Weekend Leadership Reading: 4/12/19

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Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular work days. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about failure.

From Dina Gerdeman: Why Managers Should Reveal Their Failures

“If you want to get your messages through to employees, be ready to confess your own management shortcomings, counsels Alison Wood Brooks.”

From Bill Barnett: Want Success? Invite Failure

“Across from the Black Bull Inn, just off the Canterbury Road in Folkestone England, I used to get Maryland fried chicken from a Chinese take-out at a post office run by an Indian family. The chicken was notable mostly for the battered, deep fried bananas that were thrown in – looking like giant fried worms when first bitten by the uninitiated. The chicken was passable – mediocre by my taste but then I eat a lot of fried chicken. If that family is still running the post office, then their chicken is probably still being served to this day. After all, the chicken was not so bad that they would fail outright, and in any case they could survive as a post office or by selling Chinese food; yet neither did they delight their customers. Like so many businesses, they survived somewhere in the middle.”

From Wharton: The Value of Failure: How We Can Make the Most of Losing

“According to this opinion piece by Scott Cowen, president emeritus and distinguished university chair of Tulane University, a full active work life will, of course, produce some failures. What counts are the lessons taken from them.”

From Christopher Germer: To Recover from Failure, Try Some Self-Compassion

“Now reflect for a moment on how you treat yourself when you make a big mistake or experience a setback. It’s likely that you’re much tougher on yourself — that you spring to self-criticism (‘I’m such an idiot!’), hide in embarrassment or shame (‘Ugh!’), or ruminate for a long time on your perceived shortcomings or bad luck (‘Why did this happen to me?’). When things go wrong in our lives, we tend to become our own worst enemy. To recover emotionally and get back on your feet, here’s an approach you can take: self-compassion.”

From Greg Satell: We Need To Stop Glorifying Failure. Here’s What To Do Instead

“So it’s probably not surprising that we’ve come to glorify failure. We are urged to ‘fail fast’ and are cheered on when we do. Failure, after all, is hard evidence that you’ve tried something difficult and paid the price. Yet failure, as anyone who actually experienced it knows well, is a horrible, painful thing.”

Book Suggestions

WTF?! (Willing to Fail): How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success by Brian Scudamore and Roy H. Williams

Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success by John C. Maxwell

Crucibles of Leadership: How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader by Robert J. Thomas

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

Greg Satell’s latest book is Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change.

Every week I share some recommendations of business books that I think are worth a look. Follow this link to the most recent list.

Every Monday, I do a blog post about business reading and business books. Follow this link to the most recent post. It’s a Mini-Review of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

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