We’ve chosen four of the books that you have been talking about on Twitter and Facebook, and want you to chose the next book we summarize by voting for one of the choices below.
Cast your vote on our Facebook page. Voting concludes on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 11.59pm EST.
1. Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins
The new question: Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? In Great by Choice, Collins and his colleague, Morten T. Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times.
The new study: Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins’s prior work by its focus on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.
The new findings:
This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not by chance.
2. Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition by Stephen M. Shapiro
What if almost everything you know about creating a culture of innovation is wrong? What if the way you are measuring innovation is choking it? What if your market research is asking all of the wrong questions?
It’s time to innovate the way you innovate.
Stephen Shapiro is one of America’s foremost innovation advisrrs, whose methods have helped organizations like Staples, GE, Telefónica, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and USAA. He teaches his clients that innovation isn’t just about generating occasional new ideas; it’s about staying consistently one step ahead of the competition.
• Hire people you don’t like. Bring in the right mix of people to unleash your team’s full potential.
• Asking for ideas is a bad idea. Define challenges more clearly. If you ask better questions, you will get better answers.
• Don’t think outside the box; find a better box. Instead of giving your employees a blank slate, provide them with well-defined parameters that will increase their creative output.
• Failure is always an option. Looking at innovation as a series of experiments allows you to redefine failure and learn from your results.
Shapiro shows that nonstop innovation is attainable and vital to building a high-performing team, improving the bottom line, and staying ahead of the pack.
3. One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership by Mike Figliuolo
Based on leadership expert Mike Figliuolo’s popular “Leadership Maxims” training course, One Piece of Paper teaches decisive, effective leadership by taking a holistic approach to defining one’s personal leadership philosophy. Through a series of simple questions, readers will create a living document that communicates their values, passions, goals and standards to others, maximizing their leadership potential.
Simple, applicable, and without pretense, One Piece of Paper provides a model for real leadership in the real world.
4. Managing (Right) for the First Time by David C. Baker
Managing (Right) for the First Time is intended as a field guide for first time managers, or for managers who want to begin doing a better job. The author worked closely with 600+ companies and interviewed more than 10,000 employees, then summarized the findings in an interesting and eminently readable form. Read this book and you’re likely to understand management and leadership like you never have before, but also learn very practical steps toward becoming a better manager and leader. The book begins with preface and introduction, and then contains 21 digestible chapter, starting with a unique view of the basics and then building to an interesting conclusion. Chapter 1 talks about who managers are and how you become one in real life, since the circumstances for your promotion have a significant bearing on how your management experience unfolds. Chapter 2 examines the various reasons for promotion, explaining the implications of each. Chapter 3 explains the few but critical elements that allow an inspired start as a leader, including (Chapter 4) how to manage your boss effectively so that the two of you can actually get things done. Chapter 5 recounts the early discoveries you’ll make, hopefully eliminating many of the surprises that might stunt your growth as a manager. Then Chapter 6 explains that there are not just two kinds of managers (good managers and bad managers), but in fact three kinds: evil managers, those who are managing, and those who are not managing. This chapter alone provides some seminal thinking that is certain to change your management life. Chapter 7 details the process for finding the right employee candidates. Chapter 8 provides a thorough look at how to screen applicants reliably. And chapter 9 provides a checklist style program for integrating employees through their initial orientation and first few weeks on the job. To that end, Chapter 10 lays out some important principles to keep in mind when structuring employee roles. Chapter 11 is perhaps the fulcrum of the book in that it compiles the most important individual elements of managing employees well, followed by a revolutionary approach to performance reviews (Chapter 12) that you might actually enjoy doing! Chapter 13 urges you to move beyond reluctant leadership, followed by a logical next step in Chapter 14: being a leader that your employees want to follow. It’s all neatly tied together in Chapter 15, which examines the creating and sustaining of an appropriate culture at your firm or department. Chapter 16 explains the different styles of managing, allowing for the different personality types. Chapter 17 notes the important transitions you’ll make over time, particularly if you want to remain effective. And Chapter 18 contains a short but important message for control freak managers. Chapter 19 argues for a more open approach to management, and chapter 20 shares a unique perspective on work/life balance so that your role is sustainable over time. Chapter 21 concludes with some specific suggestions designed to help the managers who follow you. Finally, there’s a concluding section with real advice from real managers who were asked to speak to you, the reader, sharing what they wish they had known when they set out on their own journey.
