9 Powerful Leadership Books that will cut years off your self development

You can spend years trying to become a self-taught leader, or you can find out how the world’s best did it with these nine books. Your choice.

TEACHERS OPEN THE DOORS BUT YOU MUST

ENTER BY YOURSELF.

Playing to Win

Alastair Clarkson3 x AFL Premiership CoachYour Leadership Mentor

Alastair Clarkson

Hawthorn Football Club has been one of the success stories of Australian Rules Football. In this book, award winning journalist Michael Gordon had total access to Hawthorn’s inner sanctum, tracing the journey from its premiership win in 2008, through difficult and turbulent times, to the 2013 premiership.

It’s full of extraordinary insights into the pressures and realities of elite professional performance. It gives unique insight into the attitudes and the strategies of the key figures both on and off the field. If you want to learn about building a champion team that can sustain peak performance, this is a great resource.

The Book

Build the Winning Team (Unit 1)

Unleash Human Potential (Unit 4)

Iterate & Learn (Unit 11)

Why you should read this book:

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

Emma IsaacsFounder; Business ChicksYour Leadership Mentor

Some leaders make their people better, others take them down. Many have tendencies in both directions. Recent research has analysed over 150 senior corporate executives to identify how great leaders make their people better.

This highly readable book describes the 5 key practices of multiplier leaders. It not only describes what they are, it describes how to become more of a multiplier yourself.

It also adds value by comparing multiplier leaders with diminisher leaders. So it gives you an opportunity to “look in the mirror” and find out what your employees and your colleagues aren’t willing to tell you.

Renowned leadership authority Stephen Covey wrote the foreword and applauds it not only for its focus on a small set of key differentiators, but also for the way it drills down to provide practical insights and action.

Liz Wiseman

The Book

Adaptive Mindset (Unit 12)

Why you should read this book:

The Virgin Way

Garth TanderV8 Supercar ChampionYour Leadership Mentor

Richard Branson is one of the most iconic global leaders going – a man who challenges traditional wisdom in many ways – including what’s required to be successful. Branson is dyslexic and dropped out of school at sixteen. His unique style of leadership refuses “toxic seriousity”.

Branson’s approach leverages fun, family, passion, and the precious art of listening. His creative, disruptive thinking is out of the box – “you’ll never have to think outside the box if you refuse to let anyone build one around you.”

There’s a limit to what we can learn about life from people who are like us. We’re the sum total of the ideas we expose ourselves to. If you want a different result then it helps to learn from the outliers – and Branson is certainly a great source of ideas, whether it’s taking notes or being a secret shopper to your own support desk.

Forging a Shared Direction (Unit 2)

Richard Branson

The Book

Why you should read this book:

The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World

Radek SaliCEO, SwisseYour Leadership Mentor

Many highly successful businesses have their roots in an underlying randomness – somewhere, something clicked – and someone capitalised on the lucky click moment.

How can we channel random events into success? How do we increase our opportunity for “click” moments? How can we best leverage them by placing purposeful bets? How can we take advantage of the complex forces of unintended consequences?

Leadership, particularly in the entrepreneurial space, includes being able to recognise and seize any opportunity in a highly volatile and unpredictable world. The Click Moment is a practical framework to help you seize the opportunities on offer where luck and skill collide.

The Power of Creativity (Unit 5)

The Book

Frans Johansson

Why you should read this book:

Layne Beachley: Beneath the Waves

Layne Beachley, AO7 x World Champion SurferYour Leadership Mentor

Layne Beachley has rewritten the history books. She’s won seven world championships and 29 pro contest victories. Her life after surfing has combined new business ventures with philanthropy.

This biography chronicles her journey to surfing success, the strategies she used, and the philosophy she operates by. It focuses down to the detail of how she unlearned skills that had helped her become good, and upgraded them to become great.

There’s a lot to be learned from her story before she started winning the big titles. The book finishes with a 10 point checklist for achieving international success, that you can use to inspire your own journey.

Personal Mastery (Unit 3)

The Book

Layne Beachley

Why you should read this book:

Unlikely Leaders: Lessons in Leadership from the Village Classroom

Cathy BurkeCEO, The Hunger Project AustraliaYour Leadership Mentor

This is a new and very relevant perspective on leadership, drawn from over twenty years of Cathy’s work with grassroots leaders who are ending hunger in their villages. The poorest of the poor are changing the world with courage and leadership, despite their lack of resources.

Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus (the inventor of micro-finance) believes that “Every human being is born an entrepreneur”.

This book shows that we are also all potential leaders. It explores the importance of mindset and the way that entrenched beliefs can be transformed.

It will enable you to learn how to move from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’ and then on to ‘We can’. Challenge your assumptions about what’s limiting you and learn how to engage with your world in a powerful new way.

The Power of E.I. (Unit 6)

Making Connections & Meaningful Work (Unit 10)

The Book

Cathy Burke

Why you should read this book:

The Crossroad

Mark Donaldson, VCAustralian SoldierYour Leadership Mentor

In 2008, Trooper Mark Donaldson made a split-second decision that would change his life. His display of extraordinary courage on that day won him Australia’s the first Victoria Cross since 1969.

Mark’s journey to those crucial moments in Afghanistan was as courageous as the acts that led to his VC. He was a rebel even before the loss of both his father and his mother, on a road towards a life of self-destructiveness and petty crime.

But something shifted his course to the army and he discovered he was a natural soldier, progressing unerringly to the SAS, the peak of the Australian military and facing the stark realities of combat in Afghanistan.

Mark’s story is a unique insight into leadership in the face of crisis, and what it takes to build the strength to keep your cool and take strategic action.

The Book

Mark Donaldson

Resilience on the Front Line (Unit 8)

Why you should read this book:

Live What You Love

Naomi SimsonFounding Director, RedBalloonYour Leadership Mentor

This is a book for those who “could do anything they wanted – if only they knew what it was”. It’s also great for those who have unrealised dreams. It’s a collected wealth of practical exercises for finding your purpose, nailing old blockages and realising your goals. The exercises are mixed in with Naomi’s own story of achievement and success.

Author Naomi Simson says “The hardest thing I have had to do — ever — is to make the choice on where I spend my time. So many choices: education, reading, events, socialising, let alone work, family, friends and fitness. And there’s so little time.”

If you’re looking for direction, clarity, or ways to make better decisions then this is a book well worth using, not just buying.

Drive to Succeed (Unit 7)

The Book

Naomi Simson

Why you should read this book:

Ponting — At the Close of Play

Ricky Ponting, AOAustralian CricketerYour Leadership Mentor

Ricky Ponting is one of the greatest Australian cricketers to have worn the baggy green. His autobiography details his journey from his childhood, through the highs and lows of an extraordinary international cricket career, to his retirement.

Ponting was Test captain of Australia from 2004 until 2011, he is the highest Australian run-scorer of all time in Tests and one-day international cricket, and he’s won a wealth of performance awards.

Off the field, he and his wife are hugely committed to helping young Australians beat cancer, and created the Ponting Foundation in 2008.

Whether you’re running a cricket team, a business, or just your own life, you’re dealing with people and how they interact. There’s a lot more to learn in this book than how to deliver the perfect cover drive.

The Book

Ricky Ponting

Driving Team Performance (Unit 9)

Why you should read this book:

BSchool’s Leadership course includes 12 units and 24 real leadership case studies that involve nine of Australia’s top

leaders across sport, business, military, non-profit and community services. That’s 18-months of powerful online

mentorship and exclusive insights into the journeys of some of Australia’s most respected leaders.

Speak to us today about our flexible online mentorship options and reach your potential.

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