My Top 5 Business Books
People always ask me which business books I would recommend, and here are my top five.
Culture Map
by Erin Meyer
“Whether you work in a home office or abroad, business success in our ever more globalized and virtual world requires the skills to navigate through cultural differences and decode cultures foreign to your own”
This is a brilliant book that is enormously helpful in improving empathy and teamwork in cross-cultural teams.
Effortless
by Greg McKeown
“The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are ‘hard and important’ and those that are ‘easy and trivial’. Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be”.
In a world full information and attention overload, this book is an essential reminder to prioritise the important things, and avoid wasting our energy on those that have less impact. This is especially important for busy teams who can get bogged down in process, bureaucracy or box-ticking instead of what really matters towards their goals.
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader.
Herminia Ibarra
“What kind of work is important; how you should invest your time; why and which relationships matter in informing and supporting your leadership; and, ultimately, who you want to become.”.
This book offers a simple, powerful revelation – that our relationships with peers, stakeholders and leaders are just as important as our team’s productivity on tasks and projects.
The Checklist Manifesto
Atul Gawande
“The volume and complexity of our knowledge has exceeded our ability to consistently deliver it – correctly, safely or efficiently”.
As technology advances, we are required to remember more and more process to get things done. It’s impossible to do this by memory and good intentions alone – creating checklists means essential tasks are not forgotten, mistakes are avoided and we have more time to focus on improving our teamwork.
Atomic Habits
James Clear
“People think that when you want to change your life, you need to think big…but real change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions”
For individuals and for teams, it’s the small, every day, repetitive things that add up to long term results. This book reminds us to constantly re-evaluate how we spend our time on a daily basis, and where we can spend it better to work better together.