CEOs and other leaders share their summer book picks

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

Though June 21 is still a few weeks away, for many Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer. For me, it’s also a time for making a dent in the stack of books on my nightstand.

I asked some avid readers to recommend books they think leaders should check out this summer. Here are their inspired picks:

Jason Blum, Founder and CEO, Blumhouse

Who Knew by Barry Diller

Diller is one of the most consequential people in the [media] industry’s history, and he’s also someone I consider a genuine mentor. His memoir, Who Knew, reads the way he actually talks, which means no spin and no flattering self-portrait. He tells you exactly how deals got made and why people behaved the way they did. For anyone trying to understand how real power operates in entertainment, it’s essential reading.

Corey duBrowa, CEO, Burson

Tailwind: A Compass for Turning Your Setback Story Into Your Comeback Legacy by James T. Olson

Professionally, managing crisis has a way of sharpening the mind. In our personal lives, it too often derails us. Jim has been in the captain’s seat for both, and in this powerful book he shares the lessons he learned as a top-flight comms exec, and how he turned them inward to navigate the most difficult challenge of his life. 

Simon Freakley, Executive Chairman, Alixpartners

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

This book explores the mathematicians and physicists who, during the first half of the 20th century, worked out how to split the atom and discovered the laws of quantum physics. These findings underpin the whole of nuclear science and form the basis of today’s quantum computing. Labatut explores the thoughts and feelings of these scientists as it dawned on them that their discoveries would change humanity forever. You will not be able to put the book down.

Lindsay Shookus, Television Producer

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams

Like many people, I’ve spent a great deal of my career on the mental hamster wheel of achievement, productivity, and what’s next. The Book of Joy reminds us that if we’re not careful, we can build incredibly successful lives without ever fully experiencing them. It’s a beautiful reset around gratitude, perspective, and what actually matters.

Steven Tepper, President, Hamilton College

The Game Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth With Innovation by A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan

I have returned to this book many times because it demonstrates what is possible when we move beyond limiting managerial structures and enable everyone in an organization to contribute creatively to new processes and products. Through his experience growing P&G into one of the world’s most powerful consumer products companies, Lafley demonstrates what happens when you seek input from everyone, including customers and competitors, and when you intentionally design an organization to seed, cultivate, harness, reward, and assess innovation everywhere, all the time.

Sam Zussman, CEO, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment

Connections by James Burke

The author creates fascinating threads from a few early humankind inventions all the way to 21st-century technologies and, in doing so, demonstrates the power of building breakthrough technologies by applying and evolving previously known concepts in new and different contexts.

Trust in AI, Part 2

Last week’s Modern CEO newsletter explored the ways CEOs can earn employees’ trust in AI, including empowering workers to shape the way AI is deployed. Denis Machuel, CEO of staffing and recruiting company the Adecco Group, reminds CEOs that first they must provide training and upskilling in AI and help employees understand how they can contribute to the organization’s goals. “When you don’t believe that you have the skills for the future, how can you trust the organization you are in to protect you or to bring you along?” Machuel says.

Indeed, new research from the Adecco Group finds that just 22% of business leaders are confident that they’re developing “the necessary digital and future-ready capabilities” in their workforces, and only a third (36%) say their talent strategy shows that AI will create job opportunities.

The report concludes that companies can build trust through an intentional approach to AI training—including teaching so-called human skills such as critical thinking that may become increasingly important when agents can do routine tasks. And developing your people is just the right thing to do. “If you feel that the company is betting on you, you feel trusted,” Machuel says. “And that’s how you create an environment of trust.”

Your Summer Reading Recommendations

Do you have some additional suggestions for the reading list? If so, I’d love to hear about them. Send me your recommendations: stephaniemehta@mansueto.com.

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