Below you'll find some of our favorite books ... and books that we highly recommend for your "must read" list. Note that if you click on the links or images below and purchase the book from Amazon.com, we get a few cents for your efforts. It's not much, but it adds up and helps us with the Manager Tools bandwidth costs! Thanks in advance for the support!
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
The greatest management book ever written. Drucker delivers here the most powerful and simple insight every manager must know - one’s time is one’s scarcest resource. This is a slim volume, and the best value on the list. You may quibble with Drucker’s insights on meetings, but it doesn’t matter - just the first 50 pages are worth 5 years of management development training.
Management: Tasks Responsibilities Practices by Peter Drucker
Don’t let its size be off-putting. It always makes us laugh that the definitive, deepest book about management is not required reading, let alone a course all by itself, at MBA schools today. Complex, layered, and complete. The War and Peace of management literature. Only better.
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
This will be the most influential business book of the first decade of the 21st century. Drucker is more powerful, and more helpful, but TWIF will be more talked about. You cannot be a professional manager and remain effective in today’s flat world without understanding the forces in this book. The forces discussed WILL impact your organization - being aware will make you better at what you do.
The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving
The best book on business writing ever. Barbara Minto has given us a step by step process for producing clear, brilliant, simple writing that will persuade as well as inform. It is not cheap, nor easy - but neither is running a $100 million business. If you think you can do the latter, try the former first. Because we’ve read your writing, and it’s not very good. (Mike and Barbara are friends - she’s sharp and wonderful.)
Note: As Amazon doesn’t have the latest version of her book, the best way to get Barbara’s book is to order it direct from her (the links above will take you to her site for ordering information). Let her know you heard about her from Manager Tools! 
First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman
We love data, and Gallup had a pile of it in developing the key insight here: great managers find people with the right skills for a job, and then focus on enhancing and rewarding what’s already there. They DON’T try to teach everything to everybody. Unlike In Search of Excellence, they didn’t fake this data. Gives detailed guidance, so we REALLY like it.
Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini
This book is fascinating. It will both intrigue you, and make you feel like you can trick anyone into doing anything. And, you would be able to. Cialdini lays out how to influence and persuade others by teaching basic principles about why we act the way we do, and why we respond to others the way we do. This is a core book for sales and marketing professionals, and any manager who has to use more than just positional power to make things happen (that would include YOU).
Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Pfeffer is the Dean of the People part of management, which is where we spend a lot of our time as well. This book lays out how to make things happen, step by step - how to analyze your situation, assess your strengths and weaknesses, whom to align with, whom to develop better relationships with. It’s so tactical, with help every step of the way, we wish we’d written it ourselves. MUST READ for Senior Managers, Directors and entry level VPs in large organizations. If you’re competing for a promotion with someone who uses these concepts, they will bury you.
The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First by Jeffrey Pfeffer
A Pfeffer classic. He lays out the value of being a manager who focuses on getting the most from your team. If all you learn from this book is that layoffs are ineffective, it’s earned its value. (Though don’t assume you won’t ever see one again). He talks about specific things companies can do in hiring and development that relate directly to Manager Tools principles.
Winning ‘em Over by Jay A. Conger
Jay Conger has written the best book about how to present to a corporate audience that we have ever read. This book is DETAILED. If you’ve ever thrown together some slides, Winning will make you feel silly. It lays out how to analyze your audience, how to organize your information, how to prep in advance… in such detail you’ll feel like you’re reading a textbook. GREAT book for managers.
Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication by Gene Zelazny
Same reasons we like “Say It With Presentations”: 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.
Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations by Gene Zelazny
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.]
I’ll be posting more book reviews on the site in the coming weeks and months, as Manager Tools starts its second year. (Happy Birthday, Mike!). Nearby this post is a re-print of an answer I provided to a member question, talking about reading and my habits related thereto.
You’ll note that I read 200 books a year, probably. I do this because I truly love to do it. Mike will tell you I’m pretty smart (and I will return the favor), but I just think I’ve read more than most people.
I’m writing this on an American flight to Chicago, and I read 3 Wall Street Journals waiting for the flight and at the gate. I have three books to read on this trip (3 days), and I will finish them all (and write about them, if they so merit).
Some things that might help you in reading my reviews.
