All tagged Business

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

Rating: 3/5 | The Culture Code was one of the Next Big Idea Club's selections. It's one of those nonfiction business books that could be summed up much more succinctly, but the addition of a lot of colorful and interesting examples expanded it out. I enjoyed it, but I have read a lot of leadership books and didn't really learn anything new here. (Click the post to read more.)

The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviours that Transform Ordinary People into World Class Leaders

Rating: 2/5 | I read this book as one of the selections of the Next Big Idea Club, which I highly recommend if you like to read nonfiction. Unfortunately, though, I just didn't really get into this book. Maybe it's because I'm not at the point in my career where I'm looking for advice on how to become a CEO, but it just didn't hold my attention very well. (Click the post to read more.)

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You

Rating: 4/5 | New Power was a fascinating look at one of the many ways the world is changing. It offers a study of "old power" vs "new power" and suggests ways they can be used strategically together to help effect positive change. The old vs. new dichotomy is straightforward and makes a complex situation easier to understand. They also picked great examples to help illustrate their points. (Click the post to read more.)

The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate

Rating: 3/5 | They Myth of the Nice Girl was a quick read with some actionable tips, and I'm glad I read it. Fran Hauser is articulate and comes across warmly, and she has done her homework when it comes to backing up her points. At the end of the day, this book is one of those that takes a lot of things you probably know intuitively and puts them together in a way that feels useful and helps you steer your own actions. (Click the post to read more.)

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Rating: 4/5 | The Checklist Manifesto was a delightful little book. It didn't necessarily teach me anything profound about checklists or how to make them, but it did take a bunch of things I already knew or understood and rearranged them in a way I hadn't considered before. The writing was great; it used good storytelling to feature many exciting examples, so I stayed attentive and intrigued. (Click the post to read more.)

Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success

Rating: 3/5 | Where to begin? There were things I liked about this book, and there were things that sat awkwardly on my conscience. It was quick and ultra-digestible, and it made me feel inspired to action and hopeful about my professional future, but there were some truth bombs in there that speak to many of the things that are wrong with society today. (Click the post to read more.)

Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change

Rating: 5/5 | Wow. This is the book I didn't know I was waiting for. In this book, Ellen tells the story of how she was repeatedly promised the world and given the gutter at the behemoth venture capital firm where she worked. Then, she spent hundreds of thousands—if not a million—dollars of her own money to challenge the firm in court. She was eventually out-gunned by the firm's greater financial and legal resources, and she lost, but it was close. She had many, many opportunities to settle the case for a significant sum, but chose to surrender her money in order to be able to write this book and tell her story. (Click the post to read more.)

Made to Stick

Rating: 5/5 | I am always looking for ways to learn new things, especially as it helps me get closer to accomplishing my professional goals. As a result, I've read a lot of books in this "self-help-for-business" genre. At this point, I sometimes feel like I've read all the advice before. This book pleasantly surprised me; all of it was engaging and entertaining as well as educational and thought-provoking. I learned something new and related the lessons back to my experiences with every turn of the page. (Click the post to read more.)