Leadership - Inspire, Liberate, Achieve
Tom Peters
Tom Peters is probably the most influential and oft-quoted business thinker of our age, and this pocket-book shows why.
Peters tells us that instead of looking for things that have gone wrong in our businesses, we should be looking for what has gone right, and trying to build on that.
Passion, persistence and imagination are the tools that will win results - coupled with the ability to 'think weird'; coming up with innovative new ideas for a fast-changing marketplace.
Richard Reed
|
|
£7.99
Dorling Kindersley
ISBN: 1405302577
|
 |
|
|
Winning!
By Clive Woodward
What, a rugby book, in a business magazine? Hear me out.
Yes, it is a rugby book, but it is far more than that. It is also a well-written textbook on how to organise, manage, present, defuse bad publicity, innovate, create confidence, inspire... and beat the competition. And if those don't apply to business, I don't know what does.
Woodward was a very successful self-made businessman before being tempted into full-time coaching - but you know where he's coming from when he describes his first day at Twickenham. He's not expected, there's no office for him, and 'a pot plant in the corner looks like it hasn't seen genuine sunshine in months'! Ring any bells?
Before the England job, he'd coached Henley and London Irish to the top of their divisions, and his meticulously written plans and inspirational ideas showed their worth; and they translate to the business world.
One episode, where he changed all the jerseys of the London Irish team, is amusing and instructive - the opposition didn't have a clue as to who they should mark, the players weren't constrained by the number they usually wore, the team played their best all season... and won by a large margin!
England were the winners in 2003 - can your business be the next winner?
John Skermer
|
|
£20.00
Hodder and Stoughton
ISBN: 0340836296
|
|
|
|
Gung Ho! Increasing productivity, profits and your own prosperity
Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles
I never expected to weep over the start of a business book, but when I read the introduction to Gung Ho, I was unbearably moved. Maybe I am soppy! Or it may be that, like the author, I was ready for what the book had to tell me - 'When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.' So it was with heightened emotions I continued this book... and learned.
I read it cover to cover in about three hours, and my reaction was to hand it to my business partner and husband, and say, 'Drop everything and read this now.'
I read a lot of business stuff - articles, websites and books. And there aren't many books where I go out and buy ten copies to give away to colleagues and friends. Well, I did with this one.
Gung Ho tells the story of a down and out Works Unit under threat of closure because it is being run so badly. In comes a new MD who faces insuperable odds. But there is light at the end of her tunnel because one department in this factory runs like clockwork. She befriends the Native American manager who runs it and he teaches her how he achieves his remarkable results. Despite his success, he is regarded by his fellow managers as a troublemaker. However, his methods are revered by his workers.
His approach and philosophy are encapsulated into three stunningly simply 'Ways': the Way of the Squirrel, the Way of the Beaver and the Way of the Goose.
Call it fey, call it spiritual, but at heart, hey! - we're all spiritual. How do I know? Well, we don't work the way we do because we must, but because we are partly driven by pride. You don't polish that report to the nth degree because it will make that much more difference to your client, but because you can't bear to send out something sloppy. This book reveals how you can inculcate this drive into the minds of your team, colleagues, and suppliers. And it is remarkably simple once your eyes have been opened.
So go and buy two copies of this book: one for you, and one for a friend - because it's that kind of book.
Sophie Chalmers
|
|
£6.99
Harper Collins Business
ISBN: 0006530680
|
|
|
|
Ahead of the class
How an inspiring headmistress gave children back their future
Marie Stubbs
This is not your normal business book. It is a biography about a headmistress. I read it in a day, not because it is short (260pp), but because I couldn't put it down.
It's one of those uplifting books you know has a happy ending (and it lives up to its promise), yet the beginning portrays the stuff of nightmares.
St George's is an inner-city comprehensive which became notorious when the headmaster, Philip Lawrence, was murdered outside the school gates. After that, the school rapidly declined. Staff were afraid to go into the playground. Vicious fights were a regular occurrence. Children roamed the corridors refusing to go into lessons. Attendance was down to 70%.
Marie Stubbs was brought in to turn it round, and achieved her aims, all the while dealing with a horrendously apathetic, not to say undermining, board of governors.
Within 12 months the school was being held up as a model for other schools to emulate, where the children are not only polite but also engaging and delightful, and brimful of talent.
A simple mission, delivered with imagination and old-fashioned manners, transformed this school. The book is about how inspiring leadership and belief in people can bring out the very best in them. There is insight and inspiration in it for anyone in any business where skilful handling of people is vital.
Sophie Chalmers
|
|
|
£16.00
John Murray
ISBN: 0719563356
|
|
|
|
Clock This
Trevor Baylis
The story of Trevor Baylis - inventor of the clockwork radio - is an inspirational one. Here is a man who, despite all the setbacks life could throw at him, persevered with his dream, and eventually saw it become reality. A man who took an amazingly simple idea, and saw how it could revolutionise the lives of millions in the Third World. The story of how he achieved that breakthrough has featured as the cover story on Better Business.
