Recently in Book Reviews Category

I recently had the pleasure of receiving an advanced copy of Survival of The Hive: 7 Leadership Lessons from a Beehive by Deborah Mackin and Matthew Harrington. After reading through the book a couple times, it reminded me fondly of reading Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson during graduate school.

SOTH (Survival of the Hive) takes us through, according to the authors, the "macro- and micro-responsibilities of the queen bee and her relationship to a hive. Each chapter explores how the beehive functions through the characters of Zync, a queen-in-waiting, and her fellow bees. Using the bee colony as an allegory to illustrate leadership in an organized community, we provide a working illustration of cultural complexity, leadership clarity and the importance of trust as a foundation of excellence.

What I enjoyed most about the book is how each chapter weaves in discussion questions to inspire leadership groups to study together, and how the seven leadership lessons are weaved through the beehive concept to clearly show how important the principles in the book are to effective leadership.

Some discussion questions that the chapters in the book discuss through the SOTH beehive story include:

1. What does survival of the hive mean for our organization?
2. How does our leadership at various levels within the organization demonstrate the vital P-Factors of Leadership as illustrated in the beehive story?
3. Is there a "shared load" value system in place? Do we make it clear that mediocre or uncommitted behavior is not acceptable?

Download a free chapter of Survival of the Hive here

One of my favorite books of all time about business relationships and networking is Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. Check it out on Amazon.com

Keith talks about a number of great tips, including:

The Networking Jerk - how to avoid being one
Managing The Gatekeeper - how to get in touch with people who others think are untouchable
Be a Conference Commando - how to make the most out of the conferences you attend.

Here is a review as well.

"Your network is your net worth. This book shows you how to add to your personal bottom line with better networking and bigger relationships. What a solid but easy read! Keith's personality shines through like the great (and hip) teacher you never got in college or business school. Buy this book for yourself, and tomorrow go out and buy one for your kid brother!"

--Tim Sanders, author of Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and
Influence Friends and leadership coach at Yahoo!

Amazon.com - Never Eat Alone

When I truly enjoy a book, I can read it in under an hour or two. If I have a tough time with a book, I can take as long as a month to finish it.

Next time you want to get a book into your memory banks:

1. Start with the table of contents and find the topics that most appeal to you yet aren't things you read before. Read those chapters first.
2. Skim through the ones that contain content that you have read before.
3. Dog-ear or highlight as you read so you can go back to the content later for emphasis
4. Read digitally. I've found having my books on my Kindle app for the iPad has been greatly beneficial for reference.

If you follow these simple steps, you will find you can read a lot more than you used to.

I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. Monday morning, I woke up to begin this book and finished it in just over 90 minutes. I was captivated from the start by the direct conversation Hendricks had with me as I was reading the book. The writing style felt very personable and the activities in the book assisted me in developing a more laser-like focus on what matters in my life and business.

Two of the biggest moments in the book for me:

"I commit to living in my Zone of Genius, now and forever." Hendricks as the reader to commit to doing the things we know we can do best.

"I expand in abundance, success, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same." This is what Hendricks calls "The Ultimate Success Mantra." Hendricks believes keeping this as your motto and reflecting on it often will guide you to new levels of success in your Zone of Genius.

Pick up your copy today. It is also available on the Kindle reader, which is the version I selected to view on my iPad

I get letters all the time from people complaining about how horrible their bosses are (or were) and how they've managed to deal with the situation. A common theme seems to exist in all of these letters; "I work for someone who doesn't get it, and they work for someone who refuses to see that they don't get it."

Horrible bosses don't become that way overnight; they often will see what they can get away with and what their boss will turn a blind eye to, and then continue to calculate attacks, mistreat others, and perform poorly until the day finally comes where someone comes across their way who won't put up with it anymore.

As I've said in prior posts, sometimes the best things to do to avoid a horrible boss are to find a new job or find a way to deal with the boss until they end up leaving on their own.

A great book worth reading on horrible bosses and how they affect the workplace is Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best and Learn from The Worst

In this book, Robert Sutton outlines the things you can do to learn from the worst bosses ever, and how to avoid becoming one yourself!