Stephen King says that if you want to be a writer, there are two things you must do: read a lot and write a lot. This is about the “read a lot” part. I include reading lists and book reviews that will help you do business more effectively and write better for business.

In this post, I point you to reviews of The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, Peak Leadership Fitness: Elevating Your Leadership Game, and Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It). Plus a look at leadership books coming out in May 2019.

From Michael McKinney: Are You Living in Conflict Debt?

“WHEN YOU AVOID the tough discussions and decisions, you hold your business back, make your team dysfunctional, and cause yourself stress. You set up a kind of conflict debt. Conflict debt, writes Liane Davey in The Good Fight, ‘is the sum of all the contentious issues that need to be addressed to be able to move forward but instead remain undiscussed and unresolved.'”

From Bob Morris: Nine Lies About Work

“Why making the world a better place requires the courage and wit to see it as it really is now”

From Skip Prichard: How to Reach Peak Leadership Fitness

“I recently read Peak Leadership Fitness: Elevating Your Leadership Game by leadership coach and fitness expert Timothy J. Tobin. I spoke to him about the intersection of leadership fitness and physical fitness.”

From HBR Ideacast: What Managers Get Wrong About Feedback

“Marcus Buckingham, head of people and performance research at the ADP Research Institute, and Ashley Goodall, senior vice president of leadership and team intelligence at Cisco Systems, say that managers and organizations are overestimating the importance of critical feedback. They argue that, in focusing our efforts on correcting weaknesses and rounding people out, we lose the ability to get exceptional performance from them. Instead, we should focus on strengths and push everyone to shine in their own areas. To do that, companies need to rethink the way they review, pay, and promote their employees. Buckingham and Goodall are the authors of the book Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World and the HBR article ‘The Feedback Fallacy.'”

From Wharton: Why Incompetent Men Become Leaders

“In his new book, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief talent scientist at Manpower Group, examines the myths about masculine management and makes the case for talent over gender.”

From Michael McKinney: First Look: Leadership Books for May 2019

“Here’s a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2019. Don’t miss out on other great new and future releases.”

Reading recommendations are a regular feature of this blog. Want more recommendations about what to read? Check out my Three Star Leadership blog, Michael McKinney’s LeadingBlog, and Skip Prichard’s Leadership Insights.