GCG Leadership Development Team
“Resilience” has been a trending keyword in the world of work amidst the pandemic. During challenging times, resilience is the key in persevering and thriving in both our personal and professional lives. In our Essential Leadership Guide we detailed why resilience is vital in leadership and how you can build resilience. If you have not read our guide yet, you can do so here.
One of the ways you can build resilience is through learning and self-reflection. Here is our list for the top 5 leadership books to help you master building up your own resilience to thrive as a leader during unprecedented times.
1. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
By Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
At a time when leaders and employees alike may feel overwhelmed with work and constantly over capacity, The One Thing reminds us that focusing your energy on one thing at a time helps build resilience to live more rewarding lives.
“The One Thing explains successful habits to overcome the six lies that block our success, beat the seven thieves that steal time and leverage the laws of purpose, priority and productivity. “
2. Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
By Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney
During difficult times, sometimes we lose willpower in both our personal and professional lives. Having strong willpower goes hand in hand with resilience. This book by Roy F. Baumeister reveals the secrets to building willpower to help become a more resilient person and leader.
“One of the world’s most esteemed and influential psychologists, Roy F. Baumeister, teams with New York Times science writer John Tierney to reveal the secrets of self-control and how to master it.
Baumeister’s latest research shows that we typically spend four hours every day resisting temptation. No wonder people around the world rank a lack of self-control as their biggest weakness. Willpower looks to the lives of entrepreneurs, parents, entertainers, and artists-including David Blaine, Eric Clapton, and others-who have flourished by improving their self-control.
The lessons from their stories and psychologists’ experiments can help anyone. You learn not only how to build willpower but also how to conserve it for crucial moments by setting the right goals and using the best new techniques for monitoring your progress. Once you master these techniques and establish the right habits, willpower gets easier: you’ll need less conscious mental energy to avoid temptation. That’s neither magic nor empty self-help sloganeering, but rather a solid path to a better life.”
3. What They Didn’t Tell Me: How to Be a Resilient Leader and Build Teams You Can Trust
By Jawad Ahsan
“A thoughtful perspective on the journey to professional success, described through the author’s life experiences encountering the challenges faced in advancing from an individual contributor to an effective and impactful leader.
Jawad Ahsan addresses challenges of diversity from his own perspective. It is a fresh point of view often missing in management guides.
The book is fast paced and targeted for young professionals who are navigating their own careers and benefit from the wisdom gained from another’s success, failures and the process in between. “
4. The Little Book of Stoicism
By Jonas and Nils Salzgeber
While we are not advocating for you to turn into pure stoics during challenging times, taking bits and pieces of a philosophy that teaches you to deal more effectively with whatever life throws at you is a great way to build resilience.
“This compelling, highly actionable guide shows you how to deal more effectively with whatever life throws at you and live up to your best self.
A mix of timeless wisdom and empowering advice, The Little Book of Stoicism will point the way to anyone seeking a calm and wise life in a chaotic world.”
5. Rising Strong
By Brene Brown
One of the best and most popular self-help book writers, Brene Brown’s Rising Strong is a must read for those that feel they have been knocked down and need a guide to getting back up. Building resilience starts from within and Rising Strong can serve as a starters’ guide.
“Brene Brown tells us what it takes to get back up, and how owning our stories of disappointment, failure, and heartbreak gives us the power to write a daring new ending. Struggle, she writes, can be our greatest call to courage, and rising strong our clearest path to deeper meaning, wisdom, and hope.”
At GCG, we provide expert coaching for leaders at all levels of leadership in organizations of all shapes and sizes. Through democratizing coaching for all, we help everyone from high potentials on through to CEOs. Click here to learn more about our coaching services for professionals or if you’re interested in our coaching services for your organization, visit this page.
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GCG Leadership Development Team
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