National Commodore’s Reading List

Purpose

This reading list of books is designed to offer all members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary with recommended books related to leadership. While this list is not all inclusive, it has as its goal, to either provide a starting point or to expand existing knowledge and skills in leadership for all Auxiliarists.

The reading list is meant to provide a tool for individual leadership growth. It takes into account that responsibility for leadership development resides primarily with the individual, their unit and the Coast Guard Auxiliary as an organization.

I have divided the listing of books into 4 categories: (1) How To Books On Leadership; (2) Leadership Theory/Textbooks; (3) Success Stories; and (4) Motivation.

Commodore’s Choice

Beginning in 2005 and each year thereafter, the National Commodore will name one book a year the “Commodore’s Choice” for professional reading.

2006 Selection

Commodore Seibert chose the book, “It’s Your Ship” by D. Michael Abrashoff as his 2006 “Commodore’s Choice.”

IT’S YOUR SHIP: MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FROM THE BEST DAMN SHIP IN THE NAVY

by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, May 2002

"The most important thing a captain can do is to see the ship from the eyes of the crew." This belief has successfully guided D. Michael Abrashoff, the captain of one of the U.S. Navy's most modern and lethal warships. Abrashoff has revolutionized how to handle such challenging problems as excessive costs, low morale, sexual harassment, and constant turn-over. Business managers will benefit from Abrashoff's guiding belief that focus should be on empowering your people rather than on chain of command. By shifting organizing principles from obedience to performance, managers will be rewarded with remarkable productivity. As Abrashoff explains, the more people enjoy the process, the better the results. Good leaders listen to the people under their command-and use their ideas to improve operating procedures.

2005 Selection

Commodore Seibert chose the book, “Leading Change” by John P. Kotter as his 2005 “Commodore’s Choice”. Furthermore, he encourages the follow-on book, “The Heart of Change” by John P. Kotter. Both books address the comprehensive eight-step framework to implement change and foster a sense of urgency.

Reading List

New for 2006

Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership role

by Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins, March 2005
Taking on a new leadership role is fraught with obstacles that can undermine your best efforts to establish authority and build support. There are challenges inherent in succeeding a much-admired predecessor or carrying out radical change initiatives, whether you are rising from within your organization or joining from outside. Make no mistake, say the authors: the planning you do before you take the reins is critical to achieving your goals. If you don't get it right from the start, you may not make it. Filled with timeless lessons of leadership, succession, and transition, Right from the Start is for everyone who wants to ensure that their first steps in a new job will be the ones that lead to enduring success.

The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations

by Peter Senge, April 1999
Since Peter Senge published his groundbreaking book The Fifth Discipline, he and his associates have frequently been asked by the business community: "How do we go beyond the first steps of corporate change?" They know that companies and organizations cannot thrive today without learning to adapt their attitudes and practices. But companies that establish change initiatives discover, after initial success, that even the most promising efforts to transform or revitalize organizations can fail to sustain themselves over time. That's because organizations have complex, well-developed immune systems, aimed at preserving the status quo.

Now, drawing upon new theories about leadership and the long-term success change initiatives, and based upon twenty-five years of experience building learning organizations, the authors of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook show how to accelerate success and avoid the obstacles that can stall momentum. The Dance of Change, written managers and executives at every level of an organization, reveals how business leaders can work together to anticipate the challenges that profound change will ultimately force the organization to face.

Filled with in-depth accounts of sustaining learning initiatives by managers and leaders in the field, and well-tested practical advice, The Dance of Change provides an insider's perspective on implementing learning and change initiatives at such corporations as Ford Motor Company, General Electric and Shell Oil. It offers crucial advice for those who are struggling to put change initiatives into practice.


Never Scratch a Tiger with a short Stick

by Gordon S. Jackson, May 2003
Anyone in a leadership role—whether a CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation or a mid-level manager, a school principal, a member of Congress, a pastor or rabbi, a military officer, or a director of an inner-city food bank—will appreciate this book of inspirational quotes and insights. Filled with wisdom from several respected leaders, writers, and visionaries, such as Thomas Edison, Ernest Hemingway, and Confucius, this book is intended for the leader who never stops learning to lead.

HIGH PERFORMANCE NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS: Managing Upstream for Greater Impact

by Christine W. Letts, William P. Ryan and Allen Grossman, August 1998
Drawing on management techniques used by successful managers in both businesses and nonprofits, High Performance Nonprofit Organizations outlines approaches that nonprofits can use to build their capacity for learning, innovating, ensuring quality, and motivating staff. Illustrated with case studies and examples, the book outlines processes for achieving these goals. High Performance Nonprofit Organizations goes further, laying out an agenda for changing the nonprofit environment, making it more supportive of its managers and more aware of the potential of organizational capacity. For the nonprofit manager trying to build an organization that is truly responsive to its clients and community, High Performance Nonprofit Organizations is an essential review of best practices. For the board member, foundation program officer, or nonprofit leader trying to create sustained impact, it is a provocative challenge to deal with the sector's unfinished business with a new approach.

