There are probably more books on leadership than another subject in the business section of your favorite book store. I do not have facts to prove that but I can refer you to a Forbes article from 2015 listing 12 books that every “enterprising individual” should read and most of them are about leadership or touch on leadership in some way. Here is the list as developed by Mike Templeman. I have included some of his notes about each book. I have read about half of the list. At least 8 of the 12 are leadership books which is the point I was trying to make.
The Effective Executive. Peter F. Drucker, 1967.
Execution is key for Drucker, and that means getting “the right things done.” ..he explains how although some are natural-born leaders, there are skills that can be developed to make a better executive.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t. Jim Collins, 2001
… Collins tells you how to do it. You’ll love his deep store of refreshing ideas for evaluating business leadership, including “Level 5 Leadership.”
Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built. Richard Tedlow, 2003
Andrew Carnegie. Henry Ford. Sam Walton…The studious business person can learn much from this review of the struggles and successes of these world-renowned leaders.
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. Bill George, 2007
One major change to business leadership in recent times is the emphasis on authenticity. …George inspires readers to know themselves and create their own, tailor-made style.
Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. Hugh MacLeod, 2009
From idea doodles on the backs of cards to his own popular blog, MacLeod has ideas about everything, including standing out from your competitors and the meaning of life. His main subjects here are creativity and how to foster new ideas. A lively, illustrated guide to unleashing your ingenuity.
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box. Arbinger Institute, 2010
Using relatable storytelling to drive the theme, the authors reveal how we refuse to see our true motives, limiting our potential success and happiness. Readers will learn how to remove this impulse and unlock greater self-awareness.
Thinking, Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman, 2011.
Nobel Prize winner and psychologist Daniel Kahneman breaks down our thought patterns into two sectors: the impulsive, emotional System 1 and the logical, deliberate System 2. Knowing when you are using one—when you should be using the other—could be the key to better, more effective business decisions.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Charles Duhigg, 2012
Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” In his exploration of habit, Duhigg expands on this idea, detailing how our habits are precursors for the events that make up our life—or business—success story.
The Wisdom of Failure: How to Learn the Tough Leadership Lessons Without Paying the Price. Laurence G. Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey, 2012
Are you looking forward to making mistakes for the sake of learning valuable lessons? You won’t have to with The Wisdom of Failure. In this collaborative piece, the authors prefer instead to learn by not making the mistakes of individuals and businesses they researched during a seven-year study.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Laura Hillenbrand, 2014
The strength and resiliency of the human spirit provides lessons in all walks of life, including the world of business. Hillenbrand’s recounting of the story of Louie Zamperini is inspirational and instructive, reminding us all that we have courage far beyond our understanding.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Ben Horowitz 2014
Running your own business is hard, and Horowitz doesn’t shy away from that fact…he shares the story of when his business nearly failed, how he staved off defeat, and how you can do hard things too.
Zero to One. Peter Thiel and Blake Masters, 2014
When the founder of PayPal and Palantir and a lead investor of Facebook teaches a class on start-ups, you’d better take good notes. That’s what Masters did while taking a class from Thiel at Stanford, and it led to a groundbreaking book about the importance of unique business ideas.
I have been thinking a about leadership recently because I have been doing some informal coaching. It may be my favorite subject. Looking back on my own career I was largely feeling my way along in the dark aware of my leadership deficits and looking for help. Many physician leaders function from the gut and a sense of mission and responsibility. They often have not had the training in leadership that matches their training for practice. I was reminded of the stress I experienced when I suddenly assumed the role of CEO when I read Dr. Fred Kniffin’s story of leadership in the Sunday Valley News. He is pictured in the header. I discovered an even longer story about Dr. Kniffin in the Vermont Business Magazine. It contained a more complete story with some good quotes.
Dr. Kniffen came to the Porter Medical Center, a critical care facility in Middlebury, Vermont as an EW doc in 1990. By 2016 he was also serving as the CMO. Between 2011 and 2015 Porter lost $11 Million. The CEO of over 30 years retired and a new CEO was hired to right the ship. Eight months later after layoffs, things were worse. I always say that you can’t cut your way to success. Layoffs are usually just a desperate move on the slide to organizational oblivion or at best a maneuver to dress up the balance sheet in preparation for a loss of autonomy. Things must have gotten worse because after just eight months the board asked Dr. Kniffen to step in as an interim CEO. It was not long before the board dropped the “interim” from his title.
