We share a lot of tips and thoughts about remote work, collaboration, and making work work for us with friends, colleagues, and even here in the community, but I’m curious: where are we getting those tips and ideas from?
Specifically, are there any books you read that helped you better understand remote work, international collaboration, or any of the challenges and processes you face in your daily work? Maybe something that helped you better develop your career path or improve your communication?
List them here! (bonus points if they come with an interesting story 😁)
For me it was Erin Meyer's The Culture Map.
Working with people from all over the world, in different timezones, and often asynchronously, the understanding of how we all develop different approaches to communication based on our cultural environment was incredibly useful for me.
Also, we may be talking about books in our upcoming newsletter, so your suggestion might even make it in! 🎉
In our newsletter we talk about all kinds of cool and interesting topics that should interest you as remote workers and digital nomads. The last issue came out last week and tackles socializing in remote environements, its importance, and how to make it work. Go check it out in your inbox if you missed it!
Oh this is great, I just picked up some new reads from a recent bookstore haul. They might not all be super relevant to just work per se, but have been good reads (I'll be honest, I've only made a small dent in this collection haha).
Think Again by Adam Grant focuses on challenging the way we value the unknown, and how the best leaders are often the curious, constantly willing to rethink their stances and who admit they don't know something. Seeking critical feedback and allowing brainstorming with subject matter experts will lead to more productive and innovative teams.
Collywobbles by Moshe Cohen was a quick read focused on negotiating, valuing yourself and what you bring to the table, and tips on how to not give in to your doubts that end up diminishing your value. Pretty commonsense concepts, rewritten in a way that reminds you to be confident in the negotiation process (whether for resources or for salary), and to evaluate what you leave on the table when you don't ask for what you need.
Brene Brown's Atlas of the Heart is not a work/profession specific book, but I think its a STRONG analysis on being human. Brene covers a breadth (87 iirc) of human emotions, and shares in the book ways to navigate expressing and understanding them. Although the people I work with are all globally distributed, I thought it was especially critical to read a book that put an emphasis on human connection via emotions. We all have them, and the nuances in a digital world is even more difficult to pick up, so I feel like this book helped ground a lot of empathy principles. This is definitely an area I'm still learning to stretch my own muscles in though 😅
I did see a few members mention that they're in the profession of (or interested in) psychology, so I'd be curious if they have any cool book recommendations that blend work and self improvement? Maybe if @Jeanette or @Hadilzaklama you're open to sharing, I'd love to hear it!
