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bookcategory: Leadership

Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

David Long

Did you know that of every 100 employees hired, only 6 or 7 will ever be promoted to their first management position. If you’re a manager now, and you probably are if you’re reading this, “Congratulations!” You’re one of the 7% who made it! That’s the good news. Now, here’s the bad news. Statistically speaking you won’t be promoted again. The vast majority of these first time managers will eventually fail, and only 1 in 7 will stay in management with their present company for 5 years. Built to Lead is a “get-in-the-trenches with you, no-holds-barred” discussion about maximizing your ability to have an amazing management career. It tackles, head-on, the lies you’ve been told about how to reach the top in your company, and shows you what REALLY WORKS! David has reached the Top 10% in three separate industries, and the principles he teaches are universal, regardless of your industry. You’ll read the stories of ordinary people (just like you), from managers, employees, and friends, who are very successful today as a result of listening to the advice contained in this book. Motivational CEO David Long shares with you his powerful “7 Management R.E.W.A.R.D.S Principles” for career success.

Walter Isaacson

Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens.

What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?

In his masterly saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page.

This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It’s also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative.

For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators shows how they happen.

Steven D. Levitt

Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and teach us all to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally—to think, that is, like a Freak.

Levitt and Dubner offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. As always, no topic is off-limits. They range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria.

Some of the steps toward thinking like a Freak:

  • First, put away your moral compass—because it’s hard to see a problem clearly if you’ve already decided what to do about it.
  • Learn to say “I don’t know”—for until you can admit what you don’t yet know, it’s virtually impossible to learn what you need to.
  • Think like a child—because you’ll come up with better ideas and ask better questions.
  • Take a master class in incentives—because for better or worse, incentives rule our world.
  • Learn to persuade people who don’t want to be persuaded—because being right is rarely enough to carry the day.
  • Learn to appreciate the upside of quitting—because you can’t solve tomorrow’s problem if you aren’t willing to abandon today’s dud.

Levitt and Dubner plainly see the world like no one else. Now you can too. Never before have such iconoclastic thinkers been so revealing—and so much fun to read.

Tony Alessandra

In this entertaining and thought-provoking book, Tony Alessandra and Michael O’Connor argue that the “Golden Rule” is not always the best way to approach people. Rather, they propose the Platinum Rule: “Do unto others as “they’d” like done unto them”. In other words, find out what makes people tick and go from there.

Dave Pottruck

Change is a constant, and leaders must do more than keep up–they must innovate and accelerate to succeed. Yet people are often unnerved by change. As a leader during a time of transformation, you may stand up before teams that are indifferent, or even hostile, and need to convince them that change is necessary and urgent. More than money, time, or resources, the ability to lead these people determines your ultimate success or failure. What does it take to be an effective change leader and increase the odds of success?

Stacking the Deck offers a proven, practical approach for inspiring meaningful, lasting change across an organization. Stacking the Deck presents a nine-step course of action leaders can follow from the first realization that change is needed through all the steps of implementation, including assembling the right team of close advisors and getting the word out to the wider group.

Based on Dave Pottruck’s experiences leading change as CEO of Charles Schwab and later as chairman of CorpU and HighTower Advisors, these steps provide a guide to ensure that your change initiative and your team have the best possible shot at success. In addition, established business leaders who have led extraordinary change initiatives demonstrate the steps in action. These executives include eBay CEO John Donahoe, Wells Fargo former CEO Dick Kovacevich, Starbucks chief executive officer Howard Schultz, San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer, JetBlue CEO Dave Barger, Asurion CEO Steve Ellis, Pinkberry CEO Ron Graves, and Intel’s President Renee James, among others.

Leading an organization through major change–whether it’s the introduction of a new product, an expansion to a new territory, or a difficult downsizing–is not for the faint of heart. While success is never guaranteed, the right leadership, process, and team make all the difference. For all leaders facing major change in their organizations, Stacking the Deck is an indispensable resource for putting the odds in your favor.

