My three words for this year are Matter, Simplify, Renew. As I explained in my previous post, I'll be transitioning from the Coast Guard this year after 28 years in uniform. My remaining 150 days have to count.
Read MoreReviewing 2012
Yesterday I re-posted my three words for 2012. Before I post my three words for 2013, I'll share a bit of reflection on the 2012 words: care, simplify, share.
One element I described within the "share" theme was to reconnect with my family. I had some specific ideas in mind, but little did I know that the universe had a different plan in mind.
Read MoreMy Three Words for 2012: Care, Simplify, Share
I'm not much of a New Year's Resolution guy. The end of the year is a good time to take stock of the past year and plan for the next, but they idea of letting the calendar dictate when to create REALLY BIG GOALS never made much sense.
A little more than years ago, I was inspired by a post from Chris Brogan describing how he invested time creating a theme for his year.
My three words for next year are Care, Simplify, Share.
Read MoreJob Hunting
From the archives:
Reading and Leading
photo credit: sabeth718
Yesterday I shared my top ten book recommendations for a new leader of an Agile IT project. Today I'll share the rest of the books I added to the project library. These are some of the books I owned and loaned. They reflect the way I tried to lead and shape the team. We bought them for them team library because I wanted to make sure they continued to be in ready reach after I moved on.
These are the books that bubbled to the top as the most influential to me as a thinker in a leadership role. These are the books I hope my team makes time to read while they continue to deliver CG-LIMS.
I've provided Amazon links for easy access to reviews. For those books that I'd blogged about, I've provided a pointer to those posts as well.
Poke the Box by Seth Godin, 2011. See March 1, 2011 post "Poke the Box" and August 15, 2011 "SPEAR-ing Dogma."
Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead by Charlene Li, 2010.
Succeeding With Agile: Software Development Using Scrum by Mike Cohn, 2009. Just about everything Cohn's written can be useful for an Agile development team. We have several of his books in the team library.
Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn, 2005. See July 23, 2012 post "Next Wave of Planning."
The Starfish and The Spider: the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman, 2008.
Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, 2007.
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, 1977.
A Practical Guide to Distributed Scrum by Elizabeth Woodward et al, 2010.
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M. R. Covey, 2008.
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher et al, 1991.
No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert I. Sutton, 2010.
Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt, 1997.
Character in Action: The U.S. Coast Guard on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips & James M. Loy, 2003. This book should be considered required reading for anyone in a leadership role in the Coast Guard.
Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte, 1983.
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman, 2009.