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This past year was a great one for books, and here at Salesforce, we love nothing more than finding a good read and sharing it with our friends and colleagues. Coming to Salesforce after a long career in book publishing, I can’t help but ask my colleagues what they’re reading, and what they’re excited about. And my incredibly smart, talented, curious, and seemingly tireless colleagues always have great answers and passionate recommendations. Teams here regularly turn to business books to keep them sharp, creative, and growing.
So I asked around: What are your top picks for 2015 — and why are they worth reading? Here are a few of the top titles that are on our desks and on our minds. Happy reading!
Geoffrey Moore (author of the previous bestsellers Escape Velocity and Crossing the Chasm) has incredible insight into how things work at the management level and how to eliminate barriers to success. What I love about reading his latest book, Zone to Win, was the feeling that he was reading it to me — I could hear his voice on every page. If you really listen to what he’s talking about and put these practices into place when integrating new lines of business, you and your teams will have the best chance to succeed as you grow. Geoffrey Moore is a gift to us all. If you’re leading a business, whether it’s the industry leader or a disruptor, this book is a great investment in your future.
— John Zissimos, Chief Creative Officer
I’ve been passionate about women’s rights since I worked in Africa while in the Peace Corps, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Anne-Marie Slaughter’s book. Anyone who works in Silicon Valley these days can tell you it’s not just a question of “leaning in,” there’s much more that needs to happen to create a truly equal environment. Slaughter shares her experiences working in the state department and how unexpectedly hard it was to do the kind of job that she wanted to do while being the kind of parent she wanted to be, and how she grew to question the feminist narrative she grew up with. She offers a frank assessment of the stereotypes and assumptions that need to change to help women in the workplace — and how women won’t advance until we prioritize caregiving as a culture, and begin offering more flexible schedules, paid leave, and affordable childcare. We have a long way to go and this is a thought-provoking read for anyone — woman or man — in a leadership role today.
— Leyla Seka, SVP and GM, Desk.com
General McChrystal’s Team of Teams solves a crucial problem for large cross-functional teams: It helps get people focused on the ultimate goal, rather than just the internal departmental or individual goals that make up a part of the bigger problem. The book forces you as a reader to up level. As a leader, I found a few favorite tactics here that improve collaboration among each member of the team. One is to improve collaboration by “forcing” proximity among teams. Another is to create a culture of giving all the information you have at all costs.
— Tony Rodoni, EVP, Commercial Sales
Check out Tony’s interview with General McChrystal here.
In The Silo Effect, Gillian Tett explains how companies, governments, financial institutions, and others ruin their chances to solve problems and get out ahead by creating groups that work alone, data that isn’t connected, and specialists who don’t reach beyond their own worlds. She shows how Sony got beat by Apple, despite being first to market with not one but two digital music players, and owning the rights (through Sony Music) to an enormously valuable music library. And she offers a few bright spots too, like how Facebook breaks down walls between departments and people to make better code, or how the Cleveland Clinic topped their already high hospital rating when they began treating patients from a patient-centered perspective, rather than a traditional specialist approach. There isn’t a better read on why walls can be a bigger business hazard than you think.
— Malachy Walsh, Creative Director
It’s funny that Pfeffer puts BS in the title, because that’s exactly what this book eschews. Having spent the past two decades studying power dynamics and organizational behavior, Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, offers a no-nonsense approach to workplace leadership that controverts many of the traditional platitudes about good management. Authenticity, modesty, trustworthiness, and taking care of others are all worthwhile pursuits, Pfeffer asserts, but not necessarily effective paths to a leadership position. One important lesson for leaders, in Pfeffer’s words: “First, you need to take care of yourself.” It’s a refreshing take on leadership, and one that will resonate with anyone who’s been in the trenches of corporate culture.
— Alexa Schirtzinger, Director, Content Marketing
Want more reading material? Check out one of our favorite Salesforce e-books:
