5 Books on Leadership, Culture, Productivity, Entrepreneurship and Happiness
With 2018 in full swing we all have resolutions and goals we want to achieve. We also want to make sure this excitement doesn’t just last for two weeks but lasts for the entire year. So how do you keep this excitement going for a long time?
For me one of the ways to keep this motivation ongoing is to keep reading. Reading is one way to be positive about your future and it is also relaxing for me. It also provides a great relief from the negative news cycles. So here are 5 books I enjoyed reading on leadership, culture, happiness, productivity and entrepreneurship.
Lincoln and Churchill by Lewis E. Lehrman - I think we can learn more from real leaders than leadership theorists. This is a well-written book. The main thing I learned was both had an indomitable will. They also worked crazy hard. Churchill was great at writing but that was not due to innate talent it was due to relentless hard work. Lincoln was a great listener, was humble and at the same time had a desire to succeed for the nation. He fought for a larger cause. John Hay who worked with Lincoln said “It is absurd to call him a modest man. No great man was ever modest. It is his intellectual arrogance and unconscious assumption of superiority that men like Chase and Summer never could forgive.” Historian Robert Rhodes James wrote that “The well born Churchill had immense application and capacity for work. He was not a natural speaker with an inability to pronounce the letter S but which he turned to advantage. Nor was he a natural writer- if such a thing exists. It was all hard work. Nothing came easily to him. Those glorious speeches and those marvelous books were the result of much toil. It was a triumph of character.”
Great at Work by Morton Hansen – Well-written book overall awesome motivation for me to implement some of the suggestions. This is truly a ground-breaking study on what it takes to be a top performer. First lesson is to do less but obsess more. Roald Amundsen won the race against Robert Falcon Scott due to his obsession with using dogs and he also got the best dog handler on his team. He got Green handler dogs instead of Siberian Huskies. Scott had more budget but he tried dogs, ponies and many other things. The key is to focus and not spread too wide. Eliminate all fluff and completely do away with distractions. For example, the author while writing for the book completely switched off internet connection while writing. The key is to focus on creating value and obsessing only on the top activities.
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle – I liked his other book “The Talent Code” as well. The key is to build safety in your organizations by making it easy for people to speak up. The next key is vulnerability and as leaders you need to be open about your mistakes. Lot of examples here. Finally build purpose into the organization. It is a good breezy read.
A dozen lessons for entrepreneurs by Tren Griffin – This is an informative book on how to scale a startup. While I am not an entrepreneur it is interesting how they think. They work ridiculously fast, they have high energy, willing to experiment, have a noble mission and are not scared of failure. Lot of examples here.
Big Potential by Shawn Achor – This is an excellent book on how to not only focus on individual success but involve others. I didn’t find any breakthrough thoughts here but it was still worth a read. Have positive environments, read positive books, associate with different people, ensure everyone leads from where they are, engage in good praise, do a meeting detox, have no notifications and take good vacations. Lots of examples here as well.
Check out these books and they are pretty good for you to have a great 2018.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.
For me one of the ways to keep this motivation ongoing is to keep reading. Reading is one way to be positive about your future and it is also relaxing for me. It also provides a great relief from the negative news cycles. So here are 5 books I enjoyed reading on leadership, culture, happiness, productivity and entrepreneurship.
Lincoln and Churchill by Lewis E. Lehrman - I think we can learn more from real leaders than leadership theorists. This is a well-written book. The main thing I learned was both had an indomitable will. They also worked crazy hard. Churchill was great at writing but that was not due to innate talent it was due to relentless hard work. Lincoln was a great listener, was humble and at the same time had a desire to succeed for the nation. He fought for a larger cause. John Hay who worked with Lincoln said “It is absurd to call him a modest man. No great man was ever modest. It is his intellectual arrogance and unconscious assumption of superiority that men like Chase and Summer never could forgive.” Historian Robert Rhodes James wrote that “The well born Churchill had immense application and capacity for work. He was not a natural speaker with an inability to pronounce the letter S but which he turned to advantage. Nor was he a natural writer- if such a thing exists. It was all hard work. Nothing came easily to him. Those glorious speeches and those marvelous books were the result of much toil. It was a triumph of character.”
Great at Work by Morton Hansen – Well-written book overall awesome motivation for me to implement some of the suggestions. This is truly a ground-breaking study on what it takes to be a top performer. First lesson is to do less but obsess more. Roald Amundsen won the race against Robert Falcon Scott due to his obsession with using dogs and he also got the best dog handler on his team. He got Green handler dogs instead of Siberian Huskies. Scott had more budget but he tried dogs, ponies and many other things. The key is to focus and not spread too wide. Eliminate all fluff and completely do away with distractions. For example, the author while writing for the book completely switched off internet connection while writing. The key is to focus on creating value and obsessing only on the top activities.
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle – I liked his other book “The Talent Code” as well. The key is to build safety in your organizations by making it easy for people to speak up. The next key is vulnerability and as leaders you need to be open about your mistakes. Lot of examples here. Finally build purpose into the organization. It is a good breezy read.
A dozen lessons for entrepreneurs by Tren Griffin – This is an informative book on how to scale a startup. While I am not an entrepreneur it is interesting how they think. They work ridiculously fast, they have high energy, willing to experiment, have a noble mission and are not scared of failure. Lot of examples here.
Big Potential by Shawn Achor – This is an excellent book on how to not only focus on individual success but involve others. I didn’t find any breakthrough thoughts here but it was still worth a read. Have positive environments, read positive books, associate with different people, ensure everyone leads from where they are, engage in good praise, do a meeting detox, have no notifications and take good vacations. Lots of examples here as well.
Check out these books and they are pretty good for you to have a great 2018.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.
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