This is a very random book recommendation for Leaders.

You won't find this in ANY list of the best leadership books of all time.

But you'll only get obvious ideas if you only read the obvious books.

On the hunt for Unconventional Leadership books, I was given this recommendation.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

At first, I thought "Seagull" was the author's surname. No, it turns out this is a story about an actual Seagull.

In fact, many pages within the book are pictures of flying Seagulls.

Dubious, I started to read. After just a few pages, I was hooked.

The main character is Jonathan Livingston, a Seagull who dreams of becoming a "high-performing" bird. The problem is that the flock hates individuality. To belong, you must fit in. To do this, you must act like all the other birds, squawking and flying slowly.

“This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.”

Jonathan's struggle to find belonging and acceptance resonates with me.

So often, organisations make it easy to fit in yet hard to belong.

Compliance is preferred over creativity. Innovation is desired, but rule-breaking is not. Diversity is encouraged, yet differences are dampened.

Like Jonathan, employees don't want to fit in. They want to belong.

“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.