Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts

Saturday 4 November 2023

Introducing book: How to Win Friends and Influence?

  Introducing book: How to Win Friends and Influence?

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
 
As we discussed developing project management skills to get things done, one of the principles we highlighted was " stakeholder management. " It is more about managing and influencing people during the task planning and execution.

In relation to the topic of stakeholder management, i thought the book " How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie would be more relevant.

The author provided many simple, powerful gestures when dealing with people with examples. Most ideas are common sense, but we miss them when dealing with others. He outlined many fundamental techniques for handling people in the workplace. Despite the book being written more than 50 years ago, it is still one of the international best sellers because of its content, ease of reading, and easy-to-grasp people management skills.

Recommend this book if you want to improve your workplace people management skills.
https://amzn.to/46apmku

Have a great week ahead.

Sunday 17 September 2023

New Tool- Online companion

  New Tool- Online companion 

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
 

Recently one of my well-wishers suggested that i should be aware of ChatGPT and its application, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) is sweepingly changing how we do things.

As per his recommendation, i read the book " The Art of Prompt Engineering with Chat GPT,"  and it is an eye-opener on the power of AI, and i thought every professional should be aware of it as it is relevant for professional development.

Whenever any new technology comes in, there is always apprehension and skepticism about using the technology. But there are always positive aspects of any technology; using it properly will help us in professional development. One such technological tool is  ChatGPT -an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a form of generative AI - a tool that lets users enter questions/prompts to receive human-like responses, images, text, or videos created by AI with backend machine learning.

ChatGPT is similar to the automated chat services found on customer service websites, as people can ask it questions or clarifies anything.

Now some people are using this chatbot as an online companion.

How will this ChatGPT be helpful for personal productivity and effectiveness?

Knowing how to prompt the AI application with the right question will help us as virtual mentors or personal online assistants.

For example,

You have a drafted email to your customer, and you want to make sure you use the right words and format to reflect your communication style and context. AI will help you to correct the draft… Of course, many software is available to check grammatical and spell check; AI will help you more than that by aligning your communication style in the past and the context.

Similarly, if you want to modify your LinkedIn profile/ resume w.r.t many samples, it will do it when you give suitable inputs and the style you want it.

Similarly, as a business head, you want to check your new idea into business opportunities. It will guide all business planning aspects if you want to know more about market feasibility, consumer preference, risk, development roadmap, etc.

However, it all depends on the quality of the question you ask. That skill is called Prompt Engineering, which one needs to learn to leverage AI to make a personal assistant or virtual mentor.

Some of the advancement in technology looks scary, and historically, when we look at it, we can not avoid any advancement, and if we use it properly, it will help us for effectiveness.

It is now the beginning of a  long journey to leverage AI in our professional life and let us learn it. 
 
This book helps get an overview of ChatGPT and how we can harness our skill in prompting with the proper questioning and use AI-powered online companions for our professional development.

Enjoy learning a new skill!
 
Have a great week ahead!

Thursday 11 May 2023

How to get LUCKY -Book




One of my friends suggested the book " How to get lucky," and i read it recently.

This classic book is written by Max Gunther 35 years back, and even today, the contents are relevant.
( It seems that the book cover is intently designed as classic😊)

We might have observed some people are lucky in life, and whatever they do, they make it successful. We may have an opinion that people are born lucky. Contrary to that thought process, the author explains with real examples that some people we perceive as lucky organize their lives in such a way that they can experience good luck and avoid bad luck. (The examples are from  western based personalities which we may find too challenging to relate)

The author identified 13 techniques by which we can organize ourselves to be lucky in what we do.

For example, the author narrates some of the techniques applied by lucky people. 

They try different things, and something clicks in a more significant way
they are good at networking, and some connections work in favor of them 
they do planning and be aware that luck plays a role
they do worst-case analysis
they do calculate risk  and proceed than being extreme care or too much risky
they are ready to cut the losses immediately when they find the venture not doing good
they always busy with some activities 


The author suggests picking a few techniques and stick on to them consistently.

