Book picks similar to
The Driving Force: Getting Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People by Peter W. Schutz
leadership
management
matthew-s-books
biography
Culture is Everything: The Story And System Of A Start-Up That Became Australia's Best Place To Work
Tristan White - 2017
He had a dream to work in a job that inspired him. He didn’t find that job, so he created it. In 2004, The Physio Co (TPC) was born with one team member: Tristan White. In the thirteen years since, TPC has become a remarkable healthcare success story based upon fast growth and a thriving, systemized company culture. Tristan’s obsession with creating an inspiring place to work for himself and others has resulted in more than a decade of learning, testing and refining. If you’ve ever wondered how to build and sustain a thriving company culture, the Culture Is Everything system developed by Tristan White and The Physio Co team is your answer. The Physio Co story and Culture Is Everything system explained in this book will give you the confidence and knowledge to create a strong culture in your very own business or team.
The Right Choice: Resolving 10 Career Dilemmas for Extraordinary Success
Shiv Shivakumar - 2021
The author shares his wisdom and experiences from his illustrious career as one of India Inc’s longest-serving CEOs. In his trademark straightforward and lucid style, he shares lessons and learnings on each of the ten dilemmas. The book also contains insights and perspectives from twenty-four highly experienced professionals.A successful career is not a straight line; it has many twists and turns where you are faced with difficult choices. Practical and inspiring, The Right Choice will help you navigate these difficult situations-and win in your career.
Founder’s Pocket Guide: Startup Valuation (Founder's Pocket Guide Book 1)
Stephen Poland - 2014
This guide provides a quick reference to all of the key topics around early-stage startup valuation and provides step-by-step examples for several valuation methods. In more detail, this Founder’s Pocket Guide helps startup founders learn: What a startup valuation is and when you need to start worrying about it. Key terms and definitions associated with valuation, such as pre-money, post-money, and dilution. How investors view the valuation task, and what their expectations are for early-stage companies. How the valuation fits with your target raise amount and resulting founder equity ownership. How to do the simple math for calculating valuation percentages. How to estimate your company valuation using several accepted methods. What accounting valuation methods are and why they are not well suited for early-stage startups.
Of Mikes and Men: A Lifetime of Braves Baseball
Pete Van Wieren - 2010
Pete Van Wieren’s legacy began in 1976, when he and a young Skip Caray were hired to call Atlanta Braves games. During the next three decades, "the Professor" and Caray became the voices of a team known nationwide as America's Team courtesy of Ted Turner's SuperStation TBS. In this heartfelt autobiography, Van Wieren shares his memories of thrilling moments in Braves history, such as the 1995 season when the Braves won the world championship; the pitching mastery of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz; the heartbreak of the 1996 World Series loss to the Yankees; and Atlanta's unprecedented run of 14 consecutive division titles.
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin To Munger
Peter Bevelin - 2003
His quest for wisdom originated partly from making mistakes himself and observing those of others but also from the philosophy of super-investor and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger. A man whose simplicity and clarity of thought was unequal to anything Bevelin had seen. In addition to naturalist Charles Darwin and Munger, Bevelin cites an encyclopedic range of thinkers: from first-century BCE Roman poet Publius Terentius to Mark Twainfrom Albert Einstein to Richard Feynmanfrom 16th Century French essayist Michel de Montaigne to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. In the book, he describes ideas and research findings from many different fields. This book is for those who love the constant search for knowledge. It is in the spirit of Charles Munger, who says, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." There are roads that lead to unhappiness. An understanding of how and why we can "die" should help us avoid them. We can't eliminate mistakes, but we can prevent those that can really hurt us. Using exemplars of clear thinking and attained wisdom, Bevelin focuses on how our thoughts are influenced, why we make misjudgments and tools to improve our thinking. Bevelin tackles such eternal questions as: Why do we behave like we do? What do we want out of life? What interferes with our goals? Read and study this wonderful multidisciplinary exploration of wisdom. It may change the way you think and act in business and in life.
Drug of Choice: The Inspiring True Story Of The One-Armed Criminal Who Mastered Love And Made Millions
Mark Van Stratum - 2017
He has created a fulfilling life, which he shares with his beautiful fiancé and a world-wide circle of friends. But his inspiring life of today grew out of a dark and dangerous past.In this gripping tale, van Stratum brings a once-in-a-lifetime read of his experience growing up with one arm in a small town where he developed a savage temper and a criminal mindset. After a violent robbery by rival drug dealers he had a flash of insight that his life must change, or it would quickly end.After moving to a new country without telling a soul, Mark penetrates the secret world of pick-up artists and learns an incredible skill set that enables him to get the most desired women on the planet. In Drug of Choice, Mark offers insightful lessons about the power of choices to change your business, relationships, and life.This story teaches that your choices are both the cause of your problems and the key to your success. It will make you believe again that it’s never too late to change.
