I often get asked what books I have been reading. I wanted to share some of my favorites of the past two years with a brief overview. I do not read a ton of fiction, I intend to at the beginning of each year and then wind up back at non-fiction. I am not sure if that is a character issue or just a preference. Either way, I do love to learn and love to read.
Here are some of my favorites of the past two years – (Click on the book title to be directed to Amazon for more detail)
Scaling Your Business
- Playing To Win
- One of the best books on strategy or growing your business. The focused question on where you will focus and what you will focus on is tremendous. It is also fairly practical in terms of providing you with tools that you can utilize immediately.
- Measure What Matters
- For business leaders who look to find ways to measure every aspect of your business this book is for you. Check this one out to see how Google measures performance and growth.
- Strategic Navigation
- A look at how the military develops and executes strategy. This is the most in depth of the three books we have read on strategy.
Teams
- Team of Teams
- Another military perspective on leveraging multi-focused teams to ensure excellent results. You will see first hand how the war in the Middle East was won through changing the entire approach.
CEO Leadership
- CEO Next Door
- If you are a CEO or any leader for that matter and feel as though you do not belong this book is for you. The book examines how CEOs come to be and what their employees expect from them.
- Leadership Without Easy Answers
- Technical challenges vs. adaptive challenges. Most of the time a leader faces an adaptive challenge vs. a straight forward black and white answer.
- The Road To Character
- To be a great leader, one must build strong character. David Brooks makes his case for leading with humility.
- The Second Mountain
- If you are feeling stuck and looking for your path forward, The Second Mountain by David Brooks is a must read.
Feel free to comment below with some of your favorite reads of 2019.