Book picks similar to
It's Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership by D. Michael Abrashoff
leadership
business
non-fiction
self-help
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Larry Bossidy - 2002
This smart and pithy book focuses on a simple though vexing challenge: How can the leaders of an organization exhort their people to deliver on the most important goals?....It's rare to find a book like this that blends smart practice with intelligent articulation of how to get things done. Do yourself a favor. Buy it." --The Boston Globe"Making all of the moving parts of an organization function smoothly together is just plain hard work. By describing how he has done it, Mr. Bossidy has come up with a valuable and practical management guide that is must-reading for everyone who cares about business." --The New York Times"If you want to be a CEO--or if you are a CEO and want to keep your job--read Execution and put its principles to work." --Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corp."A how-to book for the can-do boss....If even half the corporations in America pondered their suggestions, the economy would be in much better shape. Moreover, Bossidy and Charan boast an impressive enough track record that anyone who wants to stay sharp at the helm will welcome their assistance." --BusinessWeek"Sound, practical advice on how to make things happen." --Ralph S. Larsen, chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson"Here's the real deal.... This is no-nonsense stuff.... The leaders who sweat the small stuff, hire the right people, make the tough decisions and stick around to see that they're carried out are the real winners.... Forget the swarmy memoirs, cheesy parables, advice for idiots, and leadership secrets of despots and barbarians. Getting it done is, according to Bossidy and Charan, the only way to grow." --The Miami Herald"Captures a lifetime of building winning formulas and puts them in a simple, practical context for executives at any level." --Ivan Seidenberg, president and CEO, Verizon
Who Moved My Cheese?
Spencer Johnson - 1998
Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life, for example a good job, a loving relationship, money or possessions, health or spiritual peace of mind. The maze is where you look for what you want, perhaps the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. The problem is that the cheese keeps moving.In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change in their search for the cheese. One of them eventually deals with change successfully and writes what he has learned on the maze walls for you to discover.
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Yvon Chouinard - 2005
From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling, ambitious climbing expeditions that inspired his innovative designs for the sport's equipment, Let My People Go Surfing is the story of a man who brought doing good and having grand adventures into the heart of his business life-a book that will deeply affect entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts alike.
The Pomodoro Technique
Francesco Cirillo - 2006
The Wall Street Journal says the method can “help anyone to focus.”The new version of the Pomodoro Technique includes a chapter on how to make the Technique work for you. Readers will also learn how to predict the time it takes to complete a task, monitor their productivity and set personal goals.Having fun with time management might seem like an oxymoron to some but it’s actually possible with the Pomodoro Technique!
How To Get A Job You'll Love
John Lees - 2002
Packed full of fresh ideas and new exercises, this practical book teaches you how to think outside the box, tap into your hidden talents and identify what type of career you really want. It seeks to overcome some of the most common mental barriers to changing careers and sets out a five-point plan of action. With 3 brand new chapters, the book will help you: - Identify your skills and keep up-to-date with market trends and requirements - Understand the different kinds of career coaches and consultants available in the market place and how to identify the best one for you - Re-address your career options with your current employer, providing you with job survival skills that will allow you to manage and negotiate you future For those leaving further education there is a special section on understanding the graduate market and building on your academic achievements.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth - 2016
Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius, but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own character lab and set out to test her theory.Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers; from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that not talent or luck makes all the difference.
The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World
Peter Scazzero - 2015
This book is more than just a book you will read; it is a resource you will come back to over and over again.
Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude
Raymond M. Kethledge - 2017
Eisenhower wrote memoranda to himself during World War II as a way to think through complex problems. Martin Luther King found moral courage while sitting alone at his kitchen table one night during the Montgomery bus boycott. Jane Goodall used her intuition in the jungles of Central Africa while learning how to approach chimps. Solitude is a state of mind, a space where you can focus on your own thoughts without distraction, with a power to bring mind and soul together in clear-eyed conviction. Like a great wave that saturates everything in its path, however, handheld devices and other media now leave us awash with the thoughts of others. We are losing solitude without even realizing it.To find solitude today, a leader must make a conscious effort. This book explains why the effort is worthwhile and how to make it. Through gripping historical accounts and firsthand interviews with a wide range of contemporary leaders, Raymond Kethledge (a federal court of appeals judge) and Michael Erwin (a West Pointer and three-tour combat veteran) show how solitude can enhance clarity, spur creativity, sustain emotional balance, and generate the moral courage necessary to overcome adversity and criticism. Anyone who leads anyone-including oneself-can benefit from solitude. With a foreword by Jim Collins (author of the bestseller Good to Great), Lead Yourself First is a rallying cry to reclaim solitude-and all the benefits, both practical and sublime, that come with it.
Doing What Must Be Done: Even Limitations Can Be Used to Make Life Better!
Chad Hymas - 2011
but not out. In 2001, then-27-year-old Chad Hymas had everything: a beautiful wife, two sons, two thriving businesses and parents and brothers who loved and supported him in everything he did. It seemed he couldn't fail. Everything he touched turned to gold. And then a rushed decision to ignore safety in favor of getting home to see his baby boy take his first steps changed everything forever. A few minutes of caution could've kept his golden life on track, and he would live to regret his decision until he changed his mind about what his life was for. Ultimately, Chad Hymas spent many weeks in the hospital and in physical therapy. The doctors determined that psychological therapy wasn't needed, but Chad had another kind of help. He met Art Berg, another quadriplegic, who introduced himself without a word but with plenty of action. And Chad was paying attention. That was the day he began to change his mind about his life's purpose. With desperation, dedication and determination, and the help and love of his family and friends, Chad set out to reinvent himself, take risks, and do things he never thought he could or would do, even when his body was whole and fully functional. He had plenty of black periods to work through, to let go of his old ideas about who he was supposed to be, and the anger and frustration of not being able to be that. It hasn't been an easy journey, but it has transformed him into a man unlike anything he ever thought he could or would be. He's dedicated his life to service for others who have lost functionality, or perhaps never had it. He became a living example of what is possible, if one is willing to invent different ways to do what has to be done. In order to teach others, he had to invent those new and different ways of doing things for himself. He had to walk the talk. Now... He opens minds, eyes, hearts and doors for people just like himself. He helps people who have all their faculties to become more than they think they can be. He inspires children and adults alike, those with challenges and those without. He helps companies to work better by coming together, and teaches families and caretakers new ways to help those they care for. In the ten years since his accident, Chad travels the world, speaking to companies, kids in schools at all grade levels, families and individuals whose lives are being remolded by their own events. He has become the living demonstration of what is possible, if we find different ways of doing what must be done. His life changed forever and now, he changes lives.
Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times
Donald T. Phillips - 1992
To make matters worse, Lincoln, who was elected by a minority of the popular vote, was viewed by his own advisors as nothing more than a gawky, second-rate country lawyer with no leadership experience. What Lincoln did to become our most honored and revered president is history, how he can help you to run your organization is not.Lincoln On Leadership is the first book to examine Abraham Lincoln's diverse leadership abilities and how they can be applied to today's complex world. You'll discover why you should:* Seize the initiative and never relinquish it* Wage only one war at a time* Encourage risk-taking while providing job security* Avoid issuing orders and instead - request, imply, or make suggestions* Once in a while, let things slip, unbenowst-like...and much much more.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace
Al Ries - 1980
Writing in their trademark witty, fast-paced style, advertising gurus Ries and Trout explain how to:Make and position an industry leader so that its name and message wheedles its way into the collective subconscious of your market-and stays therePosition a follower so that it can occupy a niche not claimed by the leaderAvoid letting a second product ride on the coattails of an established one.Positioning also shows you how to:Use leading ad agency techniques to capture the biggest market share and become a household nameBuild your strategy around your competition's weaknessesReposition a strong competitor and create a weak spotUse your present position to its best advantageChoose the best name for your productDetermine when-and why-less is moreAnalyze recent trends that affect your positioning.Ries and Trout provide many valuable case histories and penetrating analyses of some of the most phenomenal successes and failures in advertising history. Revised to reflect significant developments in the five years since its original publication, Positioning is required reading for anyone in business today.
Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management
Scott Berkun - 2001
Each essay distills complex concepts and challenges into practical nuggets of useful advice, and the new edition now adds more value for leaders and managers of projects everywhere. Based on his nine years of experience as a program manager for Internet Explorer, and lead program manager for Windows and MSN, Berkun explains to technical and non-technical readers alike what it takes to get through a large software or web development project. Making Things Happen doesn't cite specific methods, but focuses on philosophy and strategy. Unlike other project management books, Berkun offers personal essays in a comfortable style and easy tone that emulate the relationship of a wise project manager who gives good, entertaining and passionate advice to those who ask. Topics in this new edition include:How to make things happenMaking good decisionsSpecifications and requirementsIdeas and what to do with themHow not to annoy peopleLeadership and trustThe truth about making datesWhat to do when things go wrongComplete with a new forward from the author and a discussion guide for forming reading groups/teams, Making Things Happen offers in-depth exercises to help you apply lessons from the book to your job. It is inspiring, funny, honest, and compelling, and definitely the one book that you and your team need to have within arm's reach throughout the life of your project. Coming from the rare perspective of someone who fought difficult battles on Microsoft's biggest projects and taught project design and management for MSTE, Microsoft's internal best practices group, this is valuable advice indeed. It will serve you well with your current work, and on future projects to come.
Man Up: How to Cut the Bullshit and Kick Ass in Business (and in Life)
Bedros Keuilian - 2018
. ."
"There's no way . . ."
"It's impossible . . ."
Enough. Get off your ass make your "someday" goals a priority—today.
After years of coaching and consulting hundreds of startup rookies as well as seasoned entrepreneurs, executives, and CEOs, Bedros Keuilian realized that most people who want to start a business, grow an existing business, author a book, make more money, or make a bigger impact usually take the long, slow, painful way to get there . . . and more than 80 percent of entrepreneurs never get to their desired destination or achieve their full potential in business. They treat their dream as if it were merely a hobby and dip their toes in the water, but they never commit to diving in—you get the idea. It's time to cut the bullshit excuses. Everyone has a gift, a purpose. It's your duty to figure out what your gift is and how you're going to share it with the world. Man Up: How to Cut the Bullshit and Kick Ass in Business (and in Life) is your guide to doing exactly that. Keuilian, founder and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp and known as the "hidden genius" behind many of the most successful brands and businesses throughout multiple industries, will show you how to break out of the sea of mediocrity, get singularly focused on your purpose, and do what it takes—not only to achieve but dominate your goals. With Keuilian's no-nonsense approach in both business and personal spheres, you'll be able to define your purpose and have clarity of vision—and a plan—to make the quantum leap. Whether it's creating and growing a company, leaving a legacy, making a difference, or launching a new brand, you will discover how to use your passion, purpose, and sheer grit to overcome any adversity that attempts to derail your progress. If there's an area of your life in which you need to man up, this book will get you there.
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
Satya Nadella - 2017
It’s about how people, organizations and societies can and must hit refresh—transform—in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, relevance and renewal. At the core, it’s about us humans and our unique qualities, like empathy, which will become ever more valuable in a world where the torrent of technology will disrupt like never before. As much a humanist as a technologist, Nadella defines his mission and that of the company he leads as empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Straight-Line Leadership: Tools for Living with Velocity and Power in Turbulent Times
Dusan Djukich - 2011
Within these pages he dramatically unveils exactly what it takes to live a powerful and effective life both personally and professionally.Regardless if you are a CEO, small business owner, parent, or someone who simply wants to make a difference, you will learn to master powerful distinctions that you can apply immediately to resolve the challenges that you are presently up against. You will also become adept at assisting others in solving their most pressing problems with precision and grace.This book boldly demonstrates why Djukich is regarded as the ultimate performance catalyst to business. He simply kicks the hell out of the sacred cows that keep individuals and businesses stuck. Brandon Craig, CEO, BiltRite Corporation