Flashback Friday: Originally published in 2017, this blog is one of our most popular and still very relevant today. I've seen many people share recently about the books they read in 2021 and what they hope to read in 2022. I hope this blog gives you a few ideas as you complete your must-read list for the new year!

There are plenty of book lists out there. This post is a little different. While I’ve got examples of specific books for you, more importantly I want to emphasize the kind of books you should read. As Japanese author Haruki Murakami has written, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

“Some things are up to us and others are not.” – The Enchiridion

The ancient Stoics taught that we own only our choice of thoughts and actions. Everything else – the externals – remain outside of our own doing.

That means we have way more agency in who and what we are than we tell ourselves. While its not within our power to determine the outcomes, our choice of inputs most definitely are.

Traditionally this is the time when I highlight the top 10 blogs of the year, but in 2021 we introduced something brand new – The Edge Podcast! So, this year, let’s celebrate both our top blogs AND our top podcast episodes.

If you can't write the next line, well, you're dead. The past doesn't matter. - Charles Bukowski, Author

Everyone has a story. And they’re all unfinished.

Many people seem stuck in a moment, re-reading the old chapters of their book. Some bask in a glory that no one cares about anymore. Others can’t get past the tragedies, challenges, and slights still lingering in their heads. All represent stories from lives lived and lessons learned, but they are from the past.

What matters more is the chapter you’re writing right now, today. And those chapters still unwritten.

Being around a lot of founder friends in YPO, I’ve heard stories about #startuplife but there’s nothing like experiencing it firsthand! I got a small dose of it over the past year as my wife and I started a small lake rental & property management business.

There were more than a few twists and turns, even while only sitting in what EOS would call the Owner’s Box. I now realize why my YPO mates often bucket us non-founder CEOs as those “running their family business” or a “hired gun.”

It’s not that a hired gun (like me when I started at Gibson) or the next generation of leadership at a family business has it easy. We face all kinds of unique challenges that founders do not! Yet, starting something from scratch is an entirely different undertaking. For mature companies, the pain and excitement of startup life comes when launching a new product or opening a new market.

Ask someone who has been on a great team what made it so special. You’ll hear about a group of diversely talented people who knew their role and were playing for something bigger than themselves.

If you dig a little deeper, you’ll also likely learn there was a “favorite coach” who really “got them” and in turn got the most out of them. Some might even go as far as to say they were playing for their coach, not wanting to let them down.

It’s a key reminder that who you are and how you act as a leader will have a tremendous impact on the success of your team. You may not be able to win without great talent, but you coul singlehandedly be the cause of a loss.

So, what’s the makeup of a great coach?

One of the most meaningful things I’ve learned – and been able to refine for myself over the past few years – is the value of spending most of my time doing things that align with my unique abilities.

Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, writes that unique abilities are “the essence of what we love to do, and also do best.” They are the ways we “naturally strive” as they call attention to what “motivates and fulfills us” as humans.

Author Pat Lencioni, after years of writing books on leadership and team dynamics, created an assessment tool called Working Genius. Similar to the thinking behind Sullivan’s Unique Ability, Lencioni’s assessment is for understanding our “God-given gifts… the things that [we’re] great at and love doing.”

“Ideally we should spend as much time as possible doing those things,” commented Lencioni in a recent Chief Executive article.

Legendary 49ers football coach Bill Walsh coined the term Success Disease to describe the overconfidence and arrogance that often follow an initial level of personal and organizational achievement. Walsh described it as a sense that, “We’ve mastered it; we’ve figured it out; we’re golden.”

“But the gold can tarnish quickly,” he added. “Mastery requires endless remastery. In fact, I don’t believe there is ever-true mastery. It is a process, not a destination.”

Walsh learned this firsthand in 1982 as his team only won a third of its games after being crowned Super Bowl Champions just one year earlier.

Businesses face the same challenge. Prevailing wisdom says Success Disease can be battled by setting and managing the right goals. While goals can provide direction and short-term motivation, they have much less to do with our results than the habits and systems we follow.

“Leadership is the art of getting people to want to do what must be done.” - Jim Collins

One of the marks of a great team is decisive leadership. Fostering organizational and team health is a leader’s #1 job, as no team will ever be healthier than its leader.

Let that sink in. Ms./Mr. Leader, how healthy are you? Before alignment can occur within your organization, ensure you’ve put in the work on yourself.

What separates the great teams from the rest? It all starts with trust.

A lack of trust, where vulnerability is not respected or rewarded, leads to fear of conflict among team members. Without healthy debate and critique, they never go deep, causing an absence of commitment to develop where team members avoid accountability all together. Team members pursue personal gain and status over team victory. Ultimately this inattention to results – team results – brings an end to a once promising group of talented individuals.

Pat Lencioni has named this chain reaction of failed leadership The Five Dysfunctions of a Team in a book by the same name. I suspect most of us have been on a dysfunctional team or experienced dysfunctional leadership.