Surviving Dreaded Conversations. Talk through any difficult situation at work. Donna Flagg. 2010 ISBN 9780071630252. Another very useful book from McGraw Hill.  Boy do I wish I had this book by my desk many times in my career.  Her opening paragraphs/exercises  on how to confront your own ego and recognize its impact are worth price of the book in itself.  By using real world real people examples Flagg is able to drive home,  how, what, when and where to get it done.  She even included scripts and tips on structure of conversations. Some of the uses of humour are just priceless!  Lesson learned, bite the bullet, pick the time and place and do the deed, the anxiety you feel beforehand is way larger than the work involved.  Great managers bookshelf book (but it is as useful for employees as well)  And its an easy read.

Escape From Cubicle Nation . From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur.  Pamela Slim. 2009. ISBN 9781591842576.  From the Blog of the same name, Pamela has penned the what colour  is your parachute book for 2009. directly targeted at those unhappy cubicle dwellers who just have to get out of there.  If you are in this state of mind, or want to explore it  the book  is clearly written, with some very useful advice on topics you may not have thought about.

The Art of the Apology.  How to apologize effectively to practically anyone.  Lauren M. Bloom.  The Fonz ( Henry Winkler ) to the contrary we see the need to apologize every day (Ter Woods to his wife, wonder that that went? ) This thin little book is very well organized and gives you very sound advice on the topic.  If you remember that the best  way to manage risk is to make your decisions with the best advice you have at hand at the time.  This  book will give you another dimension to manage your risk in life.  I really liked her inclusion of “How to best accept an apology. and how to build an apology friendly workplace.”

Grow From Within. Mastering corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. Wolcott & Lippitz. 2010. ISBN 9780071598323.  If you are one of those lucky birds who believes that your own company is ready to support “intrapreneurship” then this book speaks to you.  The tough thing is to align what the new business does with how “business as usual” works in the firm. Most often that does not work  and the “new” firm needs to be isolated from the old “culture”.  This text although” academic in style touches on the salient points. The case studies are larger firms.

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Rules of Thumb. 52 truths for winning at business without losing your self. Alan M. Webber. 2009. ISBN 9780061721830.  Several reviewers voted this one of the best of 09 books, so I just had to sit down and finally finish it.  What if you went through life and made a note of every life lesson you learned, and then boiled it down to 52 short essays?  You might have a book like this. A good writer, Webber was a co-founder of Fast Company ( and he reminds you at every opportunity) which was a a great plac for many life lessons.  Concise, good plane trip read ( if you can get it on board)  this is the type of book you pass onto your children , nieces, nephews, mentees.  I savored it and give it a big thumbs up.

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Shoptimism. Why the American consumer will keep on buying no matter what.  Lee Eisenberg.2009. ISBN 9780743296250.  This the author of the Number.  This is an entertaining tour of America’s love/hate affair with shopping,something that remains a true national pastime. Eisenberg chronicles the dynamics of selling and buying from almost every angle. Neither a cheerleader for consumption nor an anti-consumerist scold, he explores  the vast machinery aimed at inducing us to purchase everything from hair mousse to a little black dress. He leads us, with understated humor, into the broad universe of marketing, retailing, advertising, and consumer and scientific research–an arsenal of powerful forces that combine to form what he calls “The Sell Side.”

Through the rest of the book, Eisenberg leads us through the “Buy Side” — a journey directly into our own hearts and minds, asking among other questions: What are we really looking for when we buy? Why are we alternately excited, guilt-ridden, satisfied, disappointed, and recklessly impulsive? What are our biases, need for status, impulses to self-express, that lead us individually to buy what we buy?

This book is fun, serious, well written and pokes some serious holes into some of the other books I have reviewed.  It is a good diift for your children/young adults as well as yourself as we are all in there. I really liked it. Find out if you are a classic buyer or a romantic buyer? What is a Great Buy? Lots there for the retailer to learn from as well.

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Pose Method Of Running. Nicholas Romanov.Ph.D. with John Robson. 2002. 0972553762. In my continuous search for ways to keep on running while the body slowly deteriorates, I came across this book. It is a much deeper, scientific  look into more of the areas that I first found in ChiRunning (although perhaps the Romanov techniques predate ChiRunning) .

This is a very easy to read book with scads of exercises and supporting activities such as flexibility and strength building activites. It is very well researched applied science and is being used  many high perfromance coaches and their athletes.

The big eye opener for me was how he takes the forward lean, relaxed foot approach of ChiRunning much further along the entire foot and up the leg. Example, he stresses how you want to have minimal heel lift, landing on the ball of the foor, with minimal push off , so that your body does not rise and fall as you run. His practise activities really show you how to get gravity working for you with running. Again, it comes down to  attention to detail in the execution.  My natural run has become even easier, when I thought I could not get it any easier. If you take your running seriously this is a great resource for you. See www.posetech.com

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Inside the Mind of the Turtles. How the world’s best traders master risk. Curtis M. Faith.  2009. ISBN 9780071602433.  The follow up book to the Way of the Turtle, takes a more rounded view of the role of risk and the impact of risk avoidance on modern life.  He believes one should take control of risk before it takes control of you. This is an  important book. You may remember my review of Covel’s book on Turtles.

Faith followed-up his success as a trader to continue as a software entrepreneur and then a venture capitalist. He found that many decisions in life worked out well if he used the same thought processes he developed as a trader. If you are looking to talk to a venture capitalist his analysis of their approach to risk is mind changing.