It Starts with One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations
J. Stewart Black - 2002
Unfortunately, change is extraordinarily difficult, and most attempts to initiate and sustain it fail. In It Starts with One, J. Stewart Black and Hal B Gregersen identify the core problem: changing individuals and the "mental maps" inside their heads must happen before you can change the organization. Just as actual maps guide people's footsteps, mental maps guide daily behavior. Successful strategic change for the organization is all about changing individual mental maps and behaviors first, because they are the organization.To change organizations, you must break through your own brain barrier -- and help those around you do the same. One step at a time, It Starts with One shows how to do that: how to create new destinations, and new, more inspiring effective paths to sustainable change. Black and Gregersen systematically identify the brain barriers that stand in your way: failure to see, failure to move, and failure to finish. Drawing on their extensive experience consulting with world-class organizations, they offer integrated tools, strategies, and solutions for overcoming each of these obstacles. This edition offers even more effective tools, more guidance on leading change in globalizing environments, and more insight into changing your own mental maps...liberating yourself to transform your entire organization.Seventy percent of organizations that seek strategic change fail. Organizations can't change because individuals don't change. Individuals don't change because powerful mental maps stand in their way. This book offers a powerful, start-to-finish strategy for helping people redraw their mental maps -- and unleash their power to deliver superior, sustained strategic change. Thoroughly updated with new techniques, case studies, and examples, this book offers even more valuable insights for today's leaders and managers.
#Girlboss
Sophia Amoruso - 2014
Sophia Amoruso spent her teens hitchhiking, committing petty theft, and scrounging in dumpsters for leftover bagels. By age twenty-two she had dropped out of school, and was broke, directionless, and checking IDs in the lobby of an art school— a job she’d taken for the health insurance. It was in that lobby that Sophia decided to start selling vintage clothes on eBay. Flash forward ten years to today, and she’s the founder and executive chairman of Nasty Gal, a $250-million-plus fashion retailer with more than four hundred employees. Sophia was never a typical CEO, or a typical anything, and she’s written #GIRLBOSS for other girls like her: outsiders (and insiders) seeking a unique path to success, even when that path is windy as all hell and lined with naysayers. #GIRLBOSS proves that being successful isn’t about where you went to college or how popular you were in high school. It’s about trusting your instincts and following your gut; knowing which rules to follow and which to break; when to button up and when to let your freak flag fly.' to 'In the New York Times bestseller that the Washington Post called "Lean In for misfits," Sophia Amoruso shares how she went from dumpster diving to founding one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world Sophia Amoruso spent her teens hitchhiking, committing petty theft, and scrounging in dumpsters for leftover bagels. By age twenty-two she had dropped out of school, and was broke, directionless, and checking IDs in the lobby of an art school—a job she’d taken for the health insurance. It was in that lobby that Sophia decided to start selling vintage clothes on eBay. Flash forward ten years to today, and she’s the founder and executive chairman of Nasty Gal, a $250-million-plus fashion retailer with more than four hundred employees. Sophia was never a typical CEO, or a typical anything, and she’s written #GIRLBOSS for other girls like her: outsiders (and insiders) seeking a unique path to success, even when that path is windy as all hell and lined with naysayers. #GIRLBOSS proves that being successful isn’t about where you went to college or how popular you were in high school. It’s about trusting your instincts and following your gut; knowing which rules to follow and which to break; when to button up and when to let your freak flag fly.'
The San Francisco Fallacy: The Ten Fallacies That Make Founders Fail
Jonathan Siegel - 2017
Most importantly, it's about how to avoid making these same mistakes yourself.In The San Francisco Fallacy, serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Jonathan Siegel looks at the 10 biggest fallacies that run through startup culture. Over his many years launching companies, he's fallen victim to what he now recognizes as a series of common errors, misconceptions that bedevil startups to this day. But he also learned how to sidestep and surmount many of these challenges.After multiple eight-figure exits and other startup successes, Jonathan began to see the deeper fallacies in which his failures took root. His biggest career successes, on the other hand, seemed to come when he and his teams went against the tide and did everything "wrong."This book is an examination of the popular belief system about startups. At its heart is a series of challenges to years of accumulated startup orthodoxy. What emerges is not just a critique but an inspiring call--to anyone trying to build a successful business--for a broader kind of critical thinking.
Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work
Eric C. Sinoway - 2012
A warm friend. A generous mentor.For more than 40 years, Howard Stevenson has been a towering figure at Harvard Business School: the man who literally defined entrepreneurship and taught thousands of the world’s most successful professionals.Now – spurred by Stevenson’s heart-stopping brush with death – his student, colleague, and dear friend Eric Sinoway shares the man’s wisdom and inspiration. Through warm and engaging conversations, we hear Howard’s timeless and practical lessons on pursuing both success and fulfillment, beginning with:• Create a vision of your own legacy through a process called “business planning for life.”• Be entrepreneurial in driving your career ahead (even if you’re not an entrepreneur).• Exploit the inflection points in your life – whether “friend,” “foe,” or “silent.”• Cut risk in tough career and life decisions by shining the “light of predictability” on them.• Plan for the ripples, not just the splash from your actions and choices. Reading Howard’s Gift is like having a wise, caring friend sit down and say, “Let’s figure all this out together.”And the deeply personal perspectives from guest contributors – such as CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien, Teach for America Founder Wendy Kopp, two-time Super Bowl Champion Carl Banks, and legendary MTV Founder Bob Pittman – reinforce the practical lessons in this clear-sighted book that will help readers “define success in their own terms,” and “live a life with no regrets.”
Learning from Lincoln: Leadership Practices for School Success
Harvey B. Alvy - 2010
The authors identify 10 qualities, attributes, and skills that help to explain Lincoln's effectiveness, despite seemingly insurmountable odds:1. Implementing and sustaining a mission and vision with focused and profound clarity2. Communicating ideas effectively with precise and straightforward language3. Building a diverse and competent team to successfully address the mission4. Engendering trust, loyalty, and respect through humility, humor, and personal example5. Leading and serving with emotional intelligence and empathy6. Exercising situational competence and responding appropriately to implement effective change7. Rising beyond personal and professional trials through tenacity, persistence, resilience, and courage8. Exercising purposeful visibility9. Demonstrating personal growth and enhanced competence as a lifetime learner, willing to reflect on and expand ideas10. Believing that hope can become a realityChapters devoted to each element explore the historical record of Lincoln's life and actions, then discuss the implications for modern educators. End-of-chapter exercises provide a structure for reflection, analysis of current behaviors, and guidance for future work, so that readers can create their own path to success--inspired by the example of one of the greatest leaders of all time.
Executive Warfare: Pick Your Battles and Live to Get Promoted Another Day
David F. D'Alessandro - 2008
Now it's a game for grown-ups. What really sets you apart is the relationships you build with people of influence. These people can include your peers, your employees, your organization's directors, reporters, vendors, and regulators-as well as the people directly above you in the organizational hierarchy.In senior management, you no longer answer to just one boss. There is now a hazy matrix of hundreds of bosses both inside and outside the office, any one of whom can stop you cold or give you a tremendous push forward. "Executive Warfare" offers concrete advice for handling all of them, including YOUR PEERS: They are the most valuable of allies or the most dangerous of enemies THE CEO: Her office is often where the real fairy dust is kept. Make sure you have a good relationship here THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: They won't judge you fairly if all they see of you is your PowerPoints YOUR DIRECT REPORTS: They are your vital organs, so treat them accordingly. And if you find a blood clot among them-excise that person before he kills you YOUR RIVALS: It's not always wise to shoot at them, but if you do, do "not" shoot to woundIn his bestsellers "Brand Warfare" and "Career Warfare," author David D'Alessandro offered sharp advice for building a brand and building a career. Now "Executive Warfare" is the advanced class for the truly ambitious. Learn what it takes to rise to the top-and to do the even harder thing, which is survive there.
Play Like You Mean It: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World's Most Beautiful Game
Rex Ryan - 2011
Rex Ryan is known for his exuberance . . . and Play Like You Mean It explores every aspect of Ryan’s amazing passion for the game of football, plus the lessons he has learned in leadership and motivation during his years in and around the game. In his own words, Ryan takes readers behind the scenes of the NFL as he shares colorful football stories from his experiences with the Jets and the Ravens as well as his years recruiting players, coaching college football, and growing up as a child of legendary NFL coach Buddy Ryan. Rex’s unique brand of enthusiasm and motivation comes through on every page. Most of all, fans will get insider access to Ryan’s headline-grabbing, brutally honest, and undeniably entertaining views on the NFL . . . and the very human side of the larger-than-life athletes who devote their lives to the game of football. From Ryan’s acceptance of the Jets head coaching job to his success in turning around a team that has long been number two in New York, from his drafting and believing in Mark Sanchez to kicking off the 2010 season with massive expectations (and a target on his back)—this book goes deep, and entertains on every level.
