Recommended reading list

Competency description
Awareness of one’s strengths, vulnerabilities, and core values is the foundation for effective leadership and career satisfaction.

Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value
Author: George, Bill
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Jossey-Bass
Annotation: Bill George helps readers answer vital questions such as: What should I do when my personal values conflict with company business values? How do I make trade-offs between the needs of my customers, my employees, and my company's shareholders? Do I really want to devote my talents to business? Authentic Leadership provides a tested guide for character-based leaders and all those who have a stake in the integrity and success of our corporations.

Atomic Habits
Author: Clear, James
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Penguin Publishing Group, 2018

Crucial Conversations
Author: Patterson, et al
Category: Leadership, Personal Attributes
Publisher info: McGraw-Hill, 2011
Annotation: This book gives you the tools to: Prepare for high-stakes situations; Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue; Make it safe to talk about almost anything; Be persuasive, not abrasive.

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Author: Brown, Brene
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Penguin Publishing Group, 2015

Fierce Conversations
Author: Scott, Susan
Category: Leadership, Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Berkley, 2004

Good to Great and the Social Sectors
Author: Collins, Jim
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Harper, 2011
Annotation: While I thoroughly recommend the main volume, this short (36 pages) monograph is my “go-to” to read and re-read to get my mind in the right place for leadership in volunteer work. I have re-read it regularly: on planes to a weekend meeting, before leading the county medical society retreat, and more. Finally got my husband to read it before an organization’s retreat and he said “Wow!” It helps put one in focus in what we do as we lead and serve organizations. The choices and decisions we make must be conscious ones.

How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When you Lack Authority
Authors: Scroggins, Clay, Any Stanley
Category: Leadership, Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Zondervan, 2017

Impact Players
Author: Wiseman, Liz
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: HarperCollins Publishers, 2021

Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a time
Author: Pfeffer, Jeffrey
Category: Leadership, Evidence-Based Leadership Strategies
Publisher info: Harper-Collins
Annotation: This was a very interesting approach of a business professor looking at the overall leadership industry and instead of advocating for approaches based on anecdotes, history, or truisms, instead discuss areas in which there is data to guide development.

Mind Gym
Author: Mack, Gary
Category: Self-Awareness
Publisher info: McGraw Hill, 2002

Mindset
Author: Dweck, Carol
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Random House Publishing Group, 2007

My Beloved World
Author: Sotomayor, Sonia
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013
Annotation: This inspiring autobiography may not at first glance seem like a book on leadership, but in so many ways it is. Justice Sotomayor demonstrates how important it is to take risks, fail at things, and learn from one's mistakes. These were key to her success. It is a good read, and in particular the first two-thirds is beautifully written and very moving.

Originals
Author: Grant, Adam
Category: Self-Awareness
Publisher info: Penguin Books, 2017
Annotation: Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent. Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo.

Peak Leadership Fitness
Author: Tobin, Timothy
Category: Leadership, Personal Attributes
Publisher info: ADT Press, 2019
Annotation: If you love fitness and leadership this book is for you! Leadership and fitness are a journey into self-discovery. Any athlete will tell you that to be at your peak, you must train and give your body what you need to excel. Leadership development is the same, it requires ongoing development to continuously develop your leadership skills. A quick read with great examples and tips throughout the book.

Stillness is the Key
Author: Holiday, Ryan
Category: Self-Awareness, Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Portfolio, 2019

"The Inward Journey of Leadership" (article: Journal of Surgial Research)
Author: Souba, Wiley W.
Category: Leadership Development, Self-Awareness
Publisher info: Elsevier, Inc., 2006
Annotation: A wholistic approach to leadership. A good resource.

The Last Lecture
Author: Pausch, Randy
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Hyperion Books, 2008
Annotation: This is a reflective short volume (that had its moment as a bestseller) by a professor facing the end of life and reflecting on lessons learned. It reminds us to reflect and think about what we want from life. A thoughtful read when in a self-reflective time.

The Leader Within: Learning Enough About Yourself to Lead Others
Authors: Zigarmi, Drea, et al.
Category: Leadership Development, Self-Awareness
Publisher info: Prentice Hall, 2005
Annotation: A collaboration of experts in the field to put together the lesson that we must know ourselves to lead. Parts of it are quick lessons and easy reads. Other sections present more of the organizational psychology language and models to reflect a bit more on. Overall, it encourages a leader or evolving leader to look at themselves so that they can be a better leader and team manager.

