Contributors to the May 2019 issue of TD magazine offer their book recommendations.
Dorie Clark
The Thought Leader Formula: Strategically Leverage Your Expertise to Drive Business and Career Goals by Robin Farmanfarmaian
The Thought Leader Formula takes readers through a step-by-step process to build themselves into a thought leader in their company or field. The main goal is to empower people to take control of their careers and design their perfect life. Robin based this process on a project plan she created for herself years ago that led to her becoming a professional speaker earning five-figure fees in front. If you’re interested in becoming a known expert in your business ecosystem, this is a great resource for you to start your journey to thought leadership.
The Genius Habit by Laura Garnett
The Genius Habit explores how you can take action and learn to spend more time in your “Zone of Genius,” which is that sweet spot in which you are challenged, fulfilled, and happily engaged in the work you’re doing. Both inspirational and practical, The Genius Habit introduces a methodology that has helped Garnett’s high-profile clients at LinkedIn, Capital One, and Pandora transform their careers and their lives. The Genius Habit gives employees at all levels the tools they need to gain clarity about who they are and where they are going, and to proactively create the career of their dreams.
Stand Out by Dorie Clark
Yes, I wrote Stand Out—but I’m including it here because I truly believe it can help move readers’ careers forward. The book focuses on how you can “find your breakthrough idea and build a following around it.”
Ger Driesen
Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
This is the bestselling basic book about blockchain and its principles and applications. It’s the best way to get started.
Blockchain Organizing for Managers: The Reinvention of Management by Paul Bessems and Walter Bril
This is a specific approach to blockchain as the result of digital transformation, leading to a new way of organizing processes in a more frictionless way.
Mike Kunkle
Sales Enablement: A Master Framework to Engage, Equip, and Empower A World-Class Sales Force by Byron Matthews and Tamara Schenk
This book provides an effective, innovative framework for evaluating and improving the performance of any sales force and includes systems thinking (without calling it that), written by a university professor and colleagues, who are part of the leadership team of a well-respected sales consulting firm.
The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance by Andris Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha, and Greggor A. Zoltners
This book provides an effective, innovative framework for evaluating and improving the performance of any sales force and includes systems thinking (without calling it that), written by a university professor and colleagues, who are part of the leadership team of a well-respected sales consulting firm.
Philipp Ramin
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown
This is not a book by designers for designers; this is a book for creative leaders seeking to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization‚ product‚ or service to drive new alternatives for business and society.
Good People: The Only Leadership Decision That Really Matters by Anthony Tjan
Packed with practical yet often surprising advice, Good People establishes a new language and framework you can use to evaluate, develop, and lead with goodness. Tjan will convince you that there is a hard truth in the “soft stuff” of business, and that choosing and working well with good people is truly the only leadership decision that really matters.
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful start-ups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
