As the big stack on my desk attests, I love to read books that expand my knowledge and offer new insights on topics that interest me. My reading list over the past several years can be found on my Amazon page (and if you do buy a book that way, all my commissions go to the National Park Foundation), and yes, they are skewed heavily toward business books.
This interest stems from the simple premise that you just never know when a book, or a page, or just a paragraph, might alter your way of thinking forever, and push you to a personal breakthrough.
So it’s with great pleasure that I share with you 3 recent books that are quite capable of doing just that.
“7 Lessons For Leading In Crisis“ – Bill George
I recently had the good fortune of seeing Bill George speak at the World Economic Forum in NYC; he’s an ex-big company CEO who spoke about leading in crisis, and turning crisis into opportunities. I likened his message to “sitting tall in the saddle“, and was impressed by his practical lessons. These lessons are summarized in this book – it’s a quick, no-nonsense read that I bet will leave you as impressed as I was.
“B-A-M! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World” – Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead
Barry & Mary Jane bravely and directly take on 20 myths of good customer service, and counter them with some excellent ideas of their own. What I really like about this book is Barry’s absolute and total commitment to the idea of good customer service- it’s evident by the great personal stories that he shares throughout the lessons, and the fact that he wears a button that says “just give me good customer service and nobody gets hurt“. You go, my man!
“SWAT – Seize The Accomplishment” – Timothy L. Johnson
Timothy is a self described “process guy”, who absolutely loves to analyze how best a company (0r a person) can get from Point A to Point B. In most circles they call this “systems thinking“, but I call it simply “doing“. The fact is, there aren’t a lot of people willing to really dig into this and teach us something, much less tell it in such an interesting and entertaining way (in the form of a “fable”), so we are blessed that Timothy has taken this on. Practicalities abound, and he even makes flow charting less frightening. Dominate, dude!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the shout-out, Dude! Who knew spending 3 years with a SWAT team to create business fiction about Accomplishment could be so fun? Glad to hear the book was a mental “flash bang” for you. Dominate!
Let me get you a button! Customer service is the new marketing…
Dear Starbucker,
I’m a student in BADM 720 “Management and Organizational Science” class. Our instructor gave us a list of 4 books and assignment to pick up one and analyze it according to the following scenario: “Your CEO has heard of the book and wonders if it should be required reading for her top management team. She has asked you to read the book and to provide her with your evaluation, which she wants in the form of a 6 page report.” Here is the list:
1). Seeling, T. “What I wish I knew when I was 20.”
2). Campbell, D. “Loker One”.
3). Godin, S. “Linchpin: Are you indispensible?”
4). Pink, D. “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.”
I haven’t read them yet, and apparently won’t be able to read them all. I wonder if you now these books, and which one you would recommend me to do.
Hi Peter! (and thanks Timothy and Barry!)
Peter, unfortunately I have not read any of those 4 books – but I’ll tell you which one intrigues me the most right now- the one by Pink. I’ve seen snippets of his speech about “Drive”, and it seems really interesting. Plus, I’m always curious about sources of motivation. In any case, I wish you all the best with your assignment, and thanks for stopping by!
Regards,
Terry