books

Embark on literary journeys with Coffee Journeys as we explore insightful books on leadership, technology, and intentional living. Discover how the wisdom within these pages aligns with the journey from a technical expert to a leader. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a burgeoning leader, or simply love the world of ideas, our book discussions offer a unique blend of knowledge and inspiration.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Piotr Zagorowski
July 5, 2024July 5, 2024
Intentional life, Podcast

Some time ago, I wrote about the lessons we can learn from our kids and how quickly they grow. I have recently been pondering on this topic as I have had to learn negotiating with kids more effectively. “Do it because I say so” is never a good idea. Fortunately, there are plenty of sources we can learn from. One of them is a book written by a former FBI hostage negotiator. Yes, you heard it right. We can implement the techniques used in negotiations with kidnappers and apply them to our families and leadership at work.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Atomic Habits – the book that was recommended to me a few years ego, and I wanted to start the new year deliberately reading it. It was an excellent choice. The book explains how “psychology” of habit works, what we can do to help us to create and sustain good habits, and how to get rid of bad habits from our lives. I decided to try a few things that were recommended. I made a few new goals for the New Year. After a few months of following the tips and tactics from the book, I would like to share a few Atomic Habits takeaways that work for me exceptionally well. In the end of the day – everyone needs a way to build good habits.

3 lessons from The Unicorn Project

Piotr Zagorowski
September 3, 2020December 7, 2023
Leadership, Remote work, Technology

I try to read (listen) one book per month. It’s been mainly self-development books. And to be honest I got a bit tired. However, recently I talked to a friend and a colleague who recommended me a fiction book with a unicorn in the title… I read the full title and immediately started to listen. I could not stop, I emerged completely. Today I would like to share three main lessons I learnt from The Unicorn Project book. Let’s go!

There are no bad teams, just bad leaders

Piotr Zagorowski
July 23, 2020December 4, 2023
Leadership

It was during the most difficult training. The task was simple; row the boat and compete with other teams. The challenge was to do it over and over again in cold weather. One team in one boat was consistently bad, coming as the last one. The instructor decided to implement risky manoeuvre – swap the leaders of the winning and losing boats. The result surprised everyone. However, the experienced instructor just said: “there are no bad teams, just bad leaders.“

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k

Piotr Zagorowski
March 12, 2020November 29, 2023
Intentional life, Relationship

We were in the middle of planned network maintenance. It was not going well. The change window was just about to end. We were fighting with some unexpected issues causing service degradation. I needed to make a tough call. Either extend the maintenance window and carry on working on Sunday evening or try to fix as much stuff as we could and regroup with the rest of my team on Monday. I called my boss, but he was abroad. Other folks from management were not picking up phones.

I was on my own. I decided to instruct my engineer to roll back, stabilise the network and get some rest. We would pick up things tomorrow. I was trying to cool down after huge stress when my wife informed me, we would need to go to hospital as my newborn son was having severe allergy symptoms. Following 24 hours was a painful lesson of the subtle art of not giving a f**k to nonessential things in life.

Heroic leadership how to be a good leader

Heroic Leadership – lessons on how to be a good leader

Piotr Zagorowski
January 2, 2020July 6, 2024
Leadership

It was 2010. I was sitting in a quiet coffee shop in the main square in Gdańsk. The main purpose of the visit was to attend a workshop about how to be a good leader in local communities. I was sipping coffee and reviewing my notes. At the time, almost everything was a revelation to me, especially the part on implementing heroic leadership to be a good leader:

be a protagonist – a person who creates reality
it is so easy to be an antagonist
- a person who is in the best scenario – a passive observer of life,
- in the worst-case scenario – actively disturbing actions of the protagonist
be a leader – everyone can be a leader – even on a very small area of influence
do not wait for golden opportunity that are given you on a silver plate – make sure you extract the gold from casual situations
read more on “Heroic Leadership” by Chris Lowney.

I was just holding the recommended book and reading the first chapter. The book that changed my approach to many things. It also shaped my choices in my life, in both: professional and private domains.