1. I’m not predisposed to write favorably. Look, I’m a nice person, honest, but most business books just aren’t that good from my perspective (see 3 below).
And some books don’t pass muster from ANY perspective.
2. If I do like it, I’ll probably gush a little. You try reading 200 books a year when your history suggests that most are going to be duds. When I find one I like, well, I sing a little loudly.
3. I require good ideas, which I can actually use. I believe you buy business books to help you and your organization and your career. If I can’t figure out how a book will do that for most managers, how could I recommend it? It’s not enough, usually, to have a great idea, and I think this might disqualify me from a cocktail party of the big business writers, because they so often miss this. (My book will not miss this, though it may miss other targets. I may be accused of being too tactical.)
I am, nearly every sentence, asking, “Okay, but how can I USE this? What do you want me to DO?!?”
I recognize this is not the only way to evaluate a book, and certainly not the most scholarly of approaches. But then again, I’m not writing for scholars. I’m writing for YOU. Managers, and future managers.
4. My primary criteria is Recommend/Not Recommend. Since I’ve already read the book, and the only reason to write about it is to have you read my opinion, this seems to me to be the best criteria. I don’t want to keep track of star ratings or some other criterion. Pass/Fail. You’re too busy to read all these books TOO, when only one of us has to. Think of me as a different kind of filter than, but sharing a common respect for your time with, Executive Book Summaries (which I do not subscribe to, but have no problem with).
5. I really love great writing. If a book is well written, it’s a special joy. James Stewart, who wrote Den of Thieves, is a great writer. (It helps to have won a Pulitzer while editing the front page of the WSJ). Michael Lewis, who wrote Liar’s Poker, and Moneyball, is very good, though surely different than the erudite Mr. Stewart. Peter Drucker is better than both of them together, though for many of you he is an acquired taste. His prose is dense, which is often used as an aspersion, mistakenly. I really like Tom Friedman, too… and surprise, he’s won 3 Pulitzers.
6. I’d love to hear about your favorites. I’ll do my best to read them, and give you my opinion. Disagreements welcome. I’ll be wrong sometimes, maybe a lot. Don’t ask me to read a book on short notice to let you know whether you should buy it (it’s already happened).
7. I might mention non-business books. Usually they will stand out in some way, often with great writing. An Army At Dawn, by Rick Atkinson, which I read last year, is a good example: brilliant beyond compare.
And then there are books like The World is Flat.
[I’ve gotten several emails and private messages related to a ‘cast comment I made a while back and then a blog post reply, regarding my reading habits. Because it’s easy for folks to miss comments, I thought I’d bring it to the forefront here. It also relates to my recent post regarding reviewing books. - H]
Yes, I read 200 books a year. To be candid, I never thought it was a big deal until I mentioned it in a speech several years ago, and got inundated with questions like yours.
I do have some suggestions, but they aren’t specific to reading faster.
1. TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISION.
2. Decide to read that many books a year. It’s very helpful to know that you have a couple of days to finish. This helped my speed. I skipped some sections that seemed unnecessary - this was VERY hard for me.
3. It doesn’t hurt to be a fast reader, and there are some comments about this in a thread called “Reading Skills” in the General category in our Discussion Forums. I did a test (it’s easy - just time yourself and count) and I am a very fast reader, I admit, though I HATED speed reading.
http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=82
3. Have a book or books with you always. I travel with several, even on short trips. When Sony’s e-reader comes out, I will buy, in hopes that my purchase will stimulate content providers to port them over. This will stop the FRUSTRATION of having no unread books with me because I couldn’t carry any more.
4. Read at work at lunch. Take an hour, get away from your desk, and read.
5. READ EVERY NIGHT.
6. Turn off your TV.
7. NEVER use books on tape. WAY TOO SLOW. I resisted podcasting initially because of my BOT experience, until I realized that I could distill an entire book’s worth of knowledge into 30 minutes if I focused on WHAT TO DO. So, I’m not against learning this way, but not a whole book. (And I’ll hide a surprise here for you: good luck trying to find other podcasts that are as rich in value as ours is. I keep trying, and find most (all so far) to be incredibly light on utility and FULL of irrelevant chatter.)
If you’re thinking BOT is good for commuting, fair… but you won’t get to 200 books that way, nor probably 50. Use commuting for staying in touch with people - get on the phone. (I have no commute, but this is what I did when I did drive to work.)
