Book Spotlight: ‘Leadershift’ by John Maxwell

When I surveyed readers of A Deliberate Life, one of the themes you said you most enjoyed was content was around ideas and reading, and my annual ‘Top 10 Reads’ posts are consistently among the most popular, so I thought I’d start featuring particular books I’m reading. I’d love to hear if there are particular books from former lists that you’d like to see featured!

I’m kicking off today with a book I just finished – the most recent release from leadership guru and prolific author, John Maxwell.

Book

Leadershift: 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace

by John Maxwell

Released 2019

Excellence vs Perfectionism

My experience has been that a culture of perfectionism in a team is toxic, and ultimately leads to lower outcomes overall, while a culture of excellence leads to both team health and great outcomes.

So how do we distinguish between the two?

Where is the line between excellence and perfectionism?

Top 10 Reads of 2020

This year’s list is a little different than previous years. It’s 2020 – what else would you expect?

My reading got off to a slow start this year when I started my MBA and was finding my new rhythm in getting through all the reading and research for that (which I haven’t included here – no-one is interested in adding ‘Contemporary Accounting: A Strategic Approach’ to their 2021 reading list!).

Then Covid happened and I basically stopped reading all together, apart from study and anything that would help me lead through the unfolding crisis. It was like my brain had no more free space for processing.

I finally found my way back into reading by digging up some childhood reads from primary school (thanks Timothy Zahn!), and then by taking a leaf out of Jon Acuff’s book and recalibrating what ‘counted’ as my reads. Audiobook of a one man play? Counts! Children’s book? Counts! I also found a whole bunch of shorter reads to get me back into a flow. ‘Short’ was my friend in 2020, making this year’s list a little different than other years.

What hasn’t changed, it’s important to note, is that when I share my own personal Top 10 from the year, it doesn’t mean they are the most ‘worthy’ picks from a literary perspective. They are simply the ones that I personally found most significant, impacting or enjoyable. I’m obviously not here to tell you that Paddington (which made my top 10) is an objectively better book than The Odyssey (which did not). Rather, only that the former was more of a highlight for me than the latter in 2020 – a year when simple joys became newly important for so many of us.

How are you sleeping these days?

If you’re not sleeping well lately, you’re not alone. Insomnia, broken sleep and weird dreams have all surged during recent months, according to both scientists and a spike in google searches.

I’ve been interested in sleep for a few years now because up until COVID I was hopscotching timezones every few weeks due to work travel, and it took its toll on my body clock. Then, like so many, my sleep quality took a hit after lockdown, so, as a completely non-medical, non-scientific layman, I began circling back to what I’d already learnt and exploring even more of the science and advice around how to nurture sleep. 

If you’ve struggled with sleep in recent days, here’s why you should treat it as more than a little annoyance, and what you can do about. 

How You And Your Team Can Avoid the Wellbeing Pitfalls of the New Workplace Normal

COVID-19 is reshaping the workplace. McCrindle research recently released a report showing that Australians are very positive about a shift to remote working. They found that not only do 78% of people believe it will become the new normal, but three-quarters are excited about it and consider it important to their future employer choice. This echoes similar findings by Gallup in the USA.

 

At the same time, we know there are very real challenges that come hand in hand with this ‘new normal’ of the workplace, and they’re challenges that neither employers nor employees can afford to ignore.