Caro’s Book of Poker Tells Recommended by Neil Sample, it is an odd choice for a business book. However it follows the theme from Engaging Leadership of awareness of your own behavior and that of those around you. It requires making the effort to concentrate and not slip back into default behaviors. Also a reminder never to play poker (or Foosball or pick an argument) with Neil.
Engaging Leadership: Three Agendas for Sustaining Achievement Chris Parker (the author) probably doesn’t remember but he was the catalyst for changing my entire approach to management through a program he led at Nokia. This book isn’t as well known as others on this list but it should be. The core hypothesis is to focus on management micro-behaviors that will engage the hearts, mind, and spirit of teams. Being aware of how you behave in the moment requires… slowing down and actually thinking about what you are doing. Hence #slowmanagement
The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium Most people are familiar with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow. The Evolving Self demonstrates how our actions are fed by our evolutionary history and how we must make conscious decisions to counter-act them. My main lesson from the book has been to ’embrace complexity’–something that has stood me well in every personal and professional choice.
Free-Range Kids. Even for those without their own small humans, Lenore Skenasy’s book on letting go of the vice grip of worry/control over your kids has important lessons for the Slow Manager. There is value in equipping your team with the tools to think, act, and decide on their own. And the downside is much less dire than it might appear.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by the modern philosopher Alain de Botton. And while I don’t agree with all aspects of this book, it shows the importance about having an opinion about what you do and how you work. The intent of Slow Management is to have the time to invest in your own perspective and approach to work. Not surviving on auto-pilot and empty calories.
Turning Pro. Professional athletes don’t just show up and play. They analyze where they need to improve, practice the basics over-and-over, and know the game plan. We need to be professional managers. Just showing up in the office and winging it based on natural talent might work for a bit. But it isn’t the way to sustainable success. Steven Pressfield‘s short book is an ode to the work it takes to be a pro.
We are what we eat Alice Waters took the slow food movement mainstream with this half-cookbook/half manifesto for a better way to cook and eat. She artfully connects the small decisions we make about food to global implications. This focus on mindful decision-making and the implications is what inspired Slow Management. A move away from the empty calories of email, pointless meetings, and management by edit and a focus on craft and quality. It applies as much to business as it does to your kitchen.
Other recommended books
These are from the more traditional canon of management literature. All worthwhile and all contributed to the tenets of Slow Management.
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (Clay Shirky)
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (Daniel Coyle)
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)
How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business (Douglas Hubbard)
Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives (Tim Harford)
The Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides (Garr Reynolds)
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t (Bob Sutton)
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (Dan Levitin)
The Power of Kindness (Piero Ferrucci)
The Power of Less (Leo Babauta)
The Principles of Product Development Flow (Donald Reinertsen)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (Susan Cain)
Slow is Beautiful (Cecile Andrews)
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Nicholas Carr)
Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity (Charles Duhigg)
Time, Talent, Energy (Michael Mankins/Eric Garton)
A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload (Cal Newport)
Jason P. Alexander 
