First,  Leadership and Self-deception by The Arbinger Institute.  This book is one of the most impacting leadership book I’ve ever read.  It speaks to not what you do but why you do it.  The focus of the book is changing your motives and way of being toward people…recognizing how we are driven and how to improve.  It is an easy read, as the book is written in the story/parable format. I highly recommend the book to anyone looking to improve in their professional or personal life.

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni.  I really enjoy Lencioni’s work and have read almost everything he has written.  This book, however, is one of his most impactful.  Again, the book is written in the story/parable format, but the latter fourth of the text is actually instructions on implementing the four obsessions, which are:

1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
2. Create organizational clarity
3. Over-communicate organizational clarity
4. Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems

This book is a “must read”, in my humble opinion, for anyone in an executive position or striving to be an executive.  The first time I read this book I was a project manager for a large financial institution with no direct reports.  Many of the principles didn’t really hit home at the time, but it started the foundation.  I’m now a Vice President of an organization with a reasonably sized team and I see the obsessions in a bit of a different light. 

Pick up these books and check them out.  It won’t be a waste of your time.