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Each year, the Society for Information Management assembles a required reading list for its Regional Leadership Forum. For 2015, 24 books plus one movie are on the list of must-reads for IT leaders. What are the society’s members reading, and what can you learn from this collection of business acumen, political wisdom and philosophical insights? Here we present the complete list along with brief summaries of what each tome has to offer.
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Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler McGraw-Hill, 2011 Looking to be persuasive rather than abrasive? This business bestseller, first published in 2002, can help. In their second edition, the authors turn to new research and case studies to offer tips for preparing for high-stakes situations, transforming anger and other hurt feelings into powerful dialogues, and listening when others blow up or clam up.
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Gandhi

A movie directed by Richard Attenborough Starring Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Candice Bergen and Trevor Howard Columbia Pictures, 1982 A movie as big and sprawling as India itself, Gandhi won eight Oscars, five Golden Globes, five BAFTA Awards and even a Grammy nomination. That’s probably not the best way to judge a movie about a political leader whose message relied so heavily on abstinence. But it’s fascinating to watch how Kingsley & Co. show that Gandhi’s success as a political leader, far from being a sure thing, was composed of many difficult, even wrenching decisions.
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How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren Touchstone, 1972 Sure, you know how to read. But this book — first published in 1940 by Adler, the philosopher and popular author behind the Great Books series, and Van Doren, the writer best known for his involvement in a TV quiz show scandal — shows you how to really read. Topics covered include skimming vs. active reading, X-raying a book (less radioactive than it sounds), and criticizing a book fairly.
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Leadership is an Art

Max Depree Crown Business, 2004 During much of the 1980s, DePree was CEO of Herman Miller Inc., the maker of stylish and expensive office furniture (not incidentally founded by his father). In this book, first published in 1989, DePree defines a leader as the first to define reality, the last to say thank you, and in between, “a servant and a debtor.” More than 800,000 copies later, it’s a message that still resonates.
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The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for All of Us

Michael Useem, with a forward by Warren Bennis Crown Business, 1999 Useem, for many years the director of the Center of Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School, likes to use “moment of truth” anecdotes to teach business-school students how to perform under pressure. Here he collects nine of them, including the return flight of Apollo 13, the all-women ascent of one of the world’s highest mountains, and the Civil War battle of Little Round Top.
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Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

William Bridges Nicholas Brealey Boston, 2010 This business bestseller, with more than 500,000 copies sold since its initial publication in 1995, is now in a third edition that offers an updated guide to transition management. Bridges, a management consultant, writes, “It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.”
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Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl Beacon Press, 2014 We cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how we cope with it. That’s the key message of this book, written in 1946 by a psychiatrist who drew on his own painful experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. A new gift edition includes supplemental photos, speeches, letters and essays.
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The Nibble Theory and the Kernal of Power: A Book about Leadership, Self-Empowerment and Personal Growth

Kaleel JamisonPaulist Press, 2004Jamison, who died in 1985, was a behavioral scientist who believed that life’s continual “nibbles” can attack and weaken our confidence. In this book, she offered tips for dealing with life’s bites in ways that can help you not just survive, but grow.
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The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway Charles Scribners, 1952 Papa’s days of literary revolution were behind him when he wrote this book. Yet this tale of a fisherman and his epic, three-day battle with a giant marlin was a huge success in its time — it won Hemingway the Pulitzer Prize — and remains among his most popular novels.
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The Prince

Niccolo Machiavelli Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield Univ. of Chicago Press, 1998 Yes, that Machiavelli. A high official in the Florentine Republic during the late 1400s and early 1500s, Machiavelli wrote Il Principe after the Medicis gave him a political time-out. His aim: to provide guiding principles for a new — that is, non-hereditary — prince. “The ends justify the means,” is just one of the many provocative ideas that got this book banned in its time and have since made it a classic.
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The Theft of the Spirit: A Journey to Spiritual Healing

Carl A. Hammerschlag Touchstone, 1994 Stories help us to make sense of our experiences and move beyond our preconceptions, writes the author, a physician and speaker. In this collection of Native American rituals and traditions, he also shows us how.
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The Zen of Listening: Mindful Communication in the Age of Distraction

Rebecca Shafir Quest, 2003 Shafir, a speech pathologist, shifts gears to show us how to listen. It’s all about seeing the situation not through our own preconceptions and memories, but through the eyes of the speaker. Easier said than heard!
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Two Old Woman: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival

