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 The Leadership Star: A Practical Guide to Building Engagement, Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company, Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organisation and Make Hybrid Work for Everyone, The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists, and Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams from Isolated to All In. Plus, Michael McKinney shares his list of top leadership books scheduled for release in June 2022.

From Skip Prichard: How to Build a Highly Engaged Workforce

“Over the past two decades, while leading or overseeing dozens of businesses across three continents, Brian Hartzer has grappled with the question of what it takes to drive workplace engagement. As part of his quest, he read dozens of leadership books and met with multiple experts. While many provided useful insights, none of them gave him a practical framework that he could easily remember and apply in his daily life as a leader. Eventually, Hartzer developed his own five-point framework – Care, Context, Clarity, Clear the Way, and Celebrate – that formed the basis of his excellent book The Leadership Star: A Practical Guide to Building Engagement.”

From Theodore Kinni: Follow your S curve

“In her new book, Smart Growth, consultant and speaker Whitney Johnson describes how the best career paths trace an arc of self-discovery.”

From Sophie Haydock: How to make work more humane: leaders take note

“You never know what’s next but if you design work consciously, navigating the unknown becomes easier, more inspired and full of opportunity.”

From Mark P. McDonald: Book Review: The Crux, Strategy is dead, long live True Strategy

“The Crux is hands down the best and most practical book I have read in the past two years. Richard Rumelt is a proven leader in creating effective strategies and this book helps you understand what strategy really is. Highly Recommended.”

From Michael McKinney: We Are Designed to Connect

“In Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams from Isolated to All In, authors Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen write that ‘Connection is the default state of humans. We not only feel good together, but we feel normal.’ Loneliness should not be shameful to admit. It’s a signal. A signal that we need each other.'”

From Michael McKinney: First Look: Leadership Books for June 2022

“HERE’S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.”

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.