More Leadership Reads to Succeed

Nov. 13, 2020

Growing as a leader never stops. Automotive industry leader John Beebe's shares his top leadership reads. 

Growing as a leader never stops. Along with Ratchet+Wrench's article on the automotive industry leader's top picks, John Beebe, owner of Bellingham Automotive, is here to provide more of his favorite leadership reads.


“How to Be a Great Boss”

by Gino Wickman and René Boer

Focus: Creating Leaders

I can tell you out of the gate, this book is not for the weak or the indifferent leader--not cut out to lead--or for those who have egos that can’t fit through the door.They begin the book with the basics: to be a great boss, you must get it, want it, and have the capacity to do it. If you aren’t willing to do the work, they say it’s OK to go ahead and find something else to do that truly inspires you.

However, for those who have tied a knot in the rope and are hanging on, Wickman and Boer truly “bring it” in a straightforward, no-nonsense approach that can help you create a work environment where your people act like owners. Full of practical stories of people they have coached, dive in and see if you have what it takes to be a great boss, or come to terms with not being such a great one. This book changed our team culture and, again, helped me be accountable to what I discovered in the book: what a great boss actually looks like.

“Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”

by Greg McKeown

Focus: Delegating

This book has been on my shelf for a few years now, but it still sits there like an old friend ready to help with what can happen to many of us. Many leaders can find themselves with so many things on their plate that they deem themselves stuck, and entangled in the “death grip” of everything seeming important. Instead, McKeown presents a new process to determine what it is you really want to accomplish and what to pass on.

How many of us struggle to say no? In Chapter 11, Dare, you will find tools that can challenge the people-pleaser in you. A fresh approach to a respectful pushback that will give you a new breath of control of all that’s trying to rob you of that precious commodity: time. A simple takeaway for me was the use of the proverbial swear word, “hell.” For example, “No” is no, but “Hell no,” or even “Hell yeah!” really makes a point. Although not part of my normal daily wordsmithing, that concept has helped me choose the most important thing to go for or simply pass on, in the seeming abyss of too much.

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