The Obstacle is the Way
Author: Holiday, Ryan
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Portfolio, 2014

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
Authors: Loehr, Jim and Tony Schwartz
Category: Leadership, Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Simon and Schuster, 2005
Annotation: This book goes beyond traditional time management. By using lessons from competitive athletics, this book ways to work more effectively. It shows how constantly working and flogging yourself to do more is actually counterproductive, causing burn-out and negative health effects, whereas taking care of yourself, taking breaks, and being more mindful can enabling you to work with more attention and focus during the times you do focus on specific tasks.

The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business
Author: Duhigg, Charles
Category: Leadership, Self-Awareness
Publisher info: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014
Annotation: The Power of Habit is an engaging and easy to read book about why habits —both good and bad — are at the core of so many behaviors and how to change them if they are destructive habits. The authors gives vivid examples via storytelling about the topic. I came away with a much better understanding about how to make habits “stick”, including habits that can make you more productive and staying on track. It’s a book I kept thinking about and come back to in understanding myself and others. 

Think Again
Author: Grant, Adam
Category: Self-Awareness
Publisher info: Viking, 2021

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Kahneman, Daniel
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013

True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership
Author: George, Bill
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Jossey-Bass, 2007
Annotation: True North has three parts. The first is an anecdote-rich section that describes what it means to be an "authentic leader" and examines how various people arrived at this status or lost their way. The book's second section, which focuses on the five key facets of a leadership plan. The third section focuses on discovering what motivates you.

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
Author: Vanderkam, Laura
Category: Personal Attributes
Publisher info: Portfolio, 2012

Video presentations

Atomic Habits I and Atomic Habits II
Author: Brown, Brene
Category: Leadership, Self-awareness
Annotation: "We talk specifically about developing identity-based habits and how we can become the architects of those habits, not the victims of them. We also talk about the intersection of his work and mine, the collective stories we make up, and how our mindsets and our systems can set us up for success."

How She Does It
Author: Hendricks, Gayl
Category: Leadership, Self-Awareness
Annotation: Human potential, the things that get in the way, and how to reach full potential.

Identity and Integrated leadership
Author: Brown, Brene
Category: Leadership, Self-Awareness
Annotation: A fun tale of leadership by a former Naval Commander. It makes very clear the importance of listening to your team members, by not only “listening” but truly meeting with them and creating an environment that encourages clever ideas and collaboration. And reminds us that there are simple things that can make big things much easier.

Work Life with Adam Grant 
Author: Grant, Adam
Category: Leadership, Self-Awareness
Annotation: Quick episodes about how to improve your work environment and overcome common challenges encountered at work. Think Malcolm Gladwell meets organizational psychology and you will arrive at this podcast.

Competency description
Effective communication skills are required to learn as well as to teach, inspire, and motivate others.

Getting to Yes
Authors: Fisher, Roger, William Ury, Bruce Patton
Category: Negotiation
Publisher info: Penguin Books, 1991
Annotation: This book is the classic in negotiation techniques and principles. Simple, clear lessons with examples. Also presents the concept of BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) to be considered when the other side is more powerful.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your Life Depended on It
Author: Voss, Chris
Category: Negotiation
Publisher info: HarperCollins, 2006
Annotation: In Never Split the Difference, Voss presents strategies field-tested in cut-throat FBI hostage negotiations as tools to be implemented in day-to-day negotiations. Termed "emotional intelligence on steroids," you will gain the practical tools necessary to discover your negotiation counterpart's anxieties/desires/motivations, information that may allow you to influence outcomes of conversations. After reading Never Split the Difference, you will come to see conversations with family members, discussions with patients in the clinic, and career negotiations differently.

Competency description
The ability to engage, influence, and motivate physicians and other team professionals is critical in the evolving healthcare environment.

