Inspired by The Economist’s recent alternative summer reading list for CEO’s here is the 10Eighty list of suggestions for summer reading.
The Economist’s genre-bending management books, compiled by Paul Blow, includes Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. The novella is a critique of colonialism in Africa, an exploration of power and morality and also a guide to dealing with corporate bureaucracy. The protagonist Marlow’s steamboat is in tatters and the manager is useless – Marlow must solve the problem himself. It sounds, says Blow, like an ordinary day at a Fortune 500 company.
Blow contends that great works of literature, with their examination of the human condition, have a lot to teach an aspiring chief executive about business – values such as honesty, empathy and commercial acumen, and also insights into vanity, pettiness, greed and ruthless ambition, all of which punctuate the journey from cubicle to corner office.
Joseph Badaracco, a professor of business ethics at Harvard Business School, recommends one book executives should read this summer, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. “Serious literature tends to be tragic literature,” he says. “The struggles of the main character, Okonkwo, reveal the profound challenges leaders confront when they face evolving social norms, novel economic challenges, shifting power dynamics and the challenge of communicating across cultural divides.”
A favourite of the 10Eighty team is Tim Harford. We recommend ‘The Undercover Economist’ by Harford – if you’ve ever wondered why the gap between the rich and the poor is so great, then this book is for you. It shows how instrumental economics is in our lives and will help you to understand the world around you slightly better.
Relatable and engaging, Harford highlights the relevancy of economics to everyday life, from buying a coffee to sitting in a traffic jam. He exposes coffee shops, supermarkets and airlines for the ways in which they convince us to part with our money. Covering a wide range of economic concepts, such as limited resources, market power, market failure and inside information, this book sheds illustrates how what’s going on in different industries can shape our everyday lives – without us even realising it.
Blow says few books are better on motivation than Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer”. Forced to paint a fence white rather than play with his friends, the eponymous rascal finds a way to make it seem so appealing that the local kids want to do it – and end up paying Tom for the privilege. Business-school professors call it “psychic rewards”.
For HR or the finance department, pick up Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” or Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” (the characters’ bureaucratic travails will make your own seem trivial). For holding meetings, try William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” (arguments descend into savagery). The support team may enjoy Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” (nothingness reigns). For lessons on digital transformation read Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”.
10Eighty’s researcher offers the following suggestion for our summer reading list: “Slow productivity: The lost art of accomplishment without burnout” by Cal Newport. In the modern workplace workers feel pushed to the brink by continual meetings, overflowing inboxes, non-stop busywork, inexperienced managers, and in-office mandates that make a mockery of autonomy and agency and the possibility of scope for meaningful creativity. Newport offers alternative strategies for knowledge workers to do the best work of their lives by taking a slower approach to work that matters.
For The Economist Shakespeare is a font of wisdom – mainly on what to avoid. Richard III and Macbeth are terrible leaders, the first hubristic, the latter over-confident. King Lear stresses the importance of succession planning. Othello reminds executives to choose personal assistants carefully and Iago, Othello’s power-hungry aide, is instructive on how to deceive and get rid of the boss.
Recommended on the J.P.Morgan summer reading list is “Supercommunicators: How to unlock the secret language of connection” by Charles Duhigg. This shows how we can level up our communications and make stronger connections. From a divided jury room to the methods used by CIA officers recruiting foreign agents, the author illustrates who we can deliver effective messages by tapping into the practical, emotional and social layers of every conversation.
We all have super-communicators inside according to Duhigg. Supercommunicators are good at listening, they ask questions and are sensitive to others’ moods. They encourage people to open up by being open and vulnerable themselves. They are good at understanding what kind of conversation another person wants to have, and how to adapt their skills appropriately.
The Management Today list includes “Re-writing your leadership code: How your childhood made you the leader you are and what you can do about it”, leadership experts Nik Kinley and Shlomo Ben-Hur show how instincts are the products of childhood experience. They explain the many ways our past experiences affect who we are as leaders and how we behave, and show how we can make better use of our instincts to become better leaders.
What are your favourites from this summer reading list? What books have we missed, why not share your suggestions with 10Eighty on LinkedIn.