Looking for a Good Read?

In our recruitment practice, we’ve been doing a number of interviews with some insightful leaders over the past few months.?One of the questions we’ve been asking of them: “What is on your recommended reading list?”?I always look forward to asking this question as answers are quite varied and often enlightening. And, as a side benefit, I've been building a great reading list based on their insights and recommendations.?Here are a few titles that have surfaced in the last month or so – I’ve included a quote from each to give a sense of the book’s premise/flavour. Perhaps you'll find something for your list.

The Social Animal, David Brooks.

“Reason and emotion are not separate and opposed. Reason is nestled upon emotion and dependent upon it. Emotion assigns value to things, and reason can only make choices on the basis of those valuations. The human mind can be pragmatic because deep down it is romantic.”

The Fearless Organization, Amy C. Edmondson

“Failure of an employee to speak up in a crucial moment cannot be seen. This is true whether that employee is on the front lines of customer service or sitting next to you in the executive board room. And because not offering an idea is an invisible act, it's hard to engage in real-time course correction. This means that psychologically safe workplaces have a powerful advantage in competitive industries.”

The Book of Hope, Jane Goodall

“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.”

Do Better, Spiritual Activism For Fighting and Healing From White Supremacy, Rachel Ricketts

“Those most oppressed do not owe you thanks for acting in allyship (it’s just the right thing to do)… We don’t need you to be a voice for the voiceless, because nobody is without a (metaphorical) voice. We just need you to pass the damn mic.”

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building A Business When There are No Easy Answers, Ben Horowitz

The hard thing isn’t setting up an organizational chart. The hard thing is getting people to communicate within the organization that you just designed. The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.”

A Beautiful Constraint, Adam Morgan

“When ambition is exponentially greater than resource, said Prahalad, that's when real innovation happens.”

The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas, Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal

“… by focusing on Fuel to enhance attraction, innovators neglect the other half of the equation—the Friction that works against the change. Ignoring Friction is like building an airplane without taking aerodynamics into account, and only thinking about the power of the engines. This is precisely what we do when we launch a new idea or initiative, so it’s no wonder that so few take flight.”

Who: The A Method for Hiring, Geoff Smart

“We define an A Player this way: a candidate who has at least a 90 percent chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only the top 10 percent of possible candidates could achieve.”

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, Adam Grant

“Every time we encounter new information, we have a choice. We can attach our opinions to our identities and stand our ground in the stubbornness of preaching and prosecuting. Or we can operate more like scientists, defining ourselves as people committed to the pursuit of truth—even if it means proving our own views wrong.”

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas G. Carr

“The Net’s interactivity gives us powerful new tools for finding information, expressing ourselves, and conversing with others. It also turns us into lab rats constantly pressing levers to get tiny pellets of social or intellectual nourishment.”

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division, Elif Shafak

“The moment we stop listening to diverse opinions is also when we stop learning. Because the truth is we don’t learn much from sameness and monotony. We usually learn from differences… The less that people from different backgrounds can communicate and empathize with each other, the smaller our appreciation of our common humanity...”

What We Owe Each Other, Minouche Shafik

"In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they're about brains. But in the future, they'll be about the heart."??