Salim Ismail

For hundreds of years, traditional business structures have put an organizational/legal boundary around an asset or a workforce and ‘sold’ access to that scarcity. However, just in the last few years, a new breed of organizational structure is emerging that is able to scale at unimaginable rates – we call these Exponential Organizations (ExOs). These new organization structures are leveraging a newly available set of externalities like big data, community, the crowd or accelerating technologies and by doing so, are performing 10x better than their peers in the same space. This book examines the attributes of an Exponential Organization and provides a how-to guide for building a startup with these principles, how the principles can be applied to a mid-market company and how to retrofit these ideas into large organizations.

Marcia Reynolds

Leaders, managers, and coaches are charged with getting people to stretch their limits but are often unsuccessful. Top leadership coach Marcia Reynolds says the problem is, incorrectly handled, difficult conversations create more resistance than growth. Reynolds offers a model and methods for discovering what to say so people change their own minds. As a result, leaders equip people to find their own solutions, see situations more strategically, and grow beyond their limitations.

Reynolds explains how to pick the right time and place to enter the discomfort zone and how to create a “safety bubble” so that people will trust your intentions. Then, drawing on recent discoveries in the neuroscience of learning, she helps leaders ask the kinds of questions that short-circuit the brain’s defense mechanisms and habitual thought patterns. Instead of being told, people see for themselves where they’re falling short and how they can do better, resulting in lasting changes. She includes numerous examples and case studies to see the techniques in action.

Conversations in the Discomfort Zone will never be easy. But with Reynolds’ assistance, a trip there will result in breakthrough solutions, lasting changes, and an engaged workforce.

Bizcast-for-CSBC-Website 

David Goldsmith

Have you ever thought about the fact that a craftsman has more and better tools to solve challenges on the job than the leader of a business or organization does? Leadership “tools” are usually defined as computers, spreadsheets, data, and even experience, but in reality, leaders need thinking tools that are hard to come by, so they find themselves hunting and pecking for answers in books, at seminars, through on-the-job training programs, from mentors, and at business schools, and still, they’re left with gaps. Surely, most leaders are good at what they do, but the daily challenges of their jobs, like accelerating growth, increasing productivity, driving innovation, doing more with less, and balancing work with life don’t come with some sort of leadership toolkit…until now.

In Paid to Think, international consultant David Goldsmith presents his groundbreaking approach to leadership and management based on research revealing the twelve specific activities that all leaders perform on a daily basis, and he provides you with each activity’s accompanying tools and instructions proven to boost your performance and that of your entire organization.

Take the uncertainty out of everyday leading, convert ideas to realities, and maximize your intellectual value. Learn how decision makers at some of the world’s most successful organizations have already used Paid to Think’s universal and easily transferable tools—regardless of their industries, sectors, geographic locations, or management levels—as their greatest advantages in achieving more, earning more, and living more.

David Horsager

In The Trust Edge, David Horsager reveals the foundation of genuine success—trust. Based on research but made practical for today’s leader, The Trust Edge shows that trust is quantifiable and brings dramatic results to businesses and leaders. In this book, Horsager teaches readers how to build the 8 Pillars of Trust:

  • 1. Clarity: People trust the clear and mistrust the ambiguous.
  • 2. Compassion: People put faith in those who care beyond themselves.
  • 3. Character: People notice those who do what is right over what is easy.
  • 4. Competency: People have confidence in those who stay fresh, relevant, and capable.
  • 5. Commitment: People believe in those who stand through adversity.
  • 6. Connection: People want to follow, buy from, and be around friends.
  • 7. Contribution: People immediately respond to results.
  • 8. Consistency: People love to see the little things done consistently.

 

When leaders learn how to implement these pillars, they enjoy better relationships, reputations, retention, revenue, and results. Fascinating and timely, The Trust Edge unveils how trust has the ability to accelerate or destroy any business, organization, or relationship. The lower the trust, the more time everything takes, the more everything costs, and the lower the loyalty of everyone involved. Conversely, an environment of trust leads to greater innovation, morale, and productivity. The trusted leader is followed. From the trusted salesperson, people will buy. For the trusted brand, people will pay more, come back, and tell others. Trust, not money, is the currency of business and life!