Please allow me to heartily recommend a book by a buddy of a buddy of mine, The Inner-Work of Leadership by Barry Brownstein.  As I say in my Amazon.com review of it, this book has changed my life.

When I sent my initial praise for his book to Barry, he offered me the honor and privilege of sharing my thoughts on the book and the application of its ideas via an interview with his wife Deborah.  Here’s the outcome of that interview.

Barry’s notions are based heavily on shedding our egos in the workplace, so it was ironic that my interview was at first nixed by the public relations folks at my company — because, they said, it was obvious that the sole reason any author would involve me in such a thing would be to have the tacit endorsement of our organization!  In the end, we came up with a solution to let the interview be published.  It was an interesting lesson in how organizations can have ego problems, as well as individuals.  I can confirm that, based on my every interaction with these two warm and wonderful people, Deborah and Barry, they live personally their value of the shedding of the ego.

I will continue to recommend this book to anyone who will listen.  It has taught me much, and I discover new lessons almost daily as I try to put its ideas into practice.