How to books on leadership

Augustine’s Laws
By Norman R. Augustine
Augustine's Laws is a collection of 52 laws that cover every area of business. Each law formulates a home truth about business life that, once pointed out, is impossible to forget or ignore. Each law is imbedded in an entertaining and informative text whose humor brings into sharp focus all the complexities a manager is ever likely to face.

Leading Change
By John P. Kotter
In this excellent business manual, the author emphasizes a comprehensive eight-step framework that can be followed by executives at all levels. Kotter advises those who would implement change to foster a sense of urgency within the organization, while avoiding big egos and personalities that can undermine a successful change effort.

The Heart of Change
By John P. Kotter, Dan Cohen
Through true stories from real people, the authors present a play by play of challenges encountered, mistakes made, and lessons learned through each of the eight steps of change, and offers tips and tools readers can apply within their own organizations.

Power and Influence – Beyond Formal Authority
By John P. Kotter
The basic premise of this book can be stated quite simply: Important changes that are shaping the nature of work in today's complex organizations demand that we become more sophisticated with respect to issues of leadership, power, and influence. With that increased sophistication, we can make our corporations more competitive. We can make rigid bureaucracies more flexible, innovative, and adaptive. We can even make the world of work more exciting and personally satisfying for most people.

Leadership 101
By John Maxwell
Drawing from John Maxwell's bestsellers Developing the Leader Within You, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, and Becoming a Person of Influence, Leadership 101 explores the timeless principles that have become Dr. Maxwell's trademark style. In a concise, straightforward style, Maxwell focuses on essential and time-tested qualities necessary for true leadership —influence, integrity, attitude, vision, problem-solving, and self-discipline —and guides readers through practical steps to develop true leadership in their lives and the lives of others.

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader
By John C. Maxwell
The author identifies these top traits as character, charisma, commitment, communication, competence, courage, discernment, focus, generosity, initiative, listening, passion, positive attitude, problem-solving, relationships, responsibility, security, self-discipline, servanthood, teachability, and vision--and then defines them in ways that readers can absorb and utilize.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
By John C. Maxwell
Maxwell takes his thirty years of knowledge and boiled it down into an easy to read book for anyone who wishes to better themselves or their organization through better leadership. He outlines 21 laws of leadership using many known political, sports and professional icons. It also clearly defines the difference between being a manager and being a leader.

Right from the Start
By Dana Ciampa, Michael Watkins
Whether you are succeeding a much-admired boss or charged with implementing sweeping, potentially unsettling change initiatives, a new role is fraught with obstacles that can undermine your efforts to establish authority and build support. In Right from the Start, authors Ciampa and Watkins lay out an action-oriented framework to follow during the first six months in a new position.

The Leadership Challenge
By James Kouzes, Barry Posner
Drawing on a wealth of new data, the book offers up-to-the minute insights into the organizational challenges inherent in our climate of dizzying change. Helps people to turn challenges into leadership and provides an excellent approach to continuous improvement.

The New Art of the Leader
By James Kouzes, Barry Posner
The New Art of the Leader teaches exactly how to apply military leadership techniques from all military services, many countries, and many centuries to modern businesses using dramatic examples from both combat and civilian organizations.

The Power of Alignment
By George Labovitz, Victor Rosansky
This book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. Organizations, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don’t respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get—and keep—all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
By Steven R. Covey
The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People is a comprehensive program based on developing an awareness of how perceptions and assumptions hinder success---in business as well as personal relationships. It focuses on a holistic, integrated approach to solving personal and professional problems by becoming principle-centered.

Leadership theory / textbooks

Enlightened Leadership
By Ed Oakley, Doug Krug
Practical, hands-on guide to breaking through the barriers to organizational change. Authors show why most efforts at change fail, and they provide leaders with proven methods for getting their people moving in the right direction.

How Good People Make Tough Choices (LAMS)
By Rushworth Kidder
Breaking down complex philosophical issues into a step-by-step self-help guide, the founder of the Institute for Global Ethics shows us how to grapple with everyday issues and problems. This is a unique, anecdote-rich, and articulate program that teaches us to think for ourselves rather than supplying us with easy, definitive answers. Offering concrete guidelines and principles, Kidder enables us to resolve ethical dilemmas and to make the tough choice between what are usually two "right" values.

