As an executive leadership coach, I’m a big advocate for lifelong learning. Reading is a great way for any leader to learn and grow, be exposed to new ideas, and gain an edge on the competition. Great leaders know they always have more to learn.

Here are my top recommendations for the best books for leaders for 2024.

Last week I talked about the danger of routines devolving into ruts, and how ruts make time speed up.

And I offered one way to jolt yourself out of your ruts: every three months or so, introduce some novelty! Go somewhere new. See something new. Make your brain perk up and re-engage.

This week, I have another novel jolt to offer.

There is great power in building strong habits, but the B-side of that hit record is that quite often we allow our routines to devolve into mindless ruts.

We succumb to tunnel vision. We check the same boxes, day in and day out, and while we may be productive, we aren’t nearly as effective and creative as we might be.

I launched my new podcast series (you can check it out here), and let me tell you… the learning curve was steep. 

At first, I was trying to do it all myself, but once I got to the post-production part–you know, the editing, the sound mixing, all the making-it-look-and-sound-good-technical stuff?–I was in way over my head. 

I’m a big believer in surrounding yourself with people who excel at their chosen passions. Because then I don’t have to spend 50 minutes doing something they can knock out in 5. When you’ve got a good team, everyone can stay focused on their highest value activities. 

I recently attended a webinar about your Cognitive Attention Score (CAS).

Ankur Jain at Ceekr has created this framework to measure the relative impact of emotions, physiology, and cognition on choice-making. Once those impacts are measured, they are combined with a biometric evaluation to create your Cognitive Attention Score.

This score can predict the nature of your cognition and its impact on finances, relationships, health, mental wellness, success, performance, leadership, etc.

During the 2006 British Open–one of the four Major PGA golf tournaments–Tiger Woods pulled out his driver only two times. 

I’ll say that again. Over all four days and 72 holes of the tournament, he pulled out his driver only two times.

We often think the best golfers are the ones who hit it farthest. 

But in 2006, Tiger dominated the British Open by teeing off with four and five irons, and aiming his shots to particular edges of the fairways, not always the middle.

You’ve got a storied career full of achievements. You’ve climbed the corporate ladder. And now you’re looking to take the next step in your leadership journey with a good coach. Welcome to the exciting world of executive leadership coaching! 

Executive leadership coaching is a crucial tool for great leaders in today's fast-paced, competitive business world. Executive coaching services can be a game-changer, helping you become a better leader—and achieve better results.

The conventional wisdom is that rookies take a while to contribute. They make mistakes. They might even be a detriment at the beginning. 

Sure, they’re inexperienced on paper. But you know what else they are?

Finding that perfect present for a colleague or coworker can be hard work. Maybe the holiday season is coming up, your work bestie has a birthday or milestone, or it’s just a random Wednesday.