Book Recommendations
from Bret L. Simmons

From Bret's review: "This is not Bob Sutton’s best book, but if you’ve never read one of his books this is the one to start with because Bob really summarizes the most important ideas and evidence that have appeared in all of his previous books, articles, and blogs. Those familiar with Bob’s work will recognize that there is not a whole lot of new stuff here, but that’s OK, because it’s still the best stuff you are going to find about how to be a good boss."

Order now from Amazon!

From Bret's review: "In this book, Nayar tells the story of how he transformed an already successful company, HCLT, into one of the fastest growing IT service partners in the world. The personal story Nayar shares is compelling, insightful, and at times funny and brutally honest. Have your highlighter handy when you read this because it is packed full of wisdom and quotable passages."

Order now from Amazon!

Leader Lab: The Narcissistic Leader

August 29, 2010 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership

My post today over at The Leader Lab is entitled “Five Evidence-Based Outcomes of Both the Bright-side and the Dark-side of a Leader’s Personality.” This article is a follow-up to one I wrote last week entitled “Seven Things to Expect from Your Narcissistic Employee,” which was a big hit on SmartBrief on Leadership.

In this article, I summarize the results of a fascinating study of 75 Major League Baseball CEOs over a 100 year period, published in one of our top research journals. The bottom line is that narcissistic leaders are more likely to turn over good managers, while positive leaders are more likely to achieve outcomes associated with organizational success. That’s something many of us might have suspected, but it’s nice to have some credible evidence behind it.

I hope you check out the article by clicking here!

You should follow me on twitter here.

Tags: core-self evaluation, evidence-based management, narcissism, Personality
Posted in Leadership | No Comments »

Be Bodacious: My Review

August 28, 2010 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership

I got my copy of “Be Bodacious: Put Life In Your Leadership,” by Steven D. Wood free of charge from the publicist. When this thin book with a goofy title arrived, I was glad I did not pay for it. To be completely honest, I did not look forward to reading it.

But now I am going to recommend it. I did not love this book, because I prefer evidence-based books on leadership over anecdotes and stories. If you are someone that loves stories more than research, this book could be for you.

Even though I did not like the style, I did love the message – a lot. The message boils down to these six words:

Be extraordinary
Be unrestrained
Be bold

We’ve all heard this message before, but few of us actually live it. Through the stories Steven shares in his book, he reminds us how important it is to doggedly pursue an uncompromising commitment to others by holding ourselves to very high personal standards. It’s impossible to be the leader others need you to be if you live an ordinary, constrained, and timid life.

“Change your future by changing what you do today” (p. 89).

This book would be an especially good read for young people or new leaders, but even the most seasoned among us need to constantly remind ourselves how easy it is to become complacent and comfortable with our own mediocrity. It’s not a new message, but it is an excellent message – one I bodaciously recommend.

More Advice For New MBA Students

Give Yourself Permission To Be Excellent

Are You Remarkable?

You should follow me on twitter here.

Tags: accountability, book review, Change, commitment, Credibility, ethics, Excellence, responsibility, values
Posted in Leadership | 2 Comments »

MBA Extra Reading, Fall 2010

August 27, 2010 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership

I teach an MBA course in Organizational Behavior every semester. Most of my students have never had a previous course in OB, and many have never had any management course. So I use a textbook to cover the basic concepts of OB and case studies, mostly from Harvard Business School Press, to help us think about how to apply the concepts.

Every semester I also have my students subscribe to six of my favorite bloggers. They are required to leave a comment on at least one blog per week and hopefully engage the blog author in a brief conversation. I have them read blogs because I want them to get a perspective on leadership other than my own. The blogs they are required to subscribe to this semester are:

Bob Sutton: Work Matters

Dan McCarthy: Great Leadership

Wally Bock: Three Start Leadership

Art Petty: Management Excellence

Mary Jo Asums: Aspire

Paul Hebert: Incentive Intelligence

I also give them a list of 4-5 current books and ask them to read and report on one. The books on my list this semester are:

Employees First, Customers Second

Bob Sutton is one of my favorite business authors. His new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, will be out on September 7 so make sure to get your copy early. If you are interested in continuously developing your capacity to lead, manage, or supervise others, I think you will benefit by reading any of these books or following any of these blogs.

Good Boss, Bad Boss: My Review

Open Leadership: My Review

Employees First, Customers Second: My Review

You should follow me on twitter here.

Tags: blogs, book review, MBA
Posted in Leadership | 4 Comments »

RSS Email Twitter