How to Say It
By Rosalie Maggio
This book provides short lists of what to say, and sometimes more importantly, what not to say when writing business or personal letters. It begins with examples of why and when certain letters are appropriate, tips on writing the letter, and advice for special situations. Finally, it provides full sample letters giving readers a sense of what to look for in the final product. Includes appendices offering tips on etiquette, formatting, and grammar.

Leadership and Management of Volunteer Program
By James C. Fisher and Kathleen M. Cote
Describes the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of professional managers to effectively involve volunteers in the work of organizations. Offers thorough guidance on how to perform key tasks such as staffing, recruitment, motivation, program evaluation, and managing relationships between paid staff and volunteers.

On Leadership
By John Gardner
This book asserts that leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers. The focus of this book is leadership in this country today. Examples are drawn from other cultures and many of the generalizations are relevant for all times and places; but the focus is here and now.

Practicing Leadership – Principles and Applications
By Arthur Shriberg, Carol Lloyd, David L. Shriberg and Mary Lynn Williamson
This book examines traditional and contemporary approaches to leadership. Readers learn how to develop these leadership skills by analyzing how the leadership theories have been applied in current history. Recognized world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, Lee Iacocca, and President Jimmy Carter offer their views and insights on what makes a leader. Combines theory, examples, and skill-building exercises to create a realistic and practical approach to leadership.

Primal Leadership
By Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee
Great leaders move us, . . . ignite passion, and inspire the best in us"--so the authors offer as the premise of this provocative book. In and of itself, this assertion is hardly groundbreaking. The book distinguishes itself by departing from ho-hum leadership treatises to put forth a winning concept the authors call emotional intelligence, which is defined as the ability to handle our emotions and our relationships in a positive way.

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization
By Peter M. Senge
An MIT Professor's path breaking book on building "learning organizations" -- corporations that overcome inherent obstacles to learning and develop dynamic ways to pinpoint the threats that face them and to recognize new opportunities. Forget your old, tired ideas about leadership. The most successful organizations will be something called a learning organization.

The Strategy-Focused Organization
By Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Introduces a new approach to managing a business that makes strategy a continuous process owned by everyone, not just top management. Draws from more than 20 in-depth case studies of major companies, showing how to create a new management system that puts strategy at the center of key operations. DLC: Strategic planning.

Winning Through Innovation
By Michael L. Tushman and Charles A. O’Reilly
Presents a complete manager's tool kit for overcoming the success syndrome. Explains how you can identify and diagnose the causes of performance gaps in your organization and develop action plans to attain and maintain industry leadership.

Success stories

Character in Action
By Donald T. Phillips
How does the U.S. Coast Guard create, instill, and maintain leadership throughout a 40,000 member force spread across the United States? A former Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and a best-selling author combine their knowledge of the subject to offer a formula for success. Donald T. Phillips, who has written eight books on leadership, asserts that the Coast Guard is a superlative example of an organization with effective leadership, loaded with leaders at all levels.

Leading at the Edge
By Dennis N. T. Perkins
Part adventure story, part leadership guide, this intriguing book examines Shackletons legendary Antarctic expedition through the lens of business to reveal a set of powerful strategies for corporate leaders. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the group remained cohesive, congenial, and mercifully alive a fact that speaks not just to luck but to an unparalleled feat in leadership. Leading At The Edge draws on this amazing story to reveal the power of effective organizational leadership under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and rapid change. The book uncovers 10 lessons complete with stirring examples from the Shackleton expedition, as well as contemporary business case studies of the strategies in action on what it takes to be a great leader.

Leadership By Rudolph Giuliani
Rudolph Giuliani demonstrates how the leadership skills he practices can be employed successfully by anyone who has to run anything. Opens with a gripping account of Giuliani's immediate reaction to the September 11 attacks, including a narrow escape from the original crisis command headquarters, and closes with the efforts to address the aftermath during his remaining tenure.

Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun
By Wess Roberts
This book is based on the imaginary thoughts of one of history's most effective and least beloved leaders, Attila the Hun, to discover leadership principles you can apply to your own situation. In a uniquely creative and entertaining approach to a most serious task, "Attila" reveals his principles for successful morale building, decision making, delegating and negotiating, and gives advice on overcoming setbacks and achieving goals.

Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell
By Oren Havari
Sparked with insights and observations that are as refreshingly honest as they are grittily realistic, this book is the first in-depth exploration of Colin Powell's goal-driven approach to leadership. Whether you are currently a business leader or one who aspires to leadership, it provides a blueprint for inspiring anyone ¬¬including yourself ¬¬to achieve extraordinary levels of performance.

