Coaching Reading List
“Read 500 pages…every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” — Warren Buffet
A note on reading
I believe that life is too short to waste your time with books you don’t find valuable. These are all books I’ve seen add extreme value to my life and/or my clients lives, so you’re already one filter in. But should you pick up a book and not find it useful, do everyone who values your time a favor and leave it. Pick a new one. When you find the right book at the right time, you should feel like someone just threw you a lifeline to your biggest challenge. Find that book, and circle back to the others when the time is right. Speed read, skip pages or skip whole chapters. Don’t worry about how you’ve been taught to read books. So leave your guilt at the amazon page checkout screen or the bookstore door, strap on your passionate reader identity and jump into whichever ‘right for you now if’ section most resonates.
✨Nina
PS: if you have a book that has been transformative for your leadership or company, please share it to nina@prismaticco.org — I’d love to vet it and add it to the list if it would be valuable to others as well.
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The Great CEO Within
by Matt Mochary
TLDR: A guide you can implement parts of or all of to create a coaching culture in your team/organization.
Right for you now if:
- Your company has PMF and you are scaling.
- You need to implement or improve systems to deal with the scale and challenges.
- You need to uplevel your own ability to lead in these new circumstances.
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman & Kaley Warner Xlemp
TLDR: 15 things that teams can commit to and use as shared vocabulary to elevate the way they show up individually and collectively as leaders, problem solvers, contributors and humans
Right for you now if:
- You are setting a new team culture (from scratch or improving an existing one).
- You want to be the best possible leader you can be
- You’re setting company values and looking for a ‘manifesto’ of sorts
Just Listen
by Mark Goulston
TLDR: “Whether you are dealing with a harried colleague, a stressed-out client, or an insecure spouse, things will go from bad to worse if you can’t break through emotional barricades and get your message thoroughly communicated and registered”
Right for you now if:
- You want to learn to be an effective leader and manager
- You have challenging interpersonal dynamic issues with someone else or on your team
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
by Marty Cagan
TLDR: “How do today’s most successful tech companies — Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla — design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world?…a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love — and that will work for your business.”
Right for you now if:
- You are leading a product org and looking to get better results
- You are starting a product org and want to set it up right culturally and structurally
- You are about to/trying to hire a fantastic product org leader and want to learn what to look for
Thoughtfully Ruthless
by Val Wright
TLDR: “The secret to exponential growth lies within how leaders ruthlessly manage their time, energy, and resources in parallel.”
Right for you now if:
- You want to or need to manage your time better
- You know you’re not showing up your best to an important area in your life (family, work, health, etc)
- You need to learn to prioritize/focus
- Your team needs to learn to do the above
High Output Management
by Andy Grove
TLDR: “…Covers techniques for creating highly productive teams, demonstrating methods of motivation that lead to peak performance…a practical handbook for navigating real-life business scenarios and a powerful management manifesto with the ability to revolutionize the way we work.”
Right for you now if:
- You manage anyone or are about to be managing anyone
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It & Why the Rest Don’t
by Verne Harnish
TLDR: “These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture.”
Right for you now if:
- You’ve found PMF and are scaling up. Note that I personally prefer Matt’s versions of many of the same tools (in The Great CEO Within) but do think this is also worth a read as every company needs to find what works for them and these are awesome, important tools.
Being There
by Marianna Cacciatore
TLDR: a book filled with stories — stories that teach a few basic skills used in grief counseling yet can be safely practiced by ordinary people.
Right for you now if:
- You manage/lead people and want to learn how to really be present for them in the highs and lows. Grief is simply the difference of expectation vs. reality — our team members grieve losses all the time. Learning to be there for them — and ourselves — is a key leadership skill that makes us more empathetic and effective.
- You or someone you know is grieving
Founders at Work
by Jessica Livingston (YC)
TLDR: a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days
Right for you now if:
- You’re in the relatively early stages of a startup and want to learn from those who have come before you
- You want to expand your understanding of business
Nobody Wants to Read your Shit
by Steven Pressfield
TLDR: “When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, you develop empathy. You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and entrepreneurs — the ability to switch back and forth in your imagination from your own point of view as writer/painter/seller to the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer.”
