Getting Things Done
David Allen
Most of us feel overwhelmed at some point (if not always!) by the weight of tasks, projects trivia and errands that sit on our conscience. And nothing is more enervating, stressful and exhausting than the feeling of not being able to cope, let alone be in control.
And for those of paranoid persuasion there is always that dread conviction that important items are slipping through the cracks, or loose ends left flapping.
Is there, can there be, a cure for this nightmare? Many people have devoted years to finding the perfect time management tool or personal organiser. Yet both of these miss the point - it's less an issue of managing time, more one of establishing what to do, when and how.
Someone who seems to understand this and have found a solution is David Allen. Getting Things Done has rapidly developed a cult following and his easy methods have brought relief to many drowning sufferers. Sadly there is not space here even to summarise his approach adequately. However, it revolves around two key concepts: that every project can be broken down into sub-tasks, of which the only one that matters is the Next Action; and our lives are defined by Contexts to which we can allocate actions. Typical contexts may be Home and Office, e-mail or Phone, Sometime/Maybe or Errands.
The process starts with just writing down every task, project, 'to do', dream, errand - whatever - and identifying for each a Next Action and a Context. This is in itself the most immensely cathartic, releasing and relieving exercise. Just to free your head of all these buzzing demons and pin them down on paper gives a sense of hope of getting back in control.
As an acute sufferer of taskphobia myself, I have spent far too much of my life frozen in the lights of the 'to do' juggernaut. Now for the first time in years, I feel I'm getting on top. And that itself gives renewed strength to free myself from this monster.
Andrew James
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£10.99
Piatkus
ISBN: 0749922648
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The Sixty Minute Father
Rob Parsons
One of the most touted joys of running your own business and/or working from home is that you can get to see your family more and enjoy your kids growing up.
The reality is, of course, often quite the reverse. Far from having a more free and flexible life, you are at the mercy of a time-greedy monster who knows no social life. It is all the more tantalising because you can, indeed, see the kids more - but you are mostly shooing them away with 'Can't you see I'm working'!
It's hard enough being a good parent at the best of times, but worse to realise only when the kids have gone how you wasted the one, brief opportunity to be there with them and for them. And all for the fleeting sake of the business.
Rob Parsons has written a salutary yet uplifting book to help all parents, not just fathers, to recognise the signs and regain control. Full of simple tips, it could make all the difference to building lasting, loving relationships.
It is easy to read in an hour or so, yet the effects will last forever - and could change your children's lives.
Andrew James
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£7.99
Hodder and Stoughton
ISBN: 034063040X
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Notes from a Friend
Anthony Robbins
What do three presidents of the United States have in common with André Agassi, Roger Black and various members of European royal families?
The answer is they have all been coached by Tony Robbins, an inspirational US coach whose message has changed the life of millions.
Ten years ago, Robbins was, by his own admission, overweight, financially broke and emotionally bankrupt, living in a cramped bachelor pad. He had no plans for the future and felt life had dealt him a bad hand.
Then he decided to make a new start. He didn't just make a few minor changes - he changed his whole mindset. Within a year he had built a successful career, married the woman of his dreams, and was living in a castle overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
But he didn't stop there. As he explains in Notes from a Friend, Robbins wanted to help others realise their full potential, and set out on a coaching career that would make him famous throughout the world.
This is a short book - but it's a distillation of some profound ideas that could change your life as dramatically as they changed his own.
Richard Reed
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£6.99
Pocket Books
ISBN: 074340937X
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Who moved my cheese?
Spencer Johnson
I love business books that you can read in an hour or so. But I particularly love this one because it's brilliant.
Recommended to me by accountant Mike Warner, a Better Business subscriber, after I sent him a copy of Gung Ho, I have just found my latest 'give away' book - a book that I go out and buy loads of copies of to give away to friends and colleagues.
