NEW BOOK
“Ready For Anything: 52 Productivity Principles For Work & Life,” by David Allen, Penguin Books, $14
What you’ll learn: Allen helps you think about what you’re doing, what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it and who can help you to your goals. The 52 principles are interrelated, but not co-dependent. You can open the book to a principle and use it as your personal productivity cornerstone.
Here’s one, No. 23: “You don’t have to think about your stuff as much as you’re afraid you might,” which is a caution against action-preventing paralysis analysis.
–Jim Pawlak, BizBooks
NEW BOOK
“The Leader Within: Learning Enough About Yourself to Lead Others,” by Drea Zigarmi, Michael O’Connor, Ken Blanchard and Carl Edeburn, McGraw Hill, $24.95
What you’ll learn: Managers lead by virtue of their title. Leaders lead because employees respect them as individuals and want to follow them. With these two different perspectives it’s not surprising that they treat employees differently–command and control versus “I’ll help you be all you can be” and the organization will be better for it.
Readers are led through four styles people use to get the job done: directing, where the employees are told what, how, when, where and with whom tasks are to be done; coaching, where two-way feedback, the “what” and basics of “how” are emphasized; supporting, where support is high, but direction is low; and delegation, which, when done right, is used to challenge employees.
–Jim Pawlak, BizBooks
WORTH REVISITING
– “Crucial Confrontations,” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, Berrett-Koehler, $16.95
What you’ll learn: Behind the problems that routinely plague organizations and families, you’ll find individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with failed promises.
–Publisher’s summary
