This is the third volume in a series of anthologies of several dozen interviews of thought leaders that Rodger Dean Duncan conducted. Only a few of them would — in my opinion — qualify as celebrity authors (e.g Doug Conant, Chet Elton, Adrian Gostick, Joe Michelli, and Laura Schlessinger). However, as Duncan’s probing interview style clearly reveals, all of them have valuable advice to share about coping with the challenges of various kinds in a business world that is much more volatile, more uncertain, more complicated, and more ambiguous today than it was at any prior time that I can remember. Duncan has a unique talent for obtaining practical advice from respondents, each of whom is uniquely well-qualified to provide it. His questions (especially follow-up questions) are relevant, strategic, and evocative.

As in the two previous volumes in the series, the material is again organized within several sections: Meaning and Purpose, Mental Maps, Workplace Practices, Behaviors, Trust & Teamwork, Feedback & Accountability, Communication, Career Management, and Personal Balance. There are four separate components (interviews or commentaries) in each section. Duncan is a major contributor (Chapters 1, 3, 9, 15, 25, 27, and 29). For example, he tells how early in his career he was coached on interviewing skills by his editor Jim Lehrer (later of PBS television fame). That conversation reveals much about how Duncan continues to approach interviews: more conversational in nature and with a slower pace.

Here is a representative selection of subjects addressed:

o Doug Conant shares his thoughts about the importance of having a purpose-driven life.
o David Nielson recommends a path to achieve personal growth and professional development.
o David Covey examines seven specific traps that can hamper success.
o Susan Fowler explains why assumptions about motivation need to be rigorously evaluated.
o When struggling with complexity, Duncan explains how to get beyond it to simplicity, to what Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. once characterized as “the other side of complexity.”

o Joe Michelli discusses valuable lessons to be learned from Airbnb.
NOTE: I highly recommend all of Michelli’s books including his latest, The Airbnb Way.
o Scott Miller explains how to select the right tools for each task to achieve success.
o John Eades shares his thoughts about how love and discipline are a key to high-impact leadership.
o Arthur Brooks explains how “better disagreement” can strengthen relationships.
o Brett Blumenthal offers a “bite-sized approach” to personal improvement.

With all due respect to the value of advice from these and other sources, however, the term “self-help” remains an imperative. Each person must embrace it and then apply it. That is why Rodger Dean Duncan concludes each chapter with a “Personal Actions Application” section. The questions correlate with key points in the given chapter but can also facilitate, indeed expedite application of whatever is most relevant to the reader’s own needs, interests, objectives, concerns, etc.

The most effective leaders learn how to help themselves and this knowledge guides and informs their efforts to help others. For those who have direct reports entrusted to their care, this LeaderSHOP series really is a “must read.”