Change Your Question, Change Your Life
Author: Adams, Marilee
Category: Leadership, Mentoring
Publisher info: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2016

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
Authors: Blanchard, Kenneth, PhD & Johnson, Spencer, MD
Category: Leadership Skills
Publisher info: Random House Publishing Group, 2018

Death by Meeting
Author: Lencioni, Patrick
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: JosseyBass, 2004
Annotation: This book offers tips on how to make meetings more effective for once, and advocates for more, not less, meetings, in order to enhance the performance of companies and positively impact the lives of those who work in them.

Eat that Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.
Author: Tracy, Brian
Category: Time management
Publisher info: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. San Francisco 2007
Annotation: This is a quick, easy read. Summed up, the idea is “get er done” and “get the worst part over with first." If you are a super procrastinator, there are good suggestions for immediate application to improve your time management. If you already have skills in this area, it will reinforce what you are already doing right, and you may want to do even more.

Getting Things Done
Author: Allen, David
Category: Time Management
Publisher info: Penguin Books, 2001
Annotation: Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-do's clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists — all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you're working on.

Humble Inquiry
Author: Shein, Edgar H.
Category: Leadership Skills
Publisher info: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2013

Influencing without Authority
Authors: Cohen, Allen and David Bradford
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: John Wiley & Sons, 2005
Annotation: Offers advice on coping with turf rivalries, handling delicate inter-level relations and tips on how to bypass rules and foster managerial flexibility and innovation.

Its Your Ship
Author: Abrashoff, D. Michael
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: Warner Books, 2002
Annotation: A fun tale of leadership by a former Naval Commander. It makes very clear the importance of listening to your team members, by not only “listening” but truly meeting with them and creating an environment that encourages clever ideas and collaboration. And reminds us that there are simple things that can make big things much easier.

Leading Change
Author: Kotter, John P.
Category: Leadership/Business
Publisher info: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012

Leading Talents, Leading Teams: Aligning People, Passions and Positions for Maximum Performance
Author: Ellis, Lee
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: Northfield Publishing, 2003

Relentless
Author: Grover, Tim S.
Category: Leadership Skills
Publisher info: Scribner, 2014

The Confidence Code
Author: Kay, Katty
Category: Leadership Development
Publisher info: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014

The Elements of Mentoring
Authors: Johnson, W. Brad & Charles Ridley
Category: Mentoring
Publisher info: Palgrave, MacMillan, 2004
Annotation: A thoughtful guide to being an effective mentor and how to design a productive relationship. They bring together in one place the art and science of what works.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Author: Lencioni, Patrick
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: JosseyBass, 2002
Annotation: The first three-quarters of the book is a fable about a leader taking over a tough team which was entertaining but not all that instructive. There was a very short portion at the end that did nicely address the 5 dysfunctions and how the team in the fable applied but without a huge amount of suggestions. You could get away with reading just the last part easily.

The Heart of Change
Authors: Kotter, John P. & Dan S. Cohen
Category: Change Management
Publisher info: Harvard Business Press, 2012
Annotation: This book provides a framework for implementing change and is full of real-life examples. "The single biggest challenge in the process is changing people's behavior," the authors insist, while providing convincing evidence (as well as examples of the effectiveness of videos and creative visual displays) that their method of "see-feel-change" will enable a company to overcome resistance lurking in its midst.

The Leader's Window
Authors: Beck, John and Neil Yeager
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: John Wiley & Sons, 1994
Annotation: A how-to manual, which teaches you how to lead effectively using the model. You will learn: The development and intervention cycles, how to avoid being a "leave 'em alone" and the the "zap 'em" style manager, and how to properly empower a team, keeping control while simultaneously freeing people.

The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, 4th Edition
Author: Sturgis, Alice
Category: Meeting management/running meetings
Publisher info: McGraw-Hill, 2001
Annotation: While Robert’s Rules of Order may be the rules, this is the playbook. This book makes it doable. More than that, there are guidelines for things such as nominating committees, board function, ideas about bylaws. To truly be effective at running a meeting, particularly if it gets formal in function, this explains it. Also, it is a tool for a board member to move (or not move) things through a meeting. Structure can protect against confusion and distress if there is a difficult issue to work through.