The board chair summed up Dr. Kniffin’s accomplishments:
“We will always be deeply grateful to Fred for answering our call two years ago and serving in this role, first on an interim basis and then on a more permanent basis, at a time when Porter needed him most,” McLaughlin said. “Fred has led our organization through transformational change in many ways, significantly improved internal and external communication and engagement, remained focused on our community mission and has set us on a firm path forward as a member of the UVM Health Network,” she added.
I bolded the words in the statement that spoke to me. In the longer articles about him I learned that he wrote a Friday letter to the 800 employees of the system that also includes ambulatory practices and a 100 bed rehab and long term care facility. He announced his decision to step down from the position of CEO in his Friday letter.
“The weekly messages did more than provide updates and information, they demonstrated appreciation, respect and a leadership style that was open, transparent and respectful,” McLaughlin said. “Fred was just what we needed and his commitment to the mission of the organization and to this community came through every week in his message to the staff and providers; and he always ended them with an acknowledgement to those who provide the hands-on care to our patients and residents who he often called the ‘real heroes’ of Porter”, she said.
The sense of the article was that he considers the job done, and it is time to get back to what he loves most. After the board does a national search and finds his successor, he will return to his practice, family, and hiking and biking. In his own words:
How do you leave a job that you love? Why would you leave a job that you love? These are the sorts of questions I’ve been mulling over for the last several months. It’s time for me to move on, turn the page, start a new chapter. I’m doing this with mixed emotions. Serving as president of Porter Medical Center is the greatest honor of my career. It has been an amazing opportunity. I have learned more than I thought was possible about health care and about myself. I’ve had the privilege to work with remarkable people. All this in the service of caring for our community. My reasons for making this change are both personal and professional. On the professional side, as much as I have been honored to serve as president, I also like my old job of being a doctor. I can get everything I need to get out of work by caring for patients – mental stimulation, purpose, the opportunity to lead and communicate – all this comes with being a doctor.
Dr. Kniffen sounds like a terrific leader. Maybe he had a coach. Perhaps he has read some of the books on the list from Forbes. In my role I had a coach. I read books, and I asked for advice from almost everyone I met whom I considered to be a a good leader. One of the best things that I ever did was attend a series of seminars at MIT’s Sloan School. It was there that I became aware of the leadership advice from Professor Deb Ancona. She has a long bibliography of books and scholarly articles, but I know her best from listening to YouTube presentations.
As soon as I began to read about Dr. Kniffen, I knew that he knew how to be both a leader and a follower. He would understand “challenge driven leadership.” Invest less than three minutes to see how you fit into that definition. When Dr Kniffen did move into the leadership role he may not have been able to describe his “leadership signature,” but I believe the one he had was a big part of his success. It will take you about four minutes to understand your leadership signature, its importance, and how to enhance it.
At the core of Professor Ancona’s leadership advice for uncertain times lie the four competencies that she feels are critical for leadership. As Dr. Kniffen has stabilized Porter Medical Center he has demonstrated his competency in all four:
- Sensemaking
- Visioning
- Relating
- Inventing
I have never read one of his Friday letters, but I would bet that they are long on sensemaking, describing the environment and the challenges facing Porter. I am also sure he had a vision that he was relating in those letters. Finally, I expect that he engaged everyone in the process of inventing Porter’s success. I can safely bet that he enabled his staff do the things that were necessary for Porter to succeed. You can hear Professor Ancona lay it out in seven minutes.
If you listened to the seven minute presentation on the four capabilities of leadership, you heard the phrase “distributed leadership.” It was a term I used often in my leadership days and was surprised by how much resistance it produced even as people were saying that they did not want a “top down” management. I am guessing Dr. Kniffen is an advocate for distributed leadership. He talked about “the real heros” and working with “remarkable people.” As you might guess, it will take only four minutes to learn much more about the idea of distributed leadership.
I hope that you invested eighteen minutes and listened to all four presentations. We need many more leaders. We need leaders distributed through every patient care delivery system. Even a good CEO can’t make a difference unless there are many other internal leaders willing to commit to the same values and organizational objectives. At the national level we will never come close to the high ideals of the Triple Aim with a sprinkling of Dr. Fred Kniffens here and there. We need leaders who get it at every level of every organization that offers help to patients in these uncertain times. I am absolutely certain that the people of Middlebury, Vermont feel blessed that Fred Kniffen came their way. I wish there was a Fred Kniffen for every town. Could you, would you, be a Fred Kniffen?
