Rajeev Peshawaria, What Are You Reading?

Rajeev Peshawaria was a guest on my radio show recently. You can listen here.

Rajeev Peshawaria is currently CEO of the ICLIF Leadership & Governance Centre based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which provides executive education and advisory services to organizations in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

 Prior to joining ICLIF in April 2010, Rajeev worked at AMEX, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, and Morgan Stanley. He was Chief Learning Officer and Head of Talent Management at Morgan Stanley, where he founded Morgan Stanley University, a global earning and Chief Learning Officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where he created and headed Coca-Cola University.

We talked about his new book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

My reading list today includes fewer and fewer books from leadership experts. But, I made an exception for Mr. Peshawaria based on his journey of discovery with some of the world's leading organizations. And how well and with such clarity he shares the steps of this journey in his book. And by doing so, he points his readers in that same direction of discovery that will lead them towards being an exceptional leader.

It made sense to ask him, a leader, what he reads. So, I asked him:

Readers are leaders. That's a quote from Jim Rohn which I quote with every quest. You're a leader. What are you reading these days?

And, as you would expect, he answered with clarity and precision. I loved the range of his reading, too.

I just finished reading a great book called New York, The Novel by Edward Rutherford. I call it ‘unputdownable’. This work of narrative fiction takes the reader through a captivating journey of New York City. I simply loved it. Somebody, like me, who didn’t grow up in the United States this was very informative in a very very captivating way.

I recommend it for anyone who likes narrative fiction and is interested in New York history.

And, I just started reading V.S. Naipul’s A Bend in the River. It’s set in Africa. I don’t have an opinion on it as I just began reading it.

If you were asking about leadership books, I’m a big fan of Bill George’s writing on leadership and Steve Kerr’s work on rewards.

So, those would be some of the one’s I would highlight.

I so appreciated his book, his interview, that answer...I couldn't help but follow with:

One of my biggest challenges I faced was finding each page of your book had enough for us to talk about for this hour. Thank you for that challenge and headache trying to condense your book into a one-hour conversation.

I’m an avid reader anyway. I read a lot of books for this show. I tend to not read very many leadership books; I find few as exemplary as yours.

Thank you for writing this book and hopefully inspiring many.

Want more from Rajeev Peshawaria?

• Read his blog

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

Comments

[Jeff Garrison]

I love the quote "leaders are readers." I always tell my kids that there is no difference between those who can't read and those who choose not to read. Now I have something else to preach to them.

I have added "To Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders" to my reading list by the way.