The first few months of 2019 are full on business book launches. Here are some books you should be buying if you want to learn more about leadership, success and prosperity in the XXI century!
Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose – Jean Case
This book’s subheading says a lot, doesn’t it? If you feel stuck in your career, Case’s principles are the answer! She was the first woman to chair the National Geographic Society and is a firm believer there are five simple steps to success: make a big bet, take bold risks, capitalise on failure, look beyond your comfort zone, and prioritise urgency over fear.
But it’s not all theory, the book is packed with inspiring examples of success stories. Henry Ford, Jeff Bezos and Jane Case herself made it, so can you!
The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You – Julie Zhuo
Julie Zhuo became a manager at 25 and had to find her way through the clichés of being a non-white young woman in a male-driven industry. Now she’s Facebook’s vice president of product design and no one questions her professionalism.
Based on her experience, Julie shows the difference between a mediocre manager and a great one, explains how to drive your team to success even when you have zero experience in being a leader and how to succeed even without a dream team by your hand.
According to Ev Williams, Twitter founder, the book’s useful for brand-new managers as well as those more experienced.
Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World – Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall
This book brings down the most dangerous myths about the workplace – company culture trumps everything else? Yeah, right! – and explains how to move past these misconceptions and embrace what makes each employee different. Apparently, by letting your team do what they do best without over-controlling the process is a key to success and productivity!
But there is so much more to learn from these authors. Ashley Goodall is the senior vice president of leadership and team development at Cisco. Marcus Buckingham is a published author, known world-wide as a management and professional development guru. You can trust their advice!
Loonshots: How to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries – Safi Bahcall
The name of this book is a modification of ‘Moonshots’, a term invented by Silicon Valley innovators to describe the goal a company pursues aggressively, even when there are very limited chances for success and the budgets involved exceed all reasonable limits. In Loonshots Safi Bahcall analyses how and why many companies suddenly shift from reaching their crazy goal to resisting it.
This books is a light at the end of the tunnel for anyone wanting something so badly but being her own biggest enemy in reaching that goal.
The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty – Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon
This trio of established specialists in management and economics came up with a thought-provoking book about the keys to successful economic development in modern society.
According to them, the cornerstone of social and economic change lies in innovation. The authors break down innovation into three types: efficiency, sustaining, and market-creating, and explain how to use each of them in your business, both theoretically and on some great examples. For example, did you know that years ago Toyota was targeting people who couldn’t afford cars made by Ford or Chrysler? Maybe, there is a whole new audience waiting for your product right now! This book will help you discover it.
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell – Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle
Bill Campbell was an executive coach to such tech legends as Steve Jobs (Apple) and Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google). This books shares 80 life lessons, gathered from 80 of Campbell’s students. Who knows, maybe incorporating some of them into your work process will turn you into a new Steve Jobs. We certainly wouldn’t mind!