Scaling Up Magazine Scaling Up Magazine April 2018 | Page 6

MUST-READ BOOKS: 2018 6 8 SPRING 2018 MUST-READ BOOKS FOR 2018 By: Verne Harnish LOOKING TO scale your business exponentially? Then you’ve got to out-read the competition. In more than three decades of advising growth companies, I have learned that the most successful leaders are readers. In addition to the books written by our speakers, here are eight of my favorite books from this past year, covering each of the four critical decisions in the Scaling Up system that all growing companies must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. (Because there is such a dearth of great books on Cash, I’ve focused that section on favorite business biographies by entrepreneurs who have generated tremendous wealth.) Add these eight to your must-read (or must-listen) list or—hint— divide them up among team members in related roles and have them report back on what they’ve learned. The Master Coach: Leading with Character, Building Connections, and Engaging in Extraordinary Conversations by Gregg Thompson As we transition to a world where work once done by managers is being taken over by technology, we still need leadership. To be effective in this new environment, managers need to pivot from command-and- control to coaching. Thompson will help you master the mental and psychological aspects in one of the best books I’ve seen on the art of coaching. Life’s a PIC/NIC…When You Understand Behavior by Aubrey C. Daniels and Alice D. Lattal Great coaches learn how to identify the specific motivators for each of the people they lead and know how to use that knowledge to drive performance. In his latest book, Aubrey Daniels—the world’s leading expert on applying behavioral science to business—along with co-author Alice Lattal will show you how to deploy what they have learned to truly motivate your team so you can replace misguided employee-of-the-month, review, and bonus programs that do more harm than good. Jobs to Be Done: A Road Map for Customer-Centered Innovation by Stephen Wunker, Jessica Wattman, and David Farber If you don’t get your strategy right now, you’re going to spend the next year executing a mess. This book will help you avoid going down the wrong path by focusing you on the single most important strategic question ever created: what is the job done by your product or service? The authors’ deep dive into a topic Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen—Wunker’s colleague—popularized will give you a roadmap to discern exactly what your customers really need done and to create the right products, services or solutions to keep them coming back.