Leading Change by John Kotter – Kotter’s book highlights the great challenges involved in creating change within an organisation. He lays out an 8 stage framework (from creating a vision to small wins) that are fundamental for making change happen and more importantly stick. In the 21st century I can see how organisations will look for people who can adapt and then thrive in a constantly changing environment. The distinction between management and leadership is insightful and shows the importance of strong leadership to invoke change. One of the final points Kotter makes about fear and how people have a habit of looking at what they might loose and less so about how they can grow to develop leadership. 8/10
The Ride of a Liftime by Bob Iger – Iger’s autobiography is a great one. I’m surprised of how little I have heard of Iger up until this point (perhaps a brief mention of him in Walter Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’ book). It starts out with him working his way up ABC taking on new challenges as he proves himself ready for the next level. The book is littered with life lessons and Iger very kindly summarises these at the end of the book to go back to for an easy reference. The book jumps around the most pinnacle points of Iger’s career with leadership lessons being a key area of reflection. Some of the insights include the upmost importance on quality and safety in products; not letting humility preventing you from leading; how fairness and excellence do not have to be mutually exclusive; innovation requires permission to fail; how easy it is to be optimistic when everyone is saying you are great but how hard it is to be optimistic on the contrary; remove centralised decision making to increase speed of organisation. 9/10
Endurance by Alfred Lansing – Endurance recounts the expedition that Shackleton and his men went through on their journey to cross the Antarctic continent. In the end they never make it close to crossing but instead embark on a more significant challenge of survival after their ship becomes trapped in ice. The book reads like a fictional thriller as the men faced a barrage of challenges that tested the human spirit/body to its physical limit. Shackleton showed strong leadership to proceed with caution, keep the morale high and remind the team of their steady progress. I am amazed how the men all survived the journey and the story shows how experiences/hard times lead to forming strong bonds. 9.5/10