Here are the books I read last year. I don’t do audiobooks when comprehension is the goal, so you won’t find a list of 40+ books here. This is my ordered list going from recommended, to pass. The Vision Driven Leader was excellent, and a recommended read for anyone in a leadership role. While I wanted Project to Product to wow me, it didn’t. Just as you reach the end when you think Mik will reveal the magic formula, you quickly realise this book was an elaborate sales pitch leading you to his company and products.

I’m a concurrent reader, so the elapsed time from starting to finishing a book can be quite long, and I often have a few books open at a time. I find this helps when hitting boring parts. If reading feels like a chore, I usually switch and return when the time is right.

I use Goodreads, so follow me there for a more up to date list.

The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business

by Michael Hyatt

Having a clear, compelling vision–and getting buy-in from your team–is essential to effective leadership. If you don’t know where you’re going, how on earth will you get there? But how do you craft that vision? How do you get others on board? And how do you put that vision into practice at every level of your organization?

Man’s Search for Meaning

by Viktor E. Frankl, Harold S. Kushner

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

by Richard P. Rumelt

Even though everyone is talking about it, there is no concept in business today more muddled than ‘strategy’. Richard Rumelt, described by McKinsey Quarterly as ‘a giant in the field of strategy’ and ‘strategy’s strategist’, tackles this problem head-on in a jargon-free explanation of how to develop and take action on strategy, in business, politics and beyond. Rumelt dispels popular misconceptions about strategy - such as confusing it with ambitions, visions or financial goals - by very practically showing that a good strategy focuses on the challenges a business faces, and providing an insightful new approach for overcoming them.

The Code. the Evaluation. the Protocols: Striving to Become an Eminently Qualified Human

by Jocko Willink

How can you best strive to become an Eminently Qualified Human? How will you hold yourself to the highest possible standard in life? How do you become a better father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, public servant, role model, and leader? The answer: through Unmitigated Daily Discipline in all things.

The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

by Camille Fournier

Managing people is difficult wherever you work, but the tech industry as a whole is pretty bad at it. Tech companies in general lack the experience, tools, texts, and frameworks to do it well. And the handful of books that share tips and tricks of engineering management don t explain how to supervise employees in the face of growth and change.

Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity without Getting Complicated

by Yves Morieux, Peter Tollman

Does your organization manage complexity by making things more complicated? If so, you are not alone.

Flow: A New Approach to Digital Transformation

by Fin Goulding

Flow is a must-read for leaders and team members who want to embrace agile innovation in the workplace. It is a guide to changing your culture and work practices, embracing new ways to work such as Devops and faster innovation made possible by the Cloud.

Liminal Thinking

by Dave Gray

Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

by Mark Manson

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

Project to Product: How Value Stream Networks Will Transform It and Business

by Mik Kersten

We need a new innovation infrastructure for the new industrial revolution.