Book recommendations for business leaders: 11/16/17

Nov 16, 2017 | Reading Lists

Stephen King says that if you want to be a writer, there are two things you must do: read a lot and write a lot. This is about the “read a lot” part. I include reading lists and book reviews that will help you do business more effectively and write better for business.

In this post, I point you to reviews of Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future, How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything. Opening up ‘Code’: Why Programming Needs More Women and Minorities. Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

From Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Minds and Machines

“A few months ago, Andy McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson published Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future, – their third book on the impact of the 21st century digital revolution on the economy and society, – following the publication of The Second Machine Age in 2014 and Race Against the Machine in 2011. Brynjolfsson and McAfee are professor and research scientist respectively at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, as well as co-Directors of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.”

From Skip Prichard: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything

“How we think, how we behave, how we lead, and how we govern are some of the ‘hows’ that are the subject of Dov Seidman’s book, How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything. It’s a thoughtful book, not the type to read in one sitting, but one filled with experience and perspective that will change the way you think about the world and your role in it”

From Kevin Eikenberry: Change Starts Within You: Unlock the Confidence to Lead with Intuition

“This is a small book, that you could probably read in 20 minutes. And if you did read it in 20 minutes, you would get some value. But as the title says, change starts within you. And the 20-minute read doesn’t allow the book to get within you in a way that it can have the most impact. The subtitle – Unlock the Confidence to Lead with Intuition further sets the stage for the book, but it’s more of personal leadership book, than a ‘Leadership’ book.”

From Wharton: Opening up ‘Code’: Why Programming Needs More Women and Minorities

“Ellen Ullman has been coding since the 1970s, and she chronicles the waves of technological change in Silicon Valley through an intimate lens in her book, Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology. She talks about the Y2K debacle, the travails of being one of the few women programmers, the dangers of diminishing face-to-face interactions in the age of social media, the risks of AI and other issues. A prolific writer, Ullman has penned essays, novels and the 1997 book, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents.”

From Bob Burg: Influence & Success Insights: There Will Be Some Tethering. Huh?

“This is what happened many years ago to seven-time Emmy-winning actor, writer, and director Alan Alda, and it became the catalyst for his deep scientific search to better understand the process of effective communication. In his new book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? — My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating, Mr. Alda demonstrates not only that this study and research worked for him, but also how much it has benefitted countless others, including many whom we simply do not think of as great communicators … such as scientists.”

Reading recommendations are a regular feature of this blog. Want more recommendations about what to read? Check out my Three Star Leadership blog and Michael McKinney’s LeadingBlog.