You’re a businessperson. You may not think of yourself as a writer, but you know that writing well can boost your results and your career. Naturally, you want to do better. Every week I point you to articles and blog posts that I think will teach you something or spark an idea or two. Some weeks there are more pointers than others.
This is the start of a long summer weekend. You may have a vacation on the horizon, too. So this week’s selections are all reading lists stuffed with ideas for what you can read this summer. Enjoy.
From Doug Conant: 5 Leadership Books That Challenge Us to Lead with Higher Ambition
“Here, we celebrate five important books that challenge us to live and lead with greater impact. We heartily encourage you to explore these books; we spend most of our waking hours either at work or thinking about work — shouldn’t we all pursue a Higher Ambition to make it as meaningful as possible?”
Wally’s Comment: My pick from Doug’s list is also on my list of best business books ever. It’s The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. The fifth edition is the latest, but I’m not giving up my first edition which is plastered with sticky notes and filled with other notes on the pages.
From Dale Buss: The Most Popular Books on CEOs’ Summer Reading Lists
“While every CEO and business owner has his or her own taste, one book that keeps rising above all the rest as one of interest to chiefs is The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, by Ben Horowitz, cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. CEOs listed this book the most because of its honesty and helpful lessons on how to survive as a business leader. In addition, one reviewer on Amazon called it ‘solid advice about running a company from a wartime CEO.’ Here’s a handy list of other inspirational books on CEOs’ summer reading list. Print out and stick in your suitcase or on your fridge.”
Wally’s Comment: Every year about this time I read a book that helps me take stock on what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. This year I’ve chosen one of the selections on this list. It’s Greg McKeown’s Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.
From Anne VanderMey: The non-business summer reading picks from business leaders
“Summer vacation, in theory, is a time to take a break from thinking about the office. In practice, it’s a time when many executives broaden their horizons beyond the office—the better to crush the competition when they go back to the office. In that spirit, here are the top non-business picks from business-world leaders.”
Wally’s Comment: My favorite on this list is What If ?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. I received it as a Christmas gift, along with a card that read: “What do you give a man who’s incurably curious and more than a little weird.” I haven’t read the book through and don’t plan to. Instead it sits next to my chair in the den where I can dip into it from time to time. That’s always fun.
There you have it. Now it’s your turn. What are you reading this summer? What do you recommend?
Sources I Check Regularly
I find the posts and articles that I share with you on The Writing Edge in many places. But there are a few that provide insightful pieces again and again. Here they are.