Book recommendations for business leaders: 4/18/19

Apr 18, 2019 | 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 Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, Great Leaders Have No Rules: Contrarian Leadership Principles to Transform Your Team and Business, How Algorithms Are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in Control, and Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation. There’s also a link to a list of books on creativity chosen by the faculty of the London Business School.

From Michael McKinney: Horst Schulze: 4 Decisions Every Leader Must Make

“Schultz, the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and Capella Hotels & Resorts, has captured his philosophy in Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise. Throughout the book, he shares the practical application of respect and how it shapes people, workplaces, and the customer experience.”

From Jon Ingham: Book Review: Nine Lies about Work

“In my last book review, I suggested I was already sold before starting reading the book. I should admit that this time I was feeling fairly negative at the same point. That’s partly because I’ve never been that completely sold by the author Martin Buckingham’s work on strengths (which I think are useful but don’t mean we can completely ignore weaknesses) or Gallup’s Q12 measures of engagement (which I think often take organisations in the wrong direction, since they deliberately avoid defining engagement as a psychological state, which I think is fairly essential in taking action to improve it).”

From Skip Prichard: 10 Principles of Truly Great Leaders

“If you want to take your leadership to new levels, I highly recommend you start with Kevin Kruse’s new book, Great Leaders Have No Rules. Packed with practical and contrarian advice, you’ll find yourself adopting new practices immediately. If you want to become a more effective leader, put down your device, close the door, and open the pages of this book to begin your leadership journey.”

From Wharton: Who Made That Decision: You or an Algorithm?

“When we buy something on Amazon or watch something on Netflix, we think it’s our own choice. Well, it turns out that algorithms influence one-third of our decisions on Amazon and more than 80% on Netflix. What’s more, algorithms have their own biases. They can even go rogue. In his recent book titled, A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence: How Algorithms Are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in Control, Kartik Hosanagar, a professor of operations, information and decisions at Wharton, focuses on these issues and more. He discusses how algorithmic decisions can go wrong and how we can control the way technology impacts decisions that are made for us or about us.”

From Theodore Kinni: Large businesses don’t have to be lousy innovators

“In his new book, Harvard Business School prof Gary Pisano offers senior leaders a three-part solution to the innovation challenge.”

Frm the London Business School: On creativity

“Want to be more creative? Start with these books chosen by LBS faculty.”

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.