2020 Reading List - Lessons Learned

Outliers

This was a great book to start off my goal. It was easy to read, full of anecdotes and stories and had some valuable takeaways regarding how to separate yourself as an “outlier”. It was less of a “do this” or “Do that” book and more of a study as to what other successful people had done.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????Effort: Every successful person studied in this book had worked hard to achieve what they accomplished. Often, we’re talking over 10000 hours dedicated to their craft and a strong work ethic even where most people would have given up. If you want to be successful, you need to work HARD and work FOR A LONG TIME without seeing an immediate result.

2.?????Your Network: The book also talked about how no one becomes successful by being on an island – every successful person had people they counted on.

3.?????To be successful you need to show practical/emotional intelligence (knowing when to say what to whom) and have clear communication, avoiding “mitigated” speech as much as possible.

4.?????For your employees, you need to give people autonomy, complexity, and a clear connection between effort and reward to make a job feel meaningful.

Extreme Ownership

I enjoyed this book. The chapters are very easy to read and follow a consistent framework of story – principle – application framework to every chapter. This book was written with a certain intensity that can be off-putting at times, but there were a lot of takeaways – especially regarding accountability.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????It’s not about what you preach, it’s what you tolerate: As a leader, I used to be notorious for letting people off the hook and wanting to avoid confrontation. However, this book helped me see that when there are no consequences or accountability to poor performance, then poor performance becomes normal. Accountability and consequences means you are helping them hit the goals they wanted to achieve.

2.?????Decentralized command: My immediate leadership style is very directive – I’m very quick to just give the answer or make the decision. A decentralized command is all about grooming your team to make the decisions within their area without involving you – which allows you to take care of bigger picture planning and execution. Bypassing down that decision-making power, you’re grooming a team of leaders instead of a team of followers.

3.?????One person is not more important than the mission: We get attached to our team members and we focus on our relationships and the history instead of performance. However, if someone is no longer helping the team and you’ve done everything you can to help them, you need to be prepared to let that person go. One person can not be more important than the team.

Objections

I have read a lot of Jeb Blount’s books and I listen to his podcasts. A big reason why I like his stuff is that he focuses more on prospecting & qualifying than the “guaranteed to close the deal” lines that just make you sound sleazy.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????An objection is not rejection, even though they feel the same. Often, your customer is just raising a legitimate concern they would like to see addressed and they are still engaged.

2.?????Emotional control is the key to handling objections and the best way to do that is using some form of a “ledge” to give your logical brain time to catch up to your emotional response. This could be taking a sip of water, a deep breath, or even saying “let me think about that for a moment”.

Leaders Eat Last

I like listening to Simon on leadership podcasts, so I decided to give a couple of his books a try this year. Leaders Eat Last was the first book I read, and although I found the work a bit hard to digest at times, it was an overall great discussion on your role as a leader in developing a culture where people feel safe.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????Leadership is about integrity, honesty, and accountability – all of which are components of trust. The most important thing about building trust is telling the truth. If you don’t own up to your mistakes, trust dissolves.

2.?????Lead the people, not the numbers. In recruitment, it’s easy to focus on KPIs and evaluate your team purely based on that. KPIs are a good diagnostic tool but when that is all you focus on it can make you impersonal. Focusing on leading the people will help people stick with you through good times and bad.

Inked

Inked was another book I read from Jeb that spoke specifically to negotiating contracts. What I liked about Inked is that there were no sleazy tactics and it was mostly coaching around how to have a “give and take” conversation with both procurement and line managers. If you’re in a role where negotiating contracts is a key part of your role, I would recommend this book.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????Have ideal terms, acceptable terms, and walkaway terms ready before you go into a meeting. Signing a bad deal will eventually make you resentful and give your client a bad service. No one wins in that situation – you need to make sure you’re both happy.

2.?????Never give away anything for free – if a client wants a term changed, always get something also changed in your favor. Clients will always value some things more than others, just the same as you will. For example, you may be willing to give them longer net terms for a longer contract duration or a lower fee for exclusive business.

3.?????Lastly – know what your “funny money” is and use it to your advantage. Funny money is something that a client sees value in that doesn’t cost you anything. It can be very useful as a bargaining tool without having to lose much.

The Dichotomy of Leadership

This was the second book that I read from Jocko this year and while I did not like it as much as I liked Extreme Ownership, it was still a great book. The book essentially described how there is always a dichotomy to leadership – you can’t go all in either way. For example, you can’t practice extreme ownership of everything because you need to empower others to own things as well. Leadership is all about balance.

The Compound Effect

I loved reading The Compound Effect. I finished it in a week and there was so much good information and best practices in it. Essentially, it is similar to a book I read last year called Atomic Habits, where small, seemingly insignificant changes can have a large effect on you in the long term.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????Track everything that affects your goal: if you’re learning to manage your money better, write down every cent you spend for 14 days. If you want to eat healthier, then write down everything you put in your mouth. It holds you accountable and you stop letting yourself off the hook.

2.?????Influences: You need to be mindful of what you have influencing you. The media you watch, the people you hang out with, the material you read – all of this can influence you positively or negatively. Look for things that build you up and avoid the things that try and bring you down.

3.?????Your competitors all face the same issues you do and who pushes through those issues is ultimately who will win. Common things will deliver common results so always do more than what is expected of you. Never wish things were easier, wish that you were better, and then build the habits necessary to be better.