Velma Wallis Harper Perennial, 2013 Based on a Native American legend, Two Old Women tells the story of two women abandoned by their Alaskan tribe for being, well, too old. Now in its twentieth anniversary edition, the book is itself getting on; yet, like its subjects, Two Old Women shows no sign of slowing down.
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A Leader’s Legacy

James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner Jossey-Bass, 2006 The authors, both academics affiliated with the Leavey School of Business, examine questions they believe every leader needs to ask in order to leave a lasting impact: Why should leaders want to be liked? Why do leaders need loving critics? Why can’t leaders take trust for granted? The answers to these and other questions, they insist, can lead to greatness.
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Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves TalentSmart, 2009 Emotional intelligence, a concept popularized in the ‘90s by Daniel Goleman, is the art of monitoring both our own emotions and those of others. In this more recent book, two authors present a step-by-step program for quadrupling your own emotional quotient (EQ) with self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. And how does that make you feel?
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Leadership Passages: The Personal and Professional Transitions that Make or Break a Leader

David L. Dotlich, James L. Noel and Norman Walker Jossey-Bass, 2004 Don’t look now, but you’re about to hit a career crossroads. Fortunately, crossroads are predictable, say this book’s authors, and they can also be transformed into superhighways for enhancing your leadership, compassion and effectiveness. Based on their research and consulting with Intel, GE and others, Dotlich, Noel and Walker present over a dozen paths over your next crossroads.
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Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace

Gordon MacKenzie Viking, 1998 MacKenzie defines a corporate hairball as any bureaucratic procedure that stifles creativity and imagination. He knows of what he speaks, having worked at Hallmark Cards for 30 years. But MacKenzie also knows that for a business to succeed, creativity and the drive for profits must somehow coexist. His irreverently charming book, originally self-published, has become something of a cult favorite.
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Power and Influence: Beyond Formal Authority

John P. Kotter Free Press, 2008 Based on Kotter’s course at Harvard Business School, Power and Influence explains how managers can bridge the “power gap” that opens when they must depend on people whom they have no authority or control over. If you ever wondered how anyone gets anything done in a modern corporation, ask a colleague to order you a copy.
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Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow

Tom Rath and Barry Conchie Gallup Press, 2009 What makes leadership tick? To find out, Gallup researchers studied more than 1 million work teams, interviewing over 20,000 leaders — and 10,000 of their subordinates. Working with these Gallup findings, Rath and Conchie have identified three keys to effective leadership: investing in your strength, maximizing your team, and understanding why people follow.
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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Patrick Lencioni Jossey-Bass, 2002 In the first part of this book, Lencioni presents the fable of a manager who tries to unite a team in disarray. And in the second part, he presents the model, and an assessment, that readers can use to apply the fable’s lessons to their own teams.
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The Heart Aroused: Poetry and Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America

David Whyte Doubleday/Random House, 2002 What does a poet know about work? Turns out, a lot. Author Whyte turns to Pablo Neruda, T.S. Eliot, and whoever wrote Beowulf for lessons on finding meaning in the modern workplace.
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The Penguin State of the World Atlas

Dan Smith Penguin, 2012 From LOLcats to Ebola, Asus to ISIS, the world gets smaller every day. This atlas uses maps to present worldwide statistics on IT, international trade, the globalization of work, and much more. Now in a ninth edition, it’s the atlas that goes way beyond your GPS.
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The Post-American World

Fareed Zakaria Norton, 2009 It’s not the decline of America, but the rise of the rest of the world, that matters, says journalist Zakaria. He points to China, India, Russia, Brazil and others that are transforming the world with their newfound prosperity, political clout and industrial pride. How should those of us in the United States respond? By helping to solve the world’s most pressing problems, argues Zakaria.
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True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership

Bill George with Peter Sims Jossey-Bass, 2007 George, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, wrote this as a sequel to his bestselling book, Authentic Leadership. Here, he aims to help managers locate the internal compass that can guide them successfully through life. He also explores why leaders lose their way, what motivates leaders, and how to magnetize your support team.
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Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

David Rock HarperBusiness, 2009 Put down your phone for a minute. Consultant Rock has something important to say. Through the tale of Emily and Paul, a fictional couple, he demonstrates how we get buried in a blizzard of emails, text messages, phone calls, meetings and more — and how we can dig ourselves out. Did you hear any of that?