Infinitum Leadership: Unlock Your Potential

The Professional Agile Leader explores the journey of leaders navigating agile transformations within their organizations.  It details  the challenges of shifting from output-focused to impact-focused goals, emphasizing the importance of  empowered, self-managing teams  and  customer-centric approaches .  The authors  offer practical advice on team formation, fostering psychological safety, and ad...

This book details a model for high-performance coaching, focusing on improving employee job performance through a structured, step-by-step process. The authors present a framework encompassing needs assessment, gap analysis, root cause identification, solution generation, implementation planning, and evaluation. High-Performance Coaching emphasizes building rapport with employees, understanding th...

Leadership Team Coaching in Practice presents numerous case studies illustrating various approaches to leadership team coaching. Hawkins explores different models, such as five disciplines, to enhance team effectiveness and address challenges in diverse organizational contexts. The book emphasizes systemic team coaching, considering the team's interactions with its broader ecosystem. New case...

Systemic Team Coaching , authored by John Leary-Joyce and Hilary Lines, with significant contributions from Peter Hawkins, introduces a comprehensive framework for coaching entire teams. The book details a five-phase process ( SIDER ) encompassing initial scoping, inquiry, agenda development, execution, and review, using a  five-discipline model  to assess team performance. It emphasizes a multi-l...

This book details a methodology for understanding and resolving relational issues within systems (families, teams, organizations). The approach emphasizes acknowledging all elements within a system, including those excluded or unseen, to achieve balance and coherence. Techniques involve creating physical maps of relationships using objects and utilizing “resonant sentences” to illuminate hidden dy...

Cal Newport's  So Good They Can't Ignore You  challenges the conventional career advice to "follow your passion," arguing instead that building valuable skills ("career capital") is key to a fulfilling career. The book explores how individuals, through deliberate practice and strategic career choices, can gain control and find meaningful work, often discovering their pa...

Scott Barry Kaufman's 2020 book  Transcend  revisits and updates Abraham Maslow's theory of self-actualization. The excerpt explores Maslow's hierarchy of needs, incorporating modern psychological research and addressing misconceptions about his work. It examines various aspects of human needs—from basic survival to self-esteem and transcendence—exploring how they interact and influenc...

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans's  Designing Your Life  presents a framework for approaching life's challenges and opportunities using design thinking principles. The authors differentiate between engineering and design problems, advocating a flexible, iterative approach—prototyping—to navigate life's complexities rather than striving for a predetermined outcome. They introduce tools like...

Bent Flyvbjerg's   How Big Things Get Done  examines the consistent failures of large-scale projects and attributes them to flawed planning and decision-making processes.  The book contrasts successful projects, like the Empire State Building, which prioritized meticulous planning and rapid execution, with failures characterized by rushed commitments and optimistic forecasts.  Flyvbjerg introd...

Thomas Harris's  I'm OK, You're OK  is a self-help book applying transactional analysis (TA) to improve personal relationships.  TA analyzes interactions and communication patterns using the concepts of parent, adult, and child ego states . The book explores how these ego states influence behaviour in various contexts, such as marriage, parenting, and social interactions.  Harris empha...

Steven Kotler's   Art of Impossible  is a how-to manual for achieving peak performance and tackling seemingly impossible goals. The book explores the science behind  extreme innovation , focusing on  intrinsic motivation ,  grit , and  goal-setting  as key components. Kotler details strategies for cultivating  curiosity ,  passion , and  purpose , and enhancing skills through  focused learning...

Daniel J. Siegel's book,  Aware , introduces the "Wheel of Awareness," a mindfulness practice.  The book uses scientific research and clinical experience to explain the mind's mechanisms, emphasizing the integration of consciousness. The Wheel of Awareness practice involves focusing attention, open awareness, and kind intention to cultivate well-being.  Aware includes sections de...

