TechLeaders Resources and Reading List: On Leadership

Collins, Jim (2001). “Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve.” Harvard Business Review, January.

A study of CEOs who led their companies to greatness. “Level 5” leaders are exceptional. Collins can tell you what they look like, but not how to become one. He does describe approaches that can help leaders at all levels improve their effectiveness.

Goleman, Daniel (1998). “What Makes a Leader?” Harvard Business Review, November-December.

No one who knows Goleman’s work will be surprised to learn that he finds emotional intelligence at the heart of effective leadership. Here he talks about the importance of managing one’s own emotions and building relationships with others.

Goleman, Daniel, Boyatzis, Richard and McKee, Annie (2001). “Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance.” Harvard Business Review, December 2001.

More emotional intelligence. This time Goleman et al. describes a process for increasing a leader’s emotional intelligence.

Helgesen, Sally (1990). The Female Advantage: Women’s Ways of Leadership. New York, Doubleday.

Helgesen, Sally (1995). The Web of Inclusion. New York, Doubleday.

These books describe a non-hierarchical leadership style, which Helgesen identified in women in the first book, and later found among men as well. These leaders place themselves at the center of the organization, not the top. Helgesen is optimistic that this style matches newer ways of structuring organizations.

Kotter, John P. (2001). “What Leaders Really Do.” Harvard Business Review, December.

The difference between leadership and management: Management is about coping with complexity, leadership is about coping with change. Both are needed in a successful organization.

Lencioni, Patrick (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.

This quick read makes its points through a fictional account of a new CEO shaping up her dysfunctional executive team. A short closing chapter gives tips on evaluating and improving teams. The five dysfunctions are absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

Fletcher, Joyce K. (2001). Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Fletcher’s work is unusual in focusing on technical women, in this case in design engineering. She found that these women often acted in ways that promoted cooperation and collaboration, officially valued by their organization. Yet their contributions “disappeared” in a culture that valued heroic individual action. She concludes with a chapter on how to move beyond this pattern.

Rosener, Judy B. (1990). “Ways Women Lead.” Harvard Business Review November-December.

Women leaders can succeed using an “interactive leadership” style that draws on traditional feminine skills. They don’t have to assume the traditional “command and control” approach.

Leading for Diversity

Bowen, William, Bok, Derek and Burkhart, Glenda (1999). A Report Card on Diversity: Lessons for Business from Higher Education. Harvard Business Review, January-February.

Presents data showing that minority students have done well in higher education and beyond, then offers suggestions to industry about how to achieve the same success in diversifying organizations.

Catalyst: About Women in High Tech, “Bit by Bit”

Catalyst Staff (1998). Advancing Women in Business–The Catalyst Guide. Best Practices from Corporate Leaders. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Companies that want to take full advantage of women’s talents need to make comprehensive changes, not just a few isolated efforts. This book describes “best practices” for fostering systematic changes that allow women to contribute and flourish.

Meyerson, Debra E. and Fletcher, Joyce K. (1999). “A Modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass Ceiling.” Harvard Business Review, January-February.

Women may struggle in an organization because its culture includes assumptions that make it hard for women to succeed. This may occur even when leadership genuinely intends to include women. This paper describes the use of a “small wins” strategy to confront and change such unseen assumptions.

Meyerson, Debra E. (2003). Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.

Change Leadership

Lessons for Change Leadership by TechLeaders

Issued from ABI’s 2006 Senior TechLeaders workshops on Change Leadership, this document shares key lessons on Leading Change in industry and academia.

Collins, Jim and Porras, Jerry. (1997). Built to Last. Harper Collins.

This classic looks at the qualities of visionary companies and identifies a strong core ideology as a central common denominator. Chapter 4 goes into preserving the core while stimulating progress, a central balance for successful change leadership.

Kotter, John P. (1996). Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press.

Kotter examines the change efforts of more than 100 companies and identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in change leadership. He proposes an eight-step process to successful change.

Meyerson, Debra E. (2003). Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.

Tempered Radicals are those in the workplace who use their identities and values to advocate for changes in their organization. These every day leaders are “quiet catalysts who push back against prevailing norms, create learning, and lay the groundwork for slow but ongoing organizational and social change.”