How to pick your best management books?

In my blogs I offer insight to some of my lessons learned in the real life of being part of the management team. In some cases you might not agree with my practice or viewpoint, but in any case it made you aware of some of the challenges you face and decisions you need to take. 

In one of my blogs I also gave you insights in my objectives and some of my personal key take-aways (All the best for 2020!). In other blogs I touch mostly on a specific experiences, do's and don'ts or pitfalls you have to deal with, combined with my personal view on how I deal(t) with them.

Recently, I came across an initiative I was not aware of, the Open Organization Ambassadors Community (Meet the Open Organization Ambassadors | Opensource.com).

I read their book The Open Organization Leaders Manual (Second Edition) | Opensource.com and was intrigued by the explanation and examples in this book and the awareness creation of the characteristics of an open organisation and open leadership. I noticed many similarities with my blogs, which strongly focus on my personal real life experiences. However, the book is much more a holistic view.

If you start looking for guidance material, you will find literally thousands and more books on this topics, but this manual, being part of open source is free for use and is not just a contemporary document but is being kept alive. For example, while I write this blog, the community is working on v3 of this book. If you feel connected with (some of) my views, I strongly recommend this book to read. And in case you find this a tough challenge, start with the handout Open-leadership-definition-handout-2.pdf. This is a very straight forward summary of behaviours and mindsets. Hopefully this will give you just this additional incentive to read the book anyway. 😊

I also met with the only Dutch ambassador of this community, Jos Groen (www.hbrd.eu). While we discussed the many challenges that come with the job, he made me aware of an interesting addon to the book I mentioned. The shortage of talent in the world is challenging companies to rethink their strategy to grow their talentpool and, hot topic at this moment, keep them happy. The role of leaders to overcome these challenges is eminent. As this is tightly connected to the open leadership thinking, I can only suggest to you to ask Jos a copy of his book as well (Get your free e-book - HBRD).

While my blogs offer you some good insights, it is good to have an understanding of the total picture. I found out that the material of the open organisation community is a perfect fit. It saves you a lot of time searching through the immense amount of available books on management to begin with. If you need an extra hand, Jos is more than happy to jump in and help you guide or coach thru complex challenges that you face as a leader/manager. And if you are still eager to continue reading on a specific topic, I wish you good hunting!