Resources
A working library
Leadership today asks more of us than technical skill. It asks for wisdom, care, wholeness. Those capacities are built slowly — often through what we read, watch and sit with.
This is the library behind our work: the books, essays, films and organisations that have shaped how we think about leadership, wellbeing, relationships and meaning.
These are simply what we and the people we trust have genuinely learned from, and return to. Use the categories below to find what is useful to you.
Leadership & Culture
What we believe is important to be taught in leadership, business and public policy schools.
- The Case for Servant Leadership — Kent Keith
- The Servant as Leader — Robert Greenleaf
- Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership — James W. Sipe and Don M. Frick
- Coaching for Servant Leadership — Deborah Welch and Ann McGee-Cooper
- The Engaged Enterprise: A Field Guide for the Servant Leader — Joseph M. Patrnchak
- Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership — Joseph Jaworski
- Dignity in Leadership — Donna Hicks
- Emergent Leadership: Applied Mysticism for Complex Times — Robin Alfred
- Awakening Compassion at Work — Monica Worline and Jane Dutton
- Positively Energizing Leadership, Positive Leadership, and Practicing Positive Leadership — Kim Cameron
- How to Be a Positive Leader — edited by Jane Dutton and Gretchen Spreitzer
- Developing a Positive Culture Where People and Performance Thrive — Marcella Bremer
- The Future of the Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s First 50 Years — Vincent Stanley and Yvon Chouinard
- Conscious Capitalism — John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
- The Healing Organization — Raj Sisodia and Michael Gelb
- The Fearless Organization — Amy Edmondson
- Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family — Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia
- Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential Through Secure Base Leadership — Dr George Kohlrieser, Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe
- Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success — Adam Grant
- The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace — Gary Chapman and Paul White
- Let the Story Do the Work: The Art of Storytelling for Business Success — Esther K. Choy
- Many articles and resources at the Center for Positive Organizations
Meaning in Work
- Work Reimagined — Richard Leider and David Shapiro
- True Work: The Sacred Dimension of Earning a Living
- Callings — Dave Isay
- Calling Cards: Uncover Your Calling — Richard Leider
- The Courage to Teach — Parker Palmer
- Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life — Marilyn Schlitz, Cassandra Vieten and Tina Amorok
Making Change & Collective Wellbeing
- The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively — Todd Kashdan
- #heartivism: Gently Shaking the World — Nipun Mehta
- Benefit Mindset — builds on growth mindset by honouring collective wellbeing
- The Gift Spectrum — Birju Pandya
Relationships
- Never Eat Alone — Keith Ferrazzi
- Nonviolent Communication — Dr Marshall Rosenberg
- Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships — Dr John Welwood
- Dignity — Dr Donna Hicks
- Love 2.0 — Dr Barbara Fredrickson
- Self-Compassion
Facilitating Groups
- The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters — Priya Parker
- Facilitating Transformation: 12 Strategies for Creating Extraordinary Breakthroughs with Groups — Douglas O’Loughlin
- The Journey from Ego to Soul — Dr Karen Wyatt
- Ego Is the Enemy — Ryan Holiday
Living Well with Meaning, Wisdom & Resilience
- Mind Magic — Dr James Doty
- Beyond Happiness — Anthony Seldon
- The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living — Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
- Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl
- What Doesn’t Kill Us — Stephen Joseph
- Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy — Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
- The Courage Quotient — Robert Biswas-Diener
- The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt
- The Well
- Daily Stoic
- On Being
Travel & Pilgrimage
- The Art of Pilgrimage — Phil Cousineau
- The Way of the Traveler — Joseph Dispenza
- The Monks and Me — Mary Paterson
- The Road That Teaches — Valerie Brown
Inspirational
- Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings — Rachel Naomi Remen
- Beauty and the Soul — Piero Ferrucci
- Blessings — Julia Cameron
- To Bless the Space Between Us — John O’Donohue
- The Prayer Tree and A Common Prayer — Michael Leunig
The Wisdom of Death & Grief
- 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying: How to Nurture What Really Matters — Dr Karen Wyatt
- Life Lessons — Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler
- The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying — Bronnie Ware
- Tuesdays with Morrie — Mitch Albom
- Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life — Eugene O’Kelly, former KPMG CEO
- Meaning Making and the Positive Psychology of Death Acceptance — Dr Paul Wong
- How thinking about death can lead to a good life
- What is Memento Mori?
- How We Live with Loss — On Being podcast with Dr Rachel Naomi Remen
- A Year to Live — Stephen Levine
- The Denial of Death — Ernest Becker
- Heartwood — Barbara Becker
- Die Wise — Stephen Jenkinson
- Near-death experiences — Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia
- Life After Life — Dr Raymond Moody
- The Life of Death — short animation
- Solace: The Wisdom of Death
- This Strange Ancient Practice Will Change Your Life — Ryan Holiday
- Reasons to Remember Death — The School of Life
- Memento Mori Calendar — tip: I got mine pre-filled for all the weeks I have already lived
- Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet — Dr Gary Kowalski
- Films: Soul (Pixar), What Dreams May Come, It’s a Wonderful Life, Defending Your Life, Ikiru
Films, Music & Picture Books
Often mistaken as being only for children, some picture books offer profound life lessons for adults — told in a few minutes, in visually evocative ways. We think these would be fantastic for business and leadership schools:
- Hope for the Flowers — Trina Paulus, on not stepping on others to get ahead, and nurturing your own inner transformation and service
- The General — Michael Foreman, about a leader who doesn’t care about his people, falls off his horse, and has an epiphany
- The Emperor’s New Clothes — the timeless tale on the importance of having people around you who can speak truth to power
Questions
Good questions connect us to ourselves and each other in powerful ways.
- StoryCorps — questions for conversations with loved ones
- Letters for Life — questions for writing letters to loved ones, born out of grief over death and friendship between two of our team members
- Fetzer Institute conversation cards — on love, compassion and forgiveness
- A Day at the Park — a comic on the beauty of collecting questions
People
Organisations
Organisations whose service to the world inspires us deeply. Their listing here does not suggest affiliation.
Awakin.ai — built on 25 years of content centred around compassion and wisdom
Awakin Calls — on the inner journeys of changemakers
ServiceSpace Pods — powerful online peer learning experiences
Daily Good — a news source that nourishes the heart
Puts out science on thriving organisations.
Studies the psychology, sociology and neuroscience of wellbeing, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient and compassionate society.
Catalyses a culture of inner wellbeing for changemakers.
Supports “the emerging global movement of compassion to co-create transformation at all levels, by connecting, cultivating, and encouraging networks of compassionate action.” We are a partner of the Charter.
Reveals the interconnected nature of reality through scientific exploration and personal discovery.
Funds research and catalyses conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder.
Supports grassroots changemakers. Learn from them on their approach and heartivism.
Works to “motivate and empower teens, parents, educators, policymakers, and tech industry leaders to act collectively to free children and adolescents from a childhood spent largely alone on screens, and instead promote independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world.”
Works towards technology that supports our collective wellbeing.
Rehumanises the workplace by identifying and removing unnecessary sources of stress. We are a signatory to this Charter.
Serving Singapore and Hong Kong, the world’s first ethical recruitment agency to secure IRIS certification — the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration initiative to promote ethical recruitment of migrant workers.