Book Reviews on Leadership & Entrepreneurship

Rating: 4 out of 5.

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

Recommendation: A unique way to think about leadership and the power of inspiration. A read you will enjoy.

Full Review

An expansion of Sinek’s TED talk of the same name, this book cuts to the core of why certain companies and leaders are successful – they start with the clarity of why, then move on to the discipline of how and the consistency of what (Sinek’s golden circle). Here, the why is the belief, hows are the actions taken to realize that belief, and the whats are the results of those actions. When all three are in balance authenticity is achieved, trust is built, and value is perceived. In a nutshell, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.


Overall, I like this approach to leadership. Clarifying a why can lend itself to inspire loyalty and demonstrte authenticity, It’s also a mindset or philosophy that can apply on multiple leadership levels – managerial through CEO. Why does this company or team exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Why should people care about what you do, or how you do it?

In part I like this book philosophy because at it’s core it’s a book on marketing and branding. Why is a driving purpose. It’s Apple’s “individual” campaign or Southwest’s push for “casual, everyday American” flight. In part I like this book because it emphasizes leadership traits I already agree with. Good leaders communicate. Good leaders inspire action rather than generate excitement. As Sinek says, “We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves.”

All in all, the book doesn’t have many pieces of tangible advice. Start with Why is more about a mindset and philosophy than a specific guidebook on leadership. I recommend this book for those looking to for a unique perspective on leadership. True to the vibe, I finished it feeling inspired.

Rating: 0 out of 5.

Insert Quote

Recommendation: <Still Reading >

Full Review

Still reading, but so far this is good. Chapters 1-3 are historical and I imagine really appealing if you’re a tech entrepreneur from the 90s… This really heats up in Chapter 4.

Thus far, Chapter 4 and 5 have very practical advice. Some of these situations are very specific, but this is where the book shines, I’ll definitely be revisiting this section often.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

When interacting with someone from another culture, try to watch more, listen more, and speak less.

Recommendation: a must read

Full Review

Culture map should be required reading for anyone operating in a professional setting, specifically managers. It’s incredibly practical and a nice way to explain difficult collection of concepts that are increasingly more relevant in a global economy.

A nice summary of this book can be there are no “right” or “wrong” ways to make decisions, give feedback, persuade someone, or disagree with a colleague. Each country and culture has their own implicit and explicit norms / biases for these actions. When applying this knowledge to my management style two things struck me. First, I know that you can’t really manage two people the exact same way. Second, a truism for me is that ‘every story can have multiple perspectives’. This book takes the two management concepts and layers them with culture relevance to provide a management nuance my brain was intuitively understanding, but not fully grasping.

The book centers around Meyer’s 8 scales, which are described as a continuum between two ends.

  1. Communicating (low-context, high context)
  2. Evaluating (Direct or indirect for negative feedback)
  3. Leading (Egalitarian or hierarchy)
  4. Deciding (Consensus or Top-Down)
  5. Trusting (Is trust based on how well you know each other or how well you work together)
  6. Disagreeing ( Disagreements tackled directly or do you avoid confrontation)
  7. Scheduling (Linear points or flexible range)
  8. Persuading (Specific examples or holistic explanations)

These scales have countries listed along the continuum and give examples on both ends of the spectrum. You will find yourself automatically noting if you fall on the side of your home country, and where you differ. Critically, when trying to understand other perspectives, what’s important is not the absolute position of either culture on the scale but rather the relative position of the two cultures.

All in all, I highly recommend this book for anyone working in a team, particularly managers of diverse teams.

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Managing morale and motivation is largely a waste of time

Recommendation: Dated and unhelpful, skip

Full Review

In a nutshell this book is good but not great. While reading it, I found it both interesting and extremely frustrating. I fundamentally disagree with a lot of the concepts – such as the quote, “Managing morale and motivation is largely a waste of time,” which feels like bad leadership (see my review on Start with Why).

It’s filled with quirky metaphors and catchphrases, but the are no breakthrough concepts. The premise is a patterns and data emerging from a 5-year study about companies and the takeaways that provide. Broadly, these are fairly intuitive, and some steps are difficult to do in modern startup or entrepreneurial situation.

Highlights of the path from good to great:

  1. Be a leader who puts company over personal success.
  2. Pick the right people before you really head out to where you’re going
  3. Understand the basic facts about your team and company
  4. Focus on one thing. Specifically the intersection of your passions, what can make money, and where you have a lot of talent
  5. One you have your focus, aim to be the best
  6. Have discipline towards that focus and aim
  7. Build with little steps to generate consistency and avoid unnecessary side steps

This book comes across as very, very dated. To be fair, this book was published in 2001 – but some of the companies used are Fannie Mae, Circuit City, and Philip Morris. All the CEOs mentioned are men, and diversity is not mentioned (again this was written in 2001).