Read and "Wander"

I don't know what your area of leadership competence and interest is. Likely you immerse yourself in that world through reading and training in that stream. However let me challenge you to break out and learn about life & leadership by reading in areas you would not normally go. The Nomadic Leader wanders into new areas of the landscape and sometimes finds resources and sustenance that surprises (and nourishes) them. Don't stay stuck in the same path. Wander.

2 book recommendations - one outside the leadership stream, and one inside:



1. "The Discoverers", authored by Daniel Boorstin.

Subtitled 'A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself', it is a history of human discovery. Discovery in all its many forms are presented - exploration, scientific, medical, mathematical and the more theoretical ones such as time, evolution, plate tectonics and relativity. He praises the inventive, human mind and its eternal quest to discover the universe and our place in it. Boorstin writes, "My hero is Man, the Discoverer. The world we now view from the literate West...had to be opened by countless Columbuses. In the deep recesses of the past, they remain anonymous." It's a book filled with what occurs when man allows himself to be nomadic, to wander and discover.

My favourite leadership lesson from this book: "The greatest barrier to discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge"



2. "Shackletons Way; Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer".

Numerous books have been written about the great Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. If you are not a history buff, but want a “Coles Notes” version, Shackleton’s Way is specifically written with leadership lessons in mind - extracted from the various stages of the famous, though ill-fated voyage of the Endurance (1914-1916). This is a book about the character of leadership in seemingly hopeless situations. Unpredictable conditions in the Antarctic resulted in Shackleton’s ship, with its crew of 27, ultimately crushed in the ice before they ever reached their goal. Imagine the leadership strength required and the responsibility forced on you when you are stranded on an ice flow, 1900 km from the nearest outpost of civilization! It’s a harrowing tale of a 2 year fight for their lives in the inhospitable and bleak conditions of the Antarctic. Ernest Shackleton’s leadership enabled the survival of all 27 men. Napoleon once said that ‘leaders are dealers in hope’, a quality supremely exemplified in Shackleton, but a quality sadly lacking in many across the leadership spectrum. People are hungry for hope – just recall the power of Obama’s election strategy. How you as a leader deliver on that hope is one of the great reasons to read this book.

The book is divided into 7 sections, each telling a portion of the story and simultaneously extracting leadership lessons based on the actions of Shackleton (and many of his men). You will encounter new perspectives on how leaders are formed, hiring practices, creating and nurturing teams, crisis management and overcoming obstacles.

Antarctica looms large in our psyche as a place of isolation, harsh conditions, and a test of endurance. Most of us would not place it on our bucket list of places to visit. But I encourage you to step into this story of leadership in a difficult environment.

You wait. Everyone has an Antarctic...even here in Kuwait!