I wish to read this book at a younger age, and i could relate the techniques with the people whom i admire most for their luck.

Recommend this book if you want more perspective on developing your personality to be luckier...

The highly priced hard copy of the book seems unavailable for sale immediately; however, it is available in PDF format on the net.

Enjoy reading it!

Have a great week ahead.

Thursday 23 March 2023

Book -Design by Change

 Book -Design by Change 

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
 

Recently, i had read the book " Change by Design " as suggested by one of my client's CEO.

The Author, Tim Brown, is running a consultancy firm and is a pioneer  in applying design thinking to solve some of the business challenges in fortune companies, including Microsoft, Apple, etc

This book is about expanding our thinking process to solve problems involving technical feasibility, business viability, and people desirables.

Some years back, when i heard the term " design thinking. i assumed that it is more about technical designers improving their design capabilities. After reading this book, the insight i learned that design thinking is not restricted to technical designers; the concept of holistic problem-solving and changing the problem scope into a project can be applied by any professional to bring more creative, significant results, especially for business-related challenges.

This book will enhance your perspective if you are looking for holistic thinking to solve a problem.

https://amzn.to/40NLLlo

Have a new learning and a great week ahead.

Sunday 15 January 2023

Book on "Execution"

  Book on "Execution"   

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
 

                           

Related to our topic on 
" Execution Excellence- Ability to get things done " in a professional environment, introducing the book " Execution" written by world-renowned Management thinker, and CEO coach " Ram charan " along with other two authors.

The Author Ram charan defines execution as a discipline than conventional thinking as either art or skill. And the authors explain how strategy, people and operations can be integrated to get things done in a competitive organization with their practical / client's examples.

Read the book recently.In my opinion, this book is not for beginners,
however,it is a good read  for those people who get into senior management and practicing business heads to get a wide perspective on the execution capabilities at both self-level and for inculcating the capabilities in the organization.

Recommend to senior professionals.

https://amzn.to/3FjJ80Y

Have a great week ahead.


Monday 31 October 2022

New book - The Art of Management

  New book - The Art of Management 


 The Art of Management is one of the books i have read in one sitting. Many books have been written on management and leadership themes, as most books cover the framework and case study examples.

This book is also more about the management of self and business; however, the uniqueness of this book, the author wrote only a few introduction pages from his experience, and he interviewed more than 20 practicing managers and entrepreneurs to share their practical insights on management. By the way, we can learn versatile views from many people from their life experiences.

The Author, Shivakumar, is Ex CEO of Nokia, Pepsico, and currently working in the Birla group. He is one of India's most exemplary thought leaders in management and leadership.

The one thing i liked in this book is the author invested his time to ask relevant and specific questions from each one, unlike some survey types of questions to all.

If you would like to learn versatile insights on management from practicing professionals, then i recommend this book.

https://amzn.to/3Dnreug

Happy learning and have a great week ahead!
 

Saturday 3 September 2022

Book Introduction


 

I had read the book " What Got you here won't get you there" some years back and did not get many insights from the book. When i recently browsed the same book, i could quickly relate much of the ideas. The reason could be that i was not ready then to absorb the insights or lack of experience.

This book is meant for working professionals with experience and business heads who would like to know themselves better and how their behavior affects self-growth and relationships with others in the professional environment. Each chapter represents some of the challenges/dilemmas one face in the workplace, and the author recommends his perspectives to overcome them.

The Author, Marshall, is a famous executive  & CEO coaching coach worldwide; he clarifies each concept with his personal experience while dealing with them rather than explaining behavioral psychology from a theoretical point of view.

This book is not meant for a one-time read to absorb the contents but requires in-depth assimilation to get insights on behaviors in the workplace, as i realized. This book needs to be in our library; you will get different insights whenever you read it with your experience.

Recommend to the professionals who would like to prepare themselves for next-level development and to be aware of themselves much more.

https://amzn.to/3Tnlsz2

Happy learning, and have a great week ahead.

Friday 12 August 2022

Silence-Book Review

 Silence-Book Review

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

Recently one of my friends gifted me the book " Silence- The Power of Quiet in a world full of Noise" and read it.

