Recommended Reading

There are a wide range of great resources available to stimulate your thinking about the interface of leadership, culture and professional development. You can order the book resources now through our association with Amazon.com, just click on the link provided.

buy now	"Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships" by Daniel Goleman In this companion volume to his bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, Goleman persuasively argues for a new social model of intelligence drawn from the emerging field of social neuroscience. Describing what happens to our brains when we connect with others, Goleman demonstrates how relationships have the power to mold not only human experience but also human biology. Drawing on numerous studies, Goleman illuminates new theories about attachment, bonding, and the making and remaking of memory as he examines how our brains are wired for altruism, compassion, concern and rapport. The massive audience for Emotional Intelligence will revel in Goleman's latest passionately argued case for the benefits to society of empathetic social attunement.
buy now	"A Whole New Mind" by Daniel H. Pink Just as information workers surpassed physical laborers in economic importance, Pink claims, the workplace terrain is changing yet again, and power will inevitably shift to people who possess strong right brain qualities. His advocacy of "R-directed thinking" begins with a bit of neuroscience tourism to a brain lab that will be extremely familiar to those who read Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open last year, but while Johnson was fascinated by the brain's internal processes, Pink is more concerned with how certain skill sets can be harnessed effectively in the dawning "Conceptual Age."
buy now	"The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits" by C.K. Prahalad The world's most exciting, fastest-growing new market? It's where you least expect it: at the bottom of the pyramid. Collectively, the world's billions of poor people have immense entrepreneurial capabilities and buying power. You can learn how to serve them and help millions of the world's poorest people escape poverty.
buy now	"The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here.
buy now	"The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki While our culture generally trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses, New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues that "under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them." To support this almost counterintuitive proposition, Surowiecki explores problems involving cognition (we're all trying to identify a correct answer), coordination (we need to synchronize our individual activities with others) and cooperation (we have to act together despite our self-interest). His rubric, then, covers a range of problems, including driving in traffic, competing on TV game shows, maximizing stock market performance, voting for political candidates, navigating busy sidewalks, tracking SARS and designing Internet search engines like Google.
buy now	"Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections.
buy now	"The Family Crucible" by Augustus Y. Napier This extraordinary book presents scenarios of one family's therapy experience and explains what underlies each encounter. You will discover the general patterns that are common to all families-stress, polarization and escalation, scapegoating, triangulation, blaming, and the diffusion of identity--and you will gain a vivid understanding of the intriguing field of family therapy.
buy now	"Executive EQ" by Robert Cooper, Ph.D. and Ayman Sawaf An insightful book about managing a corporation by a former CEO of Medtronic. He who makes the case that we need new leaders, not new laws to create healthy workplaces. “Good leaders,” he writes,” are people of the highest integrity, true to their core values, with the courage to build enduring organizations to meet the needs of all their stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of their service to society.”
buy now	"Flawed Advice and the Management Trap" by Chris Argyris Too often advice about change is overly simplistic and does not consider the underlying patterns that keep us from doing what we instinctively know is good for us. The author, a scholarly and down to earth teacher of organizational potential, offers new ideas on how business change can be accomplished.
buy now	"Leadership and the New Science: Learning About Organization from an Orderly Universe" by Margaret Wheatley An innovative management book that helps to shed new light on current issues affecting organizations most—order and change, flexibility, planning and innovation.
buy now	"Leadership Without Easy Answers" by Ronald Heifetz An innovative management book that helps to shed new light on current issues affecting organizations most—order and change, flexibility, planning and innovation.
buy now	"Toward A Psychology of Being, 3rd Edition" by Abraham Maslow A world-renowned psychologist looks at the essence of human behavior as intrinsically good and optimistic. Written before the term “social capital” has gained importance, Maslow underlines the desire of human beings to be loving, creative and trustworthy.
buy now	"Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman, Annie McKee, and Richard E. Boyatzis In a breakthrough concept that emotions do play a significant role in the workplace, the authors unveil the neuroscientific links between organizational success or failure and “primal leadership.” They argue that a leader's emotions are contagious. If a leader resonates energy and enthusiasm, an organization thrives; if a leader spreads negativity and dissonance, it flounders.
buy now	"Success @ Life" by Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold A humorous, fast-paced book with deep wisdom. In today's business world everyone has the opportunity to see their career path from an entrepreneurial vantage point. This book makes the business voyage a true hero's journey.
buy now	"Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership" by Joseph Jaworski and Betty S. Flowers (Introduction by Peter Senge) An inspiring story about one man's journey in change, written from the heart as well as the head. He calls dialogue the power of collective thinking, the main idea that there is a collective consciousness at the level of the family, the community, the nation, and the world at large. Jaworski's life demonstrates that immense cultural and institutional change can begin anytime, anywhere, and in anyone when you honor the call and follow the flow of what is possible.
buy now	"The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers" by Jim Citrin and Rick Smit If you're looking to build a rewarding and personally satisfying career that inspires your passion this book is a great read. The authors, consultants with Spencer Stewart—the world's most influential executive search firm-- set out to identify the patterns of extraordinary leaders using real-life lessons of some of the most extraordinary leaders.
buy now	"The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Cognitive and Social Dimensions of Life Into A Science of Sustainability" by Fritjof Capra In his brilliant examination of the relationship between science and our social systems, this bestselling author suggests that in order to sustain life in the future, the principles underlying our social institutions must be consistent with the organization that nature has evolved to sustain the “web of life.”
buy now	"Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity" by Francis Fukuyama Brilliant understanding of the context of economics and culture! It explains the vital importance of social capital as the leveraging point for business success in the emerging global economy.
buy now	"Working Together: Producing Synergy by Honoring Diversity" edited by Angeles Arrien Inspirational stories of some of the top minds in the realms of diversity work, art, academics, business and world leadership share diverse points of view about how to view diversity as an advantage to be utilized—not a problem to be solved. Among the many well-respected contributors is a chapter written by Dr. Sylvia Lafair called “The Inside Out Project: Diversity and The Human Psyche.”