Robin Sharma's  The 5 AM Club  is a self-help book presented as a fictional narrative. The story follows an entrepreneur, an artist, and a seemingly homeless man  who, through a series of meetings and a trip to a private island,  learn a philosophy of self-improvement centred around waking at 5 AM daily . The narrative explores self-mastery, productivity, and finding meaning in life.  The book...

Patrick Lencioni's  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team  specifically focuses on a fictional case study illustrating the book's core concepts. The fable follows a new CEO's efforts to overcome five key team dysfunctions—absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results—within a struggling technology company. The book showcases the challenge...

James Clear's "Atomic Habits" is a practical guide to forming good habits, breaking bad ones, and achieving self-improvement through small, consistent changes. It's the best habit book we have ever read! The book emphasizes that tiny habits compound over time, creating significant outcomes. Its workbook complements the main text with summaries, exercises, and tools like the Habit...

Difficult Conversations , by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen, is a guide to improving communication skills in challenging situations. The book emphasizes understanding others' perspectives, managing emotions, and focusing on shared contributions to problems rather than assigning blame. It introduces a framework of three conversations—stories, intentions/impacts, and identity—to he...

Michael Bungay Stanier's book The Coaching Habit focuses on a simple, effective coaching methodology that uses seven essential questions to improve leading others. It emphasizes asking questions over giving advice, promoting self-sufficiency in team members. He also explores the neuroscience of habit formation and engagement, offering practical strategies and a formula for building new habits. Fin...

Damon Zahariades's 2017 self-help book,  The Art of Saying No,  focuses on overcoming the people-pleasing habit, exploring its psychological reasons, and offering practical strategies for confidently and gracefully declining requests. It provides specific techniques for saying no in various situations, including interactions with family, friends, coworkers, and bosses. The book emphasizes prio...

Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is the Way explores Stoic philosophy and its application to modern life. The book uses historical examples and anecdotes to illustrate how to reframe challenges as opportunities for growth. It emphasizes the importance of controlling one's perceptions and emotions, taking decisive action, and persisting through adversity. Holiday also provides a Stoic reading list and o...

Simon Sinek's   Start With Why  explores how great leaders inspire action.  The book argues  that people don't buy what companies do, but why they do it, emphasizing the importance of communicating a clear sense of purpose.  Sinek introduces  the "Golden Circle" model (Why, How, What), illustrating how organizations can build trust and loyalty by leading with their purpose.  He contrasts  inspirat...

This book explores how exceptional performance is achieved, arguing against the notion of innate talent and emphasizing the role of  deliberate practice . It details the principles of deliberate practice, which involve focused, goal-oriented training, pushing beyond one's comfort zone, and receiving regular feedback. The authors illustrate these principles with examples from various fields, in...

Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey's Immunity to Change details their research on adult development and its impact on organizational change.  Their research reveals three distinct levels of mental complexity in adults, impacting how individuals and teams approach challenges.  The authors introduce the concept of "immunity to change," a dynamic in which individuals unknowingly prevent their desired...

This conversation draws from Drew Gerald's self-help book,  Why You're Still Stuck , which explores why personal growth efforts may fail. The book offers a two-part approach: identifying nine reasons people remain stuck (Part I) and providing nine methods for moving forward (Part II). Gerald emphasizes addressing underlying beliefs and patterns rather than solely focusing on behavioural ch...

This book excerpt advocates for a dietary approach to improve mental health , arguing that current psychiatric practices are insufficient. The author, a psychiatrist, details how flawed nutritional research and over-reliance on medication have contributed to a mental health crisis. The book proposes alternative diets, such as ketogenic and carnivore diets, emphasizing the importance of brain metab...

Ethan Kross's  Chatter  explores the nature and impact of the internal monologue , detailing how negative self-talk ("chatter") affects mental and physical well-being. The book  examines various research studies  on internal dialogue, including those exploring the neurological effects of negative thought patterns and the benefits of techniques such as distancing and self-compassion.  Kross also di...