Lincoln on Leadership
By Donald T. Phillips
Since leadership principles are usually expressed rather abstractly, there is a great need for simple, concrete illustrations. Tangible examples make the difference; people relate to them. The author skillfully blends many effective historical references (letters, speeches, vignettes, and anecdotes) with modern management and leadership theories to create an easy-to-read performance and character analysis of one of the very best leaders our country has ever known.

The Founding Fathers on Leadership
By Donald T. Phillips
When America aspired to break free from Britain, the real-life David-and-Goliath situation required that a full-blown cadre of dynamic leaders arise immediately from the revolutionary populace. As history shows, it did! In this book, the author uses those events to suggest ways that today's businesspeople can likewise overcome tough odds and achieve success. Goal-setting, communication, and risk-taking, are just a few of the traits to be learned by studying Washington, Jefferson, and their colleagues.

Thomas Jefferson on Leadership
By Coy Barefoot
Thomas Jefferson believed that leadership is a skill that can be learned, and this is an inspiring and essential handbook for all Americans, for the boardroom and beyond. This book shares the inspiring lessons of this master politician, philosopher, lawyer, scientist, musician, architect, writer, and farmer to give readers a blueprint for getting ahead-in business and in life.

Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln
By James C. Humes
The author, a historian, and world-renowned speaker who wrote speeches for five American presidents, shows you how great leaders through the ages used simple yet incredibly effective tricks to speak, persuade, and win throngs of fans and followers

Straight from the Gut – Jack Welch
By John A. Byrae
In this fascinating personal and business memoir, Welch, recently retired CEO and board chair of the General Electric Company, reveals extensive inside details about his life and his 30-plus years with GE. During his 20 years as CEO, Welch built GE into a highly successful mega-corporation, earning a reputation as one of the most admired business leaders in the world.

Motivation

Beyond Race and Gender
By R. Roosevelt Thomas
Within any one organization, you might find representatives of several groups, some who are inclined to push against authority, some who are very cautious with change, some with an entrepreneurial “loner” style, etc. Those at the helm of these organizations have a choice: they can treat all members as if they were the same (or try to force them to become the same), or they can view the diversity as an opportunity, a strategic lever.

First Break All the Rules
By Buckingham & Coffen
Two consultants for the Gallup Organization debunk some dearly held notions about management, such as "treat people as you like to be treated"; "people are capable of almost anything"; and "a manager's role is diminishing in today's economy." "Great managers are revolutionaries," etc. This book will take you inside the minds of these managers to explain why they have toppled conventional wisdom and reveal the new truths they have forged in its place.

Generations at Work
By Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, Bob Filipczak
Generations at Work supplies insights and practical solutions for understanding differences, resolving conflicts, and managing effectively in today's age-diverse workplace. The book gives you: profiles of four distinct generations; case studies in generational peace; a practice exercise; and answers to the 21 most frequently asked questions about managing in a multigenerational workplace.

Leadership and the One Minute Manager (LAMS)

By Ken Blanchard
In clear, simple terms Leadership and the One Minute Manager® teaches managers the art of Situational Leadership®--a simple system that refutes the conventional management mandate of treating all employees equally. Here, you'll learn why tailoring management styles to individual employees is so important; why knowing when to delegate, support, or direct is critical; how to identify the leadership style suited to a particular person; and how consistent use of the One Minute techniques will produce better management and enhanced motivation on all levels.

Peacock in the Land of Penguins
By BJ Gallagher Hately, Warren Schmidt
Brings to life the challenges of birds of different feathers trying to work together through the engaging story of Perry the Peacock & other exotic birds who struggle to be themselves in the conformity-minded Land of Penguins. Delightful fable illuminates the importance of embracing the full range of perspectives that people bring to bear on their work.

The Art of Possibility
By Rosalind Stone Zander, Benjamin Zander
Possibility--that big, all-encompassing, wide-open-door concept--is an art? Becoming an artist, however, requires discipline, and what the authors of The Art of Possibility offer is a set of practices designed to "initiate a new approach to current conditions, based on uncommon assumptions about the nature of the world."

Virtual Leadership
By Jaclyn Kostner
This book lays out effective tools, techniques, and strategies for working with geographically diverse teams. This book is appropriate for any virtual organization. This text covers an important topic in the age of virtual organizations and e-businesses -- how to establish and manage virtual teams.

Who Moved My Cheese?
By Spencer Johnson
Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives.

Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment
By William C. Byham, with James Cox
Most managers know that revitalization in their companies must occur from the ground up. But how to get that message to employees without applying the kind of pressure that makes them even less productive? The answer is empowerment. In this motivating book, you will find specific strategies designed to help you encourage responsibility, acknowledgment, and creativity so that employees feel they "own" their jobs. It's all here, in an accessible guide for the successful managers of tomorrow.
 

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