It's a parable. The concept is simple: two mice and two Littlepeople live in a maze and look for cheese - the cheese being a metaphor for what they want in life, be it a good job, a happier relationship or excellence in a particular sport.
The maze, meanwhile, is your life and where you look for what you want. And yes, we've all been up countless blind alleys in our lives. The question is, how many more are you prepared to go up to find your cheese?
This book is about all of us, and how we deal with change ... or could deal with it better, if only we knew how. It leaves you feeling upbeat, and excited, and ready to go out and find your own Cheese, which quest seems more possible, even fun, now that I've read the book.
Sophie Chalmers
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£5.99
Vermilion
ISBN: 0091816971
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Reinvent yourself
J. Jonathan Gabay
Do you ever feel that your life has ended up in a cul-de-sac?
That, on either a personal or professional level, there is no place to go?
Well, maybe it's time to reinvent yourself - to take stock, and think about who you truly are; to look at where you would really like to go in life; and to break through the fear barrier and go for it.
Based on real business, career and life issues, this book looks at every angle of reinvention, and provides practical tools to help you reconfigure yourself.
Most people are dissatisfied with something in their lives - either just a bit here and there, or all of it...
Maybe you just want ideas on how to market yourself in a new way. Maybe you'd like to be more in control of your life and less intimidated by people who stress you out.
Whatever your agenda, you will discover strategies which will cause you to re-assess perhaps even fundamental beliefs held close since childhood, and you'll learn how to be part of your own enduring evolution rather than being a bystander to your own life.
Jonathan Gabay writes from personal experience, having reached a low point in his career and realising the only solution was to start again.
But this isn't about assuming some false persona when things aren't going well; in fact, just the opposite. It's about discovering who you really are - including, maybe, facets of yourself you had never given expression to before.
Drawing on examples from popular culture, such as Madonna, Gabay shows not just how you can reinvent yourself, but reinvent your life. A must read for anyone who wants to grow.
Richard Reed
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£15.00
Momentum
ISBN: 1843040158
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A Touch of Magic
Trevor Bentley
It's very easy, when you are locked in to the day-to-day running of a business, to lose sight of the whole picture. Not just the whole 'out there', but the whole within. Things sometimes happen so fast that you end up just reacting to situations, rather than giving yourself time to think the whole thing through. And sometimes you base your decisions on prejudices and preconceptions buried deep within your psyche, rather than from a fresh and uncluttered perspective.
In A Touch of Magic, Trevor Bentley encourages us to seek out and find the magic within all of us; the magic of wonderment, the magic of seeing everything in the world anew, devoid of cynicism, and without the baggage of past problems. He believes that if you have shoved important, painful experiences and feelings out of your conscious, and they now operate unconsciously, it is impossible to make intelligent decisions.
Bentley is a Gestalt practitioner. Gestaltists try to help people work through their 'unfinished business'. This means becoming aware of old hurts, fears, needs, and resentments which are still alive but buried in your unconscious and which continue to distort your view of reality. Rather than examining the reasons behind these prejudices, however, which can invoke fear and resentment, Gestalt seeks to encourage you to accept them as past baggage, set them to one side, and make a fresh start. A fresh start, moreover, that avoids collecting fresh baggage on the way.
Bentley believes that this approach is just as relevant to your work life as it is to your personal life. He gives an interesting example of a CEO of an engineering company, who was really pleased with a contract he had clinched with an important new customer. He had negotiated well, and had not let his customer know how pleased he was with the final price and conditions.
The customer, however, assumed that John's apparent lack of satisfaction was due to disappointment over the price. The customer's team prepared to contest any attempt to increase price or relax conditions. As a result, the contract got off to an adversarial start, which continued for some months. It was only after a particularly fraught meeting with the customer's CEO that John found out what the problem was, and how his negotiating stance had been misinterpreted.
A valuable lesson for us all - and this book is full of valuable lessons and insights. It could even help to change your life.
