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 Detonate: Why – And How – Corporations Must Blow Up Best Practices (and bring a beginner’s mind) To Survive, Leading Matters: Lessons from My Journey, Educated: A Memoir, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, and Leading with Edge: Activate Your Competitive Advantage Through Personal Insight.
From Wharton: Why Companies Should Blow Up Best Practices
“Strategy and innovation consultants Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach have learned one sure thing after decades of working with different companies: Relying on best practices does not guarantee future success. Today’s accelerated speed of change means that business leaders need to ditch old habits and bring a fresh perspective to their operations if they want to get to the top and stay there. Tuff is a principal at Deloitte Consulting and senior leader of the organization’s innovation and applied design practices. Goldbach is a principal at Deloitte, chief strategy officer and member of its U.S. executive leadership team.”
From Michael McKinney: Leading Matters: John L. Hennessy on the Leadership Journey
“AS A PROFESSOR, an entrepreneur, the president of Stanford University, and now the Chairman of the Board of Alphabet (Google’s Parent company) and Director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars, John Hennessy has had a lot of leadership experience. In Leading Matters, he shares the stories of what worked and what didn’t work.”
From Bill Gates: Educated is even better than you’ve heard
“I thought I was pretty good at teaching myself—until I read Tara Westover’s memoir Educated. Her ability to learn on her own blows mine right out of the water. I was thrilled to sit down with her recently to talk about the book.”
From the Economist: How to run a calm workplace
“MANAGEMENT books have a deservedly poor reputation. Too often they are written by people who confuse insight with jargon, the types who love to call a spade a ‘manual horticultural utensil’. At the other end of the scale are tomes containing a plethora of pithy platitudes about ‘breaking the mould’ and ‘worshipping the kill’. The choice, in short, is between the incomprehensible and the inconsequential.”
From Skip Prichard: 4 Ways to Practice Conspicuous Humility
“It may sound counterintuitive, but humility is a quality that often needs to be put on display. If you believe you have all the answers, think you are always right, or are somehow above others because of your position, or if the people around you perceive that, then they aren’t as likely to come to you with their knowledge, ideas, or opinions—not unless they have to.”
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.