Lots of key strokes have been pounded over the need to be mindful. We live in the eternal present tense, but we forget that when we are ruminating over something from the past or--as I do--pitching feverishly toward what comes next.

Someone recently asked me to prepare a little list of books for their high school boys to read about leadership. I was surprisingly stumped, since my focus is often on girls and women. I figured that the first order of business was that it had to be gripping stuff. And then it had to be about leadership in some way. So, after some thought, here's my list, and I figure these books are worth reading by more than "just" high school boys.

Recently, I had a conversation with a client about her experience of dropping her I'm-in-charge-mask with her team. She joyfully reported that they all rose to the occasion when she asked for help problem-solving. In fact, she reported, they seemed to trust her more when she told the truth about what was going on in her organization than when she tried to gloss over obvious challenges with good cheer.