Effective Managers Read Books
April 1, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
One of the things that have helped me become and stay an effective manager is I never stop learning from other people’s successes and failures. I do that by reading a lot of blogs, and when I have time, I read (and listen) to books.
If time is limited, I’m always looking for ways to find the best books, or at least get a new idea from what someone else got from a book. I’ve found reading other people’s book reviews on blogs is a GREAT way to quickly learn from what other people found interesting.
Every year, Rosa Say leads a group of these bloggers who write these great book reviews in what she calls “A Love Affair with Books” over at Joyful Jubilant Learning. I have been a part of this community since it was founded a few years back, because lifelong learning is one of my management commandments, and because I love to surround myself with folks smarter than me.
Here’s 5 reviews I picked out to give you a taste of what you will find at this year’s A Love Affair with Books:
- I reviewed Steve Farber’s new book Greater Than Yourself (more on this coming VERY soon).
- Life is a Verb – reviewed by Rick Hamrick
- The Red Rubber Ball at Work – reviewed by Dwayne Melancon
- Wooden on Leadership – reviewed by Dave Rothacker
- Outliers – reviewed by Tim Milburn (Tim also creates the awesome graphics and designs we use at JJL)
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read but don’t have anywhere to share the review? If so, I’d welcome you to submit it to me for use on Slacker Manager. If collectively we could share 1 book review a year, that’s 52 ideas going around the world for all to share and learn from. Wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we took the time to share our knowledge more?
If you want to share a review with the readers here, please do the following:
Email phil.gerbyshak@b5media.com with the subject line “Slacker Book Review” and your review of 400-600 words, along with a small picture of yourself (if you want to) and a 3-5 line byline (including a link back to your website) and I will be delighted to share my space with you.
I am currently reading “The New Leader’s 100-day Action Plan” and had just finished “Doing What Matters: How to Get Results That Make a Difference – The Revolutionary Old-School Approach” by James M. Kilts, former CEO for Gillette.
“The Art of Exceptional Living” by Jim Rohn is also a great book (I used the audio book) and only wished I heard this early in my life! He has some great ideas that I am practicing today!
One thing that I do today, thanks to Jim Rohn, is that I take notes from the books I read. What good it just reading books if you don’t learn from them? By taking notes, I have easy access to the ideas and thoughts of the books I had just read! I have filled one journal and am about to start on another! BTW – Borders is having a 1/2 price sale on some hard-back journals – I bought four!
Aloha Phil, and thank you for sharing the news about ALAWB09: As of yesterday we were up to 31 books reviewed, and have about a week still to go. The goodness of the event is truly in the recommendation gold, for all of our reviewers are sequential/consequential lifelong learners who read books to study and apply them beyond simply being entertained (which I know is your practice as well.)
You know that I agree with you 1000% – effective managers do read books, something I consistently find the truly great managers among us are quite voracious and consistent about, and no surprise that the great leaders are readers too.
That leads to a theme that I constantly hear from various sources – that “Leaders are learners.” I am constantly reading something – leadership, management, IT Security, etc.. For light reading I get history books. I just recieved one yesterday “Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature.” SOme of the people I work with think that I’m strange because I don’t read ‘fluff.’
The way I heard it phraised is that if you were to read educational/technical books – even one a year – you would be further ahead of those of equal background who doesn’t read!