But Clock This is much more than just an account of the birth of the clockwork radio. It is also Trevor's life story - from his childhood escapades during the Blitz to his career as a professional swimmer, and later stuntman. It tells of his earlier business venture - making mechanical aids for disabled people to help them live more normal lives; and underneath his self-professed showmanship, the strong, clear light of humanity shines through. The same humanity that, on seeing a TV programme about the spread of AIDS in Africa, led him to try to do something about it, rather than just sitting back and thinking, as many of us do, 'what a shame'.
It's an inspirational story, both on a human and a business level, and Trevor's infectious enthusiasm and humour make it immensely readable. For all those in business who face moments of self-doubt and despair (and who doesn't), this is something to restore your self-belief. For it is the story of an ordinary man - in the best sense of the word - who achieved something extraordinary.
Richard Reed
|
|
£6.99
Headline
ISBN: 0747263329
|
|
|
|
Extraordinary Leadership: Creating Strategies for Change
Peter J Reed
One of the most important things in any business is to have a vision - a dream, if you will, of what you want your business to become, and, just as importantly, how you plan to get there.
But it's not enough to just have a vision and a plan. You need to be able to articulate them to those around you.
Extraordinary Leadership is all about how to share that dream with your staff, and inspire them with the same sense of mission that drives you.
He cites the likes of Martin Luther King, with his evocative 'I have a dream' speech - something that still has the power to move 40 years on.
Of course, few of us have that kind of charisma, nor as potent a dream - but we all of us have it within us to inspire our staff if we approach it the right way.
Peter Reed's book contains simple and valuable advice on how to go about the key process of strategic planning and development. It contains a basic 'tool-kit' that can be used by any small business owner, and takes you through the necessary steps to achieve your goals.
Interestingly, one of the key factors he identifies is the importance of being able to relate to your team, not just as a group of people, but as individuals - and the need to make everyone feel valued, whether they are the office cleaner or your senior manager.
Reed is exceptionally well qualified to offer advice on the subject, with 18 years' international experience in leadership development. Recently he has helped to revolutionise business thinking behind the former Iron Curtain - including a spell in 1998, when he was appointed principal expert to the Presidential Federal Commission for the 'Yeltsin Initiative', the Russian national management development programme.
Richard Reed
|
|
£22.50
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749435127 |
|
|
|
First, break all the rules
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
What a great title for a book! As the wartime fighter ace Douglas Bader once said, 'rules are made for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools' - and how true that is.
Buckingham and Coffman make the point that the greatest managers in the world may differ in many different ways - but they all have one thing in common: they do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom.
The authors explain how, as they select, focus, motivate and develop staff, great managers turn talent into performance. And they reveal four keys to success:
- Selecting for talent, not just experience or qualifications.
- Defining understandable and concise outcomes when setting targets - rather than the steps to achieving them.
- Motivating employees by focusing on their strengths, not their weaknesses.
- Developing somone's true potential by finding the right job, not just the next rung up the ladder.
Full of interesting anecdotes and easy-to-follow guidance, this book is a real goldmine - and it could revolutionise your business.
|
|
£8.99
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0671037862
|
|
|
|
The excellent manager's business library
Philip Holden
There's so much being published every day that no-one has time to read everything. Most of it isn't worth it anyway. The difficulty is finding the core material of lasting value in accessible form. So here is the answer.
This book is a distillation of some of the world's leading business writers. It takes 15 issues, from employee commitment to personal excellence, then examines the views of the relevant experts.
Each chapter is self-contained and short. The one on Change through empowerment, for example, looks at Tom Peter's works: his main ideas, his five key quotations, and five 'lessons for managers'. It then gives summaries of, or references to, related books and articles.
This excellent book is crammed with ideas but each section stands alone and is just a few pages long, so you can take time to absorb it before going on to the next one. It is an ideal introduction to the current wisdom on the main business issues today.
|
|
|
£37.50
Gower
ISBN: 0566081059
|
|
|
|
The discipline of market leaders
Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Why is it that Casio can sell a calculator more cheaply than Kellogg's can sell a box of cornflakes? Makes you wonder, doesn't it? This book presents a deceptively simple thesis: that successful companies excel at delivering one type of value to their chosen customers. The key to success is focus. Market leaders must choose to offer the best total cost, the best product, or the best total solution.
The authors introduce you to the four new premises that underlie successful business practice today and the four cardinal rules of competition.
Each discipline demands a distinct organisational model with its own structure, processes, information systems, management and culture.
Through detailed case studies of some of the world's best-known companies, the authors examine the implications of each discipline, from an operating standpoint, offering step-by-step guidance on choosing the right one for your business.
It helps you decide what your company does better than anyone else, what unique value you provide your customers and how to increase that value next year.
|
|
£9.99
Harper Collins
ISBN: 0006387160
|
|
|
|
|
 |
