The title alone of the book How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton M. Christensen instantly provokes readers to reflect on those things that matter most in life, and indeed this is what the focus of the book is all about. Taken from a business theory perspective, the author (who is a Harvard Business Professor) offers great thoughts, strategies, and ideas of how to navigate life successfully. From allocating our resources, to choosing a strategy, and determining what job needs to be done the book is a practical and insightful guide to some of life’s biggest challenges. Though redundant and perhaps a stretch at times, the book points out that too often we view and approach life with the wrong perspective or without any perspective at all and thus many of us end up with unsatisfactory results. This book contains powerful and useful approaches on how to get life right. It is a very good read for all and I give it 3 ½ stars.
When the Game Stands Tall,by Neil Hayes is one of my all-time favorite sports books. The book highlights the incredible story of football’s longest winning streak of 151 games by the De La Salle High School. The streak lasted 12 seasons! It is a story of grit, hard work, dedication, sacrifice, extreme discipline, and love. And don’t be fooled in to believing this is just a football book because it is not. It is a book about life with important life lesson that go well beyond football and even winning games. And that is why I love this book because there are so many applicable and important life lesson we can learn from the remarkable De La Salle story. Striving to apply even some of the basic principles found in this book will make us much better leaders and people. For reason I give it 3 ½ stars.
For the most part, many of us dread meetings however in his book Death by Meeting,author Patrick Lencioni details why meetings are so distasteful and how to change them. The author details his “meetings philosophy” through a somewhat interesting but not always believable story about a fictitious company that is struggling, providing 4 specific kinds of meetings each organization should have and how to make them effective tools for your team. Meetings today are a way of life for any institution so learning how to make them successful can help any group reach their potential. Much like the author shares in the book, I have witnessed both good and bad meetings and believe they can bring about tremendous results or near death experiences. I love the title of this one and overall I believe the material in the book is very insightful and timely. I give this book 3 ½ stars.
Good to Great is a very good book, but its not quite on my great list--although I would definitely highly recommend it to every businessperson. Good to Great’s central message is that consistency, drive, and focus will lead to greatness and long-term success in the business world. Using examples from well-known companies, along with intensive research, the author tries to discover what makes a company different than others, or in other words, great. The book also introduces many valuable concepts and insights such as the Hedgehog Concept and the Flywheel Analogy. Also, you may be surprised which companies are only good and which are deemed great. I give the book 3 ½ stars out of 4.
The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni, is a very intelligent business book, and if you have read some of the author’s books before, you will find this one is in a very different format from his others as it does not follow a fictional story to illustrate points. Instead, this book summarizes all of the author’s prior business books in to one, utilizing examples and quotes from his previous works. The author’s message is very clear, and that is organizational health trumps all. By self-admittance, organizational health is a little bit difficult to define and is even more difficult to measure but the author does a good job explaining what healthy organizations do and what they are good at, and strategies on how to do and be good at those things too. The exciting thing is that all organizations can be healthy, if they want it, and benefit from the advantage. Though not as entertaining as his other works, I really enjoyed this book as I believe it provides a lot of great insights in to how to run a successful organization. I give it 3 ½ stars.
Crucial Conversationsis a book that can’t wait to be read because of the great advice and the impact of conversations in our lives. Authors Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler do a great job tackling a difficult subject. Inside the book readers find many strategies on how to improve communication skills and hold effective, important conversations. From creating safety, to building a “shared pool” of meaning, the book will equip even the most inexperienced or most ineffective conversationalist with easy tools to help them be better. Applying even a small handful of the many ideas found in this book will greatly enhance the reader’s ability to be successful in life. I very highly recommend this book and give it 3 ½ stars.
The Truth about Getting the Best from People by Martha I. Finney is an outstanding book for all leaders who want to excel in managing a diverse workforce in a dynamic world. The book is full of insights, knowledge, and wisdom that are perfect for all managers and companies who are having challenges engaging and retaining their most valuable asset, their people. In an effort to help, the book contains 49 truths to help us lead successfully, such as “You don’t need the carrot or the stick” and “If they aren’t buying it, they aren’t doing it” as a few examples. These 49 truths explained will provide great new ways to looking at managing people, as well as important reminders that help leaders be successful. I believe every business professional will benefit from reading this book—thus, I very highly recommend it! 3 ½ stars out of 4.
The Baptist Healthcare Journey to Excellenceby Al Stubblefield is an outstanding book about the Baptist Health System’s journey from poor performance to excellence. The book offers great simple insights and practical tools that any business leader, in any industry, can use to improve results and impact the bottom line. From creating a WOW culture to the ACT acronym for service recovery to a tight-loose-tight management style, each idea provides an important and helpful component to creating a great organizational culture and achieving great results. If you are a business leader, or simply interested in business and/or organizational culture, you must take time to read this book and learn from the Baptist Health System turnaround experience. I give the book 3 ½ stars.
Everyday Parents Raising Great Kids, provides many helpful insights and ideas on not only how we can be more effective parents but also on how we can enjoy parenting more. The book is an excellent and easy read, and it will cause you to truly reflect on family-life and motivate you to be a better parent. At the heart of the book is a series of self-assessments that help us honestly answer the question, “what type of influence am I being on my family?” Through constant self-evaluation and communication, the author argues that we can truly become the parents we long to be for our children and we can truly have the type of family we long to have in our lives. Through great insights, stories, and practical applications of many family ideas, this book will influence you to be better and to enjoy your family more—easily deserving a rating of three and half stars.
First Break All the Rules is an excellent book for all managers. This book talks about how to motivate and manage others effectively, while breaking many of the normal conventional rules of management such as “treating every employee the same.” The book challenges managers to be their best while focusing on establishing clear expectations and improving communication. Building strong relationships with staff through open and honest communication is seen as paramount for all managers. The book was easy to read and fairly entertaining; I give it 3 ½ stars out of 4, and I strongly encourage all managers to read it.
Raising a G-Rated Family in an X-Rated World is a timely book to help parents teach their children correct principles and to stand for goodness and high morals among the deteriorating world that surrounds them. Unfortunately, this book does not give us a quick and easy way to raise our children but on the contrary often reminds us that raising good children is time consuming—requiring a lot of patience and hard work. However, the book does provide great and simple strategies and tools on how to improve our families and teach our children to know that we love and care about them as their parents. Simple ideas such as a “Family Report Card” and “The Band-Aid Magnet” are a few of the many examples of ideas that can really strengthen our family relationships. The book also offers advice on many important topics for parents from discipline to unconditional love, to self-esteem, teaching values, and helping with homework. Since the subject matter of this book is so important and needed for our world, I give it 3 ½ stars and strongly encourage all parents to read it.
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