Author: Nicola Ayan
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“The New One-Minute Manager”: Quick lessons for lasting leadership
I recently picked up “The New One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson after reading a recommendation in Brené Brown’s book “Dare to Lead.” I was intrigued to see if it lived up to the praise. Like “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni, this book uses storytelling to teach its…
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Disruptive Strategy Lessons (Part 2 of 3): Many innovations fail because of the wrong resources, processes, and profit formula
In my previous post, I covered the concept of “Customer jobs to be done”. Your company needs clarity on what jobs your customers do that cause them to “hire” your product/service. Once you do, you can focus your innovation around these “jobs” and seek to improve their experience here. As Clayton Christensen explains, “Products and…
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Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead” teaches you to embrace the suck and learn to get back up
If you’re going to dare greatly, you’re going to get your ass kicked at some point. If you choose courage, you will absolutely know failure, disappointment, setback, and even heartbreak. Brené Brown, author of “Dare to Lead” The book is filled with so many quotable quotes, so expect to see a lot of my favourite,…
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Disruptive Strategy Lessons (Part 1 of 3): Make “Customer Jobs” your North Star
As someone who has worked with/in Go-To-Market (GTM) functions for over a decade, whether in Sales, Marketing, or Product, I want to relate what I’ve learned from the Disruptive Strategy course I took at HBS Online last year to GTM. The course didn’t have anything to do with digital. Instead, it explained why and how…
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Every page of Mark Cuban’s book, “How to Win at the Sport of Business” is packed with actionable advice.
First of all, can all books be written the same way his book has been written? It has only 102 pages, but the points he covers are direct to the point, and very actionable. I’d be surprised if someone read this book and not be inspired do anything good for himself/herself right after. I, of…
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Anyone Who Gives Advice For a Living Needs to Read, “The Trusted Advisor”
Reflecting on my experience reading David H. Maister’s, “The Trusted Advisor”, co-authored by Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford, I’m taken back to 2019 during a trip from Manila to Baguio City, in the Philippines. The journey, a long five-hour bus ride ending with a twisty last half-hour, left its physical mark on my…
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Eight Eye-Opening Insights from “Thinking, Fast and Slow”
Do you ever wonder how biases occur? Is it nature or nurture? How do we make decisions? Why does hindsight always offer a 20/20 vision? What can we do to avoid biases in our decision making process? “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman offers a profound exploration into the psychological mechanisms that govern our…
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Six takeaways from Lewis Howes’, “The Greatness Mindset”
This was a fantastic and inspiring read. Lewis talks about our limiting beliefs and self doubts stemming from fears of failure, success, and judgment. He then shows many ways to overcoming these, creating a path to greatness, backed by stories of the greats of today’s world. I recommend this book to anyone who feels stuck,…