Welcome to the first of my two-part summer reading list. All have been chosen to help you boost your performance and the performance of your team.
All are easy and accessible reads. All are equally inspiring and thought-provoking.
This week the focus is on individual performance, next week I will suggest books looking more at leadership of teams, team culture and team performance.
I will keep it simple by:
- providing a one sentence summary of what the book is
- a key quote to bring the book to life
- an example of how this book has helped my own performance and how I use these ideas to help my clients
The Inner Game of Tennis – W.Timothy Gallwey
What is it: An iconic and legendary book that was well ahead of its time when published in 1974. A quick, easy to understand (and read in one sitting) guide to mental performance. Like the Chimp Paradox but better.
Key quote: “Focus in tennis is fundamentally no different from the focus needed to perform any task…learning to let go of the habit of judging yourself on the basis of your backhand is no different from forgetting the habit of judging your boss; and learning to welcome obstacles in competition automatically increases one’s ability to find advantage in all the difficulties one meets in the course of life.”
How it helped me (and could help you): Focussing on, and enjoying, the process towards a performance as much as the end result itself.
On Speaking Well – Peggy Noonan
What is it: An easy to read guide to writing and giving a speech from President Reagan’s chief speechwriter. Reading it feels as if you are being let in on some special secrets.
Key quote: “Every speech has a job to do, and no matter who you are, pope, president, poet or pipe layer, if you’re giving a speech you have to understand what its job is and work to make sure it’s done.”
How it helped me (and could help you): Appreciation that every good speech needs to make an argument not merely be a collection of soundbites or policy proposals.
Atomic Habits – James Clear
What is it: A compendium full to brimming of the latest thinking on building good habits including a range of processes or techniques to try yourself.
Key quote: “If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
How it helped me (and could help you): Eradicated bad habits and cemented good ones. Also given me a good appreciation and awareness of when habits (good and bad) are forming.
I hope you pick one up at your local bookshop and it inspires you from your sun-lounger to get a little bit better when you are back from your break.