recommended reading


This reading list is a very, very short list that I would consider fundamental to anyone interested in the subject of leadership or leadership communication.

It is not meant to be complete, but only representative--a taste of some of the best fundamental writing in recent years on the subject.

The additional categories on the list, including context, personal development and philosophy are only contemporary favorites of mine, and are not meant to give someone a complete grounding in the subjects.

Other writings listed, particularly the poetry, are included at the request of former students. Click on any of the titles for a link to Amazon.com and a more detailed description.

Leadership:

Bennis and Nanus, Leaders, Harper and Row

Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, Berrett-Koehler

Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, and Credibility, Encouraging the Heart, Jossey-Bass

Pearce, Leading Out Loud, Jossey-Bass

O’Toole, James, Leading Change, Ballentine

Terry, Robert, Authentic Leadership, Jossey-Bass

Wheatley, Margaret, Leadership and the New Science, Berrett-Koehler

Heifitz, Ron, Leadership Without Easy Answers, Harvard Business Press

Neuhauser, Peg, Corporate Legends and Lore, PCN Associates,
    and Tribal Warfare in Organizations, Harper Business

Organizational Effectiveness:

Senge, Peter, Fifth Discipline; The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Currency/Doubleday

Morgan, Gareth, Images of Organizations, Sage

Pottruck and Pearce, Clicks and Mortar, Jossey-Bass

Context, Personal and Social

Handy, Charles, The Age of Unreason,
    and The Hungry Spirit, Harvard Business Press

Gergen, Kenneth, The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, BasicBooks

Shenk, David, Data Smog, Harper Collins

Taylor and Wacker, The 500-Year Delta, Harper Business

Friedman, Thomas, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Personal Leadership Development:

Cooper and Sawaf, Executive EQ, Grosset-Putnam

Goleman, Daniel, Emotional Intelligence, Bantam

Personal Development and Change:

Quinn, Deep Change, Jossey-Bass

Whyte, David, The Heart Aroused, Dell

Osbon, Diane (editor),
Reflections on the Art of Living, A Joseph Campbell Companion,
Harper Collins

Maher and Briggs (editors),
An Open Life, Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms, Larson

Campbell, Joseph, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Princeton University Press

Leonard, George, Mastery, Dutton

Poetry Used in Class:

Collins, Billy, Questions About Angels, National Poetry Series.
See also: Picnic, Lightning, and others at www.bigsnap.com.

Neruda, Pablo, Love, Ten Poems by Neruda, Miramax. Specifically read "Poesia"… can also be found in other Neruda volumes.

Eliot, T.S., Four Quartets, Harcourt Brace. Buy and Keep…you’ll keep interpreting it forever.

Oliver, Mary, Dream Work, Atlantic Monthly. See particularly "Wild Geese," "The Journey." Can be found in other Oliver collections, including her National Book Award Winner, New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press.

Rilke, Rainer Maria, Letters to a Young Poet, Many translations. I prefer the one by Stephen Mitchell.

Mitchell, Stephen (editor) The Enlightened Heart,
    and The Enlightened Mind, A good, good, set. Harper Perennial.

Jalal Al-Din Rumi, 13th Century Persian Sufi Poet. Anything, but fundamentals are in The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, translation, Harper, San Francisco.

Bly and other (editors) The Rag and Bone Shop of The Heart, Harper Perennial

Czeslaw Milosz, (editor) A Book of Luminous Things, Harcourt Brace

For any of you who are interested in the deeper, but not deepest philosophical foundations for the class, you could read any of the following. They are all contemporary, and could supplement any of the more classic philosophical and spiritual texts:

Copyright Leadership Communication 2007