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Leading is learning ... and learning faster! Here are several new releases and excerpts, the latest refresher book reviews and the best business books and resources - and there are many more in the archives!
       
             
   
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The CEO Refresher Reviewers

BEST BOOKS

Human Sigma
by John H. Fleming and Jim Asplund
   
Radical Careering Radical Careering
by Sally Hogshead
   
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins
by Annette Simmons
   
Customer Service Made Easy
by Paul Levesque
   
Big Vision, Small Business
by Jamie S. Walters
   
Hit the Ground Leading!
by Angela Mondou
   
Chief Customer Officer
by Jeanne Bliss
   
The Must-Have Customer
by Robert Gordman with Armin Brott
   
Exceptional Selling
by Jeff Thull
   
The Innovation Killer
by Cynthia Rabe
   
The Laws of Lifetime Growth:
by Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura
   
Pop!
Stand Out in Any Crowd!
by Sam Horn
   
Kiss Theory Good Bye
by Bob Prosen

The Best Books
2008
2007

2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

The Best Business Books
of All Time!


refresherbooks

 

 
Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship
by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig
This book shares the unique FranklinCovey Sales Performance Group methodology to transform a sales culture with clarity, authenticity, and emotional intelligence. Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig argue that salespeople do best when they focus 100 percent on helping clients succeed. When customers are successful, both buyer and seller win. When they aren't, both lose. It's no longer sufficient to get clients to buy—a salesperson must also help the client reduce costs, increase revenues, and improve productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction.
   
Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands
by Nancy Ortberg
Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands is an engaging and insightful look into the qualities, attributes, and practices that turn ordinary leaders into extraordinary ones. Nancy Ortberg's unique twist on vision casting; managing tensions; nurturing healthy conflict; motivating those around you; fostering creativity, passion, and trust is unlike anything you've ever read before! At times challenging, at times candid, but always inspiring, Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands will bring out the best in even the most seasoned leaders. (Nancy's stories and faith will engage and inspire, and this is one of the best of the year! ed.)
   
Influence Influence: Science and Practice
by Robert B. Cialdini
Robert B. Cialdini concisely explores six strategies that persons with good and/or bad intentions can use in influencing others to do something or not to do it. These strategies are authority, commitment and consistency, liking, reciprocation, scarcity, and social proof. Whether you wish to understand what shapes you own personal decisions or need to persuade in a job or business, this very interesting book is indispensable.
   
Five Hidden Mistakes CEOs Make; How to Unlock the Secrets that Drive Growth and Profitability
by Tom Northup
Five Hidden Mistakes CEOs Make is essential reading for business owners, senior executives, and entrepreneurs seeking to rise above the status quo. As the former CEO of three successful businesses, author Tom Northup is a results-oriented executive who understands how to build successful organizations. In this book, he reveals expert insight and proven methods readers can use to improve competitive advantage, innovate in their marketplace, and build sustainable growth and profitability year after year.
   
The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm
by Kenneth W. Gronbach
This groundbreaking book lets you in on the best ways to position your business to roll with changing populations of consumers - including how to succeed despite the looming challenges posed by the relatively small Generation X, and leverage the explosive opportunities afforded by massive young Generation Y. With its simple yet profound insights (along with eye-opening examples of companies who succeeded or failed spectacularly in leveraging or weathering the demographic storm), The Age Curve will forever change the way you look at your business, and how you perceive the generational impact on the entire commercial (and political!) landscape.
   
Left on Red: How to Ignite, Leverage and Build Visionary Organizations
by Bill Glynn
Left on Red reveals how visionary thinkers and risk-takers build great companies. Bill Glynn provides an insider's view into some of the world's coolest deals in a refreshingly politically incorrect, intelligent manner. Google, Apple, and YouTube are the products of leaders who break the old rules of business to bring their radical ideas to life. Armed with a wealth of examples and innovative insights, Glynn shows entrepreneurs and executives how to navigate a business landscape often littered with great ideas and innovators who are unprepared to lead.
   