Richard Reed
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£20.00
The Space Between Publishing
ISBN: 0953855953
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CQ - Boost your creative intelligence
Harry Alder
As someone cursed with a poor memory, it has long been my position that the ability to memorise large numbers of facts is no real measure of intelligence. After all, the guy who can memorise an entire telephone directory is not necessarily the world's brightest human being. Well, I would say that, wouldn't I? But it's not just me. Now, at long last, science is giving serious weight to what many would describe as 'real' intelligence - creativity.
Dubbed 'CQ' (as in IQ and EQ - emotional quotient), your creative quotient is the ability to tap into the right side of your brain and produce those flashes of inspiration that mark out human civilisation. Whether it be Einstein or Shakespeare, Beethoven or Pythagoras, the history of humanity is studded with gems of creativity that stand apart from the crowd. And the good news is, not only do we all have that potential, we can actually increase our ability to have those moments of inspiration.
It's something I've been doing for some time, although it took me a while to realise it. I've been compensating for my dysfunctional memory by tapping into my creative resources - and hopefully keeping my MD happy! I have learned that by getting in the right frame of mind, and 'opening myself up', I can encourage the creative juices to flow. Now author Dr Harry Alder has put together a gem of a book that explains precisely what CQ is, and how to go about tapping into it, quickly and easily.
As Alder explains, in 21st century society, we can now delegate cerebral 'donkey work' to computers, which in any case now outstrip our ability to store and analyse information - at least in terms of speed and predictability, if not quantity.
Creative thinking is quite another story. 'History tells us that a different type of brainpower produced the paradigm advances that have given us science, art and civilisation,' says Alder. 'We observe sudden insights and extraordinary leaps of understanding rather than a process of rational, sequential thinking ... The 'skill' is to see the commonplace in a new light, to imagine the extraordinary and see it come to fruition.'
This book is far more than just another pseudo-scientific best-seller - though it certainly deserves to top the charts. Alder is a qualified psychologist, as well as having an MBA, and he explains in practical detail how better brainstorming can be of real benefit to business. Interestingly enough, research shows that creativity decreases when a person is inhibited. While this might sound obvious, inhibiting factors may not be so self-evident; they include being observed, being tested - and most importantly for business, being under authority.
It really does seem there might be something in the stereotypical creative type, who rebels and refuses to conform - but produces flashes of brilliance. Perhaps rather than trying to force square pegs into round holes, we should be looking at ways of making these kinds of people feel more at ease - as well as stimulating the CQ in everyone else on the team.
As Alder says: 'The brain remains as awesome and wonderful as ever ... And the mysterious, creative, unconscious part of this brain accounts for the vast majority of all our thoughts and actions. It is the part that has made us what we are and will continue to create our future.'
Richard Reed
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£6.99
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749436506
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Living and Working in France: Chez Vous en France
Geneviève Brame
The beauty of the Internet is that you can now live almost anywhere - commuting is no longer an issue.
One of our regular advertisers (the lucky so-and-so is off to the Dordogne) is the latest to join the exodus to France - and he would certainly find this book an invaluable guide.
It covers a range of topics including such essentials as food and wine (the reason most of us go there), together with the more practical issues of buying property, finding work, and a guide to everyday living.
What are you waiting for? A better life beckons...
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£21.95
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749436506
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Speak for yourself - tested techniques to improve your communication and presentation skills
Richard Denny
Speaking in public or making a vital presentation is, for some, quite terrifying. Our worst fears emerge: 'They'll think I'm no good ', 'They'll laugh at me...'
I used to work in television where I found even the pros are often nervous. But they have a whole arsenal of techniques to help them. Denny has condensed the essential information you need into an excellent book. It's full of anecdotes cleverly illustrating his points, so it's also a funny and lively read.
His premise is: 'When people are on their feet speaking to an audience, they should be doing one of two things and only one of two things; either entertaining or selling.' He maintains that even teachers and preachers sell, in the sense that they must gain acceptance of their message from their audience. Billy Graham is a perfect example of a man who can 'sell' his beliefs.
