In 2021, I set a goal for myself to read a book a month, and since then, those books have been vital to me growing as a leader. That year, I took a course at Carnegie Mellon called Developing as a Leader, and we read Grit by Angela Duckworth. While I had been an avid reader as a kid, up until this point, I hadn’t been actively reading for fun or my own learning purposes. Grit was the book that sparked my interest again, and was why at the end of that class, I set my goal to read a book every month.
That is why today, I want to some of my must reads for anyone who has a passion for leadership. May these books help you be a great leader faster than me.
The 6 Habits of Growth – Brenden Buchard
Ok so first off, this book is technically an audiobook. Yes, audiobooks count as books, I stand by it, and you should too. Now that we’ve got this out the way, let’s talk about why you should read it.
If you don’t listen (or read) any book from this list, please make sure it’s this one. The reason why I recommend this book is because it’s the first leadership/motivational book with clear guidance that is easy to act on. This site, Blkgradstudent, was created based upon one of the habits that I formed from this book, writing down my daily goals. This is the process of writing down my long-term goals daily and writing down daily goals that get me closer to my long-term goals. While this might seem like a small habit to form, it’s pretty powerful when you compound it day over day. I’ll frame it another way, if you got 1% better every day, that’s a 365% improvement year over year.
Ultimately, the reason why I believe all future leaders should listen to this book is because as a leader you’ll learn you are constantly growing. For example, let’s say you were a business leader in the 1990s, the smart phone didn’t exist, so communication and connectivity were at a premium. Your employees truly had a 9-5 job as they say because they probably wouldn’t be able to connect with you. Now, with everything interconnected, you have to actively ensure your team has a work life balance. Overall, this book equips you with the skillset of how to be a lifelong learner, which is a requirement to be successful.
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things – Adam Grant
If the first book gives you a foundation for being a lifelong learner, this book gives you the skills to refine how you learn. Being a lifelong learner can be a tough route, because what happens when you get stuck? For example, you want to be a CTO, and you make it to a director role, but you’re not sure how you can get past it. This book gives you the concepts to push past potential roadblocks.
My favorite concept from this book is the one of deliberate play. Using an example of this from when I was a kid, I used to really like math. So much so that when I learned how to carry numbers in addition, I would make up my own math problems. To me this was fun figuring out how numbers greater than 100 added together, and that is the concept of deliberate play. Creating a way that you can continue to learn/develop but doing so in a fun way. Note: This differs from gamification, because the fun is in the learning process, not the achievement of the goal. There’s a great example of how Steph Curry did this, and I won’t give that story away because I want you to read the book.
Marketing Made Simple – Donald Miller
Ok so this one is a deviation from the first two, but after reading it, I realized how much marketing is a part of any role. Pitching a new product to your boss, marketing. Trying to get a promo, marketing. Helping a customer implement a recommendation, marketing. Marketing is probably one of the underlying themes in everything we do. While marketing is a role in itself, these people are the industry experts. By non-marketing people learning about marketing, it can be a differentiator for your career. Most people don’t know how to do this well so by you knowing how to sell yourself, your products, and your ideas it makes you stand out.
Now, in talking about the book for why you should read it. If you haven’t realized by now, I love practical steps, and this book does that. From the very beginning, this book helps you understand the most important steps in marketing. The first of which is how you communicate what you solve to your customer through a one-liner. The Blkgradstudent platform was created based upon the guidance from this book, and being honest this feels like the best website I’ve designed. Note, this is the 4th that I have worked on. Overall, if you’re looking for a holistic book on marketing, this book offers that in a simple easy to apply way.
Call to Action
If you didn’t get anything from this post, my call to action to you is to start leveraging something to continue developing as a leader. I say something because there’s podcast, audiobooks, courses, certifications, and more that you can use to develop. Choose something and commit to doing it at a regular basis. You might not meet your goal every time, but don’t let that discourage you. Learning and development needs to be part of your toolkit, and I urge you to make that plan of action starting now.
If you’re looking for more advice that can help you with your career, feel free to check out other blog posts or even sign up for a mentorship session. We would love to help you become the high performer you’ve always wanted to be and to achieve your career goals.
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