Management Gurus: Lessons from the Best Management Books of All Time
from Soundview Executive Book Summaries
Since 1978, Soundview Executive Book Summaries has offered its subscribers condensed versions of the most relevant and influential business books published each year. The company has won acclaim as the definitive selection service for business book readers. These summaries distill thousands of pages about leadership, strategy, crisis management, organizational behavior, and more—perfect for busy executives and students. An excellent read!
   
The Granularity of Growth: How to Identify the Sources of Growth and Drive Enduring Company Performance
by PatrickViguerie, Sven Smit and Mehrdad Baghai
While growth is a top priority for companies of all sizes, it can be extremely difficult to create and maintain—especially in today's competitive business environment. In order to achieve this goal, you need to think through the growth challenges your organization faces and follow a detailed approach that will allow you to uncover, understand, and capture potential growth opportunities.
   
Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't
by Jim Champy
This concise, fast-paced book shows how you can achieve breakthrough growth by consistently outsmarting your competition. Champy reveals the surprising, counterintuitive lessons learned by companies that have achieved super-high growth for at least three straight years. Drawing on the strategies of some of today’s best “high velocity” companies, he identifies eight powerful ways to compete in even the roughest marketplace. Excellent book and one of the best of the year!
   
Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness
by Annie McKee, Richard E. Boyatzis and Frances Johnston
What distinguishes great leaders? Exceptional leaders capture passion. They lead for real: from the heart, smart and focused on the future, and with a commitment to being their very best. The authors share vivid, real-life stories illuminating how people can develop emotional intelligence, build resonance, and renew themselves. Reflecting twenty years of longitudinal research and practical wisdom with executives and leaders around the world, this new book is organized around a core of experience-tested exercises. These tools help you articulate your strengths and values, craft a plan for intentional change, and create resonance with others.
   
The Accidental Entrepreneur: The 50 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Starting a Business
by Susan Urquhart-Brown
Like many business owners, Susan-Urquhart Brown never expected to end up as an entrepreneur. Launching her own business spoke to her passions, but she soon realized there was much more to being a successful owner than she ever expected. In The Accidental Entrepreneur, she takes all the mystery out of going solo. For those who are just beginning to consider starting a venture as well as those who want to take their organization to the next level, she offers advice on what works and what doesn’t.
It's an excellent read!
   
The AMA Guide to Management Development
by Daniel R. Tobin, Margaret Pettingell
Management development is a crucial task for every enterprise. This book gives readers the guidance they need to make sure that both current and future managers have the abilities their organizations need to prosper. Based on the set of managerial competencies specially developed by the American Management Association for a new core management curriculum, The AMA Guide to Management Development provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of how to continually develop managers throughout their entire organization.
   
The Offsite The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable
by Robert H. Thompson
Drawing on the leadership theories in the management classic The Leadership Challenge, Robert Thompson effortlessly incorporates these ideas into a fable of leadership and growth. Based on a company's three-day offsite meeting, we follow this tale of transition through the eyes of two former rival pharmaceutical companies creating a joint sales strategy. The characters ultimately learn how to adopt the five practises that form The Leadership Challenge. This is a very enjoyable and entertaining read that will also inspire!
   
The Leadership Challenge
by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and twenty years in print. It is the gold standard for research-based leadership, and the premier resource on becoming a leader. This new edition, with streamlined text, more international and business examples, and a graphic redesign, is more readable and accessible than ever before. We have added The Leadership Challenge to our lists of The Best Books of 2008 and The Best Business Books of All Time! It's a superb handbook for contemporary leaders!
   
The Secret of Transitions: How to Move Effortlessly to Higher Levels of Success
by Jim Manton
Manton's own deeply moving personal journey of transitions is a thread that runs through this book like a novel you can't put down. He teaches principles with electrifying, dramatic stories of life and death in the combat zone of Viet Nam, intriguing martial arts learning experiences, real-world stories of personal courage and growth, and unsolvable workplace dilemmas solved through transitioning techniques all readers can use. Jim Manton draws on his many years as a top high-tech executive as well as his current work as a career coach to give the reader a true handbook for success in this rapidly-changing world ... a book that shows you how to make your transitions yourself - with vision, skill, and purpose.
   