Denny leads you through each stage, from mastering nervous tension, to how and what to prepare, handling questions as well as developing good habits. For example, use 'I' sparingly. Instead see things from the audience's point of view, and so use 'we' and 'us'.
He helps with little tricks to build rapport with your audience and get them on your side. Simple yet enormously effective things like saying 'I expect you know...' instead of 'I'm sure you don't know...'
He also looks at delivery in the wider sense: how you speak, using enthusiasm and silence. Hitler could use silence with devastating effect. He would stand, hands clasped behind his back, and wait, sometimes for several minutes, until he could hear a pin drop.
Then he began to speak very quietly so everyone had to strain to hear. Gradually he built up the momentum and passion. For all he is now reviled, he had people eating out of his hands at rallies by using this technique.
While this book hopefully won't make you into a Hitler, it does tell you how to grab and hold people's attention and be remembered, whether at a sales presentation or a conference.
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£7.99
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749409649
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Selling to win - tested techniques for closing a sale
Richard Denny
For many people 'selling' is a dirty word. Rubbish! Selling is the only way to success, whatever your job. It is not something only double glazing salesmen do. Selling is what every small-business person does, like it or not. If you don't sell, there's no business.
It's not just customers we have to sell to, though. At various times we have to sell ourselves to employers, bank managers, colleagues, girl friends, the golf club. Selling is simply communicating with people and persuading them to do business with you, time and again if possible.
Nor is selling just about getting prospects to buy. It its about getting them to make some sort of commitment, be it for an appointment or for the proverbial signature on the dotted line.
So many people who are new to selling, or who have never had formal training, are able to put their own case well, and get prospects to the point where they have expressed a strong interest in making some sort of commitment. But they don't know how to handle the tricky last stages. First of all, they are terrified of a rejection. Secondly they are afraid of having to deal with awkward questions that take them away their standard patter.
How do you actually get someone to sign the order? What do you do when the prospect says 'Thanks, but I'd like to think about it.' Or how do you make a sale when you are not the cheapest?
The author's method is to gain success by stages. His techniques are clever: they don't go straight for the jugular, they gain incremental acceptance from would-be customers. He describes the selling process in all its stages, but his main strength is in dealing with how to overcome the terror of your prospect saying 'No'. Much of the subject matter you may already know. The author's point is that we must use this knowledge to go out and do it.
The book's tone is not to heavy or evangelistic, and it's a good read. For example, the author illustrates how to get past the target's protective secretary on the phone: 'Very few telephonists or receptionists are properly trained in the UK. Having given my name, they ask, 'From where?' What they mean, of course, is 'From which company?' but I say, 'From Devizes' (the location of my head office). There is always a deathly hush on the phone at this point. But I get put through very quickly!'
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£9.99
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749433280
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Turn it off
Gil Gordon
E-mail, mobile phones, laptops, electronic organisers... they were supposed to liberate us from the workplace, weren't they?
Instead, technology has taken us hostage - we check e-mail at the weekend, send faxes from home, take the laptop on holiday...
Turn it off is about how to reclaim your life from this electronic strait-jacket - or as the subtitle puts it, 'How to unplug from the anytime-anywhere office without disconnecting your career'.
Based on author Gil Gordon's own experiences after setting his home consultancy business, the book is a lively and easy-to-read guide to taking control.
It offers tests for evaluating how much your work and personal time overlap; methods for managing your e-mail; and advice on getting your clients and your boss to respect your boundaries.
This is a 'must' read for anyone suffering from information overload.
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£9.99
Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1857883004
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The new negotiating edge
Gavin Kennedy
This excellent, thought-provoking book is easy to read and looks at a how behaviour influences negotiations. It presents three types of negotiating techniques for results and relationships:
- Red techniques - a tough, aggressive style that often lead to bad feelings;
- Blue techniques - used by those who intend to achieve win-win but always end up hard done by;
- And the Purple technique - a fusion of the Red and Blue techniques, the preferred method that achieves the best long-term rewards.
