Resources

Leadership & career resources, tools and perspectives
to bring with you on your developmental journey

Are you looking for more stuff? Then you’ve come to the right place! Below is a short list of some of our most treasured, most offered to our clients, resources for all things leadership, career transitions and change.

And in the spirit of sharing, we promise to add to this list as we find things that are helpful to each of us here at Transitions Coaching as we continue down our own personal developmental paths. If you have something you believe should be on this list, we’d love to hear from you! Enjoy!

Leadership Career Resources

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress,
no matter how slow."

–Plato

ALL THINGS LEADERSHIP

Karen's Picks

Karen Konrath
KAREN KONRATH

Owner & Leadership Coach

Karen believes that every one of us has the potential to lead. More importantly, she’s learned that every one of us has the potential to become the leader we most want to be in our organizations, our careers and our lives.

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BOOKS


Dare to LeadDare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown

What can I say? Love her, love her work! And this book brings all that she’s studied and learned about vulnerability and courage into the work of leaders – brilliant! An easy read that you will go back to over and over again. Filled with nuggets of wisdom to ponder and things to put immediately into practice, this book offers a perspective on leadership that’s entirely human! Learn more

Mastering LeadershipMastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results by Robert J. Anderson & William A. Adams

From my perspective, Bob Anderson and Bill Adams are masters themselves at helping us truly understand what the journey of leadership is all about. This book takes us deep into the research behind what makes us most effective as leaders and where we will inevitably get in our own way if we’re not mindful of our innate “human-ness.” Their corresponding 360 feedback tool, The Leadership Circle Profile is our go-to leadership assessment. If you read this book, I think you will understand why. Learn more

Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes That Matter Most by Robert J. Anderson & William A. Adams

In their 2nd and newest book, Bob Anderson and Bill Adams (see Mastering Leadership above) go beyond the quantitative data and dig deep into the qualitative data behind their research. Through this exploration, they help us understand that our jobs as leaders are fundamentally rooted in the idea that we must scale leadership. In order to create sustainable organizations that positively impact our world, we must learn what it takes to achieve the highest levels of leadership effectiveness in order to scale that throughout our organizations. A fantastic follow-up read to their first book! Learn more

Unlocking Leadership MindtrapsUnlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity by Jennifer Garvey Berger

Jennifer Garvey Berger is one of my all-time favorite researchers, coaches and authors. Jennifer’s work blends deep theoretical knowledge of adult development theory, with a driving quest for practical ways to make leaders' lives better. In this book, she nails just that! She shows us how the ways in which we are so accustomed to making sense of ourselves and others are actually counterproductive to being effective as leaders in complex times. A quick and easy read, don’t be fooled by it’s simplicity. This little book offers powerful and thought-provoking ways to challenge ourselves over and over again. Learn more

Primal LeadershipPrimal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

It’s probably no secret that I’m a huge fan of all things emotional intelligence and of all things leadership. So then I’m sure it’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan of this book! Daniel Goleman is the author of Emotional Intelligence, one of the most influential books on organizational life. This particular book, which he co-authored with Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, is another gift he gives to us as leaders navigating the complexities of the working world today. In Goleman’s words, “primal leadership refers to the emotional dimension of leadership. We argue that a leader’s primal task is an emotional one—to articulate a message that resonates with their followers’ emotional reality, with their sense of purpose—and so to move people in a positive direction. Leadership, after all, is the art of getting work done through other people.” Another keeper for sure! Learn more

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges

I love William Bridges! His first book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, was one of my very early reads on change and opened my eyes wide to the idea of transitions. In this book, Bridges helps us understand how we, as leaders, can help people through change in a less stressful, more positive way. When it was first published 26 years ago, “Managing Transitions” was one of the very few books on the market – if not the only one – to point out that as difficult as it can be for a company to deal with situational change, the psychological transitions which come by way of it are much more challenging and strenuous. For me, this book is a must read for all leaders today. Learn more

ARTICLES


If you’re looking for something a little less time consuming than a book, here is a list of some of our go-to Harvard Business Review Articles. If you’re not a subscriber to HBR, no worries. All of these can be ordered online from Harvard Business Review.

What Makes a Leader?

What Makes a Leader by Daniel Goleman

Every businessperson knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the job...

Read More

 

Teaching Smart People How to Learn

Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris

Any company that aspires to succeed in the tougher business environment of the 1990s must first resolve a basic dilemma: success in the...

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The Real Reason People Won’t Change

The Real Reason People Won’t Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey

Every manager is familiar with the employee who just won’t change. Sometimes it’s easy to see why—the employee fears a shift in power...

Read More

Danine's Picks


DANINE CASPER

Leadership Coach

Danine’s approach to coaching fosters a space for leaders to explore, develop and grow and become the human being and leader they know deep within.

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BOOKS



An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey

If you are a leader who is passionate about unleashing people’s potential, you will want to read this book. Kegan and Lahey first acknowledge that in today’s work environment most people are, “…doing a second job no one is paying them for…most people are spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses and managing other people’s impression of them…” The authors share stories of the personal growth and development that happens for people when they are working in an environment where talking about their weaknesses and creating experiments to challenge their growth edge is supported and encouraged. They provide research to demonstrate that a culture that supports everyone’s growth enhances the organization’s overall effectiveness. I appreciated this book for the well-defined strategy and practice that can be implemented by any organization that wants to create a culture that truly unleashes people’s potential. I also encourage individuals who are seeking ways to be at work with a more wholistic and meaningful presence read this book.  Learn more

Who Do We Choose To Be? Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity by Margaret J. Wheatley

We need leaders to rise to this moment of profound disruption in our world. Wheatley provides us with a call to action to be “warriors for the human spirit…decent human beings who aspire to be of service in an indecent and inhumane time.” She encourages leaders to use their power to create conditions for our basic human qualities of generosity, contribution, community and love to be evoked no matter what. Wheatley draws upon her diverse experiences with science, organizational development, technology, spirituality, civilization and collapse to help us understand our environment and the need to become more fully human in order to address current challenges.   I found this read provocative. Admittedly at times a bit overwhelming. But it makes sense and can be used to help address challenges affecting people because of incivility in the workplace. Thankfully, Wheatley also reminds us, one of the principles of being a warrior is, “we encounter life’s challenges with a sense of humor, knowing that lightness and play increase our capacity to deal with suffering.” Learn more

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail? Do you need help figuring that out? Designing your life will give you practical ideas, suggestions and activities for how to notice and pay attention to how life is speaking to you. The authors use design principles like reframing, experimentation and prototypes to help you build your future rather than try to think your way into the future. Creativity, embracing change and building a community of support are a few of the suggestions to help build what the authors describe as a ‘coherent’ life. Sometimes the overwhelming feelings of balancing life demands can leave a person in a state of incoherence. Designing your life will help you make sense of life and align who you are, what you believe and what you do. Learn more

"Karen’s coaching is extremely helpful to executives faced with changing organizations.
She has a great perspective on executive roles during a change, and was able to help me
and several others at our company remain effective during a rapid shift in culture.
Her ability to help you identify what really motivates you and how you can best channel
that motivation into greater effectiveness was key to helping me understand,
and then manage through, what were at times conflicting expectations."
John, VP, Contract Manufacturing, Food & Beverage Industry