The Wisdom of Teams
Authors: Katzenbach, Jon and Douglas Smith
Category: Leadership
Publisher info: Harvard Business School Press, 1993
Annotation: This book covers such topics as the optimal size of teams, coping with turnover in team personnel and nurturing "extraordinary teams" rather than "pseudo-teams." Reacting against the touchy-feely interpersonal bent of discourse on teams, they emphasize hard-nosed principles of "performance, focus, and discipline," over the softer concerns of "communication, openness and 'chemistry.'"

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life.
Authors: Blanchard, Kenneth, PhD & Johnson, Spencer, MD
Category: Change Management
Publisher info: Putnam Publishing Group, 1998
Annotation: This is a wonderful, simple story that teaches a strong lesson in dealing with change in work and life. It is a quick and thoughtful read. Also, as it is reachable to many levels, one that can be utilized not only for leaders, but to help staff and team members think about change.

Video presentations

Extreme Ownership
Author: Jocko Willink
Category: Leadership/Personal Attributes
Annotation: In this riveting talk, Jocko Willink explains from personal experience how war teaches you the most when things go wrong. Jocko asserts that when a team takes ownership of its problems, the problems get solved.

Great Leadership Starts with Self-Leadership
Author: Lars Sudmann
Category: Leadership
Annotation: In this funny and invigorating talk, leadership lecturer and former corporate executive Lars Sudmann walks us through the personal journeys of great leaders, shows lessons from the golden age of leadership and shares 3 strategies on self-leadership to develop yourself into a "Utopia leader."

Stop Managing, Start Leading
Author: Hamza Khan
Category: Leadershipr/> Annotation: According to Hamza, managing millennials and knowledge workers the way we used to manage traditional factory workers can be disastrous. Speaking through his own experience of being managed and alternatively as a manager, Hamza makes the case that millennials must be lead, instead of managed and given autonomy to complete their tasks, so that they may grow and reach their full potential.

The Rarest Commodity is Leadership Without Ego
Author: Bob Davids
Category: Leadership
Annotation: Bob Davids asserts that leadership is the rarest and most valuable commodity on the planet. As a leader, he feels you need to be touch with the people you lead and you must be in their shoes. Great leaders give the power back to those they lead, and those they lead respond by giving them more power to lead. He recounts General Dwight Eisenhower’s lesson of predicting how a chain will move if you PUSH it (you can’t predict it), versus if you PULL it (it will follow you). Managers can only control Money, Time or Quality, NOT people. Leaders are of the people, by the people and for the people.

Competency description
Understanding and efficiently and equitably managing financial and human resources are important skills for physician leaders in all practice settings.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Author: Collins, Jim
Category: Business, Leadership
Publisher info: HarperCollins, 2001
Annotation: This is a Great Read. Thoughtful, insightful, and readable. The author presents true leadership stories that make you think about how you do things and what you can do to be better leading as a leader and a team leader. This book and the monograph addressing Social Sectors (as the author realized while serving in a board role that some business principles don't apply to non-profit organizations) are among my favorite leadership books. It breaks down leadership styles into levels and some of the best style elements are quieter, personal things that aren't the classic "I am the CEO."

Leading with Questions
Author: Marquardt, Michaell
Category: Business, Leadership
Publisher info: Josey-Bass, 2014

Leaders Eat Last
Author: Sinek, Simon
Category: Business, Leadership, Leadership Skills
Publisher info: Portfolio, 2017

In Search of Excellence
Authors: Waterman, Robert and Tom Peters
Category: Business
Publisher info: Harper Business, 2006

Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Author: Goden, Seth
Category: Business, Leadership
Publisher info: Penguin Books, 2003
Annotation: This is a short volume that pushes one to think about how to take that idea and make it work with some simple “rules” and that sometimes we must take risk as “safe” is risky.

The Tipping Point
Author: Gladwell, Malcolm
Category: Business
Publisher info: Little, Brown, 2000
Annotation: An easy, storytelling read that moves ideas into an active form and pushes one to consider what may be the “tipping point.” It reminds us to look at things in different ways and viewpoints.

Traction
Author: Wickman, Gino
Category: Business
Publisher info: BenBella Books, 2012

Video presentation

Leadership vs. Management - What it Means to Make a Difference
Author: Seth Godin
Category: Leadership
Annotation: Leadership author Seth Godin talks about the difference between leadership and management, the confusion surrounding them, and why the world needs more leaders.