My 5 for CEOs with Wanda Haddock, Talent Specialist - Tech Nation

Hey, I'm Wanda - Tech Nation’s Leadership  &Talent Specialist.  Here are 5 resources that I highly recommend for CEOS to get their hands on.

Think Again - Adam Grant  

With the pace of development and change today, if you are running a business, then intellectual curiosity and intellectual humility are arguably some of the most valuable qualities you can embody. As with all his work, scientific research is core to his explorations. Coupled with highly engaging examples, this book highlights the need to remain open about how and what you think! If someone on your leadership team isn’t religiously listening to his podcast - you really should be. “Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. Yet in a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.”

Find his website here and watch listen to his TED podcast here.

The Infinite Game - Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, Start With Why, is the third most popular of all time and The Infinite Game follows on from Leaders Eat Last (2014) and Together is Better (2016). In a world of short term wins and finite thinking, if you want to build something enduring, with long term value and success  - then arguably the infinite game (as opposed to the finite game)  is the one you want be playing. However as the book points out “Visionaries, the truly infinite minded, need the finite minded or nothing’s going to work. Vision without execution is hallucination.  You’ve got to get stuff done.”

Drive - Daniel Pink 

This book may be an oldie but it’s such a goodie. Four decades of scientific research on motivation, exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does. In this short, energetic read, Dan Pink contributed hugely toward businesses reconsidering extrinsic reward as the only or primary source of providing motivation for people. “Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.”

Find his website here.

The War for Kindness - Jamil Zaki

Empathy is the most important leadership skill today according to the latest  research across a number of studies and in this book Jamil Zaki’s research on the neuroscience and psychology of empathy for over a decade, provides a hopeful view that empathy isn’t a reflexive inherent character trait but rather something we constantly choose and a skill we can develop.  In this hopeful call to action, Jamil Zaki presents a compelling case for why and how we can and should bring attention to developing empathy every moment of our day. “Bring people together, and they'll awaken to their common humanity”.

Find his website here.

Crucial Conversations - Kerry Patterson Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, Ron McMillan

In its third edition, this book has become recommended reading for many Executive Leadership and MBA programs around the globe. If you want to master how to stay in dialogue and show up most effectively when the stakes are high, opinions differ and emotions run strong, then this book is definitely worth reading. Practical but backed by years of social science research on conflict resolution, persuasion, and influence, this book may be your most valuable resource to refer back and reflect on in your leadership journey. “Each of us enters conversations with our own opinions, feelings, theories, and experiences about the topic at hand. This unique combination of thoughts and feelings makes up our personal pool of meaning. This pool not only informs us, but also propels our every action.