The author is a Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how mindfulness is the practice that stops the noise inside and allows be happy irrespective of the external environment with simple language and easy-to-read flow.

In today's world of much distraction outside, we miss living in the moment, and this book shows simple practices to follow mindfulness even when you are eating, in traffic, or at any event.

This book is not one time read a book and move on, but to practice in the day-to-day event, which i think is required for every one of us to feel completeness inside.

Recommend this book if you are interested in exploring and practicing mindfulness.
 
Have a great week ahead.

Monday 27 June 2022

The 80-20 Principle- Book Review

 


 
To our last week's discussion on " finding a pattern" in any situation or problem, the book 80-20 Principle is relevant to get more perspective about cause and effect.

In the best seller book " 80/ 20 Principle", the author Richard Koach tried to interpret and expand the findings of the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto's work in the 19th century.

The Pareto found an observation that in Italy, 80 % of the country's wealth was with 20 % of the population. He found similarities in many economic relationships, and later, this principle was named after him as the Pareto principle. Eventually, the Pareto principles were further extended to all professions  and fields,

Although the 80/20 principle has long influenced the business world, the author reveals how it works in personal and professional life and shows how we can use it systematically and practically to increase our effectiveness and improve our career success with many examples...



If you want to get more perspective on cause and effect or pattern findings, i suggest reading this book.

As the book was published 22 years ago and in many languages; it is now available in many formats to read/download.

Happy learning.

https://amzn.to/3rtXRjO

Have a great week ahead.

Wednesday 2 March 2022

Book Review- Smart Choices

 Book Review- Smart Choices 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

Recently i came across this book " Smart Choices" related to decision making and problem-solving.

The authors believe that decision making is a fundamental life skill and try to simplify any complex problem using the approach PROACT as they coined, which expanded into problem defining - Objective clarity-developing alternatives -understanding the consequences- Tradeoff the gain and pain.

The authors use their practical experience to share the concepts with simple language as easy to read.

If you would like to get a holistic idea about problem-solving and decision making, then i suggest reading the book as it is available in all formats (hardcover/kindle/ebook / audio format.)

https://amzn.to/3Jo0r1k

Good to read once.

Have a great week ahead!

Tuesday 7 December 2021

Book -The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

 Book -The Almanack of Naval Ravikant 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 
Recently i came across the book -The Almanack of Naval Ravikant -A guide to wealth and happiness as recommended by one of my wellwishers.

Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur, philosopher, and investor who is famous for sharing his principles for building wealth and creating long-term happiness. This book is a collection of his wisdom and experience which were shared in twitter and podcast for last 10 years.

Unlike research-based books, this book is a compilation of many wisdom and principles related to creating wealth and pursuing happiness by leveraging more of today's advancement in technology and business environment.

Easy to read and relate to in today's context.Recommend this book if you would like to get more perspective on wealth creation and happiness in today's context and from living personality.

This book is available for free download in the following website
https://www.navalmanack.com

Have a great week ahead!

Friday 8 October 2021

Atomic Habits -Book Review

 Atomic Habits -Book Review 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)


Recently read the book 
"Atomic Habits"  as suggested by one of my client's business head.

An atom, even though a small fraction of a larger system, the energy for the large system is derived from atoms. In the same way, in professional or personal life, any big success is achievable only through adopting some of the habits daily.

The author explains the compounding effects of 1% improvements daily, leading to 37 times better in a year.

The author puts that the difference between winner and loser is in efforts or in polishing the process than the setting the goal. Everyone sets the goal either in business or sports, and only a few people succeed. The reason lies in the consistency of practice.

Also the book helps the reader to practice the new habit formation and giving up some bad habits through four step-by-step processes and the explanation of the science behind each approach.

Unlike research books, the author explains the concepts from personal, sports and business which is easily relatable and easy to read.

If you would like to get more perspective on habit formation practices, recommend this book to read.

