Category: Books
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Book: Leadership and Self-Deception
I read Leadership and Self Deception (Amazon) years ago, several times. It was a book that profoundly changed the way that I think about things, the way that I approach the world. When some conflict arose at work, I saw how the ideas in the book would help, and tried to get everyone on my…
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Book: First Break All The Rules
I spend a lot of time obsessing about: 1) how to be a good manager, and 2) how to have any idea if I am doing a good job. So I was happy to discover First Break All The Rules (Amazon), because it contains (data driven!) information on how to be a good manager, and also…
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Book: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
I really enjoyed Switch (Amazon), it’s a book about behaviour change. The metaphor of the rider and the elephant is used throughout to illustrate that whatever you think you want to do, you (the rider) have less influence than the environment (the elephant). It covers how to motivate the rider, but then make it really easy…
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Book: One Strategy
One Strategy (Amazon) is about building the organisation that built Windows 7. It’s a long book that covers a bunch of things. Most notably: Strategic alignment – how do you get a large organization all on the same page? (Everything else is really a sub-part of this). Planning, middle out. Leadership sets direction, but not…
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Book: Beyond Blame: Learning From Failure and Success
I’ve been meaning to read Beyond Blame: Learning From Failure and Success (Amazon) ever since we started planning the Technically Speaking webinar with Dave. Finally got to it! It’s a story about moving from a culture of blame – and the costs of a culture of blame – to a culture of blamelessness. What does that…
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Book: Giving Notice: Why the Best and Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and How You Can Help them Stay
Giving Notice: Why the Best and Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and How You Can Help them Stay (Amazon) is an eye opening book. It was written a while ago, about corporate America, but it is very much applicable to the tech industry today and the poor representation of certain groups of people. If I have had…
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Book: Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person
I absolutely loved Shonda Rhime’s Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person (Amazon). It’s a book about being a strong woman, and making your own choices. About being open to life. About being who you want to be, and living the life you want rather than…
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Book: High Output Management
High Output Management (Amazon) is a really great, interesting and helpful. It’s a little dated, being written in 1983, and I don’t think it was really updated for the 2015 re-release. What I found most useful were the sections about meetings and decision making. What does a good 1:1 look like? How long should it…
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Book: Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking
I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking. It was a helpful collection of tips for preparing and giving presentations, including the why and how of psyching yourself up to do it! As someone who reads a lot about giving good presentations (hello have you seen the newsletter)…