What I read in 2021

My key takeaways from my 2021 books

I am an avid reader. Over the past 5 years, I’ve read at least 2 books a month. I read for both fun and learning, striving to strike an even balance. Often, learning occurs from my fun reading as much as the other books. Take Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, Green lights. In addition to being entertained by his stories and his refined Texas drawl, the premise of the book is that at times the universe will give you “green lights” to proceed.

My reading in 2021 followed 3 key themes, books for fun, books on leadership, and books on personal efficiencies. I’ve left most of the books for fun off this light, like the Silmarillion. Below are my key learnings from my 2021 readings.

Team of Teams

Team of Teams combines three of my favorite types of books history, military, and leadership. The author recounts first-hand how he transformed the military and the leadership of the military organization responsible for rooting out and fighting insurgents in Iraq during the Second Iraq War. As the title of the book suggests, this was accomplished by forming a team of teams that decentralized decision making and the free-flow of information between different agencies, including intelligence agencies usually accustomed to keeping secrets well guarded.

Green lights

I prefer to read my books instead of listening to them. However, if I come across an audio book that is read by the author AND their profession is to speak for a living, then that audio book will get the ‘greenlight’ for me.

This is a fairly entertaining read. What I wasn’t expecting deep insightful ideas. Here are a couple quotes that jumped at to me.

  • Great leaders are not always in front, they also know who to follow.
  • We cannot fully appreciate the light without the shadows.
  • We have to be thrown off balance to find our footing.
  • Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time.

War of Art

Creative endeavors done by professionals is a war. Professionals will encounter resistance in many forms, yet know that the only way to succeed is to overcome resistance in its many forms.

Boundaries

Many of us fail to establish and enforce strong boundaries between us and other people. This results in inner or external frustration. Poor boundaries at work may result in us being overworked as we find it difficult to say no.

This book dives deep into types of problems with boundaries, the laws the authors feel boundaries follow, and how to establish boundaries. The key point is that boundaries are not selfish but actually lead to mature relationships.

Leader Who Had no Title

Told as a story, the leader who had no title explains how anyone can stand up and be a leader, regardless of your position in the organization. By taking responsibility, taking actions, and developing the right behaviors, anyone can inspire and lead others.

Leadership is Language

Written by David Marquet, the author of Turn the Ship Around, Leadership is Language talks about how the language leaders use is important. Equally important is to not follow the old patterns of leadership but instead follow the new plays of modern leadership, which are:

  • CONTROL THE CLOCK, not obey the clock
  • COLLABORATE, not coerce
  • COMMIT, not comply
  • COMPLETE, not continue
  • IMPROVE, not prove
  • CONNECT, not conform

Getting things done when you’re not in Charge

This book is written around a model of change influence in which you, as the change agent connects people, wants, and reality. Influencing change requires understanding how the reality interacts with the people in the agenication and their wants and desires to change.

Smarter, Faster, Better

In the author’s studies around productivity, he landed on 8 key areas. When harnessed well, these lead to smarter, faster, better results. The 8 key areas are Motivation, Teams, Focus, Goal Setting, Managing others, Decision Making, Innovation, Absorbing Data.

A Minute to Think

We all find ourselves very busy, in need of a minute to think. This book is about creating white space through application of smart strategies to optimize your time. One interesting insight from this book is that making many small improvements can be more effective than making one big improvement. The smaller improvements are easier to implement then large ones, meaning we can gain greater successive improvements.

Making Work Work

Positivity in organizations is key to making work “work”, or functional. There are many ways to achieve this, but one way is to act like your “hire” self, that is the version of yourself that shows up to job interviews.

Rebel Talent

Rebels here a knack for making things better. Rebels, as leaders, can drive innovation and creativity throughout the organization. Rebel Talent speaks to the value rebellious, creative people bring to an organization.