8. Read quickly initially, and then re-read if you feel so compelled.
Regarding price…USE YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Full disclosure: I do not. I live in a small town, and they don’t easily get the business books I want. My brother Walt in Charlotte uses his all the time, and saves a great deal of money. I think this is very smart if it will work for you. You are losing NOTHING by waiting on a book… the vast majority of managers DO NOT READ.
Books and reading are my hobby, so I spend a lot of money on them, I admit. A LOT. I don’t like cars, I don’t have nice “things” in my life beyond a really good laptop and an expensive phone - Treo 700p - which is so helpful to my life I’d give up my car before I gave up my phone.
Amazon likes me a LOT. And I write them all off, too…
And I hate to say it, but remember that I also read the Wall Street Journal every day, Fortune, and Harvard Business Review (which is slow going but an absolute delight every time).
“The man who can read and doesn’t is indistinguishable from the man who can’t.”
It’s a privilege.
Mark
I was hoping that this book - The Knowing-Doing Gap, by Pfeffer and Sutton - was going to be great. I mean, really great – the kind that makes me stay up late one night finishing it, and then another week of nights writing and re-writing my own book.
It is not. I don’t recommend it.
I thought that it was going to talk about something that I’ve been noticing for years. So many companies (managers within them, of course) talk about what to do, and seem to know what to do, but when one peeks inside, there doesn’t seem to be the evidence that they’re actually doing it. I suspect you’ve felt this too.
Mr. Pfeffer is a brilliant management thinker and consultant, and I routinely love his work. And I’m not saying here that he didn’t do exactly what his title suggested. But it still was a great disappointment. [Although the sub-title, “How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action” is misleading, in my opinion.]
The reason I was disappointed is that (almost) ALL the book does is catalog the gap. It basically says, yes, there’s a gap – companies seem to act as if they “know” what to do, but don’t seem to be doing it. They mention reasons such as fear, memory as a substitute for thinking, internal competition, and measurement.
But the book does not tell us what the solution is, or what we should do about it. This felt quite academic, and not terribly valuable to most managers. Remember: utility is what I’m looking for. What do you want me to do? How do I use this? There are two chapters at the end of the book that try, but they don’t get there, in my opinion.
If you want to know whether (according to their survey/research) there is a gap, this book is for you. If you already know that, and I suspect you do, save the time and money.
And a small caveat: Mr. Pfeffer is very good at what he does. Do not put other or future books of his in this category as a heuristic response to my comments on this one book.
I almost didn’t review this book, and when you read the review, you’ll wonder why. The reason I almost did not review it is because it was originally published in 1981. I thought, “Naah. Too old… old technology, everybody’s either read it or I won’t be able to get anyone to read it.”
Then I remembered Peter Drucker, whom people shy away from. I thought about when he started writing (those books still have traction), and I thought… WAIT.
Soul of a New Machine is the finest non-fiction historical business reporting I’ve ever read.
It is so good Tracy Kidder won the Pulitzer Prize for it. Kidder also went on to write House, the story of a house being built from scratch, that should be required reading for anyone doing so even today. Some of its passages are so lyrical, they’re poetry.
Soul tells the story of a team of programmers and engineers designing a state of the art computer (Eagle, later Eclipse) for Data General, who then were rivals of larger, more well known Digital Equipment Company (DEC). It is a detailed, gripping report of a team faced with a herculean task, and how they approach it. The problems are identical to virtually every team that has ever designed and built anything, and incredibly fascinating for anyone involved in Information Technology today. It’s all true, and yet the drama of a thriller crawls right along with the text. Late nights, arguments over who gets credit, personality clashes, clever technological breakthroughs from unusual inspirations, arguments over which new person to hire… it’s all here.
This is as good as any fiction you will read for fun this year.
When I said that I look for good writing, this is what I meant. Tracy Kidder is as good as they get. Below is an excerpt, the last paragraph of the Prologue. The main character of the book is Tom West (though this book is decidedly NOT about him). In this excerpt, used as foreshadowing, he has been on vacation from the team.
The people who shared the journey remembered West. The following winter, describing [a nasty storm they went through], the captain remarked, “That fellow West is a good man in a storm.” The psychologist did not see West again, but remained curious about him. “He didn’t sleep for four nights! Four whole nights!” And if that trip had been his idea of a vacation, where, the psychologist wanted to know, did he work?
