Category: Books
Genre: Business & Investing
Author: Patrick Lencioni

A compelling thought-provoking story that successfully demonstrates that a leader must make progress through a team and not alone. Lencioni unveils and clearly outlines the major problems that keep even the best teams from getting to their maximum potential. He shows clearly how to identify, address and resolve the main dysfunctions through a compelling story that is realistic and gripping.

The book itself is very easy to read and certainly worth every minute. Its to the point, definitely applicable and fun to read. I’d highly recommend it!

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 2 Comments »

Category: Books
Genre: Computers & Internet
Author: Federick P. Brooks, Jr.

This book is about the authors experience in large software engineering projects and opinions involved in building complex computer systems. It is a very easy read and rather entertaining for a software developer as you would be well aware of all the major points of topic and can easily relate to the evidence the author presents for the problems and challenges involved in software engineering. He discusses the methods both attempted and that which is necessary, which can vary greatly and produce very different results. He does outline some of the learned techniques and areas lacking in software engineering so the book helps to present these ideas to improve the way major software systems are created. I’d recommend the book only to software developers or people in software field.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | Comments Off on Book Review: The Mythical Man-Month

Category: Books
Genre: Business & Investing
Author: David H. Maister

Wow. What a great book. Maister hits home on every issue you can think of related to managing a professional service firm. Not only does he outline the many problems that typically plague service firms, but he contrasts how to change and the steps to take and the results it will achieve. He is very clear that there is no magic solution and that the problem solutions for each firm will be different and require a LOT of hard work. He does recommend a lot of methods and examples of how to improve every aspect of the business with clear steps and recommended practices. The book helps to resolve problems in professional service firms and even more important, it first helps to identify and articulate these problems.

I was amazed how much evidence from my own experience was discussed in the book. There is a lot of great information to apply, which is an excellent management resource for anyone in any professional service firm, regardless of the industry.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | Comments Off on Book Review: Managing the Professional Service Firm

Category: Books
Genre: Other
Author: John C. Maxwell

This is a very good book that shows many specific attributes or laws of leadership. Each law is clearly described with real life examples from history and other great leaders who demonstrate the law. The book itself is quite an easy read and a great overview of what good leadership practise is all about. If you want to learn by example or reference, this is an excellent leadership book.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | Comments Off on Book Review: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Category: Book
Genre: Business & Investing
Author: Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

This is an excellent timeless book about what makes a company visionary and why visionary companies last and succeed as they do. The research performed for this book is clearly laid out and reinforces the authors’ fundamental concepts that are necessary for building a visionary company. It is an easy read and a very interesting book if you are interested in understanding what makes a visionary company or how to make your own!

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | Comments Off on Book Review: Built to Last

Category: Books
Genre: Business & Investing
Author: William C. Byham, Audrey B. Smith, and M

This is very good book that is specifically targeted for large corporations. It is focused on how to identify and developer leaders from within an organization and it specifically looks at how acceleration pools can be used to facilitate this. I read it hoping to gain incite in different approaches to develop team members and it does provide a lot of concrete approaches for doing this, unfortunately, many of them would only apply in a large corporation. The concepts and items outlined for looking for and developing hold true in any company, the approach to practice them and give room for internal growth however is not something that can easily be achieved in a small company. It is an interesting read but many chapters seem to be somewhat repetitive and go into great detail on specific approaches. It is very easy however, to scan through and focus on the areas that might actually be applicable in your company. There are more than enough ideas and things to focus on that would provide any leader with a great variety of ways to develop more people in any size of organization.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | Comments Off on Book Review: Grow Your Own Leaders