Book Short: Best Book Ever The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz, is the best business book I’ve ever read. Or at least the best book on management and leadership that I’ve ever read. Period. It’s certainly the best CEO book on the market. It’s about 1000 times better than my book although my book is intended to be different in several ways. I suppose they’re complementary, but if you only had time left on this planet for one book, read Ben’s first. I’m not even going to get into specifics on it, other than that Ben does a great job of telling the LoudCloud/Opsware story in a way that shows the grit, psychology, and pain of being…
Archives / July, 2014
The Gift of Feedback, Part IV
The Gift of Feedback, Part IV I wrote a few weeks ago about my live 360 – the first time I’ve ever been in the room for my own review discussion. I now have a development plan drafted coming out of the session, and having cycled it through the contributors to the review, I’m ready to go with it. As I did in 2008, 2009, and 2011, I’m posting it here publicly. This time around, there are three development items: Continue to spend enough time in-market. In particular, look for opportunities to spend more time with direct clients. There was a lot of discussion about this at my review. One director suggested I should spend at least 20% of my…
Book Short: Culture is King
Book Short: Culture is King Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love, by Richard Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations, was a really good read. Like Remote which I reviewed a few weeks ago, Joy, Inc. is ostensibly a book about one thing — culture — but is also full of good general advice for CEOs and senior managers. Also like Remote, the book was written by the founder and CEO of a relatively small firm that is predominately software engineers, so there are some limitations to its specific lessons unless you adapt them to your own environment. Unlike Remote, though, it’s neither preachy nor ranty, so it’s a more pleasant read. And I suppose fitting of its title,…