7 Insightful Books Every CIO Must Read to Prepare Themselves for The Future

The speed at which information technology is evolving has made it extremely difficult for IT leaders to keep pace with it. They have to stay up to date with the latest trends and emerging technologies such as VPS Singapore so they drive their business to success in the future. To stay one step ahead of the competition, IT leaders attend conferences, workshops and seminars.

 

With COVID-19 travel restrictions in place, they have not been able to attend in person events and only have to rely on online conferences. So, what’s the next best option? Books, right. With hundreds of different books to choose from, it is harder to choose the right ones. To make your life easy, we have created a list of books that every CIO must read to prepare themselves and their teams for the future of work.

 

In this article, you will learn about seven insightful books that every CIO must read in order to prepare themselves for the future.

7 Insightful Books Every CIO Must Read

Here are seven books that every IT leader must ready to deal with emerging challenges at work.

1. The Work of The Future: Building Better Jobs In The Age of Intelligent Machines

As technologies like artificial intelligence become more mature, the threat that it will take away millions of jobs becomes even more imminent. AI supporters will refute these claims by saying that it will also create millions of new jobs as well. Irrespective of which side you are on, no one can deny the impact of automation and AI on the future of work.

 

This book presents a fresh new perspective by claiming that technology is neither the problem or the solution. According to the book, if IT leaders need to make the most of technological advancements, they will have to create institutions and provide employees with the necessary support throughout the digital transformation lifecycle. Focus on ways to make your industry worker friendly and use technology like gaming servers to their advantage.

2. Digital Trailblazer: Essential Lessons To Jumpstart Transformation and Accelerate Your Technology Leadership

Whether you are a technology leader who is looking for real life stories or a data leader who is in search of useful lessons, Digital Trailblazer is for you. This book will take your technology leadership to a whole new level. Written by a former CIO Isaac Sacolick gives you the peak behind the curtain on how to lead digital transformation initiatives. The author have highlighted the challenges IT, technology and product leaders face on a daily basis from attending executive meetings to responding to conference calls

3. Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive By Giving More Than They Take

Penned by former Unilever CEO Paul Polman, this book tells businesses to step by their contributions towards making our world a better place to live through diversity. He also reveals how leaders can play their role in healing the damage which has already been done.

 

More interestingly, he also unveiled how businesses can fulfill their corporate social responsibility and protect the climate while still being profitable at the same time. Hold yourself accountable for all the damage your business process does to the environment and take steps to mitigate it. According to him, companies should give more than they take in order to thrive in today’s green economy.

4. Radically Human: How New Technology Is Transforming Business and Shaping Our Future

There is no denying the fact that technologies such as cheap dedicated hosting are getting more and more advanced with each passing day but what no one talks about is that it is also getting more human centric. The focus of this book is on more humane technology and why businesses should lean towards the human side even while creating a technology strategy. It also presents the humanized version of IDEAS (Intelligence, Data Expertise, Architecture and Strategy) framework used to develop new business models. This means that it will completely redefine your talent and work mindset and also guide stakeholders towards sustainability.

5. The Future of Workplace Fear: How Human Reflex Stands In The Way of Digital Transformation

Fear can take many shapes and forms. It can stop you from trying new things due to fear of failure or it can hamper your digital transformation journey. This book addresses the former by critically looking at its impact on corporate health of your company and team dynamics but also tells you ways to overcome them.

 

The writer uses case studies of both digital transformation successes and failures to answer the following questions:

 

• How fear spreads from individuals to teams and groups?
• How fear influences change and digital transformation?
• How neglecting or suppressing fear could pose a risk to an organization’s future?
• How can managers deal with fear?

 

6. Leading With Heart: Five Conversations That Unlock Creativity, Passion and Purpose

Written by leadership coaches John Baird and Edward Sullivan, this book presents real-life accounts and hundreds of hours of research on what makes great companies great. They boil down everything to just five behaviors of transformational leadership that make all the difference.

 

• Great leaders always understand people needs
• Good leaders not only understand their own desires but also what motivates their followers
• They encourages employees to confront their fears head on
• Great leaders always know their why and also help followers identify their why
• They know their strengths and what sets them apart and also help employees find their unique selling proposition.

 

7. Stuck: How To Win At Work By Understanding Loss

This book pours the essence of two decades of brain research and how it reacts to different changes taking place in your workplace. You can easily find dozens of books that tell you how to bring change in your organziation but none address the human interaction part as well as this book does. It highlights the role attachment plays and how it keeps employees hooked to leaders and organziation culture. It also looks at how it affects individual relationships as well as corporate relationships.

 

Which is your favorite book and why? Share it with us in the comments section below.