Check these out if you need more input.  Of course, not all of them will resonate with everyone.  This page can be used in a couple of other interesting ways, thanks to Amazon (I don't own their stock).  By using the link, one can read both professional editorial reviews and reader reviews and gather even more input.  Another example of the changing ways we gather and use information.

The Effective Executive Revised  by Peter Drucker
Wow, the concept of "Being Effective" has enormous impact.  Recipe:  Take the mission of a business, add in the profit that must be generated to support the mission and stir in a good dose of effectiveness and there you have it.  The imperative agenda of the business leader whether the C-officer executive, the manager or a front line leader.  Need to know what areas to focus on in your daily work?  Read the recipe listed above then read the book.

Peter Drucker recently died.  If you've never read his work, this is a great place to start.  I especially like the description presented of the leader's paradox regarding time usage.  A quick summary is that, as a leader, part of your job is to be more available to others and thus your time is less your own to control than ever.  However, the nature of your work continues to escalate in complexity and importance and thus requires large blocks of uninterrupted time to concentrate and focus.  That's the paradox.  For a better description, read the original.

 

Winning Decisions: Getting it Right the First Time  by J. Edward Russo and Paul J.H. Shoemaker

Talk about the ultimate leverage, focusing on making better decisions can really translate to results.  Just like most techniques or areas, that of making decisions can be cultivated as a "practice".  Have you spent any time working on your ability (or that of your organization) to make better decisions?  This will give you the tools.

I read this so long ago that it is hard for me to write a specific description.  I'd summarize this book (and related works by Peter Senge) as the theory of advocacy that organizations can add benefit to this world beyond simply delivering their mission and/or profit.  In short, that by developing into a learning organization with a constant focus on a culture of development, good stuff is created also for individuals, the community of stakeholders and yes, the world!  To get more down to earth, I found the principle of Personal Mastery useful in developing my skills as a clinical emergency veterinarian.  It helped to give me the prod to work on "the other stuff" that goes into being a doctor including communication, ethics, etc.

 

If you want to know more about some likely futures or outcomes for our society as framed in business, work, jobs or just plain culture; read this book.  The author does  a good job of bringing the reader up to speed on what's happened over last 20 years, in terms of globalization which is one of the most important forces shaping our futures.  Examining possible futures is a great exercise for anyone but I would especially recommend it for those who have another decade or more to spend in the workforce, for parents, for high school or college-age younguns and for those who own or run companies.  Moving our gaze to the future isn't always easy given the demands of the present but I think it's essential for those in the categories I just described.

See my description of this book in the Journal but basically, this is a great companion book to Winning Decisions.  With more information about cognitive processes, especially as they apply to organizations the book debunks some popular half-truths as well as teaching about ways to better assess advice before implementing it.

For those of us in small-midsized service-based business, this can be a tough read with content that is either too large in scope (global business practices) or far-ranging in content (articles on manufacturing and supply chain management for example).  However, there are always a couple of good concepts to ponder in every issue.  I'll try to capture some thoughts about each issue in the journal section of this website.

 

The Partnership Charter: How to Start Out Right With Your New Business Partnership (or Fix the One You’re In)  by David Gage
A systematic approach to developing a partnership.  Also, a good road map for the types of discussions needed to pay attention to partnerships and make sure that the partnership gets the maintenance that it needs.

Okay, I've got to say that I was mocked heavily by some folks in reading this book and then advocating it.  I would guess that only those who are interested/advocates would pick up this sort of thing but I really enjoyed it...one of the editorial reviews uses the phrase "quietly magical" in describing this book.
And, if you check out the Amazon reviews on this and other books, there is some really thoughtful writing in some of the reviews.

And, Professor Forni is co-founder of The Civility Project at Johns Hopkins.  How great is that?  That there even is one?

This book by Richard S. Sloma came to me courtesy of my friend Doug Hinger who must have sensed that I needed the contents of this book.  Many of us in small to mid-sized business don't have much management training.  This can be a source of great strength but can also be limiting.  This book tells it like it is or should be for a general manager, whether that person is also an owner or is an employee.  
This book takes an unflinching look at the role of the general manager and the imperatives that a business bestows on the position.  It may be better suited for those small businesses that are growing into mid-sized or are already mid-sized and that need some prodding to focus  more on the work of management, making the business successful.  This book pushes the general manager to be accountable for results as well as to use their time in the most EFFECTIVE manner possible, through delegation, monitoring and followup.

