Best Books List For Leaders

I was asked by Shepherd, a group dedicated to helping others discover the best books, to share my top books for real-world business leadership. Here are the best books for practical, hands-on business leadership. Of course, I needed to include my book in the list:

Finding and Retaining Stellar IT Employees Screen Image

For additional reading, another list I found helpful is the Best Leadership Books where 90 authors picked their favorite books about leadership and tell why they recommend each book.

Top 2018 Posts, Articles, and Resources

Below are my top five resources and posts for 2018:

The 100 Downloads:  A set of 30 templates, checklists, and other tools that support ideas in my book The 100.

Software Development: Being Agile:  Written as a part of a series on software development, this piece covers the benefits of Agile and Scrum.

Father’s Day:  On Father’s Day this year, I wrote a testament to my dad as a father and man.

Getting Curious Gets Results:  Inspired by a Harvard Business Review article, here are thoughts on how curiosity can improve our business and our lives.

How CEOs Manage Time:  Also inspired by a Harvard Business Review article, I share my $0.02 on how to effectively manage time/life.

Below are my top five articles in other publications for 2018:

Strategic philanthropy: Giving back means paying it forward in ways that matter, Minnesota Business Magazine

How to cultivate a work culture that works for everyone, The Business Journals

How to cultivate winning client-consultant relationships, Upsize Magazine

5 ways to increase workplace flow — and happiness, The Business Journals

How to focus your resources on achieving your goals, The Business Journals

How to cultivate winning client-consultant relationships

Much like members of Congress must “reach across the aisle” to forge effective political partnerships, effective client-consultant relationships work best when both parties communicate, participate, treat each other with respect and share responsibility for outcomes.

Unfortunately, as frequent legislative failures demonstrate, people do not always play by common-sense rules.

When they do, however, the results can be impressive. As the owner and CEO of a consulting company that works with hundreds of organizations to build software, I can attest that great work happens when we partner with clients who share these values. In fact, our people will go far beyond what is reasonably expected when a client follows these simple principles… read the full article in Upsize magazine’s “How to cultivate winning client-consultant relationships.”