I’ve recently read two books that have profoundly impacted my thinking. The first was Jonah Lehrer’s ‘Proust was a neuroscientist’. I have to admit that I was drawn to this book initially because of my love of Proust. But it’s message is powerful. Basically Lehrer posits that when it comes to thinking about how the brain works, many of the deepest insights came from artists first and it was left to the scientists to catch them up. He uses wonderful examples such as Cezanne on sight and Proust on, of course, memory. A great book and worth adding to your list.

The second book is one of the most extraordinarily that I’ve read. It is short yet packed with insight. It is deep yet easy to understand. Deepak Chopra’s book, ‘The soul of leadership’, is the most important book on management that has been written recently. He dispels the idea of leaders as being a breed apart and of leading through decisive action. For him, it is all about the authenticity of the soul. We all have the capacity for greatness and we will find it not by acting out the stereotype of leadership behaviour but by listening to our very self. It is a book that makes you stop and think about just how far down the blind alley of life the ego has taken you. But the good news is that if you stop to listen you’ll find that the answer is already there. I commend it to you all.