2019 Global Leadership Summit: Recommended Books

As usual, I attended a satellite location of the Global Leadership Summit this year. I heard some great speakers and will share more about them and the Summit in a subsequent post. In this session, I want to share the books that I bought as a result of hearing several speakers and why I purchased them.

The first is Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss, former FBI hostage negotiator and CEO of the Black Swan Group. After serving with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department, Chris Voss joined the FBI where he moved from SWAT team member to hostage. Negotiator. He eventually became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator.

What caught my attention in Voss’s interview was the intersection of negotiating and coaching. He talked about actions such as being genuinely curious, asking “how” not “why” questions, using open-ended questions, and “mirroring helps people know they are heard.” This sounds a lot like coaching to me. I want to pursue this idea as I read his book.

The second book is Herding Tigers: Be the Leader Creative People Need

by Todd Henry, founder of Accidental Creative. If you find yourself as the leader of creative people, how do you go about nurturing rather than stifling their creativity? Henry discussed the delicate balance between challenge and stability required to produce a thriving team. His three key ideas were: earn the right to be followed every single day--be trustworthy; loosen your grip--lead rather than control; and take care of number one--if you burn out you won’t be leading anyone. What a challenge! I want to learn more.

The third book is Beginner’s Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now by Liz Forkin Bohannon which was released at the Summit and will be available for sale elsewhere on October 1. I bought this because Bohannon is such an engaging, optimistic, and energetic speaker.

She is a social entrepreneur with a mission and the kind of person I would like my granddaughters to be. Bohannon encourages her readers to follow 14 principles including embrace your Inner Beginner, dream small, and choose curiosity over criticism, among others. This should be a fun read.

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