Season 4 Finale: Holiday Gift Giving Guide!

Jason recommends six leadership books to gift someone you care about during the 2025 holiday season!

• Andy Crocker - The Unconditionals
• Brian Reich - Life in Motion**
• Dominic George - The Authentic Edge Leading Without Losing Yourself
• Jim Carlough - The Six Pillars Of Effective Leadership
• William Davis - How to Lead Without Just Managing
• Don Schminke - Winners and Losers

**Jason mistakenly refers to this book as "The Unscripted Mind." The Unscripted Mind is Brian's newsletter!

Leadership Voyage is brought to you by Golden Mean Consulting Group, specializing in the training of new managers.

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Transcript

0:00

Wherever you are on your leadership voyage, it starts here.[Music][Music] Welcome back everybody to Leadership Voyage, the podcast dedicated to your pursuit of becoming a great leader. It is December already and I am freezing my butt off here in Colorado. I can't believe it. It was so nice for so long and now it's cold and there's snow. But it is winter so I guess it's time. I'm just not ready for it yet. But I'm sure I will adapt soon enough. I hope you all are doing well. And I want you to think about this for a second. What have you accomplished in 2025? How have you grown in 2025? I'm sure you've all faced challenges, had successes, things like that. But try to reflect on the good things that have happened. Where should you double down? That's what I'm thinking about. Where should you double down? Um let's try to keep that positive. 2025 has been a challenging year for so many. It's been a successful year for so many. So take that opportunity to think where have I succeeded? How can I double down? Right? Let's all embrace the uniqueness that we all bring. That's what helps us stand out. And there's my 30 secondond motivational speech for you. We're going to go through a holiday gift giving guide. I did this two years ago at the end of season 2, 2023. And what it is is it's books that I've been exposed to this year through guests and I wouldn't put them here if I wouldn't vouch for them. So, giftgiving guide, six different books that will uh start off with the personal side and and evolve to uh leadership side and move to business business success side. Very brief summaries of all six of these guests that have been here through season 4. Okay. If I was going to ask for a gift from you, it would be for you to rate and review and subscribe. Those of you who've been listening, and we've got hundreds of you, but many of you aren't subscribed, and many of you haven't reviewed, it would mean a lot to me personally as we move into season 5 if you would take the time to at least give it a star rating, whatever that is for you. And if you listen and you haven't subscribed, please click click that button in Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you happen to be listening. That's what I would ask for from you. Leadership Voyage is free. It will always be free. And it's wonderful to be able to meet such uh intelligent, smart people who've dived deeply into their craft. And my gift is to share that with the world and help people up their leadership games wherever they are on their journey. So, giving it back. Uh, I would love it if you could just take 60 seconds, look down at that phone, give this show a star rating. That's what I would ask. Moving on. What do we have today? We've got six books. And I'm going to go very quickly and briefly because I'm going to allow you to go back and dig into it more deeply if you prefer. Six books moving from personal development to leadership to business success. Okay, here is my gift to you, the 2025 holiday giftgiving guide. If you're into books about leadership and development, number one, my most recent guest, Andy Crocker, wrote a book called The Unconditionals. Andy uh was an aerospace engineer and he shares five values in his book, Love, Gratitude, Integrity, Accountability, and Endeavor. And he uses those as a compass to navigate life's challenges. He shares stories of achievement and hardship. Uh he's demonstrates how the principles can help anyone cultivate resilience and a sense of purpose. And here's how I would capture this book for you in a single sentence. If you are someone who right now is looking for comfort and hope, this book offers you a valuesdriven path to resilience and meaning. Andy's conversation was so positive and pragmatic at the same time. So, if you're looking to dive deeper into that, go back just one episode, season 4, episode 19, and listen to my discussion with Andy Crocker. Otherwise, go out and get his book, The Unconditionals. All right, moving to number two. Uh, a friend and associate of mine, Brian Reich, The Unscripted Mind. Brian invites his readers to step away from rigid definitions and all the junk that's been going on in their heads and the assumptions that they've, you know, not questioned all this time and embrace mindfulness. He shared his personal health struggles, kind of his his bargaining and moments of of commitment and clarity to unlearn old habits. uh rebuild life through mindfulness. He talks about wellness, leadership, uh transformation, and calls for people to live a life unscripted. Here's how I would capture this book for you. If you're looking for a guide to break free and embrace mindfulness, this is your book. And I think it's still true in December of 2025. This book is completely free. I apologize if that's incorrect, but as far as I can tell right now, it is still completely free. So if you want to dive deeper into that conversation, season 4, episode 15. Otherwise, go out and grab it. The unscripted mind by Brian Reich.[Music] Did you know that up to 82% of new managers are left completely in the dark, untrained and searching for answers? That lack of preparation doesn't just hurt your new leaders, it holds your entire business back, draining morale and costing you productivity. Stop the clock on bad management. Golden Mean Consulting offers a proven no fluff approach to help your new managers build the right habits from day one. Our co-founders Sonia and Jason have over 20 years of experience in the trenches, so you can trust they know what works. To learn more, visit goldenme consultinggroup.com. That's g o l d n m e a n consultinggroup.com. Number three, Dominic George. his book,

