Content tagged with “leadership”

“I didn’t write a review for this when I first read it, sometime in 2024. It was recommended by a friend, and I first listened to it on audiobook on a drive to Minneapolis. I knew that I was going to need to re-read it at some point, because there was too much to absorb and – for me – an audiobook…”

“Much is made of the title and implied angle of this book, but – to be clear – this is a solid, comprehensive biography of Abraham Lincoln. The purported angle is this: once elected president, Abraham Lincoln appointed his main rivals for the office to important positions in his administration….”

“Let me start with a couple points: I’m sure the author (who died in 2015) was a wonderful person I’m sure he had great experience with leadership But, holy cats, this book needed an editor. It’s a scattered mess. It’s essentially an end-of-career wrap-up for the author, who worked in the Iowa…”

“This book is a legendary examination of how companies handle ‘innovation,’ by which the author means new aspects of their business that come out of nowhere and eventually come to dominate their markets. The problem: you can’t just give customers what they ask for. Because lots of customers actually…”

“Business fiction is always a crapshoot, but this works. I had a sudden interest in value-chain mapping, so I ordered this book. It’s apparently quite famous in accounting and operations circles. It’s a…thriller (?) about a plant manager that has three months to save his manufacturing plant. They’re…”

“A solid introduction to the net promoter score methodology of performance reporting that falls into a common trap: it could be a blog post, or a 30-page ebook. To get this thing published, the authors had to pad it out to book length, and it’s just way, way, way long. It talks about the same…”

“I think maybe I was the wrong audience for this. It’s very much directed towards encouraging people to do thought leadership, whereas I was looking for something on how to measure engagement, and perhaps take it to the next level. Well-written, though. If you want to move into more public thought…”

“An explanation of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). This is a philosophy of management that my company is implementing. Your enjoyment of this book will correspond highly with your belief in EOS, but it’s worth noting the the book is well-written and clear, and I think anyone can learn…”

“A few chapters in, I was prepared to dismiss this as just another collection of idealized, ‘aren’t we amazing’ ways of doing things at a hip, with-it company…but it got better. The book is written by the head of HR at Google, and describes all of the ‘Google-ly’ things they do for their employees….”

“A book about applying military principles to business. It’s not a bad book, but the hook is clearly the Navy SEAL angle. Every chapter starts with a novel-esque recounting of some warfare scenario in Ramadi, Iraq, then segues into how that applies to business. It’s all very gung ho and ‘MURICA!…”

“Extremely readable summary of pop psychology hacks for making change. It still runs into the problem that people are generally hard-pressed to put these things to use, but it’s well-written and enjoyable. It concentrates a bit more on the approach than other books, which might be key – the sad fact…”

“A collection of stories about 20% and ‘skunkworks’ projects and what makes them tick. The stories were interesting – the first ones were slanted toward tech, and the later stories branched out – but I was having trouble drawing any common principles out of it. This was remedied somewhat in the…”

“this is a solid book with a simple message: make sure your Christian organization is serving God rather than more earthly metrics. he basic premise is that you trust in God, and produce qualitative rather than quantitative results. It gets a bit repetitive, but then there’s a big chapter at the end…”