Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Motivation 3.0

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

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About two years ago, I started taking on supervisory duties at work. As a life-long introvert, I knew that my people skills could use some improvement. So as I started looking for continuing ed opportunities at work, I also started making an effort to include some business and leadership books into my rotation. Drive is interesting as it gets to the question of motivation in the workplace. Pink starts with some broad history of motivation, from the very beginning: the biological impulse to survive led […]

Are you a Fred?

The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn

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  The Fred Factor is a business philosophy based on the story of a Denver postman, Fred, who went above and beyond the call of duty to provide extraordinary service for the people on his mail route. The concept is about adding value without adding costs and that with the right attitude and outlook any ordinary act can be made extraordinary. The four key ideas of the Fred Factor are as follows: Everyone makes a difference. – Even the “little people” can do extraordinary things. […]

More American Leadership

Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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This book was a birthday gift from my sister last year and I loved it. I previously read Team of Rivals which deserves every word of praise it garners so I was excited to read another book by DKG. This book highlights four different American presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. DKG points out that she is only focusing on LBJ’s civil rights policies, and avoiding his handling of the Vietnam War. I also learned that DKG was an intern for […]

… and Others Don’t – A Cautionary Tale

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

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This book is widely recommended in my circles. In the Army, we LOVE books that focus on leadership and culture and building successful teams. Good to Great is about how good companies become great companies. More than that, it required the companies studied to have prolonged (at least 15 years) of good performance, followed by at least 15 years of great performance.  Performance was generally measured as a comparison between the stock performance of the Fortune 500.  Collins and his team of 21 researchers determined […]

Lackluster Career Advice

Safe and Effective Practice by Jean Cote

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My home is cluttered with career advice books that I didn’t ask for but which it was strongly implied that I should read.  Because these two were shorter books, I’m pairing them together in a single review: Safe and Effective Practice by Jean Cote: Lawyering is easy says an old white man. Ah, hindsight, that vaunted mountaintop that the experienced get to judge the rest of us from.  Jean Cote was previously a judge on Alberta’s Court of Appeal, the highest court in the province, […]

Principled Negotiation

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher

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This one was pretty technical. The authors really break down the thought process of having a principled negotiation instead of trying to negotiate either “soft” or “hard.” They provide a variety of examples/case studies that emphasize the point. Not going to lie, this was a bit dry, but very good book if you want to read more about different leadership styles. “Getting to Yes” breaks down key concepts from the authors such as “Don’t Bargain Over Positions,” “Separate the People from the Problem” and “Focus […]



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