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 My Father’s Business: The Small-Town Values That Built Dollar General into a Billion-Dollar Company, This is Now Your Company, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First, and Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can About It.
From Patrick Gorman: Former Dollar General CEO Cal Turner, Jr. Shares Leadership Advice
“In his new book out today, My Father’s Business: The Small-Town Values That Built Dollar General into a Billion-Dollar Company (Hachette/Center Street), Turner chronicles stories of three generations Dollar General’s leadership, including how his grandfather turned a third-grade education into a recipe for success, and how his driven father created the game-changing and wildly successful dollar price point strategy.”
From Skip Prichard: How Mirror Moments Can Improve Your Leadership Effectiveness
“Mike Rognlien is the founder of Multiple Hats Management, a leadership consultancy. Prior to founding his company, Mike spent fifteen years learning while working at Facebook, as a consultant to Microsoft, and at numerous other companies. In fact, he was one of the founding members of the L&D team at Facebook. After reading his new book, This Is Now Your Company, I reached out to him to continue the conversation.”
From Wharton: How Netflix Built a Culture of ‘Freedom and Responsibility’
“Companies operate in uncertain environments. In order to confront unexpected challenges and seize emerging opportunities, they need to have a culture that balances freedom with responsibility. That is a lesson that Netflix learned as it developed rapidly as an organization where employees know how exactly they create value for customers and for the company. In doing so, it built an innovative culture – as described in the well-known Netflix Culture Deck — with practices that went beyond conventional notions of employee retention, annual performance reviews and bonuses, says Patty McCord, former chief talent officer at Netflix, in her book Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility.”
From Michael McKinney: Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First
“IF PEOPLE NOT COMPANIES, generate value, why isn’t talent at the center of every company’s strategy? It’s time to take charge of talent.”
From Theodore Kinni: How to Become a Master of Disaster
“If you like disaster stories, you’ll love Meltdown, by Chris Clearfield, a principal at risk consultancy System Logic, and Andeas Tilcsik, an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management. The authors cover a gamut of catastrophe, from a ruined Thanksgiving dinner to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., and the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The worst part of all these examples: According to the authors, they were preventable.”
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.