periphery,” “purpose-washing,” and “purpose as a smoke-screen.”
Gulati also makes some crucial points about real purpose. For example:
“Purpose boosts performance.”
“Inspired workers vastly outperform those who are merely satisfied.”
Gulati acknowledges that “humanity stands on a precipice….Trust in business is at an all-time low. But if it is a villain, business also stands as a potential savior, a role advocated by a growing number of enlightened investors, executives, entrepreneurs, academics, and activists who seek to create a more responsive and benevolent capitalism.”
For companies undertaking branding work and leaders alike, I highly recommend using Gulati’s Deep Purpose as a guide to uncovering your own authentic, deep purpose.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter: Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End
I can recommend a new audience for Confidence—NYC Co-op Board Presidents. This book inspired me to get on my Co-op Board and has been invaluable to me in this role.
Anyone in any leadership position would do well to read Confidence to gain insights on how confidence grows or erodes in organizations; what’s needed for the “turnaround”; how to build a culture of confidence, and more.
Since reading Confidence, I’ve experienced Moss Kanter’s voice as the leadership coach who lives in my head. Her quote-able, relevant wisdom might surface in your mind just when you need it, as it has for me. Here are a few examples from Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s deep well of foundational leadership wisdom:
“Confidence is the expectation of a positive outcome.”
“Leadership is not about the leader, it is about how he or she builds confidence in everyone else.”
“Optimism helps politicians win elections, while dwelling too long on negative events does not. In 18 of 22 presidential elections from 1900 to 1984, the optimistic candidate won.”
“Everything looks like a failure in the middle.”
“Winners redefine setbacks as actions en route to success.”
“Self-confidence is not the real secret of leadership. The more essential ingredient is confidence in other people. Leadership involves motivating others to their finest efforts and channeling those efforts in a coherent direction.”
Peter-Drucker: The Essential Drucker and The Effective Executive
I grew up hearing my father talk about Peter Drucker at the dinner table.
A lot of Drucker’s management wisdom is deceptively simple but in the age of overwhelm it can help to remember the obvious, that “leaders get the right things done,” or that it’s important to “focus on opportunities, not problems.”
In The Essential Drucker Peter Drucker writes:
“The first responsibility of a professional was spelled out clearly, twenty-five hundred years ago, in the Hippocratic oath of the Greek physician: Primum non nocere — Above all, not knowingly to do harm.”
Even moreso now, in the age of radical transparency, the business world is under pressure to embrace non-harming and that’s a good thing.