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Want to Change Something? Read This Book

By on May 19, 2011 in Books

I like it when a book makes a bold promise. Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success starts off with this one:

“If you apply the principles and tactics we outline, you can rapidly, profoundly, and sustainably change your own behavior (even long-standing bad habits). And by learning how to change your own behavior, you can dramatically improve results in most any area of life.”

Five people wrote this book, which is probably a story in itself. But then, these guys are used to teamwork. Before Change Anything, they wrote three New York Times bestsellers that you may have heard of: Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer.

One of the five authors, Kerry Patterson, wrote a six-part series about crucial conversations for my newsletter, Management Consulting News. And I interviewed Al Switzler, co-author of Influencer.

This latest book, which offers a research-based approach to making personal change, suggests that we have less control over our behavior than we believe. But we can control the six influences that govern our behavior. And that’s how we can make change happen.

The authors lay to rest the myth that willpower is all we need to make a change in our lives. We need more than grit and determination to alter behaviors, and the book offers four strategies to do that.

  • Identify Crucial Moments: Identify the specific temptations that distract you from your primary goal.
  • Create Vital Behaviors: Establish rules for avoiding temptations in advance of the time you encounter them.
  • Engage All Six Sources of Influence: Change your environment, for example, and turn your enablers into allies.
  • Turn Bad Days into Good Data: Don’t use failures as a reason to give up. Learn from them and push on.

The book is full of interesting, well-written case studies about people who’ve made dramatic changes in their lives, from shaking a bad habit to making career changes. More than anything, the book gives you a roadmap for making just about any change you decide on. And who couldn’t use that every now and then?

I liked the book so much that I recorded a podcast with one of the book’s authors, David Maxfield. I’ll let you know when it’s available.

This book’s a keeper.

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Book Review: Speaking PowerPoint

By on May 4, 2011 in Books, Speaking

michael mclaughlinWhen I started reading Bruce Gabrielle’s book, Speaking PowerPoint: The New Language of Business, I was skeptical. I wasn’t sure I could get through another book about PowerPoint, especially since there are so many good ones out there already.

But Gabrielle’s book grabbed and held my attention–once I understood its purpose: To offer design techniques for presentations targeted at boardroom audiences (decision makers), not ballroom audiences (conference attendees).

That is, the presentation design techniques in the book help the reader build presentations for audiences who will actually use the slides for discussion and decision making. Think final presentations for consulting clients, for example.

Gabrielle calls his approach the Mindworks Presentation Method, and it includes three parts: Story, Slide, and Design. The book emphasizes the logical structure of a persuasive presentation and uses lots of examples to demonstrate the important concepts. Toward the end of the book, I was able to use Gabrielle’s method to diagnose the problems with the example slides included in the book.

In the back of the book, Gabrielle included a Mindworks Presentation Method Manager’s Checklist, which is a handy reference guide to keep nearby as you prepare a presentation.

Many of you are highly experienced, so you’re probably already doing a lot of what Gabrielle suggests. Even so, you’ll learn plenty of new techniques from this book. I know I did. This one’s a keeper.

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Book Review: Rainmaking Conversations

By on April 19, 2011 in Books, Selling

Mike Schultz and John Doerr, co-founders of the RAIN Group, just published their second book, Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation. The book joins the growing list of sales books on the market, but there’s something different about this one.

Focus on Conversations

The central idea of the book is that the decisions customers make about buying are driven by the quality of the conversations they have with sellers. Most sellers understand this idea, but Schultz and Doerr shine a new light on the subject by showing how everything we do prepares us (or doesn’t) for the all-important sales conversation. With the sales conversation as the book’s organizing principle, the reader can easily see how the strategies and tactics in the book help to win the sale.

Help with the Process and Psychology of Selling

You’ll find lots of practical advice in the book, like how to handle sales on the phone, how to prepare for a meeting, and how to diagnose customer problems. But, early in the book, the authors discuss the importance of the seller’s motivations, goals, and attitude to becoming a rainmaker. The main message: you are the key to your success as a seller. And they offer tools to help you think about and achieve that success.

Full of Hidden Gems

Rainmaking Conversations includes interesting sections on the role of influence in the sale, how to build that influence with customers, and techniques for co-creating solutions to customer problems. Schultz and Doerr also offer a framework that can help you develop your own style for dealing with the inevitable customer objection. There’s a real-world feel to the wisdom in this book. You realize these gems weren’t concocted out of thin air, but from the authors’ decades of combined experience.

Reader-Friendly

Schultz and Doerr really understand how people are reading these days, so the book is a good combination of valuable lists, tables, and longer explanatory text. This is a book that you can scan to find the subject you want, or you can read the book from front to back. Sometimes, all you need is a reminder before a meeting, and the book is set up so you can access what you need.

I’ve read this book twice, and I found new ideas in the second reading that I missed the first time through. I liked the book and I think you will too.

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Ann Handley on Content Rules

By on February 25, 2011 in Books, Managing Your Business, Marketing, Podcasts

I interviewed Ann Handley, author of the fast-selling new book, Content Rules, How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.

Ann is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, which provides strategic and tactical marketing know-how for hundreds of thousands of marketing and business professionals through a full range of online media. We talked about the concepts in her new book, with an emphasis on the specific tactics any of us can implement to build a more effective content.

