My 3 Favorite Leadership Books
How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie
I first stumbled on this after my CEO mentioned during a company all hands meeting that it was his favorite book. Of course I was intrigued, and immediately bought a copy. I still find myself referring back to this book constantly. This is a book that shares valuable skills on both professional and personal levels. It shaped how I view my relationships with friends and colleagues - being genuinely interested and invested in understanding their passions, priorities and values. At work this has been valuable in understanding my colleagues and what KPI’s (key performance indicators) they have, as well as understanding the basic operations of their business. If I need something (time, buy-in, approval, etc.) from that colleague, I’ll highlight how my ask may help them attain their KPI’s or how it aligns with their priorities. This methodology empowered me to scale my business globally - through establishing trust and influencing key stakeholders. I built strong relationships across the organization and people valued what I had to say.
My second take away is something I work at every day - giving frequent and honest praise. It’s not that I don’t appreciate good effort/results, kind gestures, etc. I came to the realization that it’s not enough to think about it - you need to speak it out loud to others. It’s not enough to give your teammate an ‘atta-girl’ or ‘good job!’ as a standard. When people do great things - make it known to them the impact it had on you/others, praise them in a one to one setting, praise them in group settings, and articulate thoroughly what it was that made this a win. On a personal level - when a friend goes out of their way to help me out, I acknowledge their effort, articulate my appreciation and at times show my appreciation through gift giving (which is my personal love language). I recently listened to a podcast which featured A.J. Jacobs who takes this to the extreme by practicing radical gratitude. I suggest you give it a listen if you’re curious to dive deeper into this topic.
“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
Radical Candor - Kim Malone Scott
I wish I read this a LONG time ago. This book has empowered me to speak up and reduce anxiety during difficult conversations.
Back when I worked at Nordstrom, the majority of my compensation was commission based. There were many occasions where I would be helping an individual shop for an upcoming vacation, I head to the back stock to grab an item for them, and I come back to find my colleague taking over the sale. It was incredibly frustrating and uncomfortable - I didn’t want to lose the sale, but I also didn’t want to confront my colleague and risk making the customer uncomfortable (or myself). On many occasions I let this slide. Eventually I built up the courage to speak up for myself and respectfully confront my colleagues in a private setting to acknowledge the situation. Had I read this book sooner - I would’ve felt empowered to have those conversations more effectively and much sooner.
This book encouraged me to establish ‘Radical Candor’ as a core principal and value on my team. Candidates know before joining the team that we have a culture of feedback - not to ridicule or to discourage, but rather to help our reps reach their highest potential which oftentimes means sharing feedback that others were too afraid to tell them or they simply weren’t self-aware of. This also doesn’t apply just top-down - this applies to my reps, in being radically candid with me. In order to do this effectively - you need to establish trust with your team & create an environment where honest feedback is celebrated and valued.
“When bosses are too invested in everyone getting along they also fail to encourage the people on their team to criticize one another other for fear of sowing discord. They create the kind of work environment where being “nice” is prioritized at the expense of critiquing and therefore improving actual performance.”
The first time I stumbled onto Bob Iger was when he launched his Masterclass. I cruised right through it - I found so much value in hearing the stories he shared from his experience working as the CEO of Disney. There’s been a few founders and CEO’s I’ve listened too (on NPR Wisdom from the Top or How I Built This) where I’ve been immediately drawn in and can relate to the leadership values they speak to (Ex - Sara Blakely who founded Spanx).
The book goes through the different chapters of his career and what immediately resonated for me was his ability to take calculated risks and embrace challenges as opportunity. These two factors were some of the biggest mental shift I embraced that in turn contributed to my quick recognition and career advancement. I had leaders around me who allowed me to see how my slice of the business was operating, make suggestions to improve them, and run with it.
Here’s an example. One of the first projects I tackled as a new BDR - I reflected on the onboarding experience I had after I reached the 3 month mark. Now that I was ramped and could identify areas that would’ve been helpful for me to know earlier on, I had the opportunity to share that feedback with my VP and take it a step further - draw up a proposal of what an ideal updated onboarding structure would look like. Especially for those of you looking to work in fast growing SaaS companies - the ability to take chances to improve areas of the business where there’s an opportunity to operate more efficiently will not only set you apart as a strong performer, it will ultimately lead to better results for your organization.
I won’t spoil everything he covers but one other trait that stood out for me was his ability to remain calm, collected and optimistic during times of immense pressure. For me - this was among the first few things my coach worked on with me, and I can’t tell you enough how much it has helped me live in a much calmer state in the years that followed. I still work on this every week.
Pick your battles worth stressing over
There’s no value in losing sleep over the things you can’t control, focus on the controllables
If you’re a leader - be aware of how you handle high stress situations. From your body language, tonality to choice of words. It’s perfectly ok to step out and regroup, but when you address your team - it’s your job to set the tone and lead with a calm and optimistic approach. In time, those previously stressful encournters will become less stressful and you won’t have to be so intentional about your response.
“If you approach and engage people with respect and empathy, the seemingly impossible can become real.”
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