Good to Great

Good to Great was a book that was recommended to me by a few colleagues that I used to work with. While the book is rather an information-dense, it does have a lot of good information as to how good companies become great companies.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????Focus on having the right people “on the bus” and then decide on where to drive it. If you have the right people on your team, you can adapt to the changing world (like a pandemic). If someone isn’t a fit for your team, it’s important to get them off the bus sooner than letting them suffer through not fitting in. If you must tightly manage someone, they likely aren’t a fit.

2.?????Good leaders look for people to give credit to when things go well and look in the mirror to hold themselves accountable when things go wrong.

3.?????But the best people on your biggest opportunities – not the biggest problems.

4.?????Create a culture where you lead with questions, engage in dialogue and debate, and investigate issues without blame. If you focus on a culture where you find out the truth, your company will always be able to adapt to the changing market.

Start With Why

I preferred Start With Why over Leaders Eat Last. The book was centered on knowing you're why, your beliefs and values, and then building a culture of people who believe the same thing. People inherently want to feel safe and like they belong to the group, and Start With Why spoke about this in detail.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This goes with customers and internal team members. Team members don’t love the accountability, but when they know you do it because you want them to achieve their goals, they will be more bought in. Similarly, my customers typically can’t see a clear difference from one recruitment firm to the next. However, when I explain why they should work with me particularly, it provides more value.

2.?????You need to be clear in your why, disciplined with the how, and consistent with your what. People like authenticity, so everything you say and do needs to back up what you say you believe. If these things our out of sync, you will come across as dishonest. ??

3.?????Great leadership is going out to serve those who serve you. Always communicate the why and what is in it for your team, not what is in it for you or the customer. A strong why will help people feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

This book was recommended to me by a client and it was one of my favorite books of the year. The book has a story in which it shows the five dysfunctions of a team and then closes off by discussing all of them. The fable makes the book easy to read and follow, while still having the same content value as a personal development book.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????Building trust is the most critical part of building an effective team. Without trust, people won’t admit mistakes, be vulnerable, or challenge each other. All of these things are key to strong teamwork.

2.?????Fear of conflict and avoiding accountability can sink teams. If debates and arguments at work are centered on business and not personal, you need to encourage them. You need to be willing to call each other out on things that are bad for the team. Conflict and accountability are uncomfortable, but they will help the team be more productive in the end.

Virtual Selling

Virtual selling was the last of Jeb’s books that I read this year. The content of the book is essentially Fanatical Prospecting that has been made for the virtual selling world. If you’ve read Fanatical Prospecting, you don’t need to read this book. If you haven’t read Fanatical Prospecting, I would read Virtual Selling if you mostly sell remotely and Fanatical Prospecting if you are face to face.

The Ideal Team Player

Much like the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, this book has a story and a summary of the principles at the end. It was easy to read and I felt like it spoke to me as a recruiter & hiring manager because the story followed a company that was looking for a key hire.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????The Ideal Team Player is hungry, humble, and people smart. This means that they don’t have an ego, they are always looking for ways to improve, and they are aware of people’s emotions.

2.?????All three of these traits can be developed if they are weaker in some areas than in others. The biggest thing is that these are core characteristics, so developing them will take constant coaching and time. This means that the person must be bought to make these changes.

The Challenger Sale

This book was centered on helping sales managers hire, train, and run stronger sales teams. It was a very information-dense book but had a lot of good content.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????“Challenger” salespeople often have the best performance because they offer unique perspectives, can identify economic drivers in a customer’s business and can challenge a customer on the way they do business. Essentially, they are great solution selling.

2.?????Teaching your customer something new about the market provides additional value aside from just selling them a product. If you can tailor the way you position your service to their specific needs, you will differentiate yourself from the competition.

3.?????A great way to manage a sales team is the commander’s intent. For example, a commander might say “capture the hill” but not give clear guidelines on how to do it so that field leaders can make decisions on how that mission is best achieved. The same applies to sales.

4.?????When coaching your people, it needs to be ongoing (constant), customized (specific to each rep), and behavioral (application).

Radical Candor

This was another book that was recommended to me by a previous coworker. Radical Candor speaks to the ability to challenge people directly while caring about them personally. If you care for someone but you let them off the hook, you are never going to help them achieve their potential. If you challenge them a lot but don’t show any empathy or care, you’re going to come across as a jerk and people will quit. It’s a balance of the two.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????There are rockstars and superstars and you need them both. Rockstar’s are often favored to superstars because they’re the ones who want to get promoted and move up. While it’s important to have those people on your team, you need your solid producers (superstars) as well. Don’t think less of someone for wanting stability. You need those people too. ?

2.?????You need to involve people in decisions that are made so that they are bought into the plan. If you unilaterally make decisions yourself or in a small group, it can affect the team’s buy-in. Giving people an opportunity to debate ideas will help improve team cohesion. ?

Make Your Bed

This book was written by Admiral William H. McRaven following a speech he gave to the graduating class of the University of Texas back in 2014. It’s a simple book of life lessons he took from his time in the Navy and I would recommend it. It’s short, easy to read, and a very touching book.

Major Takeaways:

1.?????“You can’t go at it alone. Find someone to help you paddle”: You need people to help you along the way. People give you tough love when you need it and support you when you’re down.

2.?????“Failure can make you stronger”: Life isn’t fair and you will have your share of failures. However, if you learn to persevere and learn from these failures, it will strengthen you and you will be more prepared in the future.?