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Best Books for Managers: You Need to Manage People If You Start Your Company

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While some of us are naturally good at being leaders and managers, some of us are put into a situation where we need to be leaders and, hopefully, good managers. Thus, it’s best to brush up on your management skills to help manage employees and businesses without causing too many issues. While experience is one method to learn how to manage people, books can also be beneficial.

Similar to attending a class, books give you the basic knowledge you need to know how to keep everything in check. A good leader will know how to manage a large number of employees while also learning to delegate the work towards other people. If you’re going off of just experience, you can see how quickly this method could cause problems.

By picking up a good read on management skills, you can easily avoid issues that may occur off of learning by experience. Plus, you can develop long term strategies that can help you keep investors and business partners.

So, why should we read the best manager books? I find that leadership skills change every two to three years, so being ready for the upcoming years is essential.

I’ve tried to get away with pushing back books or avoiding extra classes. However, once I started to read the best books for managers, I noticed a massive difference in the way I was able to strategize.

What I’ve found in the books is that they teach you valuable skills. Some of these include ones that aren’t so obvious. Skills that they teach you are Networking, teamwork exercises, verbal skills, and how to recover from failure.

So, if you’re sick of attending classes, seminars or don’t have the time or patience for other forms of education, a book can definitely help. I find it more productive to learn at your own pace, especially for business. You can easily pick up a book on management and really focus on what it’s telling you.

Best Books for Managers

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

Short, simple, highly effective.
Vivek Garipalli
Founder/Clover Health
High Output Management

High Output Management

I picked up the book after Grove passed away this year and I found it so succinct, so clear, and so packed with easy-to-understand analogies. It really gets to the heart of what good management is.
Julie Zhuo
VP Product Design/Facebook
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

My children’s school recommended that we read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. The book has a lot of great information that is as applicable to managers at high growth companies as it is to parents. The key takeaway for me is that highly capable people tend to be risk-avoiders because they are afraid of failure. They get so used to being praised for their achievements that they end up not pushing themselves to their full potential for fear of looking dumb. As a parent (or a manager), the book recommends praising effort, not accomplishment, and creating an environment that encourages risk-taking and celebrates failure. This is a concept that really resonates with me, not only as a part of my parenting style, but in the way I lead at Zillow Group. Our core values as a company encourage employees to take big swings, with the understanding that they won’t all work out. It’s how we’ve achieved our current success, and it’s what motivates our employees.
Spencer Rascoff
CEO/Zillow Group
Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World With OKRs

Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World With OKRs

John explains how OKRs [Objectives and Key Results] work and shows how you can apply them in all sorts of situations. I’d recommend John’s book for anyone interested in becoming a better manager (and I’d say that even if I hadn’t been interviewed for a super-nice chapter about the Gates Foundation).
Bill Gates
Founder/Microsoft
Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy

There are the normal ones that everybody loves. There would be "Rich Dad Poor Dad," "Who Moved My Cheese?;" I love all the Dale Carnegie books; "The One Minute Manager." I love newer ones like "Blue Ocean Strategy" and all the "Freaknomics" books.
Daymond John
Founder/FUBU
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

If you want to do social media start with “Jab Jab Jab Right Hook” and move forward to “Ask Gary Vee” by Gary Vaynerchuk. Even if Gary has admitted that he has a ghostwriter writing his book, you can see Gary’s personality and also his experience in the social media field in this book. These are some great books to start with in social media.
Robert Katai
Founder/Instagramology
The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to do About It)

The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to do About It)

I don’t have a lot of modern books on this list, but this is an excellent one. We tend to wrongly think that strategy is about coming up with a genius plan and then committing to it. In fact, this is often a recipe for disaster, particularly in business. Though success often requires a total investment in a particular strategy, this is also the recipe for extreme failure. It’s a paradox. Michael Raynor’s book has important thoughts on this inherent paradox as well as approaches for mitigating and avoiding it.
Ryan Holiday
Founder/Brass Check
The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand

The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand

If you have no understanding of accounting, read a good accounting book. A good example would be The Accounting Game by Darrell Mullis.
Andrew Elliott
Founder/GoDesignerGo
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

In his 2012 shareholder letter, Buffett praises The Outsiders as "an outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation."

Berkshire Hathaway plays a major role in the book. One chapter is on director Tom Murphy, who Buffett says is "overall the best business manager I've ever met."

Warren Buffett
CEO/Berkshire Hathaway
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Part of ambition is modeling yourself after those you’d like to be like. Austin’s philosophy of ruthlessly stealing and remixing the greats might sound appalling at first but it is actually the essence of art. You learn by stealing, you become creative by stealing, you push yourself to be better by working with these materials. Austin is a fantastic artist, but most importantly he communicates the essence of writing and creating art better than anyone else I can think of. It is a manifesto for any young, creative person looking to make his mark. Pair up with Show Your Work which is also excellent.
Ryan Holiday
Founder/Brass Check
The Alchemist

The Alchemist

There was a moment where I was on a quest for self-discovery. I felt lost and wasn't sure if I was who I was because I made the decision to be me, or if my identity was programmed by culture, society and setting. Because of that, I started reading self-help books to reconstruct identity and mold who I wanted to be. This book helped me.
Ola Olusoga
Co-founder/Populum
Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (The 99U Book Series)

Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (The 99U Book Series)

A time management book. Personally, I like Manage your day-to-day by 99U. It is an extremely quick read, but provides some good insights for those who need some basic guidance regarding time management, especially in creative fields.
Andrew Elliott
Founder/GoDesignerGo
Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in a World of Churn

Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in a World of Churn

I am also reading Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in a World of Churn by Anne Janzer. With the success of many SaaS based companies I think it’s very important for marketers of all industries to understand the strategies behind not only acquiring new subscription customers but keeping your currently subscribed customers happy. In reading this book, I hope to gain insight on how the subscription based model can segue into markets which may not currently consider it an option.
James Murphy
Marketing Manager/Live Nation
The Copywriter's Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells

The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells

I don't know a single copywriter whose work would not be improved by reading this book.
David Ogilvy
Founder/Ogilvy & Mather
From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue

From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue

Question: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path?

Answer:

  • Rework, Getting real and Remote - The combo from Fried and DHH.
  • Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
  • From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin
  • How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  • Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross
  • Content Machine by Dan Norris
  • Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
  • Contagious by Jonah Berger

Vincenzo Ruggiero
CEO/Prospect.io
Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive, and Happy Life

Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive, and Happy Life

I'm currently reading LifeScale by Brian Solis. Oddly enough, it's a book about overcoming digital distraction and boosting your happiness, creativity, and sense of purpose in life. It's a powerful cautionary tale against spending too much time as a digital consumer. As someone who spends - at minimum - 40 hours a week staring at a computer screen where digital distraction is just one click away, I'm always looking for useful strategies for overcoming distraction and maintaining focus. It's already delivering on that front.
Jeremy Boudinet
Marketing Manager/Nextiva
Startup Boards: Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors

Startup Boards: Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors

In addition to walking you through, in great detail, how a board functions, Brad has adopted many of the Lean Startup approaches to building, operating, and managing your board in a way that resembles continuous deployments. Any practitioner of Lean Startup would do well to use this approach to building their board.
Eric Ries
Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange
No One Here Gets Out Alive

No One Here Gets Out Alive

No One Here Gets Out Alive (biography of Jim Morrison) because I have been fascinated by Jim Morrison and The Doors since I was a young kid. Jim’s level of and commitment to artistry is so rare and I wanted to understand what made him tick. This book gives a lot of insight into not only his creative genius but the events in his life that shaped him.
James Murphy
Marketing Manager/Live Nation
Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out

Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out

Bill Graham Presents My Life Inside Rock and Out because I think it’s very important for young people to understand the history of the concert business before trying to jump into it. You need to have a clear understanding of where it’s been to know where it’s going and how you can help take it there.
James Murphy
Marketing Manager/Live Nation

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