Given below the link.
 

https://amzn.to/3AbiCSY

Tuesday 3 August 2021

Book on Conflict management at workplace

 Book on Conflict management at workplace

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

Recently i bought this book " Making Conflict Work" to learn more about conflict management beyond textbook definition and conflict management techniques.

This book served the purpose as the authors had narrated the conflict management process through evidence-based insights, interviews and case studies from practicing managers and leaders in the real world.

If you would like to get more perspective on dealing with disagreement and reaching your goal of getting things done through people, this book can help.

https://amzn.to/3wy6nha

Happy Learning and let us discuss some of the insights on conflict management next week!

Monday 14 June 2021

Book on Influencing

 Book on Influencing 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)


 

As we initiated the discussion on People Skills at the workplace, some people responded acquiring people skills is challenging, and some replied that skills would come by experience. In my opinion, all are true.
When we say SKILL, it is an application of knowledge. It calls for learning the knowledge through observation, books, other learning contents, and then experimenting with practical life.

Reading books may be helpful to enhance the perspectives on people's emotions, dynamics of action, or behaviors and learn some of the proven ways to deal with people's challenges.

Recently I came across one such book as suggested by a Human resource friend, and I think it is relevant for people skill topic.

Book Title: Winning Without Intimidation 

I suggest reading this book as e-books are available as this will enhance our perspectives on influencing others to get things done in a professional environment.

Let us discuss more insights about dealing with people's challenges and influencing next week.

Stay safe till then!

Friday 9 April 2021

Identify your Strength

 Identify your Strength 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 
As we discussed some of the methods to lead a purposeful life, one of the methodologies is to know your current strength.
 
The strength could be your soft skills like communication, interpersonal talent, or management skills like problem-solving, looking at issues comprehensively, connecting the dots, or your domain knowledge and application skills like designing, marketing, engineering, etc.

The more we are aware of our strength, the better we can leverage it to lead a purposeful life. But most of us are concerning too much about the weakness and trying to fix it forever than being aware of our inherent strengths and leverage them for maximum benefits.

How can you find your strength?
 
1.First and robust process is through self-analysis, which is a lifelong exercise.
2.You can ask for feedback from others about your strength
3. Listen to what others appreciate you frequently, which you might have perceived as natural strength by you, and you might have taken it for granted.
4. Another approach is that you get an objective assessment of your strength by taking an online/ web-based assessment as conducted by Gallup. You can buy the strength finder book in which you have an access code to do the test. That will give a fair idea about your professional strength, which you can use as a base to start. (I have done this 15 year back, which gave me a reasonable level of  awareness) .

Given below the book front-page image.


 
To sum up,
you suppose to know your passion and strength to lead a purposeful life. When you are driven by purposeful activities, your emotional level, and achievement orientation would be on a higher level irrespective of any challenges during the journey.
 
Having discussed the purpose-driven by self, let us discuss how leaders can inculcate purpose to the organization's team next week.
 

Monday 6 April 2020

Peaks and Valleys

Peaks and Valleys

Even though this book is old, this is very apt at this point, to make good and bad times work for us by maintaining mental stability and positiveness all the time.


Name of the Book: Peaks and Valleys
Author: Spencer Johnson (Bestselling Author of “Who moved my cheese” book)
No of pages: 100+

The  Theme of this book :
In the entire lifecycle, everyone goes through good and tough times. Our tendency would be enjoying too much during good times and getting upset too much during tough times as it shows the lack of maturity in dealing with the gift and uncertainties.

This book gives perspective on dealing with good and bad times of life in a story format and easy to read.

I especially recommend to entrepreneurs and business leaders to get perspective on managing good and tough times in business.

The essence of the book is given below. 

Valley (Tough Times):    
                                                                                          

 This time is an opportunity to learn more about life. Find the good hidden in a bad time. Could you make use of it? Do more service to others. Learn from the mistakes; develop strategies, competency development for a better future.

Peak (Good times):

This Time is for celebrating the achievement and enjoy the moment. But, be humble and grateful for being on the height. Reflect on what good things made your top and look back on the path you have come across. Sustain it.

