Good Boss, Bad Boss

 Good Boss, Bad Boss by Robert Sutton  308 pages

Summary from Goodreads: f you are a boss who wants to do great work, what can you do about it? Good Boss, Bad Boss is devoted to answering that question. Stanford Professor Robert Sutton weaves together the best psychological and management research with compelling stories and cases to reveal the mindset and moves of the best (and worst) bosses. This book was inspired by the deluge of emails, research, phone calls, and conversations that Dr. Sutton experienced after publishing his blockbuster bestseller The No Asshole Rule. He realized that most of these stories and studies swirled around a central figure in every workplace: THE BOSS. These heart-breaking, inspiring, and sometimes funny stories taught Sutton that most bosses - and their followers - wanted a lot more than just a jerk-free workplace. They aspired to become (or work for) an all-around great boss, somebody with the skill and grit to inspire superior work, commitment, and dignity among their charges.

And here's what I thought: I found some really good things in this book and wound up marking a few pages with sticky notes to come back to later. While I felt there could have been more perspectives from female leaders, the no-nonsense advice here applies to any boss, at any level. Good book and something to maybe keep handy (depending on your job). 

Radical Candor: Be A Kick-ass Boss Without Losing your Humanity

 Radical Candor:  Be A Kick-ass Boss Without Losing your Humanity  by Kim Malone Scott  246 pages

"From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. While this advice may work for everyday life, it is, as Kim Scott has seen, a disaster when adopted by managers.

Scott earned her stripes as a highly successful manager at Google and then decamped to Apple, where she developed a class on optimal management. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, the “radical candor” method.

Radical candor is the sweet spot between managers who are obnoxiously aggressive on one side and ruinously empathetic on the other. It’s about providing guidance, which involves a mix of praise as well as criticism—delivered to produce better results and help employees achieve."  (Goodreads)

I really liked this book and wound up using page flags to mark some things to share with some other people (and I also put it on my "Want" list in LibraryThing so I remember I want a copy for myself).  While I have studied emotional intelligence, communication styles, management, etc. over the years, I still found some new things to think about in this book.  I also found touchstones for things that I already practice, which was helpful --- always good to know if you're on the correct track.  

Creativity, Inc.

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
by Ed Catmull,  Amy Wallace  340 pages

“What does it mean to manage well?”

This is the idea that Ed Catmull, a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, explores in this book about creativity in business. Catmull takes you through the history of Pixar but also explores management topics along the way, explaining how Pixar has learned to do things in a way that works really well for them.  He and his colleagues have built an organizational culture that is based on philosophies including:

• Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.
• It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.
• A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.

I had heard about this book in a webinar and thought it would make for an interesting read, both as a history of Pixar and as a management book.  I found some pretty thought-provoking things here about management (and I made a bunch of notes), but the book is also an interesting read as a history of Pixar, a company that has seen a lot of ups and downs.  I appreciated how this book was a combination, so some of the management philosophies would be illustrated by clear examples of how Pixar works through problems and difficult situations.

Being a Captain is Hard Work: A Captain No Beard Story

Being a Captain is Hard Work: A Captain No Beard Story by Carole P. Roman, Illustrated by Bonnie LeMaire   60 pages

In this 10^th episode of the series, Captain No Beard is in a hurry to get to Dew Rite Volcano. He’s in such a hurry that he doesn’t listen to his crew.

Mongo warns the captain about the dark clouds on the horizon.

Zach is trying to raise the flag, but the wind is getting stronger. He’s not sure the flag should be hoisted in such bad weather.

Polly is sent to the galley to make but squawks about the impending storm.

The rest of the crew is hard at work, too.

But Captain No Beard doesn’t care. He doesn’t listen to his crew. And before long, the storm Mongo first warned about is tossed the Flying Dragon around like autumn leaves. There is almost a fire in the galley and he almost loses Zach.

The illustrations are gorgeous. I love the Cloud Key, which identified the various clouds. Who knew there 10 types of clouds? I found only one problem: lack of diversity. Oh yes there were animals and people, but Roman missed a teachable opportunity. The lack of color made the teamwork the crew demonstrated and the lesson the captain learned weak and constricting. That’s why I gave Being a Captain is Hard Work 4 out of 5 stars.