Which books--be they fiction or nonfiction--taught you the most about leadership? The Society for Information Management (SIM) unveiled the list of books it will use as part of its Regional Leadership Forum leadership development program for 2011. Every year SIM compiles a list of 30 to 35 books that it encourages Regional Leadership Forum (RLF) participants to read. The books cover a range of topics, including leadership, team building, change management and diversity, and the reading is intended to increase participants’ self-awareness and to get them thinking about their leadership style, according to SIM. (And yes, participants have to read every single book on the list over the course of the year-long program, says Bob Rouse, RLF director and facilitator.)SIM added six new titles to this year’s list, including The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Gary Hamel’s The Future of Management, Winners Never Cheat, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and The Visual Miscellaneum. Some of the old standbys that have remained on the list year after year include the existential memoir, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl (Rouse says has been on the list for 20 years); Machiavelli’s classic, The Prince; and Managing Transitions by William Bridges. The list of books that Regional Leadership Forum participants will be studying this year prompted me to think about the works of fiction I’ve read (I don’t read a lot of business books) that contain strong messages about leadership. Two titles quickly came to mind: Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. These are hardly traditional leadership books, but both contrast different leadership styles. You have the Big Nurse’s authoritarian, condescending style of leadership, which meets its match against Randle McMurphy’s populist leadership style in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In Lord of the Flies, the two young school boys who emerge as “leaders” on the desserted island represent savage man (Jack) and rational man (Ralph). The book illustrates the different ways each “leader” motivates his supporters, not to mention the effectiveness—and consequences—of their styles. I’m curious: What are your favorite books for leadership lessons, be they fiction or nonfiction, and what specific lessons have you learned from them? Related content opinion Career Advice: Parting Words By Meridith Levinson Apr 11, 2012 2 mins Careers opinion IT Salaries: 10 Cities Where IT Professionals Earn the Most IT staffing firm CyberCoders recently released its ranking of the 10 cities where IT salaries are highest. CIO.com compares this latest salary data with IT salary surveys from other sources. By Meridith Levinson Apr 03, 2012 3 mins Salaries IT Jobs Careers opinion How Project Managers Can Negotiate Higher Salaries The Project Management Institute's latest salary survey is chockfull of specific, reliable data that project managers can use to negotiate higher salaries. Here's an example of how they might use the data in their own salary negotiations. By Meridith Levinson Mar 21, 2012 3 mins Salaries Project Management Tools Careers opinion Why IT Managers Need to Address Skills Shortages in Their Organizations IT managers know that skills shortages in their organizations negatively impact business operations, yet—due to budget and time constraints—they do little to address IT skills gaps. Is there any way to fix this problem? By Meridith Levinson Mar 16, 2012 3 mins IT Skills Careers IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe