One of the things I love about this time of year are all of the lists that come out…especially the lists about good books! It’s always a blessing to me when a friend, who is a great reader, let’s me know about a book they loved! Their trusted recommendation saves me time because they’ve weeded out the bad ones, and – just as importantly – the okay ones.
My hope with this list is to just give you the great ones!
Throughout the year, I keep a running list of all of the books I’ve read. If it’s a good book, I “bold” the title, if it’s a great book, I highlight it. Of the 30 books I read this year, only 3 were not in “bold.” The ones listed below were all highlighted.
They were highlighted based on the amount of new insights I gained or how long I continued to think about the book after I finished it. Before I give you the list I feel I need to issue the following disclaimer: I’m not endorsing everything the author wrote.
So with all of that out of the way…here are my favorites out of the 30 I read in 2022. I tried to rank them, but I wouldn’t argue if you wanted to rearrange the order.
If I could get every leader, politician, pastor, and CEO to read a book this year, this would be it. The author makes the distinction between a finite game which has a known duration (think baseball or football game) and an infinite game in which you never want it to end (think how long our country lasts). Sinek makes the brilliant insight that when we apply the mindset of a finite game to an infinite game it creates disastrous results. We live in an age where leaders are in an infinite game, but are acting like they are playing a finite game by only focusing on the next election or quarterly earnings. We need decisions based on what keeps the organization playing for a long time, and not what helps the leader in the near term. Insist on playing the infinite game.
Do you ever look at your life and feel discouraged? Do you feel like you aren’t making progress on all of your dreams? Then this one’s for you. The discouragement comes when we only focus on the gap (what we want to accomplish) instead of the gain (where we have come from and what we have already achieved). A powerful idea for every area of your life!
Regret some of the decisions you made last year? Did they seem like the right decisions at the time? Want to make better decisions this year? They will show you how.
If you lead anything, people are counting on you to make the best decisions possible.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
The higher you go in an organization, the more your interpersonal behavior determines whether you will keep moving up or stay stuck. Have you ever seen your boss repeatedly do something that sabotages their best efforts? Have you ever wished you could get them to stop doing that one thing? What if your direct reports feel the same way about you? A scary question…Where are you succeeding despite yourself? What would happen to your career if you addressed those areas? If I could get every leader in America to read a second book this year, this would be it.
This is a book I haven’t been able to stop thinking about, which automatically puts it in my best books list. As soon as I finished reading it, I wondered what in the world I would say about it in my book review because I’ve found these types of issues are much better discussed in person, over a cup of coffee. So read the book and then let’s meet for coffee.
Another book for us to grab coffee and chat about.
How can we make our church leadership communities healthy and stronger? Tripp gives us some important ways to do just that.
The Lost World of Genesis One.
What’s the purpose and message of Genesis 1?
With these two books completed, I’ve now read the entire suite of EOS books…and I’m sold! If you lead a team, a department, a staff, or a business EOS will change your life and you’ll finally start getting Traction.
Seriously, does this guy write anything that’s not worth reading? Another winner!
If you are looking for the right people to be on your team, or looking to hire people this book will help. “In business, you are who you hire.”
The Power of Multi-Sensory Preaching.
Whenever I’m on the campus of my college I like to swing by the bookstore and see what the required textbooks are for the religion department. A few years back this was one of them and I see why!
Bonus Reads:
My wife loves to visit grand historic homes and because I love her we’ve visited 3 of the Vanderbilt’s homes – NY, NC, and RI. All impressive in their lack of fiscal restraint, even more shocking is that none of them were occupied by the next generation. When the direct descendants of the Commodore gathered almost 100 years after his death there wasn’t a millionaire among them! If you like history, you’ll love this!
My son and I went whitewater rafting down the New River Gorge this summer and I remembered hearing that Mary Ingles had traveled the same river on foot and during winter. As we were rafting, I kept wondering how in the world did she make it all the way from Ohio back to Virginia?!? I barely made it out alive and only traveled a small stretch of the river! She was one tough lady! I’ve recommended this to a few people and they’ve all loved it! (Side note…I never knew about the dinosaur bone yard in Kentucky either.)
