Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations by Gene Zelazny

Why We Like This Book:

Gene Zelazny used to be the charts guy for McKinsey, and this book shows why. He walks through how to present ANY type of information, bowing to the predominance of PowerPoint. You’ll learn when to use bar graphs and pie charts, and how NOT to distort your message. It’s simple, slim, and FULL of stuff you can use THIS WEEK.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

Why We Like This Book:

This is the only personal productivity book you ever need to buy. If you even use this SIMPLE process half way, you will become 2-3 times more efficient. If you’ve ever felt like you have a million things to do rattling around in your head, this book is for you. Mike and Mark are both HUGE fans, and we’re BARELY scratching the surface. Buy this book.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Why We Like This Book:

Covey stands the test of time surprisingly well. While we see this more as a book for college graduates, it still works as an annual review document. The stories are great, and the recommendations are immediately do-able.

Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million+: Your Insider’s Lifetime Guide to Executive Job-Changing and Faster Career Progress in the 21st Century by John Lucht

Why We Like This Book:

The ONLY book on changing jobs you will ever need. As detailed and well-documented and -researched book as we know of. It is the equivalent of Effective Executive for job searches. May not be 100% applicable for college graduates, but is for everyone else. He says you should do your resume like we do, and no one else recommends this. Buy this book.

Heart of Change by John Kotter

Why We Like This Book:

This is the best book available about how to change the culture of an organization. It makes the case for taking your time in the beginning, getting a GREAT team together, creating an emotional appeal ,and being happy with small wins early (and telling everyone about them). It’s so simple, you’ll be amazed your firm didn’t do it this way last time they tried to change. But they didn’t, did they? This process is good enough to fall on your sword about: “if you’re not going to generally follow this plan, I don’t want to be on the team.” Yeah - it’s that good.

The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

Why We Like This Book:

A classic book that will probably never be implemented anywhere. Senge’s principles are brilliant, and most professional managers need to know the basics of this book, which is well read among senior executives. You need to understand systems thinking. It will make you a better thinker of complex issues. But it’s unlikely to change your behavior, which is one of our watchwords here.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Why We Like This Book:

This book really IS a classic, and a perennial best seller… because it should be. These simple, basic truths about people withstand the test of time: “A person’s name, to that person, is the sweetest sound in any language”. Like it or not, you need to remember people’s names. Those who do outperform those who don’t. There are two other books in this genre that we also like: Never Eat Alone, and Love is the Killer App. If you like How to Win, you’ll love these two as well. Buy this book, especially if you’re an IT person or an engineer. Mike and I are, so we can say that.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Why We Like This Book:

Unfortunately, large organizations are rife with politics. You’re not going to be successful simply being nice and smart. You’ll have to outmaneuver others at times to get your agenda approved. While poisoning others may not be apropos, the underlying rationale that “in difficult times really good ends can justify really bad means” still rings true. Well written too.

When I start working with a group of managers, one of the questions I ask is what self-development efforts they’ve undertaken recently. Overwhelmingly - 90+% of the time, the answer boils down to, “Not much”. Sometimes they mention a book that came out 10 years ago. I admit to always having a drop in energy when I hear it, even though I know it’s coming. I think, “gee, if they won’t do it for themselves, why would they do it for me?”

So, in the spirit of making it easier, If i read a book, I’ll post about it. I’ll include fiction, because I read a lot of fiction, too. I’ve read 11 books so far this month, I think - couple more to go this week. If you want to know how I have time, I have three answers:

(a) I “have” no more “time” than you do. It’s just more important to me, I guess. It’s okay to not read. If you don’t want to, or don’t like it, that’s fine. But it’s not okay to not read and then complain about what you don’t know. The person who can read and doesn’t is no different than the person who can’t.
(b) LESS TV.
(c) Airplanes without power adapters for my laptop, and just-not-quite-long-enough-layovers to get mail.

So, here’s my first installment.

The Notebook. Fiction, by Nicholas Sparks. My favorite book. I’ve read it 20 times, and will read it again soon, but won’t blog again on it. Love is the most wonderful force in the universe, and not a bad touchstone for managers, either.

Work is work. It’s wonderful, and fulfilling, and so much fun it seems like I oughta pay for the privilege. But life is not work. Life is… love.

by Ron Willingham. Subtitle: a revolutionary redefinition of leadership. Willingham owns a sales and customer service training company, and I’ve seen his training packages in a couple client sites. As you might imagine, I read LOTS of books like this, and unfortunately for Mr. Willingham, I am probably way too discerning. This book was terrible. It certainly wasn’t revolutionary. Don’t buy it, even if it gets 4 and a half stars on Amazon.

[Full disclosure: I was predisposed to not like this book, but read it anyway in a spirit of being fair and open to my own narrow-mindedness. The reason I was predisposed was that Mr Willingham’s coaching model was not impressive. At one point in his COACHING model, he says that you should then “COACH”, without saying what that means. It was weird. Many who were using it at a client came to me and said, “I’m supposed to use this tool, but I can’t figure it out. Can you help?” There are lots of bad coaching models out there, and so I don’t mean to pick on him. And, I really like some of his customer service stuff.]