A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative
by Roger Von Oech
This is the 25th anniversary edition of the creativity classic by Dr. Roger von Oech. The book has been stimulating creativity in millions of readers, translated into eleven languages, and used in seminars around the world. Now Roger von Oech's fully illustrated and updated volume is filled with even more provocative puzzles, anecdotes, exercises, metaphors, cartoons, questions, quotations, stories, and tips designed to systematically break through your mental blocks and unlock your mind for creative thinking. This new edition will attract an entire new generation of readers with updated and mind-stretching material.
   
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation
by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan
Over the past seven years, Procter & Gamble has tripled profits; significantly improved organic revenue growth, cash flow, and operating margins; and averaged earnings per share growth of 12 percent. How? A. G. Lafley and his leadership team have integrated innovation into everything P&G does and created new customers and new markets. Through eye-opening stories A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan show how P&G and companies such as Honeywell, Nokia, LEGO, GE, HP, and DuPont have become game-changers. Innovation is not a separate, discrete activity but the job of everyone in a leadership position and the integral, central driving force for any business that wants to grow organically and succeed on a sustained basis.
   
The Milkshake Moment: Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth
by Steven S. Little
The Milkshake Moment is that instant in time when the 21st century “organizational person” realizes they are allowed to do the right thing even though that may contradict the “systems” already in place. Through this one potent illustration, Little lays groundwork for the irrefutable proposition that “stupid systems, pointless policies, and muddle management,” are the greatest barriers to any organization’s future success. This one will "twist your head" and get you to re-think your "rules." Time to unleash the creativity of your people! (ed.)
   
Value Creation Value Creation
by Ron Strauss and William Neal
The authors demonstrate a measurement system that allows the brand owner to measure brand value and brand equity and diagnose a brand’s strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace. Ron Strauss and Bill Neal each bring 35-plus years of in-the-trenches marketing and marketing research observations and experiences with some of the world’s leading companies. Their ideas and concepts are new and powerful, and are sure to stimulate much thought and discussion on the part of practitioners, academics and students. Best of all, Neal and Strauss show the reader how to improve performance in a way that is understandable and actionable.
   
Executive Stamina: How to Optimize Time, Energy, and Productivity to Achieve Peak Performance
by Marty Seldman and Joshua Seldman
In Executive Stamina, you'll find hundreds of tips and tools that will help you maximize your career potential, while maintaining your health, staying in touch with your values, and avoiding costly tradeoffs in your personal life. It starts by learning how to align your career ambitions with your core values, commitments, current priorities, and long-term goals. You'll learn to determine what is most important to you, whether your schedule is actually aligned with your priorities, and how to find your career sweet spot. It's an excellent resource.
   
The Breakthrough Imperative
by Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert
Knowing what to do and in what sequence can be an overwhelming challenge. Nearly every CEO and general manager today is expected by his stakeholders to achieve new breakthroughs in performance. Despite the intensity of these pressures, despite the high expectations and short time frames, a number of CEOs and general managers turn in truly exceptional results. The managers who succeed do so because they have a firm handle on the fundamentals of their business. Where are they today? Where do they need to go? And how will they get there?
   
Hug Your People: Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees to Achieve Remarkable Results
by Jack Mitchell
"Giving great personalized customer service has always been the foremost goal in my family, but one thing we never lose sight of is that you can't possibly deliver great service if you don't treat your own associates right." So says Jack Mitchell, CEO of his family's astoundingly successful chain of clothing stores. In Hug Your People, he shares his secrets for creating happy employees, secrets as simple as they are revolutionary. (Thanks Jack!)
   
The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System: An Enhanced, Unified Approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning, and Business Improvement
by Forrest W. Breyfogle III
Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) introduces a new organizational governance system that integrates analytics with innovation. This book discusses how the application of IEE methods, tools and techniques can overcome the enterprise management challenges of the twenty-first century and the limitations of traditional business measurement systems. If you are familiar with Lean and Six Sigma you will be very impressed with how the author takes it beyond. (ed.)
   
How To Talk To Customers Create a Great Impression Every Time with MAGIC
by Diane Berenbaum and Tom Larkin
Every once in a while, we as consumers have a truly wonderful experience as a customer of a company. These interactions leave us feeling so positive about our purchase, our relationships with the company, and ourselves that we say, “The experience was magic!” From LL Bean to American Century Investments to Nordstrom there are a select few organizations—some that you have heard of and some that you haven't—that serve their customers at world-class levels day in and day out. How to Talk to Customers outlines how world-class companies Make A Great Impression on the Customer every time with every customer. Just as important, the book shows how these wonderfully positive instances of customer contact create the key to long-term success: customer and employee loyalty.
   
