5 Engaging Books For Emerging Leaders

During COVID-19 Pandemic where we are locked down in our houses, let’s seize the opportunity to make our books @home our best friends.

While studying habits of the successful people around me, in most instances, I came across one thing they all had in common: They are well read. Not long ago, I visited the office of a very successful client. I looked over his book collection staked in his shelf behind his desk and the ones on the desk (probably the most recently read), and made a mental note of some of the books. If I knew nothing else of the man, the books he read created a clear portrait of his personality that no LinkedIn profile could outdo. Precisely, constant learning is key. Finding ways to carve out enough space in the day to dedicate to reading is the difference between a hobbyist and a successful professional. 

I recently published a couple of articles https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/msajwani/detail/recent-activity/posts/ on reading for the young professionals and, in response, I was asked to suggest a few more books as they had enough time to read these days. After I gave myself some time to think, I listed what I believe could be the right choice for my category of readers. In this article, we will review 5 Books which are quick to read and practical:  

1.    THE POWER OF HABIT - By: Charles Duhigg

Assume that you have taken a decision of stop smoking or avoiding junk food and first few weeks go like a breeze and you are feeling super confident and you are proud of yourself. But soon there is a temptation you succumb and then you are back to your old habits. If you have been to this cycle before, then you know the Power of Habit. 

When you should read this book?

When you think you are procrastinating all the time, this is the book for you to pick up. A little story from the book: Starbucks was once trying to motivate its baristas (waiters who serves in a coffee bar) to smile at customers all the time and they thought how about we use the power of willpower? And they tried to train them to use the willpower to smile at customers but they found that most of the time they were able to smile but when the situation became very stressful, the baristas became grumpy and they discovered that willpower is a muscle and that tired easily. So, they said how about we form a habit? They introduced a technique called LATTE which was a series of steps that the baristas had to do every time they faced a stressful situation i.e.

• Listening to the customer 
• Acknowledging the customer 
• Taking action 
• Thanking the customer 
• Explaining to the customer 

And now with repeat practice every time they faced a stressful situation, all they had to do was to perform this series of activities and they were able to remain calm. In this book, you will be able to find techniques to change your one habit at a time. 

2. FIND YOUR WHY - By: Simon Sinek

This is a follow up business book to the bestseller “Start With Why?” by Simon Sinek. This is a step-by-step tutorial that will help you find the purpose of your life, job satisfaction or even get your dream job. 

When you should read this book?

When you are looking to find your dream job or a task that fulfills you. One interesting story from the book about a paper manufacturing company that discovered that one of its salespersons consistently outperforms all other salespeople on the team and when they looked at his profile, background and experience, they found nothing unusual or extraordinary. What the management decided to accompany him on a sales call that’s where they found the real difference. While most salespeople would talk to the clients about the quality of the products or the competitive pricing, this star salesperson would focus on the on the VISION of the company and its COMMITMENT to produce best quality paper, he SERVICE LEVELS for its valued customers and the focus on the WHY of the MISSION STATEMENT which created TRUST between the customer and the salesperson. Reading the book will give you step-by-step guide to finding a commitment to your own purpose.

3. THINKING FAST AND SLOW - By: Daniel Kahneman

We all have this compelling drama being played in our minds, a film-like plot between two characters full of drama and tension. Character # 1, we call it System 1 which is intuitive, impulsive and automatic. The Character # 2, we call it System 2 which is thoughtful and calculating. The way these two play off each other determines how we take decisions, how we judge and we act.

When you should read this book?

When you want to avoid taking bad decisions and be able to control your mind to always take the right decisions. What actually happens that within our own mind, System 1 takes control relies on intuition and impulsion gives us an answer in haste. Whenever you are faced with a complicated problem, System 1 connects with System 2 within our mind, and they both together resolve the complicated situation that we are faced with. This book will give you a host of such examples of how these two systems interplay within us and that’s will make us aware of the incorrect decisions we take in our lives impulsively. 

4. DEEP WORK - By: Cal Newport

Let’s be honest to ourselves: While reading this article, how many times our cellphone beeped and how many notifications we attended to? The million-dollar question is: What is the impact of these distractions on our focus and concentration? 

When you should read this book?

When I am trying to focus and concentrate and when I am not able to deal with distractions. Here is a story from the book that I want to share with you: A researcher at the University of Minnesota divided her students randomly into two groups. Let’s call them Group A and Group B. Both the groups had to solve a word puzzle followed by to answer a quiz based on the word puzzle and then they had to go and read some CVs and get into some hypothetical hiring situations. 

The only difference was that Group A was interrupted during the puzzle halfway through and told to go to the quiz. Whereas the Group B could complete the puzzle during the allocated time frame and then to the quiz and finally to the hiring game. The result of a real eye-opener. Group A performed badly on the hiring decisions. Why? Because they were interrupted during the puzzle while their mind continued to stay in the puzzle and they were not able to mentally make a smooth switch from one task to another and hence they couldn’t perform well even in the last but most important of all - the hiring game. 

The researcher used this activity to prove that multi-tasking may sound very fashionable at the workplace environment but it is not very effective in terms of productivity. In this book, you will find other great examples of techniques that you can use to increase your focus, concentration and eventually your productivity. 

5. INFLUENCE - By: Robert Cialdini

Did you ever go to a shop and buy a weird lamp just because the salesperson at the shop convinced you buy one or did you donate to some obscure cause just because someone walked into your house and persuaded you to do that? Are you now kicking yourself for being so gullible? 

When you should read this book?

When you are either looking to persuade people or you are looking to prevent people from persuading you. Here is a short story that I love from this book:

The researcher walked up to a queue of people standing in front of a photocopier machine waiting for their turn to make copies and she walked up to them and in the first instance, she just said: “Would you allow me to skip the queue?” and 60% of them allowed her to skip the queue. In the second  situation, she said: “Would you allow me to skip the queue because I am in a hurry?” and to her surprise, 94% let her make copies. In the third scenario, she said: “Would you allow me to skip the queue because I need to make copies?” And would you believe 93% of the people allowed her to skip the queue. 

What she found with this and several other attempts that people are mentally tuned to grant you a favour if give them a reason, just any reason at all. In this book, you will find host of examples and case studies of how people tend to get influenced or persuaded and how can you negotiate with people.  

Conclusion:

For me, the right book has to have that balance of facts and stories, inspiration and actions, and somehow leave you changed afterward.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a great scientist and former Indian President once said: “Learning gives creativity, Creativity leads to thinking, Thinking provides knowledge and Knowledge makes you great.” 

Please continue to share your valued feedback through comments at the end of the article. Also visit www.evolvehr.org/reading.