Absolutely brilliant in every way. Please read it.
[PS: If you ever wanted proof that one cannot place complete trust in Amazon rankings, read them for this masterpiece. It DOESN’T get five stars. Rubbish! - H]
This book is by Henry Mintzberg, another brilliant and effective management consultant. I’ve read much of his work, and he is routinely sharp and insightful.
But I don’t recommend this book, for three reasons.
First, it’s terribly academic, even more so than Pffeffer’s recent book, The Knowing-Doing Gap. Maybe it makes me a Philistine, but whenever a business book has, on virtually every page, 3-5 parenthetical references to other scholarly and academic works, it comes across to me as intended for other academics. I just can’t see managers today getting excited about where he gets his quotes or the concepts he addresses.
Secondly, I think nearly 200 pages excoriating the MBA eduction is probably overkill. I’m not fighting for MBAs here - I think many people go to avail themselves of the recruiting experience therein. But at some point, talking about why something is bad isn’t helpful. And a detailed history of the growth of MBA schools (going back to 1900!) seems unnecessary.
Finally, I think his prescription is interesting.. but unwieldy. He calls for long periods of reflection, and “white time”… at times, it felt so disconnected from the average manager’s experience, I struggled to connect it. Maybe it’s me, and I’m not smart enough to see into his thinking well enough to connect it all and have an “aha.”
Mr. Mintzberg is so good so often, please don’t make this book a reason not to read his other works. But skip this one.
One of our members posted that Marshall Goldsmith, a truly outstanding executive coach, as famous to many as Tom Peters, has decided to release his archives for free to everyone. Here’s the post:
Now here is an inspiring thing regarding intellectual property.
Marshall Goldsmith, one of the top 10 management consultants, has decided to give away his work for free. And, this from a guy who doesn’t get paid for 18 months when he signs up to be your coach.
“In my older years, I have decided to “give away as much as I can”. My new web site http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/ features my articles, interviews, audios and even lots of free videos. Please feel free to download, copy, send and use anything from my site. Please feel free to use with anyone in your corporation. Even better, please feel free to use with your church, charity or non-profit”
This library site is being continually expanded and will eventually include free material from many other great thinkers in leadership development. It will make all of us at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management feel great if you can benefit from any of these resources.
I encourage everyone to take advantage of this resource. Mr. Goldsmith is brilliant, and his generosity should not be missed.
I promised everyone monthly updates on the progress of my book, The Effective Manager. The last 4 weeks have not been good ones for the book, and I only achieved about 50% of my writing/volume goals.
That said, I’m not worried. I have added some more sessions in the next few weeks, and am reasonably certain I can overcome the slight fallback. This has happened before a couple of times, and each time I was able to get back on track. The desire to write is quite palpable.
I admit that the culprit lately has been Manager Tools growth. Mike and I have been spending a lot of time on the web redesign (WOW), the roll out of premium content, and Intellectual Property discussions. As well, I have been working far ahead on show notes, as I will be traveling more in the next 3 months.
Never fear - I will finish it this year.
I almost recommend The Box, by Mark Levinson.
Part of the book is fascinating: it talks about the history of the lowly-seeming shipping container, which revolutionized shipping through standardization. I typically like detailed historical accounts like this, highlighting something that is easily unseen but plays an enormous role in our lives.
When you read about how longshoremen slowed its spread, and how the majority of shipping costs were not in distance but in handling, you get a real sense of how many innovations and improvements have fueled commerce over the past half a century.
Nevertheless, there is a lot in this book that is unnecessary. Some of the discussions of New York City’s ports, and the union involvement, seemed to be given too much weight. And in other places, details are missing that would have added a great deal.
Is it good? Yes. Would I read it again? Nope.
Should you read it if you’re in the shipping industry, or want more of the The World is Flat mantra? Yes!
The People Principle, by Ron Willingham. Subtitle: a revolutionary redefinition of leadership. Willingham owns a very successful 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.]
Full RSS Feed
Podcast-Only RSS Feed
iTunes 1-click
Yahoo! Podcasts
Odeo 1-Click
Blog-Only RSS Feed
Forums RSS Feed
Zune 1-click
