Go for servant leadership: it’s in line with the chemistry of our brain.
NIcely crafted narrative around Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin to support a well established concept.
Chris Voss – Never split the difference
Useful view on high-stakes negotiations condensed into simple rules, and larded with FBI ‘war stories’.
Simon Sinek – Start with why
Live by Covey’s 2nd habit: ‘Begin with the end in mind’
Energizing expose of a well known leadership truism.
Liz Wiseman – Multipliers
Most corporate cultures stifle learning and cross-fertilization of ideas.
Useful archetypes of desireable (‘multiplier’) and undesireable (‘diminisher’) behaviour.
Dan and Chip heath – Switch
Just remember the metaphor of the elephant, the rider, and the path.
Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel
Remark: Fascinating narrative on how agriculture spread across the globe.
Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths – Algorithms to live by
Essential concepts from computer sciences intuitively explained for non-techies.
Oren Klaff – Pitch anything
Remark: By far the best book on Pitching that I know.
Graham Jones – Click.ology
Straight-forward sanity checks can make webshops a whole lot better.
A brave but flawed (e.g. on pricing) attempt to provide naive rules of thumb for how to influence highly context-dependent and ultra-personal customer decisions.
David Lewis – The Brainsell
More emphasis could have been put on online shopping where more direct measurement possible and implementation is easier.
Salim Ismail et. al. – Exponential organizations
Prioritize long term accelerating growth over short-term gains.
Diamandis’ Abundance concept applied to companies. The book peaks early on: the howto guide is not sufficiently specific.
David Maister – The trusted advisor
Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / (Self orientation)
Much needed message in this age of voxpop: you need to earn the right to share your opinion.
Mark Hatch – The maker manifesto
En contagiously enthusiastic account of all you can do with laser cutters,milling machines, 3D printers, AutoCAD software, and the like – and how cheap it is.
Martin Ford – Rise of the Robots
Interesting thought experiment by an author who underestimates human ingenuity (I sincerely hope).
Stanley McChrystal – Team of teams
Background: the US couldn’t win the war in Iraq in 2003 because the compartmentalized army organization could not react adequately to changing circumstances and an agile enemy.
Antonio Garcia Martinez – Chaos monkeys
Written with the contagious swagger of a cocky analytical thinker convinced that he is ahead of the game.
Brian Burke – Gamify
The book focuses on engagement, accomplishment, and competition as performance drivers; whereas ‘hard benefits’ such as shorter feedback loops and more targeted content get less attention.
Don Tapscott et. al. – Blockchain revolution
The writers’ enthusiasm seems at some points somewhat naive, considering the scope of vested interests in target markets.
Sean O’Neil and John Kulisek – Bare nuckle people management
To get the most out of your team, adjust your management style to each individual.
MBTI without the dogma that ‘there are no good or bad personality types’; of course there are – from the manager’s perspective.
