Book Club

Coaching Tips:

Want to learn some coaching tips from one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent coaches? Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle is full of great coaching advice and compelling stories drawn from Bill Campbell’s influence on the people at Intuit, Apple and Google.

Lynn Oldfield’s Recommendations:

• The Influence Effect: A new path to power for women leaders by Heath, Flynn, Holt and Fasion
  • I recommend this book for all women in business.  I benefited from working with the women authors who were coaches in the AIG’s WELI (Women’s Executive Leadership Initiative) Program.  Their practical leadership advice is honed over years of coaching and interviewing high performing executive women and those who want to be there.  We participated in the launch of this book and used it in our AIG Canada Women and Allies ERG Book Club.  There is a lot of material to work with. 

• Good to Great by Jim Collins
  • This is one of my classic all-time favourite business books.  I love the stories of success and still can find application to our business.

• The First 90 Days:  Proven Strategies for Getting up to Speed Fast and Smarter by Michael D. Watkins
  • I like the idea of planning the first 90 days of a new leadership role and this book is a simple step by step guide to help you think about all stakeholders and ensure you getting the full story walking into an existing organization that is new to you.  It has great exercises for first time managers and veterans that are taking on a completely new assignment.

• So Good They Can’t Ignore You:  Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work you Love by Cal Newport
  • I loved this book.  The author makes a case for going to work at a role and digging deep, learning some serious skills and adding to your personal bank of talent, before looking around for the next opportunity.  It is written for today’s young professionals, but is filled with Oldfield old school practicality.  I make this book suggestion for all of our ambitious young professionals. 

• 425 Seriously Fun Ways to Enhance Learning and Make it Stick! By Christie Sterns
  • This book stays on my shelf at work and I refer to it ALL THE TIME.  Any time I am asked to speak at a university or college, run a training course at AIG, work with our grade nine kids for Take Your Kids To Work Day or just generally to lighten the mood and get the team dynamics flowing at a management meeting; I pull out this book.  Great ice breakers and it is filled with excellent advice for all speakers, presenters and trainers.  Globe and Mail best business books of 2010! 

Katie Clifford’s Recommendations:

• The Small Big: Small Changes That Spark Big Influence by Steve J Martin, Noah Goldstein and Robert Cialdini
• Change the Culture, Change the Game by Roger Connors and Tom Smith
• The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
• Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini

For Audible subscribers, you may also want to listen to Adam Grant’s Power Moves.

Brad Neal’s Recommendations:

• The Next 100 Years by George Friedman
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
• Sales EQ by Jeb Blount
• Never Split the Difference, Negotiating as if your Life Depended on it by Chris Voss
• The Future of Almost Everything by Patrick Dixon

Jeff Somerville’s Recommendations:

• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
• Younger Next Year by Chris Cowley
• The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

Past LLC Participant’s Recommendations:

• Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• Bet on Me, Leading and Succeeding in Business and in Life by Annette Verschuren
• The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton
• The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Andrew Steen’s Recommendations:

• Give and Take, by Adam Grant
• HBR’s 10 Must Reads  For New Managers
• Building an A Team, by Whitney Johnson
• Superbosses, by Sydney Finkelstein
• Work Rules, Laszlo Bock