Later in the book he points out the reasons why this process would work in education and rebuilding US infrastructure, but that the status quo greatly prevents this.  He even makes a very good case as to why companies buy the “wrong” products, despite many people knowing better.  He has seven guiding principles:

1. Overcome fear
2. Remain flexible
3. Take reasoned risk
4. Prepare to be wrong
5. Actively seek reality ( my personal favorite)
6. Respond quickly to change
7. Focus on decisions, not outcomes (also a favorite)

Well written, just the right length, this book will hold your attention.  Politicians and young people would especially benefit from the insights. Thank you McGraw Hill again.

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the skinny on success. why not you? Jim Randall. 2010. ISBN 9780981893594. Number five in Randalls series continues his straight to the point approach to the subject. Perhaps in an Twitter filled universe, this is a direction that books could move in. Short anecdotal conversations accompanied by stick figure, based on well researched and referenced content. I think this is very useful material for younger non reading audiences.

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The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. How to be insanely great in front of any audience. Carmine Gallo.2010 ISBN 9780071636087. McGraw Hill is sending me these incredible books. This one is a jewel for any one who gives presentations.

For quite some time Rocket Builders has been using techniques such as Gallo explains which we gleaned from watching Jobs and Obama perform, reading Guy Kawasaki’s guide as well as Presentation Zen and Nancy Duarte’s work. This one is a good easy to read book which benefits from the author, Gallo, being a journalist.(Are my preferences showing? )

You will learn the power of three as it helps you build up a framework to really communicate your story.  He lays out the tips that the other pros espouse such as images before words and simplify simplify.  Again we hear that the last thing you do is build your slides and just banish all bullets.  You also see the famous readability index test that compares Jobs to Bill Gates.  Jobs incredible work ethic wrto practising and delivery is also laid out for you. All this and more makes  this a worthwhile investment to buy and read this book.

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The Blue Zones. Lessons for living longer from people who’ve lived the longest. Dan Buettner. 2008. ISBN 9781426202742. A surprisingly useful book from National Geographic.  The author and his team  researched centennarians in four Blue ZOnes, Sardinia, Okinawa, Loma Linda California, and Nicoya, Costa Rica.    The secrets are in how they live, the food, the company, and their life outlook.  He then lays out nine lessons with four or five subtopics for each. The lessons are

1. Move Naturally
2. Eat until you are 80% full
3. Plant Slant
4. Grapes of Life
5. Purpose Now
6. Down Shift
7. Belong
8. Loved Ones First
9. Right Tribe

You’ll meet a 94-year-old farmer and self-confessed “ladies man” in Costa Rica, a 102-year-old grandmother in Okinawa a 102-year-old Sardinian who hikes at least six miles a day, and others. By observing their lifestyles, Buettner’s team has identified critical everyday choices. Check out more and their Vitality Compass at www.bluezones.com

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Life skills books .

Young Professionals Guide to Success.  Featuring advice from CEOs, sr. execs and community leaders. Ryan Kohnen 2009.  ISBN 9781934572252.  29 yr old Kohnen calls Gen Y Gen ADD and they need a kick in the butt.  From building relationships with mentors and peers to being the leader of your team (even if you are the youngest person), this book gives young professionals an inside look at how executives rose to the top. Pepsi Americas, American Heart Association, and DuPont are among the organizations that share invaluable anecdotes and advice. Readers will also learn from the mistakes and successes of a fellow young professional: author Ryan Kohnen.

No More Mister Nice Guy. The undoings of an african american executive company man. James Alston. 2008. ISBN 9780980243109. The author had a 30 plus year ascent and fall with Handleys Food Company (fictitious name), but you can almost tell who he is talking about. This is a heartfelt story about prejudice and how it still permeates US business. It reads like a novel, I just wish it was not true.

Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It. Cali Ressler & Jodi Thompson. 2009. ISBN 9781591842033. These two worked for Best Buy where they created the Results-Only Work Environment. youcontrol when, where, and how long you work. As long as you meet your objectives, the way you spend your time is entirely up to you. Suddenly, work isnt a place you go, its a thing you do. In a ROWE, there are no mandatory meetings or fixed schedules. You stop doing any activity that wastes time, and no one criticizes you for leaving early or coming in late.  No wonder Timothy Ferris liked!  check out www.caliandjody.com   This may be extremely useful for dealing with gen y and millennial generations.  I hooted at the stories and of course the FAQs.

Escape from Cubicle Nation. From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur.  Pamela Slim. 2009. ISBN 9781591842576.  Pamela Slim spent a decade traveling all over the country as a self-employed trainer for large corporations. She was surprised to find that many of the most successful employees at these companies harbored secret dreams of breaking out to start their own business. They would pull her aside after a meeting and whisper, I would love to work for myself, but have no idea how to get started. How did you do it?

So Pamela started a blog Escape from Cubicle Nation (www.escapefromcubiclenation.com) to share her experience and advice. Soon, questions and stories poured in from corporate prisoners around the world. As her blog gained popularity, she also interviewed some of the brightest experts in entrepreneurship on topics from finance to branding to marketing via social networks. This book is the result of all those blogs…And its funny, smart and full of really useful stuff.  Guy Kawasaki s forward is great – the book will help you to either shut up, suck it up or get out. .

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