The IT Value Stack: The Boardroom Guide to It Leadership
by Ade McCormack
Successful IT value realisation is a cloudy subject. This in part contributes to the overall dissatisfaction many organisations have with IT. This book tackles the subject of IT value realisation head on. Most importantly it provides a model to help CIOs and business leaders maximize the return on their IT investment. This book is based on the author’s IT Value Stack methodology, which helps business leaders take control of their IT investment. Boardroom-bound CIOs will also find this book of value. As will those that advise on strategic business-IT matters.
   
Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
by Dan Roam
Used properly, a simple drawing on a humble napkin is more powerful than Excel or PowerPoint. It can help crystallize ideas, think outside the box, and communicate in a way that people simply "get". Dan Roam argues that everyone is born with a talent for visual thinking, even those who swear they can't draw. The Back Of The Napkin proves that thinking with pictures can help anyone discover and develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and dramatically improve their ability to share their insights. This book will help readers literally see the world in a new way.
   
Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want
by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
Ask for It explains why it’s essential to ask (men do it all the time) and teaches you how to ask effectively, in ways that feel comfortable to you as a woman. Whether you currently avoid negotiating like the plague or consider yourself hard-charging and fearless, Babcock and Laschever’s compelling stories of real women will help you recognize how much more you deserve.
   
Pearls, Politics, & Power: How Women Can Win and Lead
by Madeleine M. Kunin
Pearls, Politics, and Power is a call to action for new political engagement and leadership from the women of America. Informed by conversations with elected women leaders from all levels, former three-term Vermont Governor and Ambassador to Switzerland Madeleine M. Kunin asks: What difference do women make? What is the worst part of politics, and what is the best part? What inspired these women to run, and how did they prepare themselves for public life?
   
The Expert's Edge: Become the Go-To Authority People Turn to Every Time
by Ken Lizotte
An action-ready program of proven success strategies, this easy-to-follow game plan can turn any level of entrepreneur into the must-have expert that prospects and media seek out before all others. You raise your profile, expand demand for your services, and increase your profits. Just follow the “Five Pillars of Thoughtleading”: publish articles and books; speak regularly to groups and companies;. inspire with “fresh” thinking; attract ongoing media attention; and leverage the Internet creatively.
   
What To Do When You Become The Boss
by Bob Selden
This is an exceptional handbook for the new manager. It's comprehensive - covering leading and managing, managing your team, managing upwards and sideways, managing your meetings and managing yourself. It's an extremely valuable off-the-shelf personal management development training course, with very relevant case studies and actionable insights all based on the most contemporary and sound leadership values and principles. A very unique and engaging feature is the opportunity to use the book according to your preferred approach to learning. Selden has "put it all together" in one of the best management handbooks I have ever read. This should be required reading for all new managers and a required "refresher" for everyone else.
   
Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing, and Branding
by Dan Herman
Dr. Dan Herman is breaking new ground and old saws with his book, Outsmart the MBA Clones. The book cracks the secret of companies that have been immensely successful for many years, are adored by their customers, and yet are not imitated by competitors. This position, coined "Unfair Advantage" by Dr. Herman, provides companies with their own private monopoly. This is a must read for anyone who thinks strategically about their business, and it will "twist your head" to see strategy, marketing and branding in a new and refreshing light. Excellent work Dan!
   
Myself and Other More Important Matters
by Charles Handy
The author of The Age of Unreason, The Empty Raincoat, and The Elephant and the Flea shares more of his bestselling brand of wisdom concerning the big choices we have to make in life. The well-known business guru draws on the lessons of his own life to help us map out the main stages of our lives, and shows us how to navigate through the tough decisions we have to make at every phase. He gives us his personal thoughts on life's big questions and turning points, mining his own experience to tell us what he's learned along the way.
This is a very interesting and enjoyable read.
   
