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Submitted by cwatine on
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Hi,

[b]"Win your case" by Gerry Spense or "Leadership" from Rudolph Giuliani.[/b]

Have you read/listen to one of those ?

I need to get one audio book from a list list ... They seem to be the only one that have value.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks.

Cédric.

Mark's picture
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Both.

I cannot recommend Spense - he's a lawyer, flamboyant, and too many of his methods are hard to stomach.

I like Rudy, but can't say the book is all that good either.

Any other choices? :wink:

cwatine's picture
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Well ... I can get anyone of the Itune "business books" list.
Any recommendations ?

Thanks,

Cédric.

Mark's picture
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Now you're talking.

GTD

How to win friends

Winning by Jack Welch - fantastic

Execution by Bossidy - BRILLIANT

The E-Myth revisited. Might be perfect for you Ced.

Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Words that Work - you asked about that one!

The Lexus and The Olive Tree - Friedman

Blue Ocean Strategy

There are others, but these are all QUITE good.

Mark

cwatine's picture
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Now, [b]you[/b] are talking !

[b]I have read :[/b]

GTD - fantastic

How to win friends - average (the audio is way too long and boring voice)

Winning by Jack Welch - fantastic I agree, I often re-read some chapters ... but some principle very very very difficult to apply in France

Execution by Bossidy - Very good (but better for big corp ?)

The E-Myth revisited. - Very good for small business like me, I agree.

Blue Ocean Strategy -Very interesting business strategy, but tools are very hard to implement

[b]On its way to France ![/b]

Words that Work :wink:

[b]So I stay with :[/b]

- The Lexus and The Olive Tree - Friedman
- Five Dysfunctions of a Team -

If I read the sumup, I would be more interested in 5 dysfunctions ...

Many thanks,

Cédric.

Mark's picture
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Well done!

Lexus is about politics AND capitalism- so I apologize I didn't catch that. But it IS Friedman!

Mark

cwatine's picture
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I would have also been interested in Friedman, but I just finished the world is flat ! Too much of a good thing ... :roll:

cruss's picture
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I'm in the middle of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell ([url]http://www.gladwell.com/blink/[/url]) and it's great. The illustrative stories are entertaining and do a wonderful job of cementing the concepts in the book. I have already become more confident in my decisions related to my area of expertise. I'm also more aware of the areas that my judgment is not as strong and other experts or research should be consulted.

Highly recommended.

cwatine's picture
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I found it very interesting too, like his other book (I think it is "the tipping point"). But in the long run, I am not really sure about what it changed for me ...

davefleet's picture

I enjoyed both of the books remaining on your list.

'Five dysfunctions...' is a great read - very much a different style to most other 'management' books out there (in a good way). It's very easy to read and absorb, and has some useful, practical tips. Excellent proof of the power of clear writing - books don't have to be complicated to be useful. I plan on checking out some of his other books.

'Lexus...' was required reading during my business degree a few years back, and we discussed several sections of the book as a group each week. This is another good recommendation. Friedman makes a lot of good points, and puts together a great case to back up his opinions. I didn't agree with everything he had to say (hardly surprising given the number of things he says), but agree or not, it's a very valuable read. I probably made more notes while reading this book than during any other.

I have to say I agree with Mark about Giuliani's Leadership. I'm sure he's a remarkable leader, but his book is unremarkable from a lessons-learned perspective.

'The Tipping Point' is another interesting read, especially from a word of mouth marketing perspective. Like 'Blink', it can be quite hard to implement much from the book unless you're in the right field, but I found both books to be good reading from a context perspective.

Hope this helps!

Dave

TomW's picture
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[quote="cedwat"]How to win friends - average (the audio is way too long and boring voice).[/quote]

It's funny you say that. I like the reader a lot, he sounded very 1960's radio announcer, back when they were rated more on their speaking voice than their goofy antics.

dmbaldwin's picture

I would recommend this book. If you want to watch an interview with the author you can buy a DVD from Willow Creek Association. He was interviewed at their Leadership Summit a few years back.

We took our team through the book and found it quite useful. We are working on incentives now to get different departments to work together in projects.

Blessings,

Dave

cwatine's picture
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[quote="davefleet"]'Five dysfunctions...' is a great read - very much a different style to most other 'management' books out there (in a good way). It's very easy to read and absorb, and has some useful, practical tips. Excellent proof of the power of clear writing - books don't have to be complicated to be useful. I plan on checking out some of his other books.
[/quote]

I finished listening to "Five dysfunctions of a team" and I loved every minute of it. I usually don't like fables and always want to go straight to the "real thing" (bottom line up front ?). For example I liked "the goal", but did not like the "theory" being spread all over the story without a sumup. This is the case here : fable, and then, theory and pactical suggestions.
Ths story is great, and the audio is good.

The advices on team building seem excellent and the list of dysfunctions are perfectly well explained.

It personnaly "rang a bell" for me. After the process of implementing O3, I was still feeling something was missing in one of my companies. I had been "feeling" the symptoms, from many years, but was not able to put a same on it. Compared to the other company (not created by the same kind of man), there was no real trust between members, no conflicts about anything in meetings, no big interest in business, no group work, everybody would always agree about what I say in meeting but, then not really commit to the decisions, etc.

I even ordered the "real book" to be able to translate the "theory and advice" part for my own use. AND implement it !

I agree : this is one of the best books I read : focused, simple, powerfull.

So thank you for your advice, all.

A also ordered "death by meetings" (audio) from the same author. I'll tell you my mind.

Cédric.