6 Recent Reads That Have Impacted My Approach and Thinking as a CEO 

I’ve been a reader my whole life. I practically read a book a day when I was a kid (all fiction, of course!). As I got older, life got busy, and I had less time for fiction. I was starting a career in software development and learning as I went. After a few years in the field, I decided to focus less on reading tech-focused books, which I was fortunate that my job gave me the time and opportunity to do, and start reading business books. Before long, I formed a habit. I was always looking for the best business and leadership books that would help me, and later my teams and my company, grow. 

Today, the books I consume continue to shape how I approach solving problems, making decisions, and building relationships. However, I realized last year that I now read almost entirely leadership and business advice (see my 2022 reading list, for example). As a result, I vowed to expand into more genres. While I still haven’t spent much time back in the world of fiction (though over the holidays I started reading Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary at my teammate’s recommendation!), I did add biographies into the rotation. At least I’m getting more of a story! 

The 6 Best Leadership Books I Read in 2023

If you’re looking for your next read or a gift for a business leader in your life, here are a few of my recent favorites.

Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

By Isadore Sharp

This is an inspiring story of a seemingly ordinary person–a child of immigrants and a son of a builder–doing extraordinary things. Isadore Sharp, the founder and chairman of Four Seasons, shares how he developed a brand now known worldwide by following his gut, taking big risks, persevering, and committing to his vision. You’ll learn where he drew inspiration and ideas from and see the power of asking for what you want. Sharp’s memoir also reinforces the importance of building relationships, earning trust, and being true to your word.

Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential

By Tiago Forte

This book isn’t just one of the best leadership books I read this year–it’s one of the best all-around books on this list. Everyone can benefit from this, and I certainly took a ton of notes! Building a Second Brain is full of practical tips for those of us juggling to-dos and information for our teammates, clients, loved ones, and more. The techniques will help you remember, capture, organize, distill, and express your ideas, notes, and work to maximize the value and impact on your life. The book can also guide you in deciding what information to keep and what to let go of. Reading this has helped me be more systematic and strategic in both my personal and professional life. Shout out to my friend and fellow CEO, Patrick Patterson, for this sanity-saving recommendation.

The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success

By Ed Mylett

In this motivational book, Ed Mylett urges us to keep pushing when we would otherwise stop. He emphasizes how much we stand out and achieve when we are willing to go above and beyond expectations. Take the additional meeting. Do one more round of practice. Over time, this philosophy will pay off in surprising ways! (Haven’t heard about Ed Mylett? Look up some of his talks on YouTube for a preview of what to expect with this book!) 

Boundless: A New Mindset for Unlimited Business Success

by Henry King and Vala Afshar 

King and Asfhar draw on years of experience leading digital teams and transformation initiatives to outline a path to business success. The pair focus on how to overcome silos inside your organization to enable the free flow of information and resources. The book focuses on seven areas: connection, integration, decentralization, mobility, continuity, autonomy, and shared success. I’m fortunate to know the co-authors in real life and know that they also practice what they preach!

Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

By Jon Acuff

Are you an overthinker? Don’t worry – you’re in good company! We’ve all occasionally fallen into the pattern of overthinking. This book is an easy read that prompts you to examine the soundtracks (the thoughts) that repeat in your head. It then provides a guide to help you change what your brain tells you. Once you take control, you get back time to accomplish what you want while also unlocking your creativity in productive ways.

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller

By Ron Chernow

Titan is a fascinating look at a person with an incredible impact on industry in the United States. It’s a very long read (or listen, in my case), but I kept coming back to it throughout the fall and winter. This biography examines the rise of an ordinary man to immense power and, along the way, reveals how so many things we take for granted first came to be. If you’re interested in American history and business (and it all really wasn’t that long ago!), I’m certain you’ll enjoy this book.

Want to share the best leadership books you’ve read?

Send me a note on LinkedIn – I’m always open to recommendations, and your book might just make my next list. Happy reading!

The Power of Empathy, Automation, and AI

In boardrooms, exec touch bases, and nearly every client call I’m on, everyone’s thinking about how to supercharge employee efficiency and reduce costs. Organizations are on the hunt for tools and processes that let them accomplish more without pushing employees to the brink or blowing their budgets. Every good solution I’ve seen has started with an empathetic view of the employee experience. Which tasks are unnecessarily hard? What bottlenecks slow people down? What can you automate and streamline to help your team? Where can AI scale human potential and cut spend? The answers to these questions will point the way to powerful savings and efficiency opportunities.

