Three Speed-Reading Leadership Books for Great Influence Skills

The best leaders are learners. There are two ways to learn: through direct experience and through the experience of other people. Books are an incredibly effective way to extract knowledge from other people. A book that took the author many months to write, after many years of experience and processing, will only take a few hours to read. That is an incredible return of wisdom for the time invested. With that in mind, here are books on leadership influence that deserve your precious attention.

Leadership effectiveness starts from the inside before connecting with others.

Leadership Book 1: Loudest Guest: How to Change and Control Your Relationship with Fear by Dr. Amy Silver

Psychologist Dr. Amy Silver reveals all the juiciness of fear: why it dominates our thinking, sets aside our goals and stands in our way, all to keep us safe. She offers a step-by-step approach to recognizing and reframing our experience. The steps include: recognition, self-compassion, separation, evaluation, decision, and experimentation.

You may recognize that fear handles you in these ways:

Processing fear is crucial to a strong leadership mindset

Say yes or assume too much

Trying to please others

Habitual avoidance

And even FOMO – fear of missing something

Self-compassion is one of the most enjoyable steps in the process. Much better than “feel the fear and do it anyway” or “squash the fear”.

Amy’s book is a charming and warm journey through fear, with stories from others about how they met and spoke with their loudest voice of fear, finding a smooth path.

Telling stories is one of the critical leadership skills we must master in order to be influential.

Leadership Book 2: Magnetic Stories – Connect with Customers and Engage Employees with Gabrielle Dolan’s Brand Storytelling

This leadership book is easy and delicious; read. Why? They are mainly stories, of course! Ral brings his points to life with great example stories for the five types of brand stories every business needs: creation stories, culture stories, customer stories, challenge stories, and community stories.

Ral’s witty comments in the footnotes and comments make this book fun and useful. Includes practical questions and steps to get started with your own business stories.

Service is one of the leadership qualities you will never regret

Book 3: Habits of Service: Small Steps to Strengthen Relationships with the People You Serve by Jaquie Scammel

As Jaquie reminds us, all business is about relationships. Customer service is the key ingredient for this. The book takes us through 27 key habits, all great for leadership empathy. Mindfulness is one of the first starting habits: it draws all of our attention to others and helps us not to be disconnected (and rude). Many of the habits are a deep dive into emotional intelligence. I felt a better human for having read the book.

What books are you reading right now? How are you honing your leadership attributes and skills?

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