Book recommendations for business leaders: 10/24/19

Oct 24, 2019 | Everything Else

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 Align: Four Simple Steps for Leaders to Create Employee Fulfillment Through Alignment Leadership, The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth, The Drama of Celebrity, and The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World. Plus Dan Pink shares a list of the books that have mattered most to him.

From Michael McKinney: Building Company Culture: Alignment Leadership

“Chris Meroff has spent more than 25 years supporting leaders in education at both the campus and district levels and is the author of Align: Four Simple Steps for Leaders to Create Employee Fulfillment Through Alignment Leadership. Through his work in 17 states and across thousands of school districts, he’s seen firsthand the frustration administrators feel when their efforts don’t produce the alignment they desire. He’s made a career of testing new leadership ideas to see what works—and what doesn’t—in service-oriented leadership.”

From Harvard Business Review: The Challenges (and Triumphs) of a Young Manager

“Julie Zhuo, Facebook’s VP of product design, started at the company as its first intern and became a manager at the age of 25. Like many first-time bosses, she made many missteps and acted how she thought managers were supposed to act. Eventually, she grew to find joy in the role and today she leads hundreds of people. She says that becoming a great manager also helps you know yourself better. Zhuo is the author of the book The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You.”

From Bob Morris: Helping People Change

“This book really is a ‘must read’ for those who want to help others more effectively. To achieve that worthy objective, Richard Boyatzis, Melvin L. Smith, and Ellen Van Oosten share an abundance of invaluable information, insights, and counsel. The material also includes their brilliant use of three reader-friendly at the conslusion of Chapters 2-9: ‘Key Learning Points,’ ‘Research Spotlights,’ and a ‘Reflection and Application Exercise.’”

From Wharton: Celebrity Culture: Why Fame Is Big Business

“Portuguese soccer great Cristiano Renaldo has 183 million followers on Instagram, making him the most followed celebrity on the social media site in 2019. In fact, Renaldo has more Instagram followers than his native country has people — Portugal’s population stands at a little more than 10 million. His feed is rather banal, with plenty of pictures of family members and him playing soccer, yet fans pore over every shot. The world’s obsession with celebrity culture is the focus of a new book by Sharon Marcus, an English and comparative literature professor at Columbia University.”

From Skip Prichard: How to Become a Healing Leader

“If your business focuses only on profit, you will eventually lag behind others who view the mission in a broader way and include enriching the lives of communities. This more conscious focus on caring cultures is the subject of Michael J. Gelb & Raj Sisodia’s new book, The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World.”

From Dan Pink: 20 Books That Have Mattered to Me (PDF)

“If human beings, at least in part, are the sum of our experiences, then what we think and believe, at least in part, is the sum of what we’ve read. So as a dual act of self-reflection and sharing, I’ve compiled a list of the books that have influenced me the most over my life. They aren’t necessarily the ‘best’ in any objective sense. They’re simply books that mattered to me. Had I not read them, I would be a different person. Here they are in alphabetical order by author.”

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