My First Recommended Reading List

Here are ten books I selected from what I read in the last couple of years. I highly recommend each of them if you enjoy reading. While first three books are inspiring human stories which make us pause and think of the meaning of the work we do, the others are more geared towards how to navigate effectively in this increasingly complex world.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – by William Kamkwamba

An enterprising teenager in Malawi builds a windmill from scraps he finds around his village and brings electricity, and a future, to his family. It is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. It will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability. Truly inspiritional.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder

This powerful and inspiring book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of Dr. Paul Farmer who is in love with the world and has set out to to conquer diseases among the world's poor.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

Leadership moments, by Mike Useem

Dr. Mike Useem, my leadership class professor at Wharton, has spent his whole career on how leadership operates. He uses nine leaders from different realms of business, public service and government, and focuses on one critical decision that each had to make. For NASA flight director Eugene Kranz, it was guiding a crippled Apollo 13 back to Earth. For El Salvador's President Alfredo Cristiani, it was bringing an end to his country's civil war. The stories are packed with details. His writing style is guiding not lecturing. Wonderful book.

The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, by Richard Shell

If you think selling goods are difficult, try selling your ideas in a corporate world. Dr. Shell and Moussa aim to help readers get attention and sell their ideas through strategic relationship-based persuasion. while the concept may seem simple, mastering it is an art. The challenge is in striking a balance between what the authors identify as the "self-oriented" perspective-where focus is on the persuader's credibility and point of view-and the "other-oriented" perspective, which focuses on the audience's needs, perceptions and feelings.

Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, by Adam Grant

In his New York Times bestseller Give and Take, Adam Grant delves into the impact of reciprocity on professional advancement. His research showed that, surprisingly, giving more means getting more back.

Culture Map, by Erin Meyer

Cultural differences can be difficult to understand or even notice, especially when you are immersed in it. Prof. Erin Meyer’s book describes specific differences in how people from different cultures communicate and consider ideas at work.

Manage your boss, by JJ Gabaroo and JP Kotter

In this classic HBR article turned book, Gabarro and Kotter advise readers to devote time and energy to managing their relationships with their bosses. They ask readers to understand that the relationship is one of mutual dependence. Bosses need cooperation, reliability, and honesty from their direct reports. Employees rely on bosses for making connections with the rest of the company, for setting priorities, and for obtaining critical resources. Successfully managing your relationship with your boss requires that you have a good understanding of your supervisor and of yourself. Once you are aware of what impedes or facilitates communication with your boss, you can take actions to improve your relationship. You can usually establish a way of working together that fits both of you, that is characterized by unambiguous mutual expectations, and that makes both of you more productive and effective.

The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction, by James Citrin and Richard Smith

The book is distilled from interviews and surveys of extraordinary executives conducted across industry boundaries. It is more about making the most of the career you have. Making the right decisions can mean the different between a career that’s great, and one that’s extraordinary. Even after all their advice, they admit, “true success and satisfaction are goals that need to be defined by each of us in a way that is consistent with our own aspirations and values.”

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

This is a best-selling book published in 2011 by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman who takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. 

If you have read any of the books on the list, please share your thoughts in the comment section. If you have other books to recommend along the themes, I would love to hear your recommendations.