Read 4 In 3
Summer Reading Challenge
THE CHALLANGE: Read 4 books in 3-months; between now and the end of September!
CEOs read 60 books per year, five books per month, according to a recent Fast Company survey. Are you in this “reading bracket”? If not, why not? As a leader, you want to be continually growing and learning. The best leaders regularly contribute their success to their avid reading habit.
Take This Challenge and Pass it On
Take this challenge and pass the challenge to a friend, a peer, your team, your family – Read 4 books in 3-months; between now and the end of September!
Game On!
Some suggestions below, non-fiction and fiction, to get you started.
Leadership
- Seeing What Isn’t There: A Leader’s Guide To Creating Change In A Complex World by Bruce LaRue, Jim Solomon
Through vivid examples the authors share how leaders must learn to see a future yet to be born while channeling the collective energy of others to make it a reality. This guides leaders to learn to inspire others with their vision, and how not to react to change, but rather create it.
- The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism by Hubert Joly, Caroline Lambert
Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy and orchestrator of the retailer’s spectacular turnaround, unveils his personal playbook for achieving extraordinary outcomes by putting people and purpose at the heart of business.
- The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity by Robert L. Caslen Jr., Michael D. Matthews
Among the most successful leaders throughout history, their mastery of their field wasn’t the secret to their highly effective leadership. All of their skill, grit, resilience, charisma, and courage emanated from one thing: their strength of character.
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. Habit formation expert James Clear reveals practical strategies that will teach how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Scott Drew, head basketball coach of the NCAA National Championship-winning Baylor Bears, rebuilt a program mired in scandal by instilling a culture of putting Jesus first. More than a book about basketball, this is a road map for leading with, and living out, your faith in any context–in sports, in business, and in life.
- Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Dr Henry Cloud
Integrity—more than simple honesty, it’s the key to success. A person with integrity has the ability to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how challenging the circumstances. Integrity shows how our character can keep us from achieving all we want to (or could) be.
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
“Radical Candor” is what happens when you put “Care Personally” and “Challenge Directly” together.
- Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.
- The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
A story of leadership written by a transformational leader who created change, impacting the course of history.
- The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
The epic story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. Crosses all generations making it an invaluable read for today and tomorrow.
- Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley
Five Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future.
- The Leader’s Bookshelf by James Stavridis, R. Manning Ancell
Authors surveyed over two hundred four-star military officers about their reading habits and favorite books, asking each for a list of titles that strongly influenced their leadership skills and provided them with special insights that helped propel them to success. The Leader’s Bookshelf synthesizes their responses to identify the top fifty books – novels, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, management publications – that can help virtually anyone become a better leader.
Self-Study
- Prepared for a Purpose: The Inspiring True Story of How One Woman Saved an Atlanta School Under Siege by Antoinette Tuff
True Story of Courage and Compassion in a school under siege, and how one woman rewrote the ending. More than just the amazing account of tragedy averted, it’s a story of how our life experiences –the good and the bad–prepare us for our own life’s purpose.
- Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius by Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
More than a mere history book, every example is designed to help the reader apply philosophy in their own lives. Holiday and Hanselman unveil core values and ideas that readers can adopt and apply for self-improvement.
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Essentialism is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely crucial, then eliminating everything that is not, to make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.
Shares how to establish priorities and boundaries to protect what you value most, by transforming your life from time-crunching craziness to life-changing success.
- Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude by Raymond M. Kethledge, Michael S. Erwin, Jim Collins
To find solitude today, a leader must make a conscious effort. This book explains why the effort is worthwhile and how to make it. This shows how solitude can enhance clarity, spur creativity, sustain emotional balance, and generate the moral courage necessary to overcome adversity and criticism.
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Blink reveals how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Great decisions can be made by filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
Fiction
- The Chords of Memory by David Beckett
Although this is a work of fiction, it was written using historic sources with most of the improbable, heroic exploits, occurring around 1848. Nearly all of the characters were real people.
- The Circle by Dave Eggers
What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.
- Fallen Angel by Jeff Struecker, Alton Gansky
A top-secret satellite is shot down to earth. Six men must recover it before the enemy does.
- Anxious People by Frederick Backman
An ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.
Learn more from our team at Chambers Bay Institute www.chambersbayinstitute.com
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