By now, you should know exactly what it takes to be a great leader and precisely how the mind of a true innovator and leader differs from that of others. The good news? This is something you can cultivate.
But of course, we've only really scratched the surface. There is a lot more to being a leader and as you can imagine, it’s a topic that is covered a lot on the web. Read on to find where you can learn more about the skills you need to develop yourself as a leader and to continue your education…
How Great Leaders Inspire Action
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
This is the talk from Simon Sinek that is referenced heavily in the full book. Simon attempted to codify what made serious leaders different and he came up with the 'golden circle'. These are simply three factors that can be looked at in either order:
What
How
Why
You should start with why and work from there.
“ People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe?language=en
This is another TED talk from Simon Sinek. This one explains the importance of creating trust and safety as a leader and shows how you can go about doing that. Simone is a great resource for information on leadership, so I recommend you seek out more of his talks.
The Personal MBA
The Personal MBA is a book by Josh Kaufman that attempts to remove the necessity of doing an expensive degree to learn the ins and outs of a business. Josh attempted to teach himself everything he needed to know about business, and he did this by examining every concept that would be covered in a typical MBA.
Josh covers a lot of advanced concepts and ideas from a business but breaks them down into palatable ideas you can understand easily. There are entire sections on leadership and working with others, as well as large sections on the various aspects of planning and running a business that can also be useful for leaders, managers, and CTOs.
The Rise of Superman
The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance is a book by Steven Kotler. It’s an interesting book that discusses the concept of flow states – Kotler explains what they are and demonstrates some examples (though some of his conclusions are questionable).
While this doesn't relate directly to leadership, it is recommended extended reading. Why? Because it demonstrates the true importance of understanding your why, of knowing how to inspire your team, and of creating flow states in your staff because they are so motivated to be there.
Myers Briggs
The Myers Briggs personality test is one of the best-known personality tests. It is still used in various permutations in hiring but can also be a fantastic tool to learn more about yourself. This link is for the foundation but there are links there to help you find all the information and resources if you are interested to learn more.
Charisma on Command
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVLERJ5IdrA
Charisma on Command is the name of a YouTube channel that discusses the importance of understanding people and knowing how to get the very most from them/interact with them.
The channel talks a lot about various aspects of charisma and one of the most interesting topics that Charlie Houpert (the channel owner) describes is the idea of ‘framing’. He discusses how any conversation has a frame and how the person who sets the frame is often the person in control. The way to turn this on its head is to recognize the frame and then to turn it upside down.
The link above is to a video on the leadership skills of Steve Jobs.
However, it is worth looking at several of the videos as they all contain some useful nuggets of information.
The Four Hour Workweek
The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss is not so much a book on leadership as a business. However, there are a lot of very interesting and very modern tips in here, specifically relating to ways that you can reduce your ‘communication overhead’ and generally run a more efficient business.
The central concept of the book is to try and work less and this is something you should consider too. Being a great leader is good but it’s also important to know when and how to switch off from work so that you can enjoy your life.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is a book by Robert B. Cialdini and is a great read on how to persuade people and get them to believe in what you’re saying. As you probably can already work out for yourself, persuasion is a very important part of leadership and it’s also important for the success of your business. Learn how to get others to share your vision and learn how to come up with a value proposition and make sure that you can communicate it effectively.
Google’s 20% Time
http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-20-percent-time-policy-2015-4
Finally, this post is something a little bit different. This is a bit of an expose on the idea of Google’s ‘20% Time’. This is a famous strategy Google uses to empower its staff to come up with more useful ideas for the organization. However, according to this article, there’s a bit more going on here than is apparent on the surface.