These books offer valuable insights and practical strategies to help you develop a more effective and conscious leadership style. By incorporating the principles from these works, you can enhance your ability to lead with integrity, awareness, and excellence.
1. Meditations for Mortals
A four-week “retreat of the mind” that turns the ideas of Four Thousand Weeks into daily practice. Readers most often point to its philosophy of “imperfectionism” (accepting that you’ll never get everything done, or done perfectly) and to practical reframes like treating your to-do list as a menu to choose from rather than a list of obligations.
My highlights
- Aim for “dailyish” practices because a daily one ends the first time it’s missed
- You’re free to do anything you wish, so long as you’re willing to face the consequences
- Great works have been created with just three hours a day of concerted effort, so put less emphasis on always working
2. The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
Highlights
- Outlines 15 specific commitments for conscious leaders
- Focuses on self-awareness and creating more personal choice
- Provides practical exercises for implementing each commitment
- Encourages a shift from drama to empowerment in leadership
These 15 commitments would provide an excellent starting point for a leadership wheel
- Take Radical Responsibility – Own everything in your life instead of blaming.
- Learn Through Curiosity – Stay open and eager to learn, not defensive.
- Feel All Your Feelings – Feel and process emotions fully.
- Speak Candidly – Speak honestly and directly.
- Don’t Gossip – Address issues with the person involved.
- Practice Integrity – Align words, actions, and values.
- Generate Appreciation – Focus on gratitude over entitlement.
- Excel In Your Zone of Genius – Do what you’re uniquely gifted at.
- Play and Rest – Balance work with creativity and renewal.
- Explore the Opposite – See alternative stories to your own.
- Source Your Own Approval – Provide yourself approval, control, and emotional security.
- Have Enough Of Everything – Shift from mindset of scarcity to abundance.
- See the World as an Ally – View life as happening for you, not to you.
- Create Win-For-All Solutions – Focus on growing the pie through win-wins.
- Be the Resolution – Take ownership of solutions, not just problems.
3. Conscious Business
I used this extensively at Inkling, where we incorporated it into our onboarding and had regular book club discussions.
Highlights
- Explores the concept of conscious leadership
- Emphasizes integrity, communication, and emotional intelligence
- Provides practical tools for personal and professional growth
- Encourages leaders to align their actions with their values
4. Unusually Excellent
Highlights
- Explores the fundamentals of leadership excellence
- Focuses on building trust, clarity, and execution
- Provides actionable insights for both new and experienced leaders
- Emphasizes the importance of authentic leadership
5. Improvise This!
Highlights
- Applies improvisational theater techniques to business leadership
- Emphasizes adaptability, creativity, and spontaneity in decision-making
- Provides practical exercises for improving communication and teamwork
- Encourages leaders to embrace uncertainty and think on their feet
This book offers a unique perspective on leadership by drawing parallels between improv comedy and business management. It teaches valuable skills for navigating unpredictable situations and fostering innovation within teams.
6. SPIN Selling
Highlights
- Teaches Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff (SPIN) questions to guide buyers toward realizing value.
- Focus on problem discovery and buyer-driven solutions, not persuasion.
- Based on 12+ years of research and 35,000+ sales calls. One of the most data-driven sales methodologies.
- Teaches a consultative selling for higher close rates and long-term relationships.
A great book with a lousy name! SPIN stands for Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff, and is totally unrelated to “spinning” a story. That said, this is a “first principles” guide to selling that teaches how to discover what is valuable enough to someone that they will be willing to pay for it.