IT Leaders – Read!
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.” –George R.R. Martin
It seems as though reading is becoming more and more of a lost art. The busier we get in our lives the less time we take to stop and enjoy a good book. It is as if we have lost the forest for the trees; we say we are too busy to read, but we are more than willing to toss hours of our lives away watching TV or browsing social media.
The truth is that reading is one of the best possible uses of our time. There are few activities that contribute as much to our personal and professional development as reading can. Reading provides mental stimulation, improved vocabulary, stress reduction, and personal growth. As IT Leaders, reading is a great way to stay on top of ever-evolving technology. It is also a great way for us to continue our development as leaders.
There are many examples of very successful people who are avid readers. They include Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Cuban, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet, and Barack Obama. If titans of industry, entertainment, and politics preach the benefits that reading had on their lives…maybe we should take a listen?
One of my favorite scenes from “The Matrix” is when Neo gets “plugged into” a training program. After a few seconds of the program downloading into his brain, he says…”I know Kung Fu.” Well, reading is the closest thing we have to that. It may take more than a few seconds, but after a few hours or a few days we can say…”I know Emotional Intelligence”, or, “‘I know how to be a more effective CIO in this digital era.” Of course, reading a book doesn’t make you an expert, you need to put the principles you learn into practice. But it is a critical first step to mastery.
So whether you are an avid reader; or someone who is looking for a place to get started–here is a list of books that I love and recommend. This is by no means a comprehensive reading list. It is a list of books that I have personally read that I have found to be of great benefit to my personal and professional growth. The list trends towards non-technical books. I think we all know as IT Professionals that staying on top of the latest technologies is “part of the job.” So, I trust that either through books, blogs, podcasts, or any number of sources you are keeping your tech skills up to date.
This list focuses more on books that I read that had an impact on my personal or professional growth. These books focus more on the “soft skills” that will help you continue to develop or enhance your skills as an IT Leader.
- World Class IT — Peter High — A great book to help you learn how to make IT a stronger, more strategic partner within the organization. If you want to create a high performing IT department with more prominence and a greater reputation within your company, this is a great book to get you started down that path.
- Be The Business — Martha Heller — Digital Transformation is changing IT and IT leaders must be prepared to embrace these changes to succeed as technology’s role in the organization continues to grow. The IT department is no longer the gatekeeper of technology; we no longer hold the secret keys to the server room and all new technology no longer needs to come through us. With the continued growth of cloud technologies the business owns the technology–and this is a good thing. This book will help you better understand how the role of CIO is changing and how top CIOs from some of the world’s largest organizations are leading IT in the new digital era.
- Scaling Up — Verne Harnish — As technology leaders we play a critical role in delivering the tools and technologies that help our organizations to grow. This is a fantastic book to learn the principles of how to successfully “scale up” a business and how we can apply technology to support growth. The book extols the virtues of Lean as a critical component to a successful growing business. We play a huge role in helping our organizations implement Lean principles through technology.
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — Stephen Covey — One of the most important books I have read and the grandaddy (in my opinion) of personal development books. If you read nothing else on this list; read this book. Covey lays out a system through his 7 Habits where you can achieve effectiveness in both your personal and professional life. He creates an “operating system” for life of basic principles, that if followed, will help you become much more effective in all facets of your life.
- Emotional Intelligence — Daniel Goleman — The farther you go in your professional life, the more important your “people skills” become. As a matter of fact, poor people skills will prevent you from getting far in your career. Emotional intelligence will help you better identify and manage emotions in yourself and others. This is at the heart of being a good “people person”. Being emotionally intelligent will have a great impact on your professional development. This book is a great start on learning how to become emotionally intelligent.
- The Obstacle is the Way — Ryan Holliday — We all face obstacles in our lives. As IT professionals we have our own unique set of obstacles that we face every day from budgetary restrictions to cyber-security threats. The question is: will we fold and succumb to these obstacles or will we use them as a springboard to success and achievement. In this book, Ryan Holliday taps into the 2,000+ year old philosophy of Stoicism to teach us how we can turn obstacles into opportunities. If you are at a challenging point in your career or personal life this would be a great book for you. And if nothing else, it will introduce you to Stoicism, which alone is worth the price of admission.