The Open Brand: The When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World
by Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins
Push marketing tactics have been superseded by new forms of influence. These include the creating, sharing and influencing behaviors of an online population no longer content merely to consume, and the potent pairing of digital notoriety and network effects, which has given rise to the icitizenry. The authors illuminate a new business imperative - to open up to consumer involvement in a brand's messages and offerings. The essential consumer experiences are On-demand, Personal, Engaging, and Networked experiences, representing the chief values of the web-made world. (Wow! ed.)
   
Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work
by Jim Clemmer
Failed communications are crippling workplaces across the globe – sapping energy from staff and weakening entire organizations. Jim Clemmer calls this breakdown the Moose-on-the-Table. Just like dysfunctional families, many teams find it easier to avoid tough conversations. But rarely do problems get better when left unaddressed. Rather, the moose grow larger, breed, and increase the size of the herd. How many moose are lurking in your organization? How do you know? What are you doing to reduce the moose? Great work Jim! (ed.)
   
The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-impact Leader
by David M. Traversi
David Traversi identifies and instructs how to develop eight personal drivers, energies deep within - presence, clarity (of thought, emotion, and behavior), openness, intention, personal responsibility, intuition, creativity, and connected communication - each of which drives several of the traits and functions of the effective leader. The leader who develops these personal energies will achieve maximum effectiveness as a leader, as well as a deep sense of contentment and fulfillment as a person. With the burgeoning trend toward seeking a deeper grounding personally as a means of performing better professionally, The Source of Leadership is the early "defining voice" of this new trend in the leadership area.
   
EPIC Change EPIC Change: How to Lead Change in the Global Age
by Timothy R. Clark
Dr. Timothy R. Clark unveils the "Power Curve of Change" framework and EPIC system for change management (Evaluate, Prepare, Implement, Consolidate) for leaders who are charged to lead high-stakes change initiatives in their organizations. Epic Change presents a strategic-level road map, along with tactical level tools, for the every-day needs of leaders who must respond to all types of adaptive challenge to remain competitive. It represents a comprehensive, research-based program for leaders who want to develop the indispensable competency of leading change in a permanently and profoundly different age.
   
What the Customer Wants You to Know: How Everybody Needs to Think Differently About Sales
by Ram Charan
This book defines a new approach to selling — which Charan calls value creation selling. It will enable you to: gain a deeper knowledge of your customer’s problems; understand how your customer’s company really makes decisions; help your customer improve margins and drive revenue growth; connect sales with other key functions such as finance and manufacturing; come up with new customized offerings; make price much less of an issue. VCS differentiates you from the competition, paving the way to better pricing, better margins, and higher revenue growth, built on win-win relationships that deepen over time. All good stuff! (ed.)
   
Speak to Win Speak to Win: How to Present with Power in Any Situation
by Brian Tracy
The ability to speak with confidence and deliver winning presentations can accelerate your career, earn people’s great respect, and enable you to achieve your greatest -- even most impossible-seeming goals. But what many people don't realize is that anyone can learn to be a great speaker, just as easily as they can learn to drive a car or ride a bike! As one of the world’s premier speakers and personal success experts, Brian Tracy is the ideal instructor. Brimming with unbeatable strategies for winning people over every time, Tracy lets readers in on his most powerful presentation secrets in this indispensable handbook.
   
Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism
by Shigeo Shingo
Once again Dr. Shigeo Shingo will amaze you. Along with Taiichi Ohno, Dr. Shingo co-developed TPS (LEAN) with his deep understanding of how to improve the overall process of production. Dr. Shingo reveals how he taught Toyota and other Japanese companies the art of identifying and solving problems. Many companies in the West are trying to emulate Lean but few can do it. Why not? Possibly, because we in the West do not recognize, develop and support the creative potential of every worker in solving problems. Toyota makes all employees problem solvers. Dr. Shingo gives you the tools to do it. Fascinating book (ed.)
   
One Foot out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business
by Judith M. Bardwick
As many as two-thirds of our employees are either actively looking for new jobs or merely going through the motions at their current jobs. This phenomenon, identified by renowned author Judith M. Bardwick as "the psychological recession," can have a devastating effect on a company’s financial health. Using hard numbers and current studies that prove the direct connection between a company’s financial performance and its employees’ commitment, this book is a wake-up call to organizations desperately needing to restore the broken spirits at the heart of their companies, and enhance their bottom lines.
   
Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
by Seth Godin
Meatball Sundae has the absolute worst book cover I have ever seen however, content rules and Seth never fails to enlighten and poke you into the new era of marketing. It's the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don’t. (Please read that last sentence again!) Godin doesn’t pretend that it’s easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he’ll convince you that it’s worth the effort.
   
Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products
by Denis J. Hauptly
From an electronic hotel kiosk that provides return airline boarding passes for guests, to something as mundane as the evolution of the toaster, the book provides entertaining, illuminating examples that show how to determine what customer needs aren’t being met, using simple methods to arrive at revolutionary conclusions. For example, "What is a product really used for?" The question may seem elementary, but the right answer is far from obvious. This and other key questions demonstrate how readers can move beyond mere market research to get to the root of real innovation.
   
Launching a Leadership Revolution: Mastering the Five Levels of Influence
by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward
Utilizing an abundance of historical examples, the authors have developed a unique 5-step plan that charts a course for creating and maintaining strong leadership in any organization.The plan guides the reader through the "Five Levels of Influence": Learning - a leader must be able to learn from anyone; Performing - perservere through failure to find success; Leading - extend your ability by expanding your team; Developing Leaders - learn to trust your people; Develop Leaders who Develop Leaders - create a legacy. This book is full of prescriptive advice, quotes and anecdotes that illustrate their principles.
   
Human Sigma: Creating Value at the Employee - Customer Encounter
by John H. Fleming and Jim Asplund
The groundbreaking methodology Six Sigma changed the face of manufacturing quality. Now, HumanSigma is poised to do the same for sales and service. It incorporates cutting-edge research in the neurosciences and behavioral economics — including brain imaging research into customer’s emotional connections to the companies they love — with proven techniques for improving workforce performance and revenues generated from existing customers. This practical handbook appeals to senior leaders and line managers alike who are looking for a way to dramatically increase productivity, retain high value customers, and enhance organizational performance.
   
It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks
by Howard Behar
Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks International, has written a most sincere and concise manifesto of leadership for this age. You will enjoy this little book and I'm sure you will relate to the stories of leading and learning of how Starbucks has become such an incredible institution in our world today. It is about the coffee, and it is about creative leadership, important principles and values. The one contribution that most inspires is Yes as the most powerful word in the world. "Yes is freeing and inspiring. It means permission. It means possibility. Saying yes makes you feel good." Thank you Howard - you've done great work!
   
The Innovative Leader: How to Inspire Your Team and Drive Creativity
by Paul Sloane
How can you transform your people from cubicle dwellers into innovation warriors? How can you turn your complacent organization into a powerhouse of invention and entrepreneurial achievement? How can you replace a culture of comfortable incremental progress into one of hungry adventure? Paul Sloane is a recognized expert on innovation, lateral thinking and leadership, and his book is an adventure. It's about two hundred pages of "bite-sized chunks" that will twist your head to see what is possible. So, do as the author suggests and "start biting and start the revolution." Thanks Paul! (ed.)
   
Negotiation Genius Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond
by Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman
Whether you’ve “seen it all” or are just starting out, Negotiation Genius will dramatically improve your negotiating skills and confidence. Drawing on decades of behavioral research plus the experience of thousands of business clients, the authors take the mystery out of preparing for and executing negotiations—whether they involve multimillion-dollar deals or improving your next salary offer. It gives you detailed strategies that work in the real world even when the other side is hostile, unethical, or more powerful. When you finish it, you will already have an action plan for your next negotiation. You will know what to do and why.
   
The Engine of America: The Keys to Small Business Success From Entrepreneurs Who Have Made It
by Hector V. Barreto

Former administrator of the Small Business Administration Hector Barreto and veteran journalist Bob Wagman reveal the winning business strategies of CEOs from 50 companies. For all those starting or growing their own small business, the wisdom, experience, and counsel of these successful leaders provides inspirational and thoughtful advice on making it as an entrepreneur. Some of those sharing their stories have grown their businesses from the most humble of beginnings into corporate giants. Others may not be instantly recognizable, but what they have in common is success.
   
