Suggested reading for new leads January 14 2018

Top reads from 2017 January 1 2018

In 2017, I set a goal for myself to read 20 books. The same goal as the year before, which I'd surpassed with 24 books. This was a great year for reading, and I read or listened to 46 books in total! 

My reading focused, somewhat accidentally, on what I call the "how to live" genre as opposed to more business-focused books. I also tried to add some more diverse perspectives to my library, which I'll continue to do next year.

In no particular order, these are my top reads from 2017:

Stop reading that book April 8 2017

Not all books, but that book. The book you've been telling yourself you really should read. The one that you look at and immediately find something else to do. Stop reading that book.

I have a tendency to view reading as a race of sorts. I like keeping track of what I'm reading, how far I am, and how many books I've read so far this year. This can make it difficult to stop reading a book, particularly if you're already 50 or 100 pages into it. You've gotten this far, it doesn't make sense to stop now.

Except it really, really does.

How I get the most from reading November 13 2016

One of the most rewarding things I've done in my adult life has been becoming a more proficient reader. I've been intentional about improving in this area, and it's led to a lot of my personal and professional growth. I want to share my process so that others can benefit from what I've learned, and get the same reward from reading.

Here’s my system for reading.

Planning for the year ahead January 10 2016 , 1 Comment

Last year, I set 12 goals for myself in 2015. That was a lot of different stuff to focus on, and I learned a lot from that experience. This year, I’m taking a different approach by setting a few broad objectives, building habits that feed into those objectives, and applying some of the advice I’ve gathered on this process over the year.

Rather than many different specific goals, I’m focusing on a smaller group of broader objectives, similar to OKRs. The intent here is to draw a sketch of where I want to go and cultivate the behaviours that will get me there.

Why not goals? Because goals suck.

On delegating August 23 2015

Delegating is difficult. You have to know which tasks absolutely require your attention, and which ones you just think require you.

You have to be able to communicate the why behind them. Unless it's something like data entry (and maybe even then), the person you're trusting to take these projects on needs to know why it's important and what kind of impact it has.

Why are these two things so difficult?