- Take Back Your Life — Sally McGhee — I read this book over 10 years ago while I was home after the birth of my son, Trevor. I was getting busier and busier in my professional life and felt like I was drowning in my task list and was struggling to find a way to effectively manage my time. I cannot remember how, but I somehow stumbled upon this book and it helped me establish a time management system that I continue to use to this day using Microsoft Outlook. We all use Outlook in our professional lives; why not use Outlook as your time/task management tool? Time is the currency of our lives; if you are struggling to make effective use of your time this could be a great book for you.
- Tools of Titans — Tim Ferriss — Tim Ferriss is the author of 5 books and the host of a very successful podcast. He is all about identifying the traits, schedules, habits, routines, and tricks of high performers and distilling them to a level that any of us can follow to improve our own performance. He has interviewed over 200 guests in his podcasts from top athletes to successful business people. This book is basically the notes from these podcasts and it is a treasure trove of advice you can pick and choose from to improve your own personal performance. If you do not want to read the book, do yourself a favor and check out a Tim Ferriss podcast…it is great stuff.
- The Effective Executive — Peter Drucker — A definite “oldie but goodie”. This book was recommended to me by a mentor and I was hesitant to read it at first simply because I “assumed” it would be out-dated. Well, you know what they say about assuming, so I went ahead and gave it a chance and I am glad I did. The book presents some very solid core “best practices” that help us better manage our time, priorities, and decision making to make stronger contributions to our organizations.
Now that you have some suggested books, how do you develop or strengthen the habit of reading? Below are some tips that have been helpful for me to make reading more of a discipline and to create time for reading.
- Make it a Discipline — As Jocko Willink says– “Discipline is Freedom.” Build time to read into your daily schedule. Even if you start small and just commit yourself to 5-10 pages a day — in the morning, at night before you go to sleep — you will build momentum and build a discipline to read.
- Listen to Audiobooks — You do not have to actually read a physical book, you can listen to it and still gain all the benefits and knowledge. A great way to spend your commute time or travel time is to listen to audiobooks. You can knock out a book in a week’s worth of commute time or in a single long trip.
- Embrace Kindle — Use the Kindle app on your phone or tablet to increase your opportunities to read. The beauty of the Kindle app is that you can have it on every device you own. So no matter where you are at, you can read. With a physical book, you obviously have to have the book physically on your person to read it. You always have your phone with you so you always have the Kindle app available to read. Sitting in the doctor’s office? Read. Waiting for your hair appointment? Read. Passenger on a trip or commute? Read. You get it…the Kindle app makes it easy to fill those empty spaces with reading.
- Stop if You are not Getting Value — This suggestion comes from Naval Ravikant. He says that you should not feel obligated to finish a book just because you started it. If you get a chapter or two into a book and it is not “speaking to you” or you are not enjoying it–simply stop reading it. I admit, I struggle with this. My mindset has always been that if I started a book I need to finish it. Before I heard this advice Moby Dick was the only book I started that I just couldn’t finish. But this really is great advice that I am starting to follow. It really makes reading more enjoyable and less of the chore I tended to make it when I was slogging through a book that was not interesting to me. I have just recently taken this advice myself with the Ben Franklin biography. I find Ben Franklin to be a fascinating historical figure, but 25% into the book I was struggling. It was becoming more of a chore than a benefit. So Ben Franklin went back on the shelf and I started on another book.
- Read While Exercising — Want to kill two birds with one stone? Exercise while you read, or read while you exercise–however you want to look at it. Obviously, this will not work with a lot of forms of exercise. But if you walk or jog on a treadmill, or ride an exercise bike; it could be an excellent opportunity to read as well. I do a lot of high speed, high incline walking on my treadmill (to protect my aging knees) and I find that I absorb what I am reading much better while I am exercising. As mentioned above, the Kindle app really helps with this as it is easier to place an iPad on a treadmill or other piece of cardio exercise equipment than it is to balance a physical book. However, some treadmills have a bracket on them you can use to balance a book. I am fortunate that I can place most physical books I read on my treadmill.
So there you have it; a list of some great books that can help you become a better IT Leader and some suggestions on how to make more time for this valuable habit. I encourage all IT Leaders to make a commitment to reading. Make the investment in yourself to take time to read and grow your skills. In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey teaches us in Habit 7 to “Sharpen the Saw”. This means we should make the investment of time to sharpen ourselves so we do not get “dull” and ineffective in our lives. Reading is one of the best ways to continue to sharpen your saw (brain) and to make sure you continue to be an effective leader.
Do you have any favorites or “must reads” that I did not have on my list? Please feel free to share them in the comments below. I would love to hear your feedback and reading suggestions.