(This is blog 3 in a series on key priorities for business and tech leaders. In my last blog, I talked about digital modernization, including integrating data and systems–which everything I’m about to discuss will 100% require!)

Reimagining experiences around employee needs

Outdated tools and processes that were built largely around organizational silos are hurting productivity. But it’s not as simple as replacing old tools with new ones. First, you have to understand what your employees actually need!

This requires looking at how different types of team members spend their days. What are their most important tasks and how are they getting those things done? Sometimes, you’ll find a need as simple as additional training or upskilling. In other cases, you might find opportunities to improve communications, tweak processes, or introduce new tools. One need I see frequently (with our clients and as a consumer) is more flexible, user-friendly tools for employees in the field. Your workers should be able to access and share information and complete critical tasks wherever they are. Whether on a remote job site, at a retail counter, meeting with a potential customer, or simply working from home, everyday duties shouldn’t require extraordinary effort!

On the flip side, better understanding how your employees work can reveal where you’re wasting time and money on tools your employees don’t actually benefit from. Frequently we find two (or more!) systems where only one is needed. Eliminating and consolidating systems can be an easy way to directly improve your bottom line.

Once you address and focus on your team’s real needs, you’ll quickly see cost savings and employee efficiency rise. Gains in engagement, productivity, and retention will follow. Ultimately, you’ll be helping your employees to ensure better customer and student experiences, providing a win all around.

Empowering employee efficiency with self-service tools

After so much frustrating supply chain disruption and constantly fluctuating prices, consumers are paying super close attention to product and service reliability and pricing. This means we as leaders must focus attention on internal predictability and employee efficiency. Yet, I still come across employees unable to complete routine activities without assistance or permission from management, IT, or other overburdened departments. These employees require increased self-service features. While a real need for oversight or access limitations can exist, unnecessary permission bottlenecks have to go. From employee-led shift swapping to going beyond dashboards and reports to insights and suggestions, your employees need easy-to-use technology that allows them to take ownership of their work and operate without constant disruption.

Automating processes to free up teams for higher level work

In many organizations, highly manual (and painful!) workflows have led to incoherent data and inconsistent results. These problems requires an intentional shift towards repeatable processes with automation at the forefront. When you free employees from these time-intensive tasks, they can refocus on higher value work that benefits your business and customers.

Automation can also reduce acquisition costs and increase the long-term value of each connection. Education specifically has a large need to increase marketing efficiencies and automate communications across the student journey. Rather than relying on overloaded staff (particularly for straightforward messages and reminders), institutions can use automation to deliver the right information to the right learners at the right time in their journey. But watch out! Carefully designed, these automated flows can be delightful. When done poorly, it can cost you the trust of your customer, which is never cheap to rebuild.

Initiating AI-human partnerships

New AI tools are launching at a whirlwind pace, and I’m so excited to see businesses putting them to use! AI-human partnerships promise to accelerate product development, helping with everything from sorting user feedback, to writing Jira tickets, to coding with GitHub’s copilot.

Scaling support services and monitoring customer sentiment is another huge opportunity for using AI to increase employee efficiency. By strategically moving customers from FAQs to an AI chatbot to human support, organizations can scale support services while managing quality and cost as well as directing employee focus to advanced problems.

As for education, there’s ample potential for AI to accelerate staff processes and workflows in areas like:

• Creating personalized custom experiences (1:1 content) for students
• Reducing the costs of course design via AI authoring & modules
• Accelerating presentation creation
• Delivering student support services with less labor
• Doing predictive modeling of student outcomes

In every industry, leaders need to think creatively and seriously about AI to stay ahead of the curve. As an internal team or with the support of outside experts, you need to start identifying use cases, setting up governance plans, and working with security and architecture departments to implement intelligent solutions that support teams across the business.

Want to share your thoughts on topics like employee efficiency, AI, and self-service?

Learn more about today’s business and tech trends — and join the discussion at an executive digital roundtable!

This CEO Report was written by Tracey Zimmerman, President & CEO of Robots & Pencils.

