mark cerqueira well-rounded nerd

Manager Reads - Retrospective 2.0

20 Jan 2020

This retrospective is long overdue given I did the first Manager Reads retrospective after four books and have now covered twenty books in the Manager Reads series.

  • Has reading these books been worthwhile? Yes! Reading books on management won’t instantly make you a good manager but they have certainly have contributed to my success and working through the challenges in the role. Like good QA being a puzzle being a great manager requires a multi-faceted approach; disdain for this category of books because they are not silver bullets is misplaced.

  • What’s been so worthwhile? The most helpful thing I get from reading these books is frameworks for approaching management and the language used to discuss these frameworks, the problems they are trying to solve, and the solutions proposed. For example, the crux of Turn the Ship Around! is leaders should divest control to create leadership at every level of their team. To successfully divest control the team must have both competence and clarity. This framework that shifts which shifts the team from the leader-follower model to the leader-leader model has been something I try to leverage as much as possible.

  • Favorite book so far? It’s hard to pick just one so here are my three favorites: Extreme Ownership, Turn the Ship Around, and Orbiting the Giant Hairball. I can’t recommend all three enough; they’re fantastic reads!

  • Least liked book so far? While the The Effective Manager offered some helpful tips the book felt too prescriptive and ultimately very bland. Also, the cover doesn’t really make sense to me.

  • Will you continue reading? Absolutely! The more I dig in the more I find other great books to read. The only thing I want to change is to do a better job mixing in other types of books (e.g. science fiction, fantasy) that I can read purely for fun.

To continue providing continuity during the Manger Reads series here are the Title Length Power Rankings™ – brevity is the soul of this rank – and Judge a Book by Its Cover Power Ranking™ – books shall be judged by their covers.

Title Length Power Rankings™

  1. The Effective Manager (22)
  2. High Output Management (23)
  3. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work (38)
  4. Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader (39)
  5. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win (52)
  6. An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management (53)
  7. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box (54)
  8. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work (56)
  9. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (58)
  10. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (58)
  11. Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility (59)
  12. Debugging Teams: Better Productivity through Collaboration (59)
  13. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts (60)
  14. The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership (61)
  15. Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders (70)
  16. Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces (73)
  17. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently (80)
  18. Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace (80)
  19. The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations (80)
  20. The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win (91)

Judge a Book by Its Cover Power Ranking™

  1. Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader
  2. An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management
  3. Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace
  4. Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
  5. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
  6. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
  7. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
  8. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
  9. The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations
  10. Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces
  11. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
  12. The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win
  13. Debugging Teams: Better Productivity through Collaboration
  14. The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership
  15. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts
  16. Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility
  17. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
  18. High Output Management
  19. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
  20. The Effective Manager

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Most of the world’s wisdom is written down in its best books. Manager Reads is a series covering books on management and leadership, focusing on books that can improve your own leadership with the wisdom of others. Enjoyed this post and want to see more? Check out more at Manager Reads.