Leadership and Self Deception by the Arbinger Institute

This is a book that I highly recommend every body reads once a year. My wife gave me this book to read a couple weeks ago knowing my interest in leadership, and also because I had complained for a couple days regarding certain problems I was facing at work. The book, while not giving me a list of items to work and focus on, provided me the opportunity to reflect deeply on my own life and character. This self reflection helped me recognize some of the blinders that I had on while interacting with people around me, and as a result provided me the impetus to change the way I behaved. However, as the book explained, and as I experienced, taking the blinders off is a life long exercise!

The book's central theme is how we decieve ourselves in regards to our relationships with others, and how this self deception affects the relationships we have with family, friends, colleagues, and the random people we face every day (whether we are in the box or out). At the center of the deception is selfishness and pride which are the motivating factors that affect our daily interactions with different people. The book sheds light on how to overcome these self centered traits and to treat others as humans who have feelings, needs, and purpose just as we do.

As I have mentioned in my initial article on character based leadership-that leadership begins with and within the individual, the Arbinger Institute also point out that change must come from within ourselves. If we are able to see people around us without the blinders of self deception, we will be better leaders and better people because we are able to deal with them honestly.