Favorite Books — Marcy Swenson

These are books I recommend frequently to clients; I consider them to be canonical subject matter references. They are all available in print, Kindle, or Audible form — great for long car trips, plane rides, or workouts!

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Startup Boards

This describes the mechanics of how boards work, as well as how to get the best out of your board. Required reading for a CEO or anyone who regularly presents to a board of directors.

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Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up

This is a book about personal growth and leadership from one of my very favorite coaches, Jerry Colonna, who runs Reboot.io. If you’re working with a coach, reading this will deepen your work together. If you can’t afford a coach right now, this book provides wonderful thought experiments that will help you grow. This is one of my very favorites of all time. If I ever write a book, I hope it’s this wonderful, vulnerable, warm-hearted, and useful.

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Startup CEO

This describes the basic elements and best practices of a best-in-class CEO. Terrific reading for a CEO, or anyone who wants to understand what a great CEO should be doing. I also recommend this to anyone who reports to a CEO.

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Managing Humans

Written by my friend Michael Lopp (currently VPE at Slack), this is required reading for any CTO or VPE with direct reports. Also incredibly useful for non-technical people who need to interact with techies at their company. Michael Lopp also runs the Rands Leadership Slack, which is chock full of helpful advice from seasoned leaders.

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Scaling Teams

My friend David Loftesness wrote this book that explains the patterns and anti-patterns for growing technical teams. Required reading for any CTO/VPE. Not particularly technical, so helpful for anyone working alongside a technical team that is growing quickly.

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An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management

This is a terrific book about the deep complexities of engineering management, especially as it relates to addressing chronic system failures or scaling challenges, which often flummox even the best engineering leaders.

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Topgrading

This book describes an incredibly useful practice for conducting interviews & reference checks. If you want to ace your next hire, read this book and put it into practice. Yes, it’s a long book. You know what takes even longer? Making a bad hire.

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Startup Life

Are you finding that being an entrepreneur is taking a toll on your relationship with your partner at home? This is a terrific book where successful entrepreneurs share their best practices for staying connected and happy while running their companies.

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Good to Great

Interested in understanding the habits and temperament of a great leader? This book, based on extensive research, gives you the inside scoop on how to create an organization whose success outlasts you. TLDR: combine personal humility and unstoppable will.

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Crucial Conversations

If you need to communicate a high stakes message, this book is the bible. Great tools for communicating clearly and effectively.

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Crucial Confrontations

Companion to Crucial Conversations - for when you need to address a broken promise, violated expectations, or bad behavior.

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Co-Active Coaching

From time to time people ask me about books they could use to learn coaching techniques. This is the textbook used by the Coaches Training Institute for their courses, and provides a terrific basic overview.

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Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others

These are books I recommend frequently to clients; I consider them to be canonical subject matter references. They are all available in print, Kindle, or Audible form — great for long car trips, plane rides, or workouts!

This describes the mechanics of how boards work, as well as how to get the best out of your board. Required reading for a CEO or anyone who regularly presents to a board of directors.

Learn More

Learn More

This describes the basic elements and best practices of a best-in-class CEO. Terrific reading for a CEO, or anyone who wants to understand what a great CEO should be doing. I also recommend this to anyone who reports to a CEO.

Learn More

Learn More

My friend David Loftesness wrote this book that explains the patterns and anti-patterns for growing technical teams. Required reading for any CTO/VPE. Not particularly technical, so helpful for anyone working alongside a technical team that is growing quickly.

Learn More

This is a terrific book about the deep complexities of engineering management, especially as it relates to addressing chronic system failures or scaling challenges, which often flummox even the best engineering leaders.

Learn More

This book describes an incredibly useful practice for conducting interviews & reference checks. If you want to ace your next hire, read this book and put it into practice. Yes, it’s a long book. You know what takes even longer? Making a bad hire.

Learn More

Are you finding that being an entrepreneur is taking a toll on your relationship with your partner at home? This is a terrific book where successful entrepreneurs share their best practices for staying connected and happy while running their companies.

Learn More

Interested in understanding the habits and temperament of a great leader? This book, based on extensive research, gives you the inside scoop on how to create an organization whose success outlasts you. TLDR: combine personal humility and unstoppable will.

Learn More

If you need to communicate a high stakes message, this book is the bible. Great tools for communicating clearly and effectively.

Learn More

Companion to Crucial Conversations - for when you need to address a broken promise, violated expectations, or bad behavior.

Learn More

From time to time people ask me about books they could use to learn coaching techniques. This is the textbook used by the Coaches Training Institute for their courses, and provides a terrific basic overview.

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This book goes deep into theories, concepts, and models used in coaching. This was my favorite book from my coach training!

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info@marcyswenson.com