How to Become a Marketing Superstar How to Become a Marketing Superstar:
Unexpected Rules That Ring the Cash Register

by Jeffrey Fox

Jeffrey Fox has written many excellent books and his “How to Become a Marketing Superstar” is one of my all time favourites. This is a quick study that every CEO should read before every single marketing presentation from this day forward. And if you’re in marketing making those presentations, you should read it weekly and then once again before you present anything to your CEO, especially if she’s read it lately.
   
Keeper of The Flame Keeper of The Flame: How to Inspire Others on the Cusp of Change
by Mike Lipkin
The author says it all: "In the New Normal, it's not good enough just being excellent. Excellence merely gives you the right to play. On the Cusp-of-Change, you have to be Brilliant. You have to be A Keeper of The Flame: Someone who goes first; Someone with a heightened awareness of her impact on others; someone who is her own best coach; someone in total sync with her environment; Someone embedded with the authority of both competence and character; Someone who inspires others to be their Personal Best; Someone like you. Someone like the person you will become. Or Someone like the person you need to rediscover." Please allow yourself to be inspired! (ed.)
   
Focus on the Good Stuff Focus on the Good Stuff:
The Power of Appreciation

by Mike Robbins
Focus on the Good Stuff shows you how you can dramatically enhance the quality of your life and relationships by focusing on what you’re grateful for, who you appreciate, and all the good stuff around you. The book is filled with action items, ideas, and practices that help you bring more appreciation into your life, thus giving you a deep sense of peace, satisfaction, and gratitude. The above link will take you to the first chapter of the book.
   
There is No Box There Is No Box
by Steve Coats and Tom Heuer
There is No Box describes the internal attributes that were most consistent among those who went out on a limb and stepped up to find imaginative, innovative, even groundbreaking growth opportunities. Rather than providing another look at the tasks or activities that you must do to produce change, this book focuses on what you must have, in order to let go of your self-imposed box of limitations and discover, produce and lead growth. There is No Box clarifies those attributes that you must have in order to do what it takes to change and grow your piece of the world.
   
Microtrends:
The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes

by Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne

Mark Penn shows readers how to identify the microtrends that can transform a business enterprise, tip an election, spark a movement, or change your life. In today's world, small groups can have the biggest impact. Penn identifies more than seventy microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the way we live. It's fascinating reading with insights on every page.
   
Tales of People Who Get It
by Avil Beckford
Tales of People Who Get It is based on the ideas, actions and beliefs that were uncovered in interviews of 34 successful individuals from Canada, the United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Jamaica and South Africa. It is a practical, interesting and instructive guide of actual experiences in overcoming difficult challenges and achieving success. Avil Beckford identifies several common qualities in the stories and presents them as her 'ItnessPoints" - a wonderful concept. Do you have it? Read this book and you just might 'get it!' (ed.)
   
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success:
A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams

by Deepak Chopra
Seven chapters and seven laws. Deepak Chopra explains the laws of pure potentiality, giving, karma, least effort, intention and desire, detachment, and dharma and includes suggestions on how to apply these fundamental, natural principles if one is truly searching for purpose and a satisfying life. Timeless wisdom and serenity. (ed.)
   

Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today
by Joe Calloway
After twenty-six years of studying and working with top performers, Calloway shares the key factors for creating success without pulling any punches. Work Like You're Showing Off advises you to stop talking and start doing. Be focused, productive, and above all else, intentional in your pursuit of happiness. Showoffs go "all in" and call everyone else's bluff with the confidence that their capability and productivity will speak for itself. In the author's words, "Let's be too much. I'm in. How about you?" This book will inspire. (ed.)

   
People Savvy People Savvy: For Sales Professionals
by Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D.
This is quite an incredible guide to earning customer trust and creating lifelong relationships. In the words of the author, "When customers experience you as someone who has their best interests at heart, they will come to trust and rely on you as a valuable ally in their career." People Savvy is most mindful, well researched and full of proven 'street-wise' techniques to be 'of service.' The author has very generously made the full first chapter available to viewers. Click through the text link above for a most enlightening adventure. This is a very good book! (ed.)
   
