For decades, we have looked to management theorists, organizational psychologists and economists to tell us how we can squeeze the most out of people at work. The result? People are uninspired, feel like cogs in a machine and prefer to leave traditional work structures behind. Numbers and productivity can only get you so far.
What Philosophy Can Teach You About Being a Better Leader offers a different route that will allow you to reconnect with the humanist values of work. By turning to philosophy, and what it teaches us about finding fulfilment and living a good life, this book uncovers the ways you can re-engage your workforce by valuing its members as people, rather than just tools within the process.
The four authors argue that the rise of the ‘omnipotent leader’, who focuses on telling rather than leading, risks creating a new generation of feudal CEOs and needs to be resisted. With the help of Aristotle, Socrates, Kant and Nietzsche, as well as a whole host of other brilliant minds, they turn traditional management practices on their head, showing how moving away from traditional, hierarchical, risk focused control structures can lead to improved employee engagement, increased productivity and better outcomes for the entire business.
Related Listens
- Leaders Eat Last : Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t – Simon Sinek (Abridged)
- Working Together : Why Great Partnerships Succeed – Michael D. Eisner, Aaron R. Cohen (Abridged)
- Work the System (Fourth Edition) : The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less – Sam Carpenter (Abridged)
- Under New Management : How Leading Organisations Are Upending Business as Usual – David Burkus (Abridged)
- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business : Get a Grip on Your Business – Gino Wickman (Abridged)
- Thinking in New Boxes : A New Paradigm for Business Creativity – Luc De Brabandere, Alan Iny (Abridged)
- The Way of the SEAL : Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed – Mark Divine, Allyson Edelhertz Machate (Abridged)
- The Power of a Positive Team : Proven Principles and Practices that Make Great Teams Great – Jon Gordon (Abridged)