The author shows how purple negotiating works in practice and can be used to defeat the bully-boy, brow beating techniques of Red negotiators and manage the Blue relationships with integrity. He then goes on to show how to link behaviour with the four phases of negotiatings: prepare, debate, propose and bargain.
The book contains lots of helpful self-assessment quizzes, and illustrative, amusing case studies. It will prove invaluable in building confidence and getting more out of business - and life.
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£14.99
Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1857882059 |
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Make that call
Iain Maitland
Telephone conversations give the outside world an instant impression of you and your company. This book will help you create a positive impression, whether it is trying to get your foot in the door, chasing outstanding invoices, asking for extended credit, apologising because you've failed to deliver on time, or calling to sympathise with someone on the death of their partner.
It walks you through model conversations, shows you how to handle to calls positively even when you are getting very negative feedback, and gives brief pointers on the things to watch out for.
This enlightening book provides techniques for speaking to customers, dealing with authority, talking to employees, handling suppliers and the press, and controlling personal calls.
Lots of insight. Very helpful.
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£8.99
Kogan Page
ISBN: 0749419113
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Emotionally Intelligent Living
Geetu Orme
'Emotional intelligence' is a phrase that is being increasingly bandied about in the rarefied atmosphere of business and personal psychology.
Unlike many modern theories, however, this is one worth pursuing further, because, in essence, it is a rediscovery of what makes us human.
For a long time now, human intelligence has been measured in only one dimension - rational thought. Yet in so many spheres of our life, this fails to provide the complete answer to the challenges facing us today.
Emotional intelligence recognises those uniquely human characteristics which have for so long been unfashionable - insight, intuition and gut instinct. By combining these with our rational mind, we create a much stronger, more dynamic whole.
Geetu Orme's book explains in an easily accessible way how to develop your emotional intelligence, and apply it in every area of your life - from work to personal development and human relationships.
One quotation sums it up beautifully: 'Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.' Perhaps one of the most valuable books I have read this year.
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£12.99
Crown House
ISBN: 1899836470
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Soloing - Reaching life's Everest
Harriet Rubin
Walk out of a job with a big company, and what are you - stripped of that all-powerful identity?
You're free. You're brave. And potentially you're rich, if you take full advantage of the opportunities that lie in store. Soloing is not about changing jobs - it's about changing your life.
The book looks at Harriet Rubin's own journey out of corporate land where she was tired of telling bosses and clients 'You're right', when she knew they were wrong. So she walked out to see if she could make a success of herself on her own terms, not by anyone else's rules. 'I wanted to believe work could be more than a four-letter word for me. I knew it was for some,' she writes. She also draws on the experiences of lots of other people.
The book is conversational, laid back but a compelling read. It is filled with insight and advice that is more often reflective hindsight than active dos and don'ts. It's certainly a must-read for anyone contemplating leaving an organisation and going solo.
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£12.99
Random House
ISBN: 071268476X
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The Death of 20th Century Selling
Dan Seidman
Heard the one about the salesman who was closing a deal with a firm that made skin-tight suits for a ladies' ice-hockey team?
At a lunch to clinch the contract, the firm's boss turned up. 'Did you see those girls on TV last night?' said the salesman to his usual contact with the firm. 'They were something else - Karen looked good enough to eat!'
'Yes, I did,' came the response. 'Let me introduce you to Karen's father...'
Just one hilarious example of true sales horror stories that will not only have you laughing out loud - but teach you some valuable lessons about how not to conduct sales meetings.
The Death of 20th Century Selling is a must for anyone involved in sales, either directly or indirectly - buy a copy for your sales staff for Christmas!
Oh, and that deal? The salesman not only failed to close the sale - but lost every other contract with the firm.
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£9.95
Sales Autopsy Press
ISBN: 0971291101
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