The Authentic Edge: 8:11

Leading Without Losing Yourself. Dominic is a leadership coach for black men, specifically for those striving to move from middle management to executive leadership or senior management. And he confronts those pressures of advancement while emphasizing the importance of being authentic, embracing your identity and things like this. his books, empowering leaders, excuse me, readers, empowering readers to kind of command the respect in leadership spaces without compromising who they truly are. I would capture this book in this way, in a sentence. If you're looking for strategies to rise in leadership while staying true to yourself, this is it. This is your book. So if you want to dive more deeply into that, Dominic was season 4, episode 18. Otherwise, again, that book, The

Authentic Edge: 9:14

Leading Without Losing Yourself. And we're going quick today, folks. Everybody's busy. It's the holidays, right? You've got your holiday parties. You've got to get all the gifts you haven't started yet. You've got to figure out travel plans or who's visiting you. All this stuff, right? It's a lot of things happening December. So, I'm trying to go quickly and keep everybody informed with some recommendations, but not bog you down too long with this episode. So, we're halfway there. Number four, Jim Carlo, the six pillars of effective leadership. Jim lays out in this book a practical model for leadership and it's based on six pillars. integrity, focus, compassion, stability, empathy and humor and with decades of corporate experience behind him. I think the oldest anecdote he shares is like 1984 when he was on the city council something like this. He illustrates demonstrates how leadership is learned. It's learned and he provides actionable guidance for all of these pillars. Okay. and building a long lasting leadership influence. So if you're looking for a clear framework to strengthen your leadership, this is it. Jim came on the show earlier this season. Let's see, that was episode 11. So season 4, episode 11. But if you want to jump right out and get that book now or give it as somewhat gift to someone else, the six pillars of effective leadership. Number five, William Davis. His book is called How to Lead Without Just Managing. And I think he already released a second book. This is an ebook. Uh again, I think this is like Brian Reich. I think this one is free. Last I looked, it's free. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry if that's incorrect. But he had planned to do a sixbook series and these are ebooks. This was the very first one he put out this year. So what does William discuss in this book? He talks about the distinction between managing and leading. And I think that's a a an often discussed uh topic. But he has been doing this for four years, four decades. I think it was 38 years as a manager. I mean, my goodness. And he shares empathy, integrity, influence, how to elevate others around you. I remember him saying, "When those around you succeed, you should feel proud of yourself and happy for them. You're not competing against those that you manage. He really talks about people first. He shares a lot of great stories in our discussion. I would say if you are looking for management 101, this book is for you. Okay. So, if you want to dive into that one, uh I remember he's in Dallas and it was hot as heck when we talked uh back in the summer. That is uh my gosh, season 4, episode 7. And again, that book is How to Lead Without Just Managing. I think fingers crossed that book is free and it's an ebook only. Finally, number six in the giftgiving guide for 2025 from Leadership Voyage. Don Schmanka, second time he's been on this show, and his book Winners and Losers was written a couple of years ago. Don is a super smart guy, right? Uh, I don't even know if I deserve to be in the room with him. He is so intelligent. He uses insights from anthrop anthropology research and interviews with 30,000 CEOs that he's worked with to reveal that success comes from failure. We've heard it over and over and over, but they don't really talk about it. He mentions that we often read about books that are success stories and that's never going to happen again in that exact way. The majority of those learnings happen way before the parts of the book that we read about. So in his book, Winners and Losers, he talks about not just analyzing what winners did right, but the hidden lessons in their mistakes and setbacks, reframing failure as the foundation of achievement. I would capture this book in this way. If you're looking for entrepreneurial lessons that show how failure is the key to success, this is the book for you to reframe that journey. Okay, so the six books again, Andy Crocker, The Unconditionals, Brian Reich, The Unscripted Mind, Dominic George, The Authentic Edge, Leading Without Losing Yourself, Jim Carlo, The Six Pillars of Effective Leadership, William Davis, How to Lead Without Just Managing, and Don Schmecka, Winners and Losers. That's all I got for you in 2025, folks. Thank you so much for listening to Leadership Voyage. It means the world to me and I hope that you have been able to up your game just a little bit throughout this year. That's why I do this. Uh it's my version of finding a way to learn and help others grow as well. So, thank you again. Happy holidays to everyone. And until 2026, everyone take care.[Music][Music]