A Season on the Mat: Dan Gable and the Pursuit of Perfection
Nolan Zavoral - 1998
One pair of hands--reaching up and out, as if to seize their observer--belonged to Danny Mack Gable, the greatest figure in the history of American wrestling. Gable's place in the university's pantheon was earned through his remarkable coaching career; for the past twenty-one years, Dan Gable's Iowa Hawkeyes have dominated wrestling to an extent rarely seen in any sport. In "A Season on the Mat," award-winning reporter Nolan Zavoral explores Iowa's storied wrestling program and Gable's record of excellence in an unprecedented, intimate look at the man and his methods. Gable grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, and quickly became a wrestling legend in a place where there was no higher aspiration. He charged through his high school years unbeaten--64-0--and then won 117 straight matches at Iowa State University before losing, in a shocking upset, in the NCAA finals of his senior year. Gable used the memory of that defeat as a spur to greater glory in the 1972 Olympics, when he won the gold medal by winning six matches in which he was not only unbeaten but unscored upon. But as great as his accomplishments were as a wrestler, they pale next to what he has achieved as a coach. In the twenty one years Gable has been head coach, his teams have won the Big 10 title every year and the NCAA championship fifteen times.As Gable approached the 1996-97 season, he was a mere shell of his usual, vigorous self. A dozen back and knee surgeries had reduced his proud athlete's walk to that of a stooped, shambling old man. Hecould no longer get down with his wrestlers and demonstrate holds and escapes. But with speculation rife about whether this season would be his last, Gable persevered--despite a midseason hip replacement operation--aiming toward the NCAA championship to be held in Cedar Falls, Iowa, right next door to Waterloo, where Gable had spent his wrestling youth."A Season on the Mat" chronicles this dramatic season, in which Gable led his team--far from his most talented--to the national title. Zavoral takes the reader behind the scenes, into the stifling heat of the wrestling room where young men from places like Rock Falls, Iowa, or Philip, South Dakota, sacrifice everything they have just to be a part of the Hawkeye program. We watch strongwilled athletes like Mike Mena, whose struggle to make weight almost cost him a shot at the national championship; Lincoln McILravy, who overcame persistent severe headaches to win his third national title in his four-year career; and all the other wrestlers who contributed to a record-breaking performance at the NCAAs, scoring the most points in collegiate wrestling history.But most important, we see the man behind the Gable legend. From his difficult upbringing, interrupted by the tragedy of his sister's brutal murder, through the single defeat that haunts him to this day, to the ups and downs of his phenomenal coaching career, Gable has come to symbolize to many all that is special about this demanding, elemental sport. Part biography, part chronicle, part portrait of this unique subculture, "A Season on the Mat" is the best and most thorough look at one of the most important and most overlooked figures in American athletics.
The Extraordinary Coach: How the Best Leaders Help Others Grow
John H. Zenger - 2010
The authors are among the most seasoned practitioners around . . . and it shows! Whether you are coaching subordinates or clients, you will want to keep this book close at hand--full of detailed guidance." --Jay A. Conger, Kravis Professor of Leadership Studies, Claremont McKenna College, and author of Building Leaders and Learning to Lead"Stinnett and Zenger provide a comprehensive look at the value of coaching inside the organization, complete with a process, tools, and supports for getting started. This book is a great resource and contribution to the field!" --Pam McLean, Ph.D., CEO, Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara"Finally, and I do mean finally, a book has emerged that is the very best guide to the philosophy, competencies, and discipline required to be a coach who makes a true difference in lives of others. This is not a book to read. It is a book to study and live by. Why? Because it is all there: the right questions, the right answers, and the right motives of giving your best to others." --Larry Wilson, CEO, The Wilson Collaborative, and author of Play to Win!"The Extraordinary Coach offers a compelling view of what it means to be a truly effective leader-- one who empowers and grows capability through coaching. It demystifies coaching into an actionable framework that generates immediate change." --Christy Consler, Vice President, Leadership Development and Sustainability, Safeway, Inc."Powerful, thought-provoking, and packed with practical tools, concepts, and ideas you can use immediately. It will change the way you think about coaching, and about yourself." --Lou Kaucic, retired Chief People Officer of Applebee's International, founder of Coaches Collective InternationalAbout the Book: Imagine your workplace filled with curious, creative, committed employees. People who take initiative, who are fearless decision makers, who "own" their work. With the right coaching system in place, this dream will soon become reality.With The Extraordinary Coach, leadership guru Jack Zenger and coaching expert Kathleen Stinnett deliver an entire toolbox for coaching your organization to success. While other such books simply tell you how to coach, The Extraordinary Coach uses companion videos (at www.zengerfolkman.com), worksheets, checklists, sample questions, and the latest research fi ndings to provide a fullimmersion course on becoming the kind of coach who brings dramatic changes to an organization.Applying Zenger and Stinnett's system, you'll see immediate results in your business including:Increased productivityHigh-energy company cultureDynamic supervisor/employee relationshipsCreative problem solvingGreater risk takingHeightened innovationThe authors collected 360-degree feedback assessments from some of the most effective leaders in business today and identified those who were excellent coaches. Then they combined the research with the latest findings from the worlds of psychology, adult development, and systems theory to map out the real science behind effective coaching. The result is a practical, evidence-based coaching system that can be applied in any type of business.When you coach individuals to success, you lead your entire organization to success. This "interactive" package is exactly what you need to master one of today's most critical business leadership skills.