Person reading book holding glasses in hand

In our recent Leadership for the Future breakfast panel in Edmonton, our audience were keen to know what leadership books our panelists recommend.

So, without further ado, here is the leadership reading list recommended by our panel of experts: Monica Norminton, Lori Schmidt, Robert Huizinga, Chris Hayman and Stephen Race.

Monica Norminton

Monica is the former President and CEO of Alberta Pensions Services Corporation (APS); during her tenure with APS, employee engagement improved from the low 20s to 60%. Monica shared her top leadership reads and why:

  • Matthew Lieberman – Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
    Matthew talks about the importance of social connections. I was fortunate to have Mathew as one of my advisors for my masters program – before he was famous – and he just makes sense.
  • George Kohlrieser’s book Hostage at the Table is older but his new book Care to Dare speaks to the value of caring leadership and how to inspire people. It’s a little bit Oprah Winfrey-ish in style, but it has value I think.
  • David Rock is the founder of Results-based coaching and has a number of books on leadership available – all really easy reads and grounded in neuroscience – he is also the creator of the SCARF model I discussed. Highly recommended.

Lori Schmidt

Lori is CEO of Productivity Alberta, a private not-for-profit corporation working to improve the productivity, innovation, and competitiveness performance of Alberta industry. Here are Lori’s recommended reads:

Robert Huizinga

Robert is Vice President, Clinical Affairs for Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc.; he is also a skilled leadership trainer and speaker. Luckily for us, Robert has a comprehensive reading list already on-hand that he shared with us:

Reading to Start Your Leadership Journey

Reading To Continue Your Leadership Journey

Extra Reading

Chris Hayman

Chris is the President of Emeco Canada Limited, Emeco Canada is a major part of Emeco Holdings a publically traded Australian company that is the world’s largest, independent mining equipment rental business.

Chris was travelling and didn’t have full access to his library but he also recommends the work of Peter Drucker.

Stephen Race

Stephen is a noted Occupational Psychologist specialized in engaging a multi-generational workforce. He recommends two books in particular:

Read any great leadership books lately?