Following is a list of my favorite books and websites. I believe in the value each of these books or links contain and wish to share what I have learned along with how I applied it. In my opinion, exposure to different information and sources helps add dimension and depth to view, think and perceive problems and situations in a more dynamic way.
"Beginning with the End in Mind" is something I constantly think about mostly every day. As a member of the MIS Department, I am consistently faced with putting out random "fires" by creating solutions that not only solve the problem of the day, but also create a foot hold for future long-term solutions. I have the 7 Habits hanging in my office as a reminder and framework to help interface with different aspects of creating solutions and integrating divergent systems.
Daniel Pink talks about purpose, mastery and autonomy, all of which I believe has helped me enable a "flow" state allowing me to be fully engaged in my projects. My thoughts are that if you understand the variables at play you can help influence the environment to favor the conditions for "flow". This can help motivate you or your team in overcoming challenges. I found that it’s a good thing to keep in mind, and for the added depth, it can go hand in hand with stewardship delegation which is part of Habit 3: Put First Things First from the 7 Habits. As mentioned, there is a difference between Gopher delegation and Stewardship delegation. Enabling someone with a stewardship sets the stage with purpose, mastery and autonomy. Learning how to be a leader of the "What's" and allowing the team members to be the stewards of the "How's" is a good paradigm to follow and allows the team a way to connect to the work. I believe micro-managers fall prey to controlling "How's" which suffocates the ownership and kills the autonomy, degrades the purpose, and prevents mastery. Hence using carrots and sticks for mechanical tasks where the "How's" are predefined.
The reason why I created this website was an idea from this book. I think John Sonmez has a lot of great ideas and insights. His site is https://simpleprogrammer.com and his YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/user/jsonmez all very good resources to check out.
Advocacy: Learn communication required to sell products, services or ideas adding value.
Authenticity: The perception of who and what you stand for.
Accomplishment: Execute with efficiency and deliver results.
Affability: How to listen with an open mind and disagree without being disagreeable.
As I moved into more of a leadership role, along with my technical background, I have learned that advocacy is the skill I need to work on to effectively communicate ideas and direction to leadership and peers. I am keen to figuring out what my strengths and weaknesses and will work hard to develop areas of weakness. Through this exercise, I realized that I articulate way too much technical details for solutions and ideas. I need to work on how to communicate to a larger, more diverse audience that may not be focused on the details of the technology and focus more on the impact and value to the business, as to not confuse the audience. These technical solutions are business work flow efficiencies that span across multiple departments and the software and systems are in place to facilitate the process. These concepts can be difficult to demonstrate the business value because the requirements involve such a large group of people and the return on investment (ROI) is distributed across departments. Information Technology is all about integrating efficiencies across a large scope and needs a mixture of big picture views (the why's) and the macro details (the how's) to create business equity of production capability. This is a part of the P versus PC balance Stephen Covey talks about which is the production versus the production capability from the 7 Habits.
Hello, my name is Steven and I am a workaholic. I believe because I do not have a college degree and I have always been intrinsically motivated learning about technology, I somehow tricked myself into a workaholic loop of self-achievement. I also believe that this is part of trying to compensate for a self-perceived lack of education. Moreover, my unconscious behaviors in the past were bias to proving my educational value and I would hold on to different ideas and solutions and not be as open to other approaches or input. Now, many years later I have found a new appreciation and confidence in my skills and abilities which has helped me have a more efficient work/life balance. It is an amassing and rewarding experience to work on a project where the team makes these kind of connections because the final result is truly something beyond the sum of its parts.
I have often thought about times when I am faced with a choice and one path is easy and the other is hard. Often, I know the harder path is the correct way to go. This was something I have felt for many years and reading this book filled in the missing pieces.
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
― Marcus Aurelius
There is a difference in being a maker versus a manager because the tools, time, and skills for each are different. As a long-term maker, it is helpful to have large blocks of focused time to build large projects. As a manager, however, the focus shifts from creating your own efficiencies to supporting a team of people’s efficiencies. The switch to a leadership position has helped me think about the things that made me be successful as a manager, may not necessarily be the things that would help me become successful in the future. As patrol leader during summer camp, I wanted to lead by example and instill a level of community, and not ask anyone to do a job I would not do myself. I found that by blending some of my personal values with the insights from The First 90 Days, I was more capable of leading a cohesive energetic team and effectively navigate the complexities of coordinating a variety of business objectives.
In one sentence: direct the rider, motivate the elephant, and shape the path. There is so much crossover when learning different soft skills that improve both home and work life and interconnect to other concepts. By being aware of the difference between logic, emotions and the environmental conditions between home and work, I found this helpful for my communication and advocacy. I tend to understand when I fall into my logic technical descriptions and whether it is an emotional or environmental approach. I have also found I can better understand if it's logic, emotions, or environmental adjustments that would best help achieve new goals and outcomes.
This was a very humbling experience. It forced me to get out of my own head and put down my own ego to stop and think. Viktor Frankl founded logotherapy and is a concentration camp survivor. This helped change my focus and the way I look at situations in life. Stephen Covey references several of Viktor Frankl's insights and concepts in the 7 habits. There is a breadth and depth one can gain from immersing in multiple sources. After finishing Man's Search for Meaning, I went back to the 7 Habits for a second time and it helped solidify the concepts and ideas I was thinking. I believe these soft skills are not as common as they should be and reading something like Viktor Frankl's experience helps create a frame of reference that complements the practices of stoicism from the Ego Is the Enemy, and The Obstacle Is the Way. Additionally, time helps add perspective. An insight I gained from thinking about all these ideas was in the respect of seeing one of my creative technology implementations. Plus, I was lucky enough to see it through its full life cycle. Taking the system offline after 4 years of service was a bitter sweet moment. It is only after reflecting about these years of service and the ageing of technology, that I could start to appreciate contributions as something as a point in time. Watching technology systems age is different than an architect looking at a completed building because technology moves so fast and is quickly replaced. Attaching a part of yourself to building a project, makes it difficult to watch its life cycle so quickly. When this happens, I try to remind myself to focus on helping people the best I can, with the resources available at the time. This is the best way to connect to purpose, mastery, and autonomy. This also helps keep the Ego in check and allows a way to find meaning.
Most of the video summaries above are from Fight Mediocrity, I truly enjoy his 5-minute video book reviews. They help give an overall sense of a book and how it may relate to the reader. I have found many of these helpful in selecting the books I get on Audible for my daily commute to work.