Crucial Confrontation:
Tools for resolving broken promises, violated expectations, and bad behavior
by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillian, Al Switzler (2004)
When others in your business life fail to keep their promises or miss the expectations that have been set for them, how do you handle the disappointments? If you'd like to be more effective in dealing with those setbacks, you'll want to read this insightful book.
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Smart Books = Smart Business:
How to Take Charge of Your Accounting and Really Run Your Business Profitably
by Marie Gibson (2010)
I wish Marie had written this book before I struggled with setting up my business accounting system! I would've saved so much time, frustration and money if I had been walked through the process by this easy-to-read book that answers the questions we business owners might be too embarrassed to ask our accountant...or, our accountants' might be to busy to answer.
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The Paradox of Choice:
Why More is Less
by Barry Schwartz (2004)
Have you heard the phrase, "paralyzed with choice?" It's used to describe the state of overwhelm experienced when too many options make decision making difficult. In this book, Schwartz suggests that some choice is good, but more choice is not necessarily better.
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Your Brain at Work:
Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
by David Rock (2009)
With this book, Rock has written an owner's manual for the human brain. Tapping into current neuro-scientific research, Rock uses the power of the story to help readers understand how the brain responds to the events of our everyday lives, including solving problems and making decisions, stress and pressure, collaborating with others and facilitating change.
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Managing the Unexpected:
Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty
by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe (2009)
In some organizations, such as hospital emergency rooms and firefighting units, slight errors have major consequences like the loss of property or even the loss of life. These organizations develop systems and ways of learning that reduce the incidence of error and allow the organization to recovery quickly from errors that do occur.
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Womenomics
by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay (2009)
While the title of this book might sound like a post-feminist tome on the economic power of women in the work place, it is much more than that. The authors do remind us that women have taken their place in the ranks of successful business executives and professionals; they also show how men and children share the interests of women for a balanced perspective of life, career, family, company and community as well.
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MAKING GREAT DECISIONS in Business and Life
by David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper (2006)
The book offers tools from the field of economics and decision science to work through business and life problems. Although the book gets off to a slow start, it does offer some interesting insights into effective decision-making.
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Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams and Why People Follow
by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie (2008)
In this book, Gallup takes its 70 years of research on human behavior and applies it to the role of leadership in a new way. Most of us will find ourselves in leadership roles at some time in our life, making these lessons valuable tools for business and personal development.
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Millennial Makeover:
MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics
by Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, 2008
I heard the authors interviewed prior to the 2008 American presidential election and picked up the book to see what their research had concluded about the future of American politics. What I found, was a valuable resource for looking at how markets are shifting and changing. In this book summary, I will not get into the political implications of these changes, rather focusing on the business and marketing ramifications of the emerging technologies.
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Quiet Leadership:
Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work
by David Rock, 2006
This book is for busy leaders who want to improve their employees' performance, and are ready to try something new. Rock bases his six-step process on recent discoveries about how the brain works, a shift in thinking practice and a new approach to every conversation leaders have with their employees.
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Social Intelligence
by Daniel Goleman, 2006
Psychologist and author, Daniel Goleman has made the neuroscience of emotional intelligence understandable for the layperson. In this, his latest book, he builds on previous research to offer new insights into our interpersonal world as it applies to our relationships and the way we conduct ourselves in personal and business interactions.
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Fierce Conversations
by Susan Scott (2002)
Susan Scott offers a new definition of 'fierce' for us to consider. Rather than the Webster's Dictionary definition, "Violently hostile or aggressive in temperament," Scott went to Roget's Thesaurus and found that the synonyms were: "robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled, uncurbed, untamed." She says that, "We effect change by engaging in robust conversations with ourselves and others."
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The Ultimate Sales Machine
by Chet Holmes (2007)
This is not just a book about sales techniques; it is about "tuning up every aspect of your business to run with precision." (Page 154) The author is considered a business growth expert and his secret weapon is focus. In The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes offers twelve critical areas for business improvement and advises the reader to apply them with what he calls, "pigheaded determination and discipline".
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How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else"
by Michael Gates Gill, (2007)
When I started to read this book I had no intention of reviewing it in this ezine. I heard the author interviewed on a radio program and he described his experience so vividly that I bought the book and began what I thought would be a light, recreational read. About halfway through, I realized that Gill was providing insight into effective management from the perspective of an appreciative employee and that there might be value for business leaders to hear his message.
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12: The Elements of Great Managing
by Rodd Wagner & James K. Harter, Ph.D. (2006)
The world's largest database of employee opinion and business performance is held by the Gallup organization and summarized in this book, the successor to Gallup's first book about management titled, First, Break All the Rules. Added to this database of 10 million interviews, the authors include the insights from brain-imaging studies, genetics, psychology, behavioral game theory and other scientific disciplines to describe the route to employee engagement.
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The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
by Stephen M. R. Covey (2007)
The author of this book is the son of the well-known author, Dr. Stephen R. Covey who has written books bridging the realms of business and personal development, like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
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Branding for Dummies
Bill Chiaravelle and Barbara Findlay Schenck (2007)
The authors make it clear from the first pages of this book that we are not embarking on a journey to come up with just a new logo or slogan when we undertake the task of branding a company. While these outward, visible signs are part of the branding process outcome, they are the result of much work behind the scenes to define the company or product in a comprehensive way.
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Made to Stick
Chip Heath and Dan Heath, 2007
"Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die"

The Heath brothers, authors of this book, are very clever. The cover of their book appears to have a piece of crinkled duct tape across the front. The cover is bright orange and the faux duct tape, appears real enough that it must be touched. They immediately establish their credibility in writing about sticky ideas.
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The E-Myth Revisited
by Michael E. Gerber, 1995
If you are a small business owner or work for a small business, this book is absolutely a must-read! It clearly describes the concepts of organizing for small business success so succinctly that it belongs in the personal library of every entrepreneur or aspiring business owner.
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Go Put Your Strengths to Work
by Marcus Buckingham, 2007
Speaking of strengths, Marcus Buckingham has been since he co-authored the Gallup Management organization book First, Break All the Rules, in 1999. In this book, Buckingham takes the idea of building on strengths, as opposed to working on weaknesses, from the identification to action stage; he lays out a 6-step model for putting strengths to work at work.
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What Got You Here Won't Get You There
by Marshall Goldsmith, 2007
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is one of the best known executive coaches in America and was recently named by the American Management Association as one of the fifty great thinkers and business leaders that have impacted the field of management. In this book, he introduces us to the importance of working well with others, "It's my contentionand it's the bedrock thesis of this bookthat interpersonal behavior is the difference-maker between being great and near-great, between getting the gold and settling for the bronze."
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