Right for you now if:
- You want to improve your communication skills
- You are about to start fundraising (and putting together lots of materials)
- You are putting together important company documents (wiki, values, mission, etc)
How to Win Friends and Influence People
TLDR: Understand the way people connect.
Right for you now if:
- You lead or manage people
- You sell to or partner with people
- You want to be better at making friends / building strong relationships
Conscious Living
by Gay Hendricks
TLDR: Five simple lessons of “conscious living”, rooted in the ancient traditions of Stoicism and Taoism, help us overcome obstacles and fears and awaken our own creativity.
Right for you now if:
- You think you care too much about what others think
- You have anxiety or are generally very stressed
- You want to be the best version of yourself
Atomic Habits
by James Clear
TLDR: Draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.
Right for you now if:
- You have habits you’d like to change (i.e. stop eating foods that make me feel bad, stop complaining, stop blowing up on team members)
- You have habits you’d like to start (i.e. get more sleep, eat better, read more, start doing top goal time, start taking 100% responsibility))
- You want to set your team/company up in a way where high performance is built into various habits
Coaching for Performance
by Sir John Whitmore
TLDR: “Featuring the influential GROW model, this book is the founding text of the coaching profession. It explains why enabling people to bring the best out of themselves is the key to driving productivity, growth, and engagement.”
Right for you now if:
- You are trying to create a coaching organization within your team company (people help coach team members through their problems and growth)
- You want to learn to be a more effective manager
The Work
by Byron Katie
TLDR: Question what you believe to be more peaceful & more effective in every area.
Right for you now if:
- You are a very judgemental person
- You carry a lot of anger, hate, or pain towards others or yourself
- You want to be a more peaceful person
- You want to improve your self-awareness
Psycho-Cybernetics
by Maxwell Maltz
TLDR: Psycho-cybernetics is a term coined by Dr. Maxwell Maltz that means “steering your mind to a productive, useful goal so you can reach the greatest port in the world: peace of mind”.
Right for you now if:
- You have lofty goals that you want to set yourself up to achieve
- You want to learn to view yourself and the world as clearly as possible
Theatre of the Mind: Creating Power and Results Through the Magic of Mental Movies
by Matt Furey
TLDR: Ways to apply Psycho-Cybernetics to your everyday life. Some people find this a more accessible read than Psycho-Cybernetics, others find it additive.
Right for you now if:
- You have a strong inner critic
- You want more inner peace
- You want to learn to set and achieve lofty goals
So Good They Can’t Ignore You
by Cal Newport
TLDR: “mandatory listening for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love.”
Right for you now if:
- You are dissatisfied with your current role/job and looking to improve it or find a better one
- You want to foster a work environment that people love using the latest research on job satisfaction
- You are trying to pick the right career
The War of Art
by Steven Pressfield
TLDR: The War of Art identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success.
Right for you now if:
- You’re a procrastinator by nature OR are procrastinating on something you know is important
- You are a creator (entrepreneur, writer, builder, business person) who wants to produce your highest quality work
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
TLDR: Outlines “the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team.
Right for you now if:
- You are a manager or lead a team of any kind
- You are dealing with interpersonal issues between yourself and others or within your team
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
TLDR: “There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear.”
Right for you now if:
- You are feeling like there’s not enough time/energy/resources to do all the things you want or be the person you want to be
- You often find yourself in the ‘victim’s mindset’, finding it hard to take 100% responsibility for yourself
- You generally want an entertaining, feel good book that will help you prioritize your life better
The Upside of Stress
by Kelly McGonigal
TLDR: “how to cultivate a mindset that embraces stress, and activate the brain’s natural ability to learn from challenging experiences. Both practical and life-changing, The Upside of Stress is not a guide to getting rid of stress, but a toolkit for getting better at it — by understanding, accepting, and leveraging it to your advantage.”
Right for you now if:
- You are stressed out
- You are worried about being stressed out
- You are asking a lot of yourself and/or your team and want to be as supported as possible
Trillion Dollar Coach
by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg & Alan Eagle
TLDR: “management lessons from legendary coach and business executive Bill Campbell, whose mentoring of some of our most successful modern entrepreneurs has helped create well over a trillion dollars in market value.”
