Thursday, January 25, 2007

Leadership Books

A former (and current!) student (Jenna Camann) asked me if I would supply a list of leadership books for the University bookstore to highlight as part of a leadership series leading up to an event. I was happy to help, and it was great to see a student taking such an active role in the academic and co-curricular life of the university.

She has been working with a Dean form student affairs to develop a leadership program, and they are both interested in building a more solid bridge to the classroom and academics (one that goes both ways). I know "leadership" as a field often tries to integrate academics and practice, with practice winning out maybe more often than not. As Bucknell changes its management curriculum, it will be interesting to see what happens to this leadership program as it is mostly being pushed from outside the faculty.

Here is a list of leadership books that I am suggesting. These mostly reflect two of my own interests 1) leadership of organizations as political coalitions and 2) books I would want to curl up with and spend more time exploring. Also, I tried to add some "classics" to avoid the infatuation with novelty so rampant in most business publishing.

In no order:

Rules for Radicals Alinksy, Saul.

Beyond The Hype. Eccles, Robert; Nohria, Nitin and Berkley, James

The Fifth Discipline. Senge, Peter (This si a new Edition, I am not sure how much has been updated.)

The Lifelong Activist. Rettig, Hillary.

Geeks and Geezers. Bennis, Warren.


Building the Bridge as you Walk On It. Quinn, Robert E.


And, to leaven them all, a great book by Chris Argyris.

Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They're Getting Good Advice and When They're Not. Argyris, Chris.

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