Many leaders tell us they’re under constant pressure to react, while also sensing they’re not learning or evolving as fast as they need to. There’s rarely enough time carved out for deep reflection, shared learning, or conversations that could unlock new energy and potential.
The Leader’s Book Club aims to help leadership teams pause, reflect, and explore powerful ideas from leading thinkers and successful leaders. Over the course of the year, we’ll recommend books that challenge assumptions, provoke discussion, and encourage practical experimentation.
Every month you'll find that we have added a video to the library (below) accompanied by our downloadable study guide.
The aim is simple: to build awareness, grow commitment, and support each other in turning ideas into action.
NEW FROM THE LEADER'S BOOK CLUB
WENDY SMITH - BOTH/AND THINKING
EMBRACING CREATIVE TENSION TO SOLVE YOUR TOUGHEST PROBLEMS
The next chapter of The Leader’s Book Club features Wendy Smith, co-author of
Both/And Thinking - Embracing Creative Tension to Solve Your Toughest Problems
Both/And Thinking, by Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis explores why many of the toughest problems leaders face today cannot be solved by choosing one side over another. Drawing on more than 25 years of research, the book shows how tensions such as short term and long term priorities, innovation and stability, financial performance and social purpose are not trade offs to be resolved, but paradoxes to be navigated. Smith and Lewis argue that our default habit of either or thinking is natural, but ultimately limiting, especially in a world that is increasingly complex, uncertain and interconnected.
The book offers a practical and research grounded alternative. Through the paradox system, it shows how leaders and organisations can shift the way they think, design structures, work with emotions and build practices that allow competing demands to be held at the same time. Rather than promising simple answers, Both/And Thinking equips readers with a mindset and tools to make more thoughtful, creative and resilient decisions over time.
This is a guide for anyone who wants to lead well in the presence of tension, ambiguity and change.
DECEMBER 2025: WENDY SMITH, CO-AUTHOR OF 'BOTH/AND THINKING - EMBRACING CREATIVE TENSION TO SOLVE YOUR TOUGHEST PROBLEMS '
THE LEADER'S BOOK CLUB ARCHIVE
NOVEMBER 2025: KIM SCOTT, AUTHOR OF 'RADICAL CANDOR: BE A KICK-ASS BOSS WITHOUT LOSING YOUR HUMANITY'
OCTOBER 2025: RITA McGRATH, COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR AND STRATEGIST,
AUTHOR OF 'SEEING AROUND CORNERS: HOW TO SPOT INFLECTION POINTS IN BUSINESS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN'
SEPTEMBER 2025: MARTIN REEVES, CHAIRMAN OF THE BCG HENDERSON INSTITUTE AND CO-AUTHOR OF 'LIKE: THE BUTTON THAT CHANGED THE WORLD'
AUGUST 2025: CHRIS HIRST, AUTHOR OF INDISPENSABLE: THE NO BULLSH*T GUIDE TO CAREER SUCCESS
JULY 2025: JEAN GOMES, AUTHOR OF LEADING IN A NON-LINEAR WORLD
JUNE 2025: GREG SATELL, AUTHOR OF CASCADES, HOW TO CREATE A MOVEMENT THAT DRIVES TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
MAY 2025: MICHAEL D WATKINS, AUTHOR OF THE SIX DISCIPLINES OF STRATEGIC THINKING