Here's one of the quotable chapter headings, "Nothing is as devastating to an opinion as a number."  Measure it.  Thanks a ton, Doug and Mr. Sloma.

Founding Owners, what is your role in your business?  Are you adapting your skills and behaviors in the ways needed by your organization as it grows?  If not, then you're probably becoming a limiting factor in your organziation's growth.  You just might find that you've become an obstacle more than an asset.  Whoops!  How did that happen?  This book describes that exactly.  

If you're wrestling with the growth of your company (or even better, if you're trying to plan the growth of your company so as to minimize the wrestling), this book is a great guide for the processes that you and your company need to undertake. 

A colleague/client/friend recently told me that he really found this book to be of value, and bought a copy for each person on his management team.  That's good stuff.

Small but meaty, how's that for a description.  Much is written about how business leaders need critical thinking skills but rarely is much written about how to improve them.  This book was used as reference for a course I took in critical thinking skills, so I decided that it was likely worth reading.  And, it absolutely was.  It's written as a text w/"problems" for the student to work on at the end of each chapter however the book reads well without digging into the problems.

This book filled in some gaps about critical thinking for me, through it's systematic presentation of Context, Pitfalls and Strategy of reasoning.  Even though the book reads well, it took me a long time to get through this slim volume, mostly because I read it in start and stop fashion.  I especially liked the way the themes came together in the end of the book, helping to make me more aware of my own tendencies (absolutism & bias for change...there I told you) and the ways that they can hinder my critical thinking.

Who knew there was a book on managing transitions?  A better description to come shortly but for now:  well worth the read if you or your organization is approaching or going through a major transition.

News about "Big Business" helps small businesses understand business practices to emulate and to avoid.  Mix in a smattering of science, technology, economics and sociology as these things apply to business and more times than not, you've got a weekly digest informing about the current and future business climate.

Thanks to Bob Rubenkonig for the loan of this book.  I'm about as naive about marketing as they come and this was my first read on the topic.  It certainly gave great food for thought with a couple of strongly resonant themes (and some that weren't but I won't elaborate on those). 

The themes that appealed to me were those of being authentic and consistent about your message.  If the message isn't reinforced through each aspect of the customer's interaction, then the message/product/service is often deemed as inauthentic and dismissed.  This really resonated for me as I'm very sensitive to those discrepancies, by nature I guess.  If the pricing of the product or service is low enough (as though it were a commodity), then I'm sometimes willing to dismiss the discrepancies after noting them with some degree of amusement.  However if the product price is high (or the price of engagement on my part is high or if the value is difficult to discern) and I detect a discrepancy, color me vocal about it and color me gone.

Anyhow, thanks Bob for the good read.

Given the information age that is flourishing around us, having a useful understanding of networks and their behavior would seem to be essential for business leaders.   If you're reading on this blog (or any other), you probably an interest in information and if you do, then you probably have an associated interest in networks, at least as they apply to finding and obtaining information.  As you read Linked, you'll realize that the science of networks affects us in an ever-increasing variety of ways.  This book is well-written and easily read without diving deeply into the mathematics involved.   I would imagine that there are other books addressing the same subject in more or less depth.  For me, this was a very good primer on the subject.

Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute  by Kenneth H. Blanchard, John P. Carlos, Alan Randolph, W. Alan Randolph, Ken Blanchard

Okay, the phrase "American Dream" means different things to each of us.  When I think of it, I picture SUV, McMansion, etc.  This is not the manner in which it is used in this book.  Rather, it refers to the dream of America in the most ennobling aspirational aspect:  Liberty, Pursuit of Excellence, Service, etc.
This book sought me out rather than the other way around which is much more typical.  I received it as a gift and had a hard time getting started on it, mostly because I didn't have knowledge about John Gardner.  However it ended with a bang for me in the sections on Leadership and Renewing Our Society.  I'll post more on this book in The Journal, but here's a great quote:  "When we raise our sights, strive for excellence, dedicate ourselves to the highest goals of our society, we are enrolling in an ancient and meaningful cause - the agelong struggle of humans to realize the best that is in them."