Book reviews
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General
Strengthsfinder 2.0
Author: Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton
(Previous printings of this book were titled Now Discover Your Strengths)
The thesis set by these researchers from the Gallup Institute is that the successful people always develop their strengths and only Band-Aid their weaknesses. Once this thesis is defined and explained, the reader is urged to take an online test (the book comes with an activation key for a one-time test) to discover his five top personality themes (out of 34). These are then described in detail,showing how one can apply himself to build on them and also how to aid others demonstrating these traits.
This was a big eye-opener for me. Not the part about diversity or playing to your strengths – this is emphasized in the judge program – but what my actual traits are. It explained a lot of my personal decisions and my frustration with the judge program several years back. This is probably the least useful of the three books reviewed here, but it's a great read.
Note: This book is a sequel to First Break All the Rules, which I have not read and I don't think it is useful for our purposes, being heavily focused on business practices.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Author: Stephen R. Corey
This is a book about self-development. Divided into three parts, it first focuses on helping develop you as yourself ('Be Pro-active,' 'Begin with an End in Mind,' 'Put First Things First'). The second deals with functioning in a society / group, your relations with others ('Think Win/Win,' 'Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood,' 'Synergize') and ends with a discussion on constant growth ('Sharpening the Saw'). The habits are discussed in detail with a lot of personal anecdotes illustrating the author's points. Each chapter also wrap-up with exercises meant to stimulate the reader.
My experience with this book reaches back almost six years, when I first discovered it in a library. A year ago, I felt an urge to reread it and bought myself a copy. It's definitely a book you go back to. The book does not immediately lend itself to improving your leadership skills. It does, however, help to build you up as a leader from the ground up. It also contains a great definition of a leader, which I often use in L3 interviews to demonstrate a difference between leaders and managers.
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
Author: The Arbinger Institute
The book describes how each of us deceives ourselves into believing in a distorted world-view, in which the blame lies everywhere, but in us. It describes, how fall into the cycle, fuel it by playing it against others, and finally, how we can can break it. Framed as narrative (with narratives within), its a quick, eye-opening read with serious thought behind it.
Fun fact: This book was required reading for HLJs going to PT Amsterdam 2010.
Leadership
The Leadership Challenge
Author: Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner
This book directly deals with the aspects of leadership. While it talks about leadership in the business setting, none of the concepts presented here can't be applied to leadership within the judge program. The book is a detailed overview of a training program given by the authors and can be supplemented with much additional material.
If you want lots of advice and handfuls of things to try, this is the book for you. I was reading this on my way to GP Amsterdam early this year and actually taking notes on things I was going to improve on at that event. This included running the team meeting, working with other judges and approaching the event more confidently. And it really showed – the feedback I got from both senior and lower-level judges was probably the most positive I ever received.
