Books and blogs about IT, management and leadership Shine Using Brain Science to Get the Best From Your People By Edward M. Hallowell, MD Book If workers seem listless, this psychiatrist argues, it may not be because they or their jobs are inherently dull. The brain can train itself to work better, so Hallowell suggests a five-step process to help staffers achieve peak performance: Managers must ensure employees’ jobs suit them well, help overcome the digital disconnect with face-to-face interactions, engage workers’ imaginations, get them to practice the skills they need, and praise their success. Harvard Business Review Press, $26.95 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe Being the Boss The Three Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader By Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback Book Being in charge is tough. You’re responsible for the work other people do. You have to work with people to help them improve while remaining clear-eyed enough to know if the attempt at development isn’t working. You have to cultivate personal relationships without giving up authority. The three keys to managing these competing duties, according to the authors, are managing yourself, your network, and your team. They advise against trying to be friends with all your employees, but also against relying on authority alone to get people to do what you want. They also include a number of self-evaluation questions to help you understand your management style. Harvard Business Review Press, $25.95 Candid CIOBy Will Weider Blog Weider is CIO of the Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System in Wisconsin. Fellow healthcare CIOs will find much of interest here, as he delves into the intricacies of healthcare law and its effects on IT, especially electronic healthcare records. About every third post is of more general interest—for example, he talks about leadership, the importance of change management, and what bugs him about that new series of Microsoft commercials where people exclaim, “To the cloud!” http://candidcio.com Thinking of Force.com as Your Key to the Cloud Kingdom?Ask the Smart Questions By Alok Misra and Ian Gotts Book Ever get the nagging feeling there’s something important you’ve overlooked? This book can help make sure you’ve thought everything through before you jump into the cloud. After a quick overview of Salesforce.com and some implementation hypotheticals, the book moves on to page after page of questions to consider before jumping in. They’re divided into broad categories, such as necessary changes to the organization, and each question is accompanied by a brief explanation of why the answer matters. Smart Questions, $30.99 Not for FreeRevenue Strategies for a New World By Saul J. Berman Book Everyone’s looking for a way make more money out of things they’re doing anyway, and IT has to be prepared to support those efforts. The book’s discussion of “componentization”—breaking up something, such as software, to sell its parts individually—is likely to be especially relevant. This kind of move is likely to require adapting programs and may call for a different kind of customer support. Harvard Business Review Press, $29.95 Related content feature Mastercard preps for the post-quantum cybersecurity threat A cryptographically relevant quantum computer will put everyday online transactions at risk. Mastercard is preparing for such an eventuality — today. By Poornima Apte Sep 22, 2023 6 mins CIO 100 CIO 100 CIO 100 feature 9 famous analytics and AI disasters Insights from data and machine learning algorithms can be invaluable, but mistakes can cost you reputation, revenue, or even lives. These high-profile analytics and AI blunders illustrate what can go wrong. By Thor Olavsrud Sep 22, 2023 13 mins Technology Industry Generative AI Machine Learning feature Top 15 data management platforms available today Data management platforms (DMPs) help organizations collect and manage data from a wide array of sources — and are becoming increasingly important for customer-centric sales and marketing campaigns. By Peter Wayner Sep 22, 2023 10 mins Marketing Software Data Management opinion Four questions for a casino InfoSec director By Beth Kormanik Sep 21, 2023 3 mins Media and Entertainment Industry Events Security Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe