The Best Leadership Reading List - October 2024
As the saying goes, read, read, read. Here are some of my favorites from October to help with your business leadership learning.
Welcome to November 2024!
Carving out some time from the day to read isn’t easy when things are hectic. However, you must remember that this habit will pay off in the long run. Learning compounds, so the longer you keep at it, the better off you will be.
"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers” - Harry S. Truman
Here are some insightful articles and books I came across last month.
Around the Web
Make Character Count in Hiring and Promoting—when it comes to hiring, more is needed than a suitable skill set. Learn how to assess for character along with competence during your evaluation.
How I avoid getting blindsided by stakeholders - nobody likes to be surprised at work, especially by teammates and partners. Here’s some excellent advice on how to avoid unexpected pushback.
How Great Product Managers Facilitate Collaboration - involve the right players at the right time when working on new product efforts.
The big power of small goals - what the research says when it comes to setting more but smaller goals. Some interesting findings to consider for your team.
When Decisions You Don’t Agree With Come Down From Above - “Good leaders understand they are obligated to hold the organization and its interests above their personal choices and those of the team. “
Play Free - a podcast discussion around the impact of positive reinforcement on your team’s performance.
The DNA of a Great Pricing Page - a deep dive into one of the most essential pages of your website, including several best-in-class examples to review.
Automating Processes with Software is HARD - automation sounds easy until you get into managing all the exceptions.
Books
This Is Strategy - Make Better Plans - I have learned much from Seth Godin for over twenty years. If you know his work, this book follows his trademark approach of easy reading but powerful insights. His goal was to demystify strategy and provide a framework to help improve your planning. I wouldn’t say this is the best book on strategy, but it is a great one to get started. It also provides some good advice for those with a good grasp of the concept.
Non-Obvious Thinking: How to See What Others Miss - dealing with problems is part of the role of a business leader. This book is all about helping to find creative and inspiring solutions to those problems.
The Obstacle Is The Way 10th Anniversary Addition—While not directly a business book, I have been a fan of Ryan Holiday’s for some time, and this was the first book in his Stoic series. It contains some great stories and lessons from history that can help you look at your challenges objectively - highly recommended.
Looking for more to read? Here are my lists from 2024: September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January, and 2023.
If you liked, The Obstacle as the Way by Ryan Holiday, then I encourage you to give The Stoic Challenge by William B. Irvine a read. I've given both books to people I know who are struggling to deal with life's challenges. I tend to get get Holiday's book back with a big, "Thank you that was a great book". With the Stoic Challenge, people tend to want to give me money to replace the book because they've marked it up so much, or because they've read it and given it to someone in their life they think it will benefit. I never take their money. I just buy another copy for $11 on Amazon. BTW - I bought the fancy leather version of The Obstacle is the way from The Daily Stoic store and the coin - It's such a nice edition (I don't lend this one out).
I'm reading 'This is Strategy' now. The best takeaway is the high-level mindset of what strategy is and isn't. There are more tactical books on developing strategy, but this one helps frame everything appropriately.