Leaders are readers. Reading helps you discover ideas to try and expand your mental models. In this post I point you to reviews of recent business books. You’ll find pointers to reviews of Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness, The Tyranny of Metrics, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Disaster Proof: Scenario Planning for a Post-Pandemic Future, Stop Decorating the Fish: Which Solutions to Ignore and Which Problems Really Matter, and Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Things Done.

From Theodore Kinni:: Leader, know thyself

“Metacognition, explains Stephen M. Fleming, principal investigator at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, and author of Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness, is ‘our mind’s ability to reflect on, think about, and know things about itself, including how it remembers, perceives, decides, thinks, and feels.. Literally, it is your ability to think about your own thinking.”

From Stephen Lynch: The Tyranny of Metrics

“One of my colleagues referred me to a book called, ‘The Tyranny of Metrics’. I was keen to read it in case new information had come to light that would cause me to rethink my consulting approach. Having read the book, I can say that it showcases the folly of excessive measurement or using inappropriate measures in an organization. The content is similar to other articles I’ve read in recent years. I wrote about this phenomenon in an article titled, The dark side of goal setting.”

From Richard Schulman: Unsettled: What climate science tells us and what it doesn’t

“Steven Koonin’s new book, Unsettled, is an excellent introduction to climate science by an award-winning teacher. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to develop an informed judgment on the most important scientific issue of this decade.”

From Michael McKinney: Scenario Planning vs. Forecasting: 6 Questions to Ask to Prepare for a Post-Pandemic Future

“There is often confusion between scenario planning and forecasting, with the terms used interchangeably and inconsistently. But these are different methods that involve specific activities, outcomes and value add.”

From Skip Prichard: Stop Decorating the Fish

“Former government official and management expert Kristen Cox teamed up with business consultant Yishai Ashlag in the book Stop Decorating the Fish: Which Solutions to Ignore and Which Problems Really Matter. An instructive book, complete with a fictional town named Busyville offers us a blueprint to solve this problem.”

From Bob Morris: Anxiety at Work

“With substantial assistance from Anthony Gostick, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton share in this volume the most valuable lessons they have learned about how to provide high-impact leadership within an anxiety-free workplace culture. As Gostick and Elton explain, ‘There are two ways to refer to anxiety: the first is as a symptom of stress and worry; the second is as a classifiable disorder.’ In fact, in the United States, ‘workplace anxiety is estimated to cost some $40 billion a year in lost productivity, errors, and health-care costs, while stress is estimated to cost more than $300.’ I would not be surprised if, in fact, those annual costs are at least twice the estimates.”

Reading recommendations are a regular feature of this blog. Want more recommendations about what to read? Monday is “Book Day.” Come back for book reviews, reading lists and other reading-related posts.