Flatten Your Learning Curve: Read the Classic Business Books in Core Areas
Want to flatten your learning curve in managing and leading a stage 2 company? First, you ask, “What’s stage 2 company? It’s one that has successfully acquired resources and developed complex operational systems. Read up on the core areas of business. From my experience in smaller companies, the brilliant CEOs and founders were natural, charismatic leaders. After admitting they open to management and leadership ideas, I recommended business books in core areas such as:
- Career Management (transitioning into a company)
- Management 101
- Leadership 101 and Jack Welch
- Strategy
- Organizational Development with Change Management
- Teams and Team Building
- Execution
- Organizational and Individual Performance Management
Get up to speed by learning more about these core areas that will help you’re your management and leadership of vital resources in your small company.
Career Management
These two books are important for anyone starting a new job, but they are critical for middle managers and executives. These books identify why the reputation you establish in your new company is set in the first 90 days and how you can create your desired reputation right from the start. My VP and CEO could have read these two books and spread the word by giving them to all their new middle managers and executives for good measure.
- Right From The Start: Taking Charge In A New Leadership Role
by Dan Ciampa and Michael Watkins
- The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
by Michael Watkins
Management 101: Why Management is Different than Leadership & What Middle Management is
I can’t stress enough how many times I’ve encountered leaders in new companies who couldn’t tell the difference between management and leadership. Middle management and the middle manager’s responsibility also appear to elude some leaders too. Fascinating, but I don’t get it.
- High Impact Middle Management
by Lisa Haneberg
- Harvard Business Review on Becoming a High-Performance Manager
by Ram Charan
Leadership 101 and Jack Welch
Leadership always looks like easy, especially for those charismatic types. However, these two books demonstrate that there’s more to leadership than being extrovert. These books provide a complete picture on what makes a good leader and the leader’s responsibility to grow future leaders (and managers). Of course, any book on or by Jack Welch is implied.
- On Becoming a Leader
by Warren Bennis
- The Leadership Engine: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every Level
by Noel M. Tichy with Eli Cohen
Strategy
What can I say that I already haven’t said about Jack’s new book? It’s core to knowledge workers, managers, and leaders for any area ranging from career management to organizational and individual performance management. The second book I’ve listed by HBR book offers different perspectives on strategy; it’s a good, must-have summary.
- Winning
by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch
- Harvard Business Review on Advances in Strategy
Organizational Development with Change Management
An understanding of organizational development and change management is critical for younger companies. Keys to success are planning and developing strategy, an appropriate organizational structure and controls, and provide management development.
- Growing Pains : Transitioning from an Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm
by Eric G. Flamholtz & Yvonne Randleli
- The Horizontal Organization : What the Organization of the Future Actually Looks Like and How it Delivers Value to Customers
by Frank Ostroff
Teams and Team Building
Like organic growth, teams don’t just happen, especially in younger companies where everyone is doing everyone else’s job. These two books cover what teams are, how they should work, and how companies can use them in execution.
- Harvard Business Review on Teams That Succeed (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)
- No More Teams!: Mastering the Dynamics of Creative Collaboration
by Michael Schrage
Execution
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan are the masters of Execution, coming in a close second only to Jack Welch. I really wish my C-levels had read these books 2 years ago. Heck, I wish they would read them now.
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan
- Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right
by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan
Organizational and Individual Performance Management
These three classics that appear to be books on strategy and execution, but they’re brilliant in their application in identifying strategy, linking strategy to middle management, linking down the in the individual worker, and then measuring performance for the company, departments, and individuals. These books are like the last leg of a relay race with the previous legs in a Track and Field relay race, following all previous subject areas
- The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action
by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton
- The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment
by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton
- Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes
by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton
Knowledge workers, middle managers, and aspiring leaders should read these books to learn or refresh their memory on business fundamentals (excluding functional areas such as Sales, Marketing, Development, etc.). Understanding these core areas helps you develop management systems in planning, organization, management development, and control.