Prolonging Peak (Good times):

When we are in peak, the tendency would be to get into complacent and arrogance. Instead of it, practice humility, do good things better, and do more service to others. Always remembering to reach the valley as part of the cycle.

Be mentally strong now, and everything will pass on!

Learning Resources

Learning Resources 

"Sometimes we can not change the circumstances, but we have a choice to choose our attitude and actions"

Given the lockdown period, each individual has a choice to develop the competency and today we have multiple options. Given below some of the options which i am personally exploring and suggesting you as well.

1. Online courses:

Variety of subjects available in the market place and depending on your interest you can pursue any short term course.

2. Online Learning website  / Apps on multiple personal, professional. spiritual  subjects

Medium.com
Harvard Business Review -HBR Management Tip
Gita 365 - Spiritual contents (Apps) ( Thanks to my friend who had suggested)
Youtube channels of your interest mainly on Interviews by professionals to get new perspectives and fresh ideas 

3. Evergreen / classic books to be read forever:

Personal and relationship perspective enhancement
 
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
Law of Success in 16 lessons – Napoleon Hill
Awaken the Giant within –Anthony Robbins
Discover your Strengths – Marcus Buckingham
Why Mars and Venus Collide –John Gray
The road less traveled –scott Peck
The Habit of Winning –Prakash Iyer
Seven habits of highly effective people –Stephen Covey
Valuvaana Kudumbam, Valamaana India-Prof Kanagasabapathi
Living with the Himalayan Masters –Swami Rama
Rich dad, poor dad – Robert  Kiyosaki
 
Business growth perspective
Five Levels of Leadership – John Maxwell
Blue Ocean Strategy
The Goal –A process of ongoing improvement –Eliyahu M Goldratt
The machine that changed the world – James womach
The high-performance entrepreneur –subroto bagchi
Stay Hungry stay foolish –Rashmi bansal
I too had a dream – Verghese Kurian

( Will suggest regional language-Tamil Books if you drop me a mail )

4. Some good/new management books can be explored :

The Fourth Industrial revolution -Industry 4.0 - Klaus Schwab
Profit First
CEO factory -HUL experience
Kindle Life - Swami Chinmayananda
Lean startup
Edge - Turning adversity into advantage
Trillion Dollar coach
Emyth -revisited
The next step- In individual and social development -Madhusudan  Reddy
Compilation of Vivekanandar speech at Chennai ( i will send based on request which i compiled)

5. Eat, Sleep well, watch movies along with family and be cool as everything will pass on.

Reflect and  Be grateful for everything you have in life ......

Ultimately, you need to be happy and peaceful irrespective of circumstances !!! That is also competency to be developed.

Thursday 28 November 2019

Book on "Developing an Influencing Skills."

Book on "Developing an Influencing Skills."


As we discussed last week on developing Influencing skills at the workplace , given below one of the best books on the same which i read some years back.

The Author gives the techniques of persuasion by explaining the science behind each technique.

I recommend reading the book if you would like to enhance your perspectives on managing the people with your influencing skills.

Link is given below

https://amzn.to/2pEF7RM

Thursday 24 October 2019

Book review: The Art of Effective communication


Recently I came across this book, and I thought this book is relevant for the discussion on effective communication in the workplace.

Even the author is not familiarly known, the contents are depth, and the relevant topics are covered for making the communication effective.

If you are interested in getting more perspective on improving your communication and influencing skill, recommend it to read, and the kindle version link is given below

https://amzn.to/2o9xjqI

Sunday 2 June 2019

Book: Start with WHY


Recently came across this book, and the perspective shared by the Author seems to be very useful for both personal and professional life to lead and inspire others.

Some people or organizations inspire others to take actions and some struggle. One of the reasons as described in the book is the leader or organization has clarity about their PURPOSE. They start with WHY than WHAT or HOW  as rest of the world is doing.

In this book, the author has given real-world examples of both organizations and highly effective leaders on using the principles of starting with WHY and also explaining other benefits of this concept throughout the book.

If you would like to learn how inspiring leaders think and act, then I recommend this book to buy, read, and enhance your perspectives.

Book is available in Amazon; Link is given below