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, Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive, Return of the Vikings: Nordic Leadership in Times of Extreme Change, Extraordinary Influence: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others, and Building on Bedrock. Plus a list of books “that will make you a better person.”
From Michael McKinney: My Father’s Business
“In My Father’s Business: The Small-Town Values That Built Dollar General into a Billion-Dollar Company, Cal Turner, Jr. shares the ups and downs of running a family business for just over 37 years, and along with it some good down-to-earth common sense.”
From Roger Dean Duncan: Want To Stay Relevant? Never Stop Learning
“The framework, based on the most recent behavior science, is the core of Staats’ new book Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive. He explains how to overcome the challenges to our own learning.”
Michael McKinney also reviewed this book.
From Harold Jarche: Nordic leadership in times of extreme change
“The network era is obsolescing many artifacts of the industrial market era — rigid hierarchies, master/servant work relationships — and retrieving aspects of previous eras — tribal affiliations, oral communication. We can learn from the past and the authors of Return of the Vikings: Nordic Leadership in Times of Extreme Change, provide us with a compass to see our way into an unknown future. It is the same compass that guided the Vikings across the North Sea, to Iceland, and then to North America.”
From Skip Prichard: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others
“As leaders, we are often wondering what the best way is to bring out the best in our organizations. We want to help people exceed all expectations and accomplish more than they thought possible. Yet, the current feedback mechanisms and performance appraisal processes in our organizations often don’t work toward that goal. In fact, Tim Irwin, author of Extraordinary Influence: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others, argues that they do just the opposite. Tim Irwin, PhD is an author, speaker, and leading authority on leadership.”
From Wharton: From Walmart to Disney: Building Companies That Last
“It’s common practice today for entrepreneurs, especially those in Silicon Valley, to start a business, reach a certain level of success and then sell their project to the highest bidder. But Princeton University professor and entrepreneur Derek Lidow believes the trend isn’t always helpful to the broader economy. His book, Building on Bedrock, looks to the entrepreneurs of the past for examples of how to build lasting success.”
From Ryan Holiday: 42 Books That Will Make You A Better Person (Each Described In 1 Sentence)
“Below, are some one sentence descriptions of some of the best books ever written and a few of my personal favorites.”
Every Monday, I do a blog post about business reading and business books. Follow this link to the most recent post
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.