Entrepreneurs and business leaders have a different mindset that makes them stand out from the crowd. Once you are aware of the way your leadership thinks, you can open up to more opportunities and achieve the impossible. Your bosses might realize and see the leadership skills that you possess, or you will keep on justifying yourself to get a raise or a promotion with your manager.
Here are a few books that helped me understand how true leaders are supposed to be. The books might not appear to have gained popularity among management teams but these will surely help you gain a better understanding of the approaches these guys use to overcome hardships and challenges in business. You might find these books online on Amazon, which can be purchased using high-speed internet providers like Spectrum. Spectrum Internet and Spectrum TV prices are quite affordable and provide users with good value for their money as well. Also, this will get you an idea about their thinking processes that made them successful:
The Hard Things About Hard Things
Author: Ben Horowitz
Being the co-founder and CEO of Opsware which was a B2B software company that was sold for more than $1.5 billion, today he is operating as a General Partner at a Venture Fund at Andreessen Horowitz. This book gained immense popularity among leaders of the technology sector and got endorsed by CEO of the amazing tech giants of today. Horowitz discusses the need to mitigate the politics that hovers in the workplace, as it can create major hurdles within the organization and distractions for employees. He emphasizes the need to have a clear promotion policy that needs to be followed by everybody who is part of the organization. He also suggests that individuals who have a skill set needed to get the job done drive all positions within the company. Horowitz recommends that promotions should be based on decisions made by a special committee to avoid discrepancies.
The Lean Startup
Author: Eric Ries
The Lean Startup revolves around the fact that the only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else. Eric was former Cofounder and CTO at IMVU, which had a run rate of more than $35 million around six years ago. This book, endorsed by Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Andreesen, comes up with a revolutionary approach to create, run, and manage a highly innovative business. Ries is a strong advocate of the approach that one can develop a product or service and make sure that they start searching for a product vs the market fit at the earliest. To get this done, he believes that you can develop an array of Minimum Viable Products or MVPs that can become examples of further polished and innovative products or services. This rapid production method helps them acquire rapid feedback from the users, which helps them avoid making further investments and focus on the development phase of the product or service.
High Output Management
Author: Andrew Grove
Being the CEO of Intel, Andrew published this amazing and a business management book called the “High Output Management”. Having amazing business reviews from many credible sources including Peter Drucker and the Wall Street Journal, this book stands out of the crowd. If you’re a senior manager in any organization, you will find some amazing advice from the man himself. He suggests that a manager’s working area is to enhance your business by improving the performance of the people working for the organization. This is what distinguishes between a manager and an individual’s contribution. He lays great stress on the one-on-one meetings by subordinates and reasons that make them important.
Crossing the Chasm
Author: Geoffrey Moore
Crossing the Chasm presents future business leaders with a structure that takes a product or service from early adopters to the early majority. The book suggests that the best way to create a breakthrough in the market is to emphasize on the go-to-market practices on a narrow group of prospects. These further on can become reference customers within a specific industry if you get a successful hit.
Conclusion
If you’re someone who wants to take some inspiration and follow the practices of people who had been successful in their field, these are surely a must-read for you. If there are any more books that you think are worth a share do share with us.