Leadership and Management Book Podcast: Our Favorite Little-Known Reads

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Every avid reader I know has at least one book they love, but no one else seems to know about. We think, “How can this be? This is a great book, but I think I’m the only person who read it!”

Sheer volume may be part of the problem. More than 50,000 “Management and Leadership” books on Amazon have four-star or better ratings. That’s stiff competition.

Not only that, many books, good and bad, don’t get well promoted. If you’re an author, you can’t think because you wrote a great book, the world will beat a path to your door. Nope. Your book must stand out from the crowd. You must promote it till you puke. And since books live forever these days, you must keep promoting forever.

But enough of that. This blog is for readers. Tune in as Art Petty and I discuss great books no one else seems to know about.

Listen now:

Show Notes

Art introduces the theme for this podcast and shares that Wally and I don’t share our ideas ahead of the recording…making for some interesting moments! (1:00)

Wally clarifies what we mean by great books no one knows or talks about regularly. He introduces his choice: Tactics: The Art and Science of Success by Edward de Bono. (2:00)

Why Wally loves Tactics by de Bono. (3:30)

Art struggles to understand how Wally is positioning Tactics and Wally sets Art straight. (4:00)

Art asks Wally the provocative “What’s wrong with it?” question given that few are referencing or talking about it in this era. (7:14) Wally supplies his usual convincing answer!

Art shifts to the other end of the time-line and offers a current book that no one is talking about: Leading in the Digital World: How to Foster Creativity, Collaboration, and Inclusivity (Management on the Cutting Edge) (9:00)

Wally offers some thoughts on why Leading in the Digital World isn’t generating some noise and news.(12:00)

Art makes the case for Leading in the Digital World with a breakdown of the content and what he likes in the book. (13:24)

Wally and Art get into an argument over whether leadership has changed over time and what impact technology is placing on the evolution of leadership. (14:45)

Art raises some support for a need for leaders to adapt from General McChrystal’s book, Team of Teams. (17:45)

Wally pairs Tactics with Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles.

Art encourages you to consider Leading in a Digital World and we we wrap up! (20:45)

Note: All Amazon links for my recommendations are affiliate links. If you follow the links and purchase a book, I receive a tiny commission.

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What People Are Saying

Michael McKinney   |   17 Jul 2020   |   Reply

Completely agree that the principles of leadership haven’t changed because human nature is human nature from the beginning of time. But our context is always changing and so we need to apply principles differently to the current mindset of the people we are leading.

Wally Bock   |   17 Jul 2020   |   Reply

Thanks, Michael. I would add that every situation is unique, so you must keep adapting to that as well.