Right for you now if:
- You are a manager or leader who wants to be your best
- You are a coach and want to be your best
- You’re considering hiring a coach
- You want to learn what coaching looked like for some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs
The Culture Code
by Daniel Coyle
TLDR: “Goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations — including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs — and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind.”
Right for you now if:
- You are building a team and wanting to set or transform the culture
The Body Keeps The Score
by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
TLDR: The science of how trauma affects us and the different tools available for healing it.
Right for you now if:
- You want to lead your most peaceful, effective & self-aware life
- You want to help others lead their most peaceful, effective & self-aware life
- You’re interested in the science behind how people operate
Self-Therapy
by Jay Earley, PhD
TLDR: “Understand your psyche in a clear and comprehensive way, and resolve deep-seated emotional issues.”
Right for you now if:
- You want to lead your most peaceful, effective & self-aware life
- You want to help others lead their most peaceful, effective & self-aware life
- You found therapy to be ineffective and want a more effective long-term alternative
- You loved therapy but have some areas you’re still looking for help with
The Checklist Manifesto
by Atul Gawande
TLDR: “In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds.”
Right for you now if:
- You are building systems into your team/company that will be critical to the success and efficiency of your team/company
- You’re dealing with high error, mistake or risk rates with something you’re working on
- You want to have more peace of mind around various areas of your life and company
The Coaching Habit
by Michael Bungay Stanier
TLDR: 7 coaching questions for leaders that will get better results:
- Get straight to the point in any conversation with The Kickstart Question
- Stay on track during any interaction with The Awe Question
- Save hours of time for yourself with The Lazy Question, and hours of time for others with The Strategic Question
- Get to the heart of any interpersonal or external challenge with The Focus Question and The Foundation Question
- Finally ensure others find your coaching as beneficial as you do with The Learning Question
Right for you now if:
- You’re a manager who wants to cultivate autonomy, extreme ownership, and develop your team members’ potential
- You’re a manager who struggles with micro managing or doing for your team instead of letting them do/own
- You’re a coach looking to improve your skills
- You want to learn to give better advice/support to anyone (teammates, family, friends, clients)
The Worry Cure
by Robert Leahy
TLDR: A practical guide to overcoming all consuming worry and anxiousness
Right for you now if:
- You often feel stressed or anxious
- Worrying feels like second nature
- You’re scared that being less worried will make you lose a performance edge
- You tend to operate more from a place of fear rather than peace and inspiration
Essentialism
by Greg McKeown
TLDR: “The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done. It is not a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.”
Right for you now if:
- You feel stretched too thin
- You simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized
- You are you often busy but not productive
- You feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas
- You generally want to spend your time focused on the most important things, and think there’s more room to make sure that happens
Tribes
by Seth Godin
TLDR: “Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers.”
Right for you now if:
- You are a leader in any capacity
- You are trying to intentionally build a community (a team, clients, users, investors)
The Effective Executive
by Peter Drucker
TLDR: “The measure of the executive, Drucker reminds us, is the ability to ‘get the right things done’.”
Right for you now if:
- You want to be your most effective self
- You are leading a team or company and need to determine how to prioritize
- You are thinking about how you can best contribute to your organization
- You want to be more effective at decision making
Core Transformation
by Connirae Andreas and Tamara Andreas
TLDR: “Whether we’ve experienced small setbacks or major traumas, we all have challenges that need healing for us to live our ideal lives. Core Transformation offers a simple process that empowers readers to experience healing and lasting change.”
Right for you now if:
- You want to be the most effective leader you can be
- You want to be the most peaceful person you can be
- You have certain automatic reactions to situations (yelling at team members ,procrastinating on a project, shutting down, etc) you wish were different
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Want a coach who has all these books in their head and toolkit, to help you apply them to your specific context? Check out executivecoachmatcher.com to find your perfect coach match or email me nina@prismaticco.org and I’ll match you with the right fit :)
