9 Books Every IT Leader Needs To Read
Reading sharpens our reasoning, reduces stress, advances our careers and, when done deeply and broadly, is a key habit of successful leaders.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/bltf1fc93eb540cc973/64cb2a154020f250d444de4d/Books_Intro.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Elon Musk, a voracious reader, has no formal education in aerospace and automotive engineering. He read his way into his expertise. Warren Buffett, one of the world's most influential business people, estimates that he spends 80% of his time "reading and thinking."
Reading is a favored pastime of some of the world's greatest thinkers and leaders, for a number of excellent reasons. It's also been shown to improve both emotional intelligence and abstract reasoning skills.
It's even physically good for us. Reading has been linked to preventing Alzheimer's. A mere six minutes of reading a day can reduce stress levels by 68%, according to research by the Mindlab International at the University of Sussex. It also works more quickly than do other recommended stress relievers such as walking.
Reading is also good for professional advancement. There's a strong correlation between learning and sustained employment -- and reading is frequently linked to positive leadership.
Create a culture where technology advances truly empower your business. Attend the Leadership Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now!
"Deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy and personal effectiveness," John Coleman, author of Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, wrote in the Harvard Business Review.
Coleman also noted that Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein reads dozens of books a week, that Winston Churchill won a Nobel Prize in Literature (not Peace), and that leaders who read across various fields are "more likely to innovate and prosper."
Steve Jobs is a perfect example of the latter idea. His decision to learn calligraphy is credited for making Mac the first computer with beautiful typography options. He famously liked to say that Apple exists at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.
Career coach Joyce E.A. Russell has remarked that none of us can afford to remain stagnant in our knowledge. We need to keep inspired and excited, up to date on our areas of expertise, considering the problem solving that's taking place in other industries and unrelated areas, and growing emotionally, verbally, and intellectually.
It's within this framework that we've selected the titles here. These books were chosen based on their relevance to IT leaders or their focus on enhancing leadership skills and, in some cases, both.
Once you've reviewed our recommended reading list, let us know if you've read any of these titles. Do you have a favorite book that you feel has helped your career? Are any of these going to be on your list of priority reading? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.
Author: Martha Heller
Publisher: Bibliomotion (2012)
Martha Heller interviewed a number of CIOs to pin down what she calls the CIO paradox: "Bad technology can bring a company to its knees, but corporate boards rarely employ CIOs; CIOs must keep costs down at the very same time that they drive innovation. CIOs are focused on the future, while they are tethered by technology decisions made in the past."
In The CIO Paradox, Heller offers guidance to CIOs on how to "attack, reverse or neutralize the paradoxical elements of the role."
Our favorite quote: "Be a chameleon: As IT changes from business process change to business model innovation, so must you. Over the next few years, your skills, vision, and perspective will need to shift from support to reinvention. This isn't the first time you've had to change up your skill set. You've done it before and you can do it again." (p. 21)
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance: Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround
Author: Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
Publisher: Harper Collins (2002)
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance is the story of how Louis V. Gerstner Jr. took over a sick and near-flatlining IBM in 1993 and brought it back to health. The New York Times, in its 2002 review, wrote that Gerstner "brings wit with his wisdom," and that "a few more Gerstners around in the 90s might have prevented the bubble from swelling so large -- and popping with such a bang."
Our favorite quote: "IBM has more Nobel laureates than most countries do, has won every major scientific prize in the world, and has consistently been the foundry from which much of the information technology industry has emerged. However, the Research Division of the early 1990s was a troubled place." (p. 148)
Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
Author: Marc Goodman
Publisher: Doubleday (2015)
Author Marc Goodman delivered a 2012 TED Talk that began: "I study the future of crime and terrorism, and frankly, I'm afraid." This book is a continuation of that talk. While lay readers may find it a bit dense in concept, anyone who works in IT is likely to follow along, nodding knowingly.
Our favorite quote: "The proverbial twenty-ninth day of the lily pond is fast approaching and as with all things exponential, our window to act responsibly and responsively is closing quickly. There is a way forward from the rash of technological threats we face today. By mobilizing common citizens and taking back control of our own devices and technologies, we can all use these tools to their maximum good. In other words, the tools to change the world are in everybody's hands." (p. 392)
Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization
Author: John Wooden
Publisher: McGraw Hill Education (2005)
For the 41 years John Wooden was a basketball coach, he always had the same mission: to get the greatest performance out of each player and in a way that best served the team. His personal account of creating season after season of winning teams covers discipline, teamwork, and organization. It amounts to a template for succeeding in any situation.
Our favorite quote: "I came to the conclusion that when choosing between the carrot and the stick as a motivational tool, the well-chosen carrot was almost always more powerful and longer lasting than the stick. In fact, simply withholding a properly selected carrot can become a most forceful punishment and powerful motivator. Its denial creates desire; the carrot becomes a stick." (p. 166)
Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence
Authors: Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
Zero To One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Authors: Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
Publisher: Crown Business (2014)
Before writing Zero to One, Peter Thiel cofounded PayPal, as well as Palantir. He's been called "America's leading public intellectual" (by Fortune magazine), and the book has been called a classic (by scholar Nassim Taleb). The New Republic sums it up as a "call to intellectual originality."
Our favorite quote: "Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius." (p. 5)
Author: David Brooks
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
Author: Martin Ford
Publisher: Basic Books (2015)
Martin Ford's Rise Of The Robots was the 2015 recipient of the Financial Times-McKinsey Business Book of the Year, the criterion for which is providing the "most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues." In its review of the book, the Financial Times wrote, "Unlike [Ford's] first book, which was based on a thought experiment about tomorrow's world, this one is grounded in today's economy. It is well researched and disturbingly persuasive."
Our favorite quote: "While lower-skill occupations will no doubt continue to be affected, a great many college-educated, white-collar workers are going to discover that their jobs, too, are squarely in the sights as software automation and predictive algorithms advance rapidly in capability." (p. xiv)
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
Author: Martin Ford
Publisher: Basic Books (2015)
Martin Ford's Rise Of The Robots was the 2015 recipient of the Financial Times-McKinsey Business Book of the Year, the criterion for which is providing the "most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues." In its review of the book, the Financial Times wrote, "Unlike [Ford's] first book, which was based on a thought experiment about tomorrow's world, this one is grounded in today's economy. It is well researched and disturbingly persuasive."
Our favorite quote: "While lower-skill occupations will no doubt continue to be affected, a great many college-educated, white-collar workers are going to discover that their jobs, too, are squarely in the sights as software automation and predictive algorithms advance rapidly in capability." (p. xiv)
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like