Leaders are readers. Reading helps you discover ideas to try and expand your mental models. In this post, I point you to reviews of recent business books. You’ll find pointers to reviews of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter, Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy, The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, and Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company. Plus Michael McKinney’s look at leadership books scheduled for release in May 2022.

From Skip Prichard: How to Develop a Radical Product Thinking Mindset

“Creating world-class products and services is a discipline that some organizations seem to master, and others struggle to achieve. We read about the visionaries like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and may think it is a magical gift bestowed on the few. Radhika Dutt presents a different approach in her book Radical Product Thinking. She argues that it’s a new mindset that is needed and shares a repeatable model that anyone can master.”

From Whitney Goodman: Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy

“Whitney Goodman is the radically honest psychotherapist behind the popular Instagram account @sitwithwhit and owner of the Collaborative Counseling Center, a private therapy practice in Miami. She helps individuals and couples heal past wounds and create the life they’ve always wanted. Her work has been featured in dozens of publications and programs, including the New York Times, Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, InStyle, and Good Morning America.
Below, Whitney shares 5 key insights from her new book, Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy.”

From the Harvard Business Review: The Positives—and Perils—of Storytelling

“Jonathan Gottschall’s newest book is The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down.”

From Bob Morris: Sprint: A book review

“With John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz, Jake Knapp explains how to solve the biggest problems, answer the most difficult questions, and/or generate the best ideas, with what he characterizes as a ‘sprint team.’ Knapp invented the Google Ventures process and has run more than a hundred sprints with startups. However, the same process — with only minor modification — will work within any organization, whatever its size and nature may be.”

From McKinsey: Author Talks: Whitney Johnson encourages individual growth with the S Curve of Learning

“McKinsey Global Publishing’s Raju Narisetti chats with Whitney Johnson, the CEO of tech-enabled talent agency Disruption Advisors, about her new book, Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company (Harvard Business Review Press, January 2022). Johnson lends her expertise on personal development and shares strategies for staying motivated on the road to mastery. An edited version of the conversation follows.”

From Michael McKinney: First Look: Leadership Books for May 2022

“Here’s a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.”

Reading recommendations are a regular feature of this blog. Want more recommendations about what to read? Monday is “Book Day.” Come back for book reviews, reading lists and other reading-related posts.