2025 Reading Booster

It is summer already, which hopefully means a little bit more time to read and learn. If you need some ideas to get your summer reading started, see below for the best books I have read this year so far. Also, see my past postings for the 2023 and 2024 end-of-year recommendations.

Behavior

• Shift by Ethan Kross – This book is full of practical techniques to manage our emotions (respond) instead of letting them manage us (react). Bonus: Chatter, by the same author, provides insights to manage your inner voice.

• Defy by Sunita Sah – A research-based gift for people pleasers! This book provides a roadmap to act in accordance with our values when there is pressure to do the opposite.

• The Doors You Can Open by Rosalind Chow – This book explores sponsorship as an avenue to network with the intention to bring value to others and achieve career success along the way. After reading this book, I must admit that I have undervalued and underutilized sponsorship as a lever throughout my career.

• Validation by Caroline Fleck – We could all learn to listen better. This book shows us how! A simple framework lands the concept of listening without judgment, achieving full understanding, and adopting empathy, so that the other person feels seen and understood.

Leadership

• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson – If you think caste does not influence your life and career, you need to read this book! Caste is everywhere, and we have the responsibility to address it, regardless of our role in society.

• Corruptible by Brian Klass – Have you ever wondered if power corrupts? This book answers the question affirmatively with supporting research and provides valuable thoughts on how to avoid this undesired end state.

• Inspire by Adam Galinsky – Seeking to become an inspiring leader? This book decomposes inspiring leadership into three components: crafting and communicating vision, leading by example, and mentoring others.

• Lincoln on Leadership by Donald Phillips – I cannot believe I have not seen this book before. If you like Lincoln and are curious about leadership, you must read this book. The author extracts key leadership attributes throughout Lincoln’s life, making the concepts practical and relatable. I wish the author would have added “grit” to the list of leadership attributes. However, I acknowledge this book precedes Angela Duckworth’s work on grit that named the behavior and made it popular.

Innovation

• Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace – This is a deep dive into the Pixar story and culture, including best practices to develop and maintain a creative culture.

• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin – We are all creative beings, but it takes a book like this one to understand and manage this innate capability. I found the author’s decomposition of the creative process unique and informative.

• The Right It by Alberto Savoia – Have you heard the concept of a pretotype? I had not until I read this book, and it blew me away. The author introduces a framework to foster innovation by testing hypothesis effectively and efficiently, which worked very well at scale (i.e., Google) and is delivering tangible results as I lead innovation efforts.

Communication

• Ping by Andrew Brodsky – Virtual communication is part of our lives, so why not master it? The author shares science-backed best practices to take our virtual communication to its next level.

• How to Be Heard by Julian Treasure – This is a great resource to improve public speaking with tested tips and tricks. I also appreciated the author’s point that good communication starts with listening and his take on how to do it better.

Productivity

• Reset by Dan Heath – This book could be considered the most practical and concise summary of every Lean Six Sigma class ever taught. If you care about productivity, do not miss this book!

• The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington – Annual goals are hard to manage, so this book proposes a quarterly framework that I found to be very easy to apply. As a side note, this concept is supported by the science behind shorter time frame goals (see How to Change by Katy Milkman for details).

Biographies

• Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela – This book reads more like a novel than a biography. Mandela’s life is full of leadership insights and behaviors to emulate/avoid, with personal and social reach. I appreciated his reflections on personal and career tradeoffs.

• A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter – No matter what your political affiliation is, this book has something valuable to offer in the form of wisdom acquired through time and unique experiences. Did you always do your best? Carter was asked this question earlier in life and seems to be a question we all should explore often in all aspects of life.

• And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham – I doubt anyone can read enough about Lincoln, and this book did not disappoint. The author succinctly presents a full biography of Lincoln, so it might be a good Lincoln intro or refresher.