How to Maximize Impact and Future-Proof Your Business in an Ever-Changing World

At Robots & Pencils, I have the amazing privilege of supporting leaders on everything from bringing game-changing new ideas to market to optimizing products and services that have been at the heart of companies for decades. Over the last few years, together, we’ve navigated everything from lockdown, to an influx of customer spending and “growth at any cost” strategies, to preserving cash as we brace for a looming recession. In financial services, education, travel, healthcare, and so much more, my team and I have helped to shape tech and business strategy for everyone from fledgling startups to F500 companies amidst a sea of constant change. With no end in sight–and even more acceleration of technology and societal shifts on the horizon, I wanted to highlight the business and tech trends influencing decisions today–and call attention to 4 strategic areas with the biggest opportunity for organizational impact.

The State of the Marketplace and Technology

Let’s start with what business and tech trends I’m seeing and hearing from friends and clients on the front lines.

Limited Funding

Money is increasingly hard to access. Consumer spending is down. Interest rates are up. With boards and investors focused on operating margin and profitability, every initiative needs a strong business case and clear ROI. Guaranteeing growth through better and more customer engagement is extra challenging right now. As a result, securing funding for those projects has become trickier. Internal efficiency gains are easier to justify investment due to perceived greater ability to control the levers that are needed for impact.

Rapid Change

The speed of change is daunting, and companies are subsequently struggling to select future proof strategies and technology. Further, many companies rapidly selected dozens or more tools during the pandemic to keep business going. Now they aren’t sure what to keep, what to cut, or where to reassess the solution space.

Increasing Need for Flexibility

To provide a runway for innovation, businesses need iterative approaches that flexibly adapt to change. It’s easier to swap out a small thing than a big one–and only make big changes after something is proven to work. Whether for technical architectures, business processes, key partnerships, workforce and talent management (think the gig economy), and even stackable education credentials that may add up to a degree, or not, the desire for flexibility is pervasive.

AI Acceleration

AI is a rapidly emerging tech that has been in the periphery, but suddenly everyone has questions about it thanks first to the release of ChatGPT and now new tools launching literally on a daily basis. Wherever you look, both uncertainty and excitement about its potential are high. (We’ll get into this more in coming blogs!)

Top Business Priorities for Maximizing Outcomes & ROI

Given these business and tech trends, there are 4 areas that I think leaders need to focus on today and into the future to maximize ROI. I’ll intro them here, and, in the coming weeks, expand on each one.

1. Digital Modernization

Companies have launched new tools left and right in recent years, but too often projects are happening in isolation. Leaders need to take a step back to improve the underlying infrastructure and address fragmented data, tools, and processes. But it’s not easy! Getting everything in one place and systems working seamlessly won’t be a walk in the park. However, the payoff is the ability to effectively extract business insights and keep pace with the latest tech advancements.

2. Cost Reduction & Efficiency

Good luck finding a leader not thinking about efficiency right now! Everyone’s looking to automate processes, decrease internal costs, and hit targets without over taxing our teams or budgets. A huge opportunity lies in designing employee tools based on a deep understanding of their experiences and on-the-job needs (and perhaps backed by AI-human partnerships!). These efforts will help you both boost productivity and shift focus to the highest value activities.

3. Personalization & Engagement

It’s all about the user! To meet customer expectations and boost loyalty, companies need more unified and personalized experiences across platforms and touchpoints. To succeed, these initiatives must stem from an understanding of the user and have clear ties to revenue and business outcomes. In a similar vein, schools need better, more connected tools to attract students. From there, they have to keep them engaged with personalized content throughout their educational journey, and turn them into lifelong learners and active alumni.

4. Expertise & Guidance

With so much moving at lightning speed, it’s tough to plan for the future while avoiding costly short-term mistakes. From keeping up with user trends to prioritizing tech investments to maximizing ROI on new products, maintaining the expertise to make all these high-value decisions and plans alone just isn’t feasible. Leaders who seek guidance and support at crucial moments will be better equipped to stay ahead of market change and disruption.

Stay tuned for a deeper dive into these tech trends and strategic priorities — and join the discussion at an upcoming executive digital roundtable!

In my next blog post, I’ll explore how fellow leaders are approaching digital modernization–and the proven methods I’ve seen to navigate the roadblocks along the way. Later in the series, I’ll talk about internal cost reduction & efficiency strategies, approaches to product personalization & engagement, and where organizations are finding outside expertise and guidance most useful.

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