Category: Books to Read

Posted on

15 Books I will be reading in 2020

  • The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Principle-Centered Leadership – Stephen R. Covey
  • Reasonable Greed: Why sustainable business is a much better idea – Wayne Visser & Clem Sunter
  • Leadership and the one minute manager – Ken Blanchard
  • The Whole Armor of God – Ralph W. Sockman
  • The Charisma Myth – Olivia Fox Cabane
  • The Wisest One in the Room – Thomas Gilovich & Lee Ross
  • Primary Greatness – Stephen R. Covey
  • The Top 10 Leadership conversations in the Bible – Steve Moore
  • 8 Lessons in Military Leadership for Entrepreneurs – Robert Kiyosaki
  • The Prodigal God – Timothy Keller
  • The Speed of Trust – Stephen Covey
  • Speak like a CEO – Suzanne Yates
  • The Leadership Challenge – James Kouzes & Barry Posner
  • Studies in the Sermon on the Mount – D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
Posted on

Thinking slowly

It’s interesting what happens when you intentionally choose to slow down and think through a problem. I have found that while building websites and applications that there is a slippery slope when you run into a problem. The natural inclination is to chase after the problem in order to find the solution.

When I have actually stopped and gone for a walk in order to think through the issue, those are the times that I have found the most elegant solution.

I found this story about Warren Buffet and I really liked the perspective. If you are actually attempting to solve the problems of those you are working for, you will find success.

The first was to find out what people need and use that to get access to them. In 1951, after Buffett finished his studies, he set himself up as a stockbroker. But every time he tried to get a meeting with a local businessman, they turned him down. Who wants to meet some young guy with no track record, trying to sell stocks? So Buffet thought of a different approach: He started calling business people, telling them he could help save them from paying too high taxes. Now they finally wanted to meet, and Buffett was able to kick-start his career.

The Third Door by Alex Banayan

Action

What solution are you working out? What is it that your customer needs? It’s cliche, but what are their pain points, not just physically, but emotionally? How do you solve those problems?

Posted on

Influence

Steve Moore has written a new book called “The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible” and the introduction has already profoundly impacted me. He discusses a man I’ve never heard of, Samuel Logan Brengle, so passionately that I will begin reading more about this man.

The quote which I latched onto was:

Influence, not position, is at the core of leadership. When a person without leadership capacity is given a leadership title or position, the result isn’t a complete lack of influence, but rather a greatly limited power base. This is true in life and in the Bible.

You can read the intro here.

Posted on

Books recommended by Global Business Leaders

Of the 16 books recommended in this article, I would like to read at least these few:

Woo, Wow, and Win

Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight

Authors: Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell

One Sentence Summary: This book promotes the concept of designing your company around service and offers strategies based on the idea that the design of services is different from manufacturing.

Recommended by: Andy Polansky, CEO of Weber Shandwick

Technology as a Service Playbook

How to Grow a Profitable Subscription Business

Authors: Thomas Lah and J.B. Wood

One Sentence Summary: A guide to decision making and execution around the “as-a-service” model, with the intent of putting a company on a path to profitable growth by changing how “offers” are designed, built, marketed, sold, and serviced.

Recommended by: Stephanie Newby, CEO of Crimson Hexagon

Delivering Happiness

A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

Author: Tony Hsieh

One Sentence Summary: The CEO of Zappos explains how he created a corporate culture based upon the concept that there is value to happiness, both for employees and customers.

Recommended by: Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton Worldwide

Freakonomics

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Authors: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

One Sentence Summary: A set of amusing case studies illustrating that economics is the study of how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

Recommended by: Jeremiah Owyang, CEO of Crowd Companies