Good morning,
Leadership is a continual journey of developing yourself professionally and personally.
When I spoke with Ajit Kambil, global research director for Deloitte’s CFO program, he said this about the job of a leader: “You’re not hired to deliver the status quo. You’re really hired to deliver some transformation.” Kambil writes about how to do this in his recently released book, The Leadership Accelerator: The Playbook for Transitioning into Your New Executive Role.
After publishing CFO Daily’s Guide to Becoming a CFO, I received some messages from readers asking for leadership book recommendations. So I asked CFO Daily readers, and many of you took the time to respond.
Mark Partin, CFO at BlackLine, an enterprise software company, recommends The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen.
“Clay was my professor during graduate school and a mentor to me,” Partin explained. “This book was groundbreaking and allowed me to think about the great paradox of our strengths becoming our weakness over time. This is true in so many aspects of life, especially in the technology industry that had seen decades of great companies unwilling and unable to change and did not make it. Yet there are great examples of how companies can constantly innovate and change and prepare themselves for the inevitable. It is important to me as a financial leader as it gave me insight into how rapid growth companies need to drive and sustain growth over the long term.”
Tom Hood, EVP of business engagement and growth for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants recommends three books:
- BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by Jim Collins and Bill Lazier. “Full of great examples, frameworks, and well-researched best practices now updated with the latest critical business concepts.”
- Unleash Your Leader: How to Win in Business by Emmanuel Gobillot and Katherine Thomas. “This is a practical read and I love their three circles concept for shifting perspective as a business executive.”
- Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism by Tom Peters. “I have been a fan of Tom Peters (a fellow Baltimorean) for my entire career from his start with In Search of Excellence (1982) with Bob Waterman. This book written in 2021 has been updated for the current business environment with a major people-first message."
James Stark, a consultant for financial officers at Egon Zehnder, has four recommendations:
“From a pure finance perspective, I think these two are highly relevant: Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance by McKinsey & Company Inc., and The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike.
And given the demands of the role, I’d also encourage anyone to consider books on living a balanced life. Two that come to mind are: How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon. And, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi."
Here are more recommendations:
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell —Tim Russell, managing partner, The Tolan Group
- The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. And any book by Patrick Lencioni or by Brene Brown. —Dorothy Thulen
- Good to Great by Jim Collins —Frank DiBernardino
- Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Joseph Grenny and Kerry Patterson. Learn how to respectfully talk through conflict. —Kristi R.
- Choose Possibility by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Xero. (From the submitter: “It talks a lot about calculated risk-taking.”)
- Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (From the submitter: “I believe every woman who is serious about her career and how it impacts her life should read it.”)
- The Bible
- It's Your Ship by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff (From the submitter: “It had a huge influence on me.”)
- Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World by John Chambers and Diane Brady (From the submitter: “John Chambers, a former CEO of Cisco, worked constantly to involve all stakeholders including governmental leaders. My favorite? Chambers asked almost everyone in the Cisco ecosystem ‘Tell me three things Cisco could be doing better.' He always followed up with answers including plans and progress in resolving the issues via a meeting or a call.”
Happy reading!
Quick note: In observance of President's Day, the next CFO Daily will be in your inbox on Tuesday. Have a great weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
