Great Reading

I've read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People a couple of times over the last few months.  I gotta say. Wow. What an incredible book.  I was skeptical at first.  Primarily because the book has been so extensively read, reviewed and discussed. Further because it is a little bit dated.  But then I realized that shouldn't matter.  Neither the source nor date of an ideas origin has any impact on its truth.  So, instead of sheepishly admitting I read this book, let me say it more clearly.  This book is amazing. 

The thing about really great books on management or marketing, or self improvement is that they are both profound and mundane at the same time.  They usually don't have a whole lot of new information.  The ideas are things that I've seen before. You could usually sum up the whole thing in a single sentence.  And yet, these resources are incredibly valuable to revisit again and again.  The key to real change is constant pressure over time. So, any resource like this is by its nature going to be somewhat repetitive but incredibly useful. 

Here's the best stuff I've been going through lately:

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
Summary: Understand your end goal, prioritize according to that, play nice with others, rinse and repeat.

The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell
Summary: Quality, not quantity determines dissemination of information

Leadership and Choice lecture by Carly Fiorina (former CEO of HP)
Summary: Distill useful information. Catalyze change by providing vision. Do the right thing.
Find it here: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1679

The One Minute Manager - Blanchard & Johnson
Summary: Set clear expectations. Let people shine or fail. Praise or Reprimand. Rinse and Repeat.

Comments

[dargan]

Try some of Jim Collins' books, esp Good to Great.

[Knowist]

Thanks! I will!