Leadership/Communication Books
September 23, 2009 12:49 PM   Subscribe

Can you recommend a good book about leadership and/or communication skills?

Everyone where I work is required to participate in some kind of professional development activity each evaluation cycle. I've worked at my current job a long time, so I've already attended all the workshops and seminars they offer in-house. We don't have money to go away for training. So, it was suggested that read a book to fulfill this requirement.

Does anyone have suggestions for interesting, beneficial books about leadership and/or communication skills?
posted by MorningPerson to Work & Money (9 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be

Fun, challenging, short, eternally relevant.
posted by hermitosis at 12:56 PM on September 23, 2009


Well, there's always the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People (and it even has a section specifically devoted to effective leadership).
posted by amyms at 1:41 PM on September 23, 2009


2nding How to Win Friends and Influence People.
posted by COD at 1:43 PM on September 23, 2009


Here's a Leadership Development Library with dozens and dozens of PDFs on various aspects of leadership.

*disclaimer: I work at the Centre but have nothing to do with Leadership Development
posted by furtive at 2:19 PM on September 23, 2009


I also recommend "How to Win Friends..." It's the venerable book by Dale Carnegie, but the versions you buy now have been updated to use some more modern stories and examples. I took the 13-week Dale Carnegie and coached a couple sessions and can say this book really covers some basic, common-sense ways to view leadership as a result of good human relations.

Also good is The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. If you get a chance to hear Barry Posner speak, I recommend it. He's both entertaining and informative as a speaker. They also have a web site with helpful advice.

Another book I found have very helpful is The Art of Managing People, which talks not only about being a manager, but also about how to manage your boss and colleagues when you work together on projects.

For communication skills, The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defence at Work dissects typical kinds of conversations and shows you how little things you say may hurt or irritate others and how to respond constructively if someone says something that hurts or irritates you.
posted by rw at 3:47 PM on September 23, 2009


Not a book, but Toastmasters tends to appeal to the Man, both for cheapness and theoretical effectiveness.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:21 PM on September 23, 2009


(Plus it offers Networking Possibilities, always a plus in These Uncertain Times.)
posted by IndigoJones at 4:23 PM on September 23, 2009


Executive EQ. Go to the store and read the intro, it blew me away.

It's about honesty and authenticity in management.
posted by Gorgik at 9:24 PM on September 23, 2009


If you want to read Carnegie's book, it is available here for free. Click the Download Here link in the text. It's a ZIP file, and the only thing in the file is the PDF of the book.
posted by Houstonian at 3:36 AM on September 24, 2009


« Older Good examples of video games that feature a...   |   Get Outlook to tell me how many emails I get in a... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.