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Interview: Maureen Broderick

By on January 17, 2011 in Books, Managing Your Business, Podcasts

For the January issue of Management Consulting News, I  talked with Maureen Broderick, author of The Art of Managing Professional Services: Insights from Leaders of the World’s Top Firms. In the book, she draws on more than 130 in-depth interviews with top firm leaders to find out what it takes to build a highly successful practice. I asked Broderick what surprised her the most in her research, and about the key challenges firm leaders face today.

Get our podcast interview with Maureen Broderick.

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Interview with Nick Morgan

By on December 11, 2010 in Books, Management Consulting News, Podcasts, Speaking

“Audiences find lists irritating, but they love attitude and perspective.” – Nick Morgan

For this month’s issue of Management Consulting News, I interviewed communication expert and speaking coach, Nick Morgan. He’s the author of the ebook, 7 Steps to a Great Speech, and the books Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma and Give Your Speech, Change the World: How to Move Your Audience to Action. I asked Morgan for his best advice on preparing and delivering a great speech every time.

Get my (podcast) interview with Nick Morgan (~16 minutes).

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Leading Professionals

By on December 1, 2010 in Books, Managing Your Business

With so many books on the market about leadership, I thought I’d share the four that top my list. The first two, written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, are among the best research-based books on this topic. These books are well-written and full of practical advice.

The other two books on my list are focused on the challenges of leading teams of professionals. They both highlight the unique issues leaders must address in their efforts to build productive teams of professionals.

Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.

The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.

Leading the Professionals: How to Inspire and Motivate Professional Service Teams, by Geoff Smith.

When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance, by Thomas J. DeLong, John J. Gabarro, and Robert J. Lees.

If you are interested in learning more, have a look at my interviews with James Kouzes and Thomas DeLong for Management Consulting News:

Read my Interview with James Kouzes.

Read my Interview with Thomas DeLong.

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Selling Your Ideas

By on November 29, 2010 in Books, Selling

If you’re working on projects, selling your services, or just trying to get things done, you know the importance of selling your ideas to others. Want to improve your skills in getting people to hear, accept, and act on your ideas? Check out the  five superb books below on the subject.

Naturally, there are other resources out there, but these are at the top of my current list. If you have books that you believe should be on the list, let me know.

Here are my five suggestions (in no particular order):

The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics, by Michael Maslansky, Scott West, Gary DeMoss, and David Saylor.

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, and Roger Fisher.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam

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Managing Projects: Resources

By on November 1, 2010 in Books, Managing Projects

It’s always startling to read about the high failure rate of projects, whether they are IT projects or some other kind. Some researchers report that project failure rates can be as high as 70%. Fortunately, there are some very smart people thinking about how to help project teams boost their probability of success. Here are four books that I think can help any project leader or team get projects done on-time, within budget, and with the expected results. This list is far from exhaustive, so if you have others, let me know.

Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People, by Ken Watanabe. In this short, easy-to-read book, Watanabe explains the ins and outs of effective problem solving. The book began as a simple guide to help Japanese school children develop their critical thinking skills and it quickly became a best seller among adults. Watanabe uses his background as a McKinsey consultant to show readers interesting ways to organize their thinking, make decisions, and communicate those decisions to others.

Tools for Project Management, Workshops and Consulting: A Must-Have Compendium of Essential Tools and Techniques, by Nicolai Andler. (Note: an updated version is due out in March 2011.) If you’re running a project or a workshop, this book is a solid guide for making your job easier. You’ll find about 100 tools you can use–or customize–to most any project situation. Think of this book as an idea-jogger and reference tool. Be warned: It isn’t a book for the beach. It’s a rigorous and comprehensive review of dozens of valuable tools.

Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Managemen, by Scott Berkun. So many project management books are written from a theoretical perspective. There aren’t a lot of projects that operate as smoothly as some of the literature out there would have us believe. Berkun’s book doesn’t serve up another dry dissertation on project leadership, but a hands-on guide to managing the day-to-day issues that project managers face. His advice is practical, timeless, and well worth reading. I interviewed Berkun for Management Consulting News. Here’s a link to that interview.

Strategic Project Management Made Simple: Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams, by Terry Schmidt. I’m not sure that the type of projects that Schmidt writes about are simple to manage, but he gives us a range of innovative tools to clarify project intent, form the right teams, plan the work, and lead the project.

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Do You Have What It Takes to Write a Book?

By on September 20, 2010 in Books, Managing Your Business

Nonfiction book publisher, Adams Media, announced a book publishing opportunity for business professionals. Adams is conducting the “Make a Book Your Business” contest to find a great business book writer. The publisher is looking for professionals who have great ideas and want to see those ideas in a published book.

Participants must submit a 200-250 word description of their book ideas and 150 words describing their intended audiences by November 15, 2010. Adams will announce the winner on December 31, 2010.

The winner will get a book contract, the help of a professional business writer, and a PR campaign. The contest offers a chance for Adams to discover a new business writer and for aspiring authors to get their proposals in front of an appropriate publisher, which is a challenge in today’s publishing world.

There is an entry fee for the contest–$250–which includes a free tutorial with the Writer’s Digest webinar, “3 Secrets to Getting Your Nonfiction Book Published.”

To learn more, visit adamsmedia.com/writing-competitions.

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