The holiday season is in full swing, Eleanor is off to a festival equipped with a pair of wellies just in case, I am happy to say I have finally booked my holiday so thoughts go to reading matter.
My idea of heaven is to be in the sun, with a nose in a book and frequent dips in a pool, indeed I have been known to stroll up and down the shallow end reading – bliss!
So once sated by the latest block buster books, thoughts turn to some interesting reading to stretch the brain a bit. I thought I would share books I have had on my reading list.
Effective People Directors could be viewed as good role models in terms of leadership. They are astute, empathetic, excellent at reading people and possess high emotional intelligence. So why is it rare to see People Directors moving into CEO positions? Well to get some answers to this Richard Hytner’s book Consiglieri – Leading from the Shadows is a really good read. The book explores what makes a good number two and even suggests that leaders can improve if they have a spell working as a number two. This book resonated with me as I remembered a time in my career where I was number two to a great manager who used me as his sounding board. It was rewarding, challenging and fun!
I have always loved Machiavelli’s The Prince so was intrigued to come across The New Machiavelli by Jonathan Powell. He was Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff from 1994 to 2007. Powell compares modern day Princes with the maxims of Machiavelli. The book gives a fascinating insight into those years.
The quest for continuous improvement is never ending for me so it was good to stumble across The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. This describes her year long journey to happiness – those of you who made it to our Circle of Peers session Love Your People will know how I feel about harnessing happiness. It is an entertaining read and has some good ideas such as ask for help – I call this the lame dog theory as it very rare that a request for help gets turned down – not many people kick a lame dog!
Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive looks at redefining success and creating a happier life. It is a very personal book, exploring burnout, mindfulness, meditation and well being. I loved the chapters on Wisdom and Wonder. All thought provoking stuff, just the way to give your brain a bit of a holiday too!
I find that towards the end of a holiday thoughts do come back to work and the key thing on my mind is that we are at the start of a real shift in terms of retaining good people. We are also going to increasingly feel the impact of more and more Millennials mixing with Baby Boomers. It could be an exciting mix if managed well. Building a Magnetic Culture by Kevin Sheridan is a good read as it re-enforces good practice in terms of creating a high engagement / high performance workforce. There are practical ideas and good case studies too.
So there you go! I am putting the finishing touches to the planning for our next round of Circle of Peers events – the topic will be Work Smart: Flexible Working: Work Flexibly.
The dates and locations are below:
Thursday 18th September London
Wednesday 24th September Douglas Isle of Man
Friday 26th September Crawley
Wednesday 22nd October Gibraltar
Eleanor will be in touch next week with further details.
Bibliography
HUFFINGTON A 2014 Thrive – the third metric to redefining success and creating a happier life (first edition) London: Ebury Publishing, Random House
HYTNER R 2014 Consiglieri – leading from the shadows (first edition) London: Profile Books
POWELL J 2010 The New Machiavelli – how to wield power in the modern world (first edition) London: Vintage UK, Random House
RUBIN G 2009 The Happiness Project New York: Harper Collins
SHERIDAN K 2012 Building a Magnetic Culture (first edition) USA: McGraw-Hill