Read With Us: Sticker it's Book Recommendations

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

David

This has got to be one of my all-time favourite reads. It’s so good it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve read it a few times over the years and I constantly come back to the habits every day.

Knowing the habits allows you to use them when thinking about a problem or when strategising or planning. It could be something huge or tiny, they still apply.

 It’s difficult to pick which habit I’ve found most useful, but I’ll give a special mention to; Begin with the end in mind, and, Sharpen the saw.

Beginning with the end in mind helps so much when creating a plan for a new project. Understanding where you’re trying to get to can really help align everyone in a team.

And Sharpen the saw is something most of us fail to do enough. It’s a great reminder to give yourself occasionally. Never be too busy to work on yourself. Take the time to read, learn or work on that thing you’ve been meaning to do for a while. Being too ‘busy’ not to sharpen the saw usually means you’re out of balance or not being as effective as you could.

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone. Just choose the abridged version, as you can get the core concepts in a much shorter time.

Who: A smart method of hiring by Geoff Smart

Byron

Hiring people is hard. Geoff Smart does help lay the steps out in nice lists to help you hire “A” players. His scorecard-based approach sounds like a great idea as it “describes exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role”.

Numbers always help making decisions and using his approach would certainly remove ambiguity when selecting. Keeping track of an employee’s performance against their scorecard would improve accountability for management and I wonder if tying them in with OKRs would help with the execution?

The idea of conducting 7 reference interviews seems like a lot and very time consuming so it’d be interesting to increase the number of reference interviews in the future to see what it picks up. The idea of selling a job to somebody wasn’t something I considered too much. I assumed that because they were applying they would be interested in the work.

If everyone is trying to hire “A” players then going the extra mile to get them to join your team and boost its output seems very worthwhile. I liked the structure of the book and it wasn’t a crazy long read. Important information is clear and I learned a lot. So 10/10 for me.

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

Cindy

At Sticker it, we take self-development seriously. And while I love reading fiction, I found it a little hard to get into the idea of these non-fiction books and stories. However, one of the first books I read when joining Sticker it quickly converted me: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

It is a memoir written by the founder of Nike and for me combined story-telling and business writing perfectly without boring me for even a second. 

Born in the 1990s, Nike has just always been around for me so it was incredibly interesting to peek behind the scenes of the creation of such an iconic brand.

While the story definitely drove the book for me, I learnt much about how success works: crooked, curved and jagged. The struggles Knight share teach you that even if you currently feel like your dream will never come true, passion and perseverance (sometimes even a waffle iron) will take you a long way.

Shoe Dog is a book I will definitely pick up again, be that to reassure me that hard work and determination will pay off or to celebrate our successes.

We hoped these recommendations maybe inspired you to pick up one of those books? Or maybe you have so many more titles you would like to share with us? Do not be shy, we are always on the look for more knowledge!

Oh, and do not forget to order custom stickers, of course.