The Voice of Authority
10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know
by Dianna Booher
Dianna Booher has written over 40 books and this one in my opinion, is her best ever. She is a renowned expert in communications and has put it all together in a focused, insightful, "head twisting", candid and practical guide to getting it 'right.' Is it correct? Is it complete? Is it clear? Is it purposefully unclear? Are you credible? Does your communication make you look competent? This book is an excellent guide to applying
the most effective communications strategies.
   
None of your Business
by Philip Bryer
Johnson soon found out that the corporate world involved too many things that didn't have anything to do with work at all. Things like company 'fun days', outward bound team-building events, psychometric testing, diversity audits, motivational tools and other associated bulls**t. None of your Business is a comic novel which features a rich succession of incompetents, bullies, oddballs and idiots who lead to Johnson becoming increasingly unhinged and reckless. As disillusion takes a grip, Johnson's thoughts turn to revenge. (A very entertaining read. ed.)
   
Business As Unusual
My Entrepreneurial Journey, Profits with Principles

by Anita Roddick
Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, is one of the most outspoken, controversial, provocative and inspiring entrepreneurs of modern times. She was more than slightly ahead of her time in creating an ethical business and challenging the industry status quo at every turn. Her journey was not without many major challenges and her stories of how she navigated through troubled waters are absolutely fascinating. Roddick's passion and principles will inspire - and she exemplifies vision, integrity, courage and humanity in business.
   
Radical Careering Radical Careering:
100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life

by Sally Hogshead
Do you have a career worth loving? Sally Hogshead redefines "Careering" as taking action to become the most powerful, valuable and fulfilled version of yourself and Radical Careering will definitely inspire you to kick your career into high gear. It's an extremely entertaining, engaging, energizing and edgy handbook that reaches in, twists your head, gives you a swift kick in the pants and inspires you to create your no-compromises future. This is a most unique and exceptional book, enjoy! (ed.)
   
Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here:
Inside the $300 Billion Business Behind the Media You Constantly Consume

by David Verklin and Bernice Kanner
The billion-dollar advertising and marketing industry is undergoing phenomenal changes. In Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here, Verklin and Kanner expose the inner workings of the media, marketing, and advertising industries. Readers will learn why their favorite shows get cancelled, why Oprah gives away cars, and how money, people, politics, and new technologies are transforming TV, the Internet, radio, magazines, and other media people consume every day.
   
Brazen Careerist Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success
by Penelope Trunk
It's okay to move back in with your parents. And it's okay to work at a string of menial jobs or even take off to Asia for a year. Why? Because eventually these seeming detours will lead not only to a great career but a great life as well. Penelope Trunk gives anything but standard advice to help the new workforce succeed on their own terms in any industry. Trunk asserts that a take-charge attitude and fresh perspective are the only ways to make it in today's job market. These 45 tips will get you thinking bigger, acting bolder, and blazing trails you never thought possible. This is one of the best of the year! (ed.)
   
401 Proven Ways to Retain Your Best Employees 401 Proven Ways to Retain Your Best Employees
by Gregory P. Smith
International business consultant and author Gregory P. Smith is making waves as one of the nation's top employee retention experts. His new book provides practical solutions to promote high employee retention in your workplace. 401 Proven Ways to Retain Your Best Employees provides a wealth of information, tips, advice, and case studies that allow for quick reference and practical application.
   
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate With Power and Impact
by Annette Simmons
People float in an ocean of data and disconnected facts that can often overwhelm them with choices. A meaningful story can feel like a life preserver that tethers you to something safe and important - at the very least, to a trace of humanity. Filled with enlightening anecdotes, this practical guide gives readers the tools they need to persuade, inspire, and influence others through the power of story. This is an exceptional work, and one of the best of the year!
   
Hidden in Plain Sight Hidden in Plain Sight:
How to Find and Execute Your Company's Next Big Growth Strategy

by Erich Joachimsthaler
This is a most mindful work! The author presents a "demand-first innovation and growth methodology that begins with an understanding of the day-to-day behaviours and unmet needs of customers. It's an "outside-in" approach to identify untapped customer needs and then develop sweet-spot solutions to satisfy them. Get this one on your agenda fast to discover the growth opportunities that are right in front of you. (ed.)