The leadership enterprise is enormous, with billions of dollars, thousands of books, and hundreds of thousands of blogs and talks focused on improving leaders. But what we see worldwide is employee disengagement, high levels of leader turnover and career derailment, and failed leadership development efforts.

In Leadership BS Jeffrey Pfeffer shines a bright light on the leadership industry, showing why it’s failing and how it might be remade. He sets the record straight on the oft-made prescriptions for leaders to be honest, authentic, and modest, tell the truth, build trust, and take care of others. By calling BS on so many of the stories and myths of leadership, he gives people a more scientific look at the evidence and better information to guide their careers.

Rooted in social science and with practical examples and advice for improving management, Leadership BS encourages listeners to accept the truth and then use facts to change themselves and the world for the better.

Recommended by Toby Darby & Josh Wofford in Episode 8

Accessible for undergraduates yet thorough enough for graduate students, this comprehensive text defines learning and shows how the learning process is studied. The text places learning in its historical perspective, giving students an appreciation for the figures and theories that have shaped 100 years of learning theory research.

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Does your organization manage complexity by making things more complicated? If so, you are not alone. According to The Boston Consulting Group’s fascinating Complexity Index, business complexity has increased sixfold during the past 60 years. In their attempt to respond to the increasingly complex performance requirements they face, company leaders have created an organizational labyrinth that makes it more and more difficult to improve productivity and to pursue innovation. It also disengages and demotivates the workforce.

Clearly it’s time for leaders to stop trying to manage complexity with their traditional tools and instead better leverage employees’ intelligence. This book shows you how and explains the implications for designing and leading organizations.

Showing why six rules work and how to put them into practice, Morieux and Tollman give managers a much-needed tool to reinvigorate people in the face of seemingly endless complexity.

Employ these six simple rules to foster autonomy and cooperation and to effectively handle business complexity. As a result, you will improve productivity, innovate more, reengage your workforce, and seize opportunities to create a competitive advantage.

Recommended by Toby Darby & Josh Wofford in Episode 8

Filling a gap in the current literature, Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice offers an overview of the major theories and research in adult learning. Written in highly accessible language and designed to be practical for use in both formal and informal settings, this important resource reviews the forces that influence today’s adult learner including globalization, the knowledge society, technology, and demographic changes. Comprehensive in scope, the book summarizes five foundational learning theories and then examines the more recent breakthrough theories of adult learning such as andragogy and transformative learning.

Sharan Merriam and Laura Bierema present an understanding of how life experiences and learning are integrally related and review the role of motivation and learning. They also include some exciting new work in neuroscience and learning and explore the brain’s cognitive functioning including memory, intelligence, cognitive development, and wisdom. In addition, the authors address the pervasiveness of technology and reveal how the influence of our digital age both engages and distracts our ability to learn.

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In this important theoretical treatise, Jean Lave, an anthropologist, and Etienne Wenger, computer scientist, push forward the notion of situated learning–that learning is fundamentally a social process and not solely in the learner’s head. The authors maintain that learning viewed as situated activity has as its central defining characteristic a process they call legitimate peripheral participation. Learners participate in communities of practitioners, moving toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. Legitimate peripheral participation provides a way to speak about crucial relations between newcomers and oldtimers and about their activities, identities, artifacts, knowledge, and practice. The communities discussed in the book are midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, and recovering alcoholics, however, the process by which participants in those communities learn can be generalized to other social groups.

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Find your “critical 20%” and transform your time – and life – forever! The 80/20 principle – also known as the Pareto principle – is the well-verified observation that in business, economics, and life generally, about 80 percent of all results flow from a mere 20 percent of our efforts. In this thought-provoking and highly informative program, Richard Koch unveils the secrets to how this mysterious but practical principle actually works… how it is affecting your life right now… and how you can start using it to your advantage. The unspoken corollary of the 80/20 principle is that little of what you spend your time on actually enriches your life. But by concentrating instead on the few things that do matter, you can unlock the enormous potential of the critical 20 percent and multiply your happiness and fulfillment. When you learn how to systematically apply the 80/20 principle, you will finally have the power to transcend the pressures of modern life: to become more successful and to enjoy more leisure, serenity, and great relationships with friends and loved ones.

Recommended by Toby Darby & Josh Wofford in Episode 8

Difficult times call for different solutions.

In his global bestseller, Legacy, James Kerr goes deep into the heart of the world’s most successful team, the New Zealand All Blacks, to help understand what it takes to bounce back from adversity and still reach the top.

It is a book about leading a team or an organization – but, more importantly, about leading a life.

In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, personal leadership has never been more relevant and Legacy goes to the heart of how great leaders – and we are all leaders – ‘reboot’ and reframe their future.

It is a truly life-defining read that addresses the big questions – values, vision, mindset, and purpose – that, when answered, build the foundation for resilience, excellence, and sustained success. This book will change your life.

Recommended by Toby Darby & Josh Wofford in Episode 8

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman’s seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell.

Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Examining how both systems function within the mind, Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities as well as the biases of fast thinking and the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and our choices. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, he shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking, contrasting the two-system view of the mind with the standard model of the rational economic agent. 

Kahneman’s singularly influential work has transformed cognitive psychology and launched the new fields of behavioral economics and happiness studies. In this path-breaking book, Kahneman shows how the mind works and offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and personal lives – and how we can guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble.

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Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of listeners, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding, and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all – understanding people’s drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves.  We are social animals. Our very lives depend on our relationships with people. Knowing why people do what they do is the most important tool we can possess, without which our other talents can only take us so far. Drawing from the ideas and examples of Pericles, Queen Elizabeth I, Martin Luther King Jr, and many others, Greene teaches us how to detach ourselves from our own emotions and master self-control, how to develop the empathy that leads to insight, how to look behind people’s masks, and how to resist conformity to develop your singular sense of purpose. Whether at work, in relationships, or in shaping the world around you, The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.

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The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry—in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds.

Recommended by Toby Darby & Josh Wofford in Episode 8