Book recommendations for business leaders: 5/9/19

May 9, 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 Fail More: Embrace, Learn, and Adapt to Failure As a Way to Success, Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine, Marketing Saves The World: Stories about why capitalism works, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership, and The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation.

From Michael McKinney: Fail More

“EVERYTHING YOU DO involves risk. The only questions are what and how much. Poor choices lead you into failure, and good choices take you out of failure. ‘Success and failure both leave room for improvement. Inside every success, there are remnants of failure, and in every failure, there are pockets of success’ writes Bill Wooditch in Fail More. He wrote the book not to encourage irresponsibility or to give license to ‘intentionally flunk life one mistake at a time,’ but rather to continually improving through intentional practice, with the willingness to embrace the process, and the ability to learn from the result.”

From Wharton: What CEOs Can Learn from Roman Emperors

“The Roman Empire has fascinated history buffs for centuries with its stories of political ambition, military victories and corruption. But the Romans were also known for their efficiency, feats of engineering and deft management of far-flung communities. Today’s business leaders can learn valuable lessons by looking at how they built and ran a vast empire. Cornell University professor Barry Strauss uncovers those lessons in his book, Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine.”

From Brooke Manville: Why Reinventing Systems Beats Just Solving Problems

“Bill Matassoni, who capped his recent rollicking memoir of a forty-year marketing career with the bold claim that society’s big complicated challenges now require some fresh thinking and leading. The book’s title sums up the proposition: Marketing Saves the World.”

From Skip Prichard: How to be a Remarkable Long-Distance Leader

“More and more of us are working remotely some or all of the time. Leaders are now challenged with managing teams spread across time zones. Taking on this topic of remote leadership is Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel in their book The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.”

From Bob Morris: The Technology Fallacy

“As Gerald Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan Copulsky, and Garth Andrus (KPC&A) explain, the primary focus of their book in Part I is on ‘the phenomenon of digital disruption and how companies should think of themselves as adapting to a changing environment…In the second part, we deal with the implications of digital maturity on leadership, talent, and the future of work…[and then in Part III] we address the conditions for successfully adapting to digital disruption that most organizations will need to create. Skip ahead if you like, but don’t quit reading before you get to this part!'”

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.