Business Book Review - Contagious Leadership

I recently read John Hersey's great book called Creating Contagious Leadership - 9 Habits that Inspire a Leadership Culture.

I love the concept of contagious leadership and I figure even if someone doesn't deliberately go about trying to be contagious, the leader definitely will be. I have seen in organizations where the leaders is slow and lack a customer service ethic and this tends to permeate throughout the organization. I've also seen cases where the leader is quick, responsive, has a high work ethic and that tends to also translate through the organization.

The gist of Hersey's message is that by deliberately trying to be contagious, the leader can multiply their efforts. The book has a number of practical ideas on how to do this.

Some of these habits include:

1. Spotlighting (This is shining the spotlight in areas that are good)
2. Vibrant Communication (Communication is always a big deal in any organization)

3. Permission Mentoring (one of my favorites). I've always been a believer in coach, training and mentoring people and have often said I want people who are coachable, but what I guess what I was really was looking for was permission mentoring, where people actually give permission to be mentored.

The book is short and to the point, well written and easy to read. I would recommend it to any leader.

Another short book I read last night was Positively Quit! Manual by Cassius Cheong. It is about quitting smoking (fortunately I never started so have never had to quit). Why would I read it? He sent it to me, curiosity and it was short. It was a fast read. It covered all the usual stuff you would expect - the reasons, other methods, tricks etc. Smoking is a terrible habit - read this book if you smoke.