Library Worklife

Volume 2, No. 5 • May 2005

Work/Life

How-to Books for Improving Employee Morale Through Effective Leadership

Compiled by Casey Schacher

As politics heat up and the economy slows down, many employees suffer from low morale with little hope of recovery. They look toward their leaders to guide them through these times. Consequently, effective leadership has become ever more important but also increasingly difficult.

Perhaps one of the best resources for library professionals, including managers and directors, to develop their leadership skills is through the library’s life-blood: books! Thousands of books have been published that share new and inventive ways for managers and directors to lead their employees while boosting spirits and utilizing existing, but untapped, resources. So many exist, in fact, that the seemingly endless list proves challenging to maneuver. Below is information on selected best-selling books that will help library professionals direct their libraries toward a better tomorrow.

Please, let us know how you have made these or other books work for your library! Write Jenifer Grady, ALA-APA director, at jgrady@ala.org.

Best-Selling Business Advice Books (selected)¹

Title: Now, Discover Your Strengths: How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage

Author: Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.

Synopsis (from the Publisher):

Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our talents and strengths, much less the ability to build our lives around them. Instead, guided by our parents, by our teachers, by our managers, and by psychology’s fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.

Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of the national bestseller First, Break All the Rules, and Donald O. Clifton, Chair of the Gallup International Research & Education Center, have created a revolutionary program to help readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance. At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion-dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. The program introduces 34 dominant themes with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success. In developing this program, Gallup has conducted psychological profiles with more than two million individuals to help readers learn how to focus and perfect these themes.

So how does it work? This book contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. This Web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful signature themes. Once you know which of the 34 themes—such as Achiever, Activator, Empathy, Futuristic, or Strategic—you lead with, the book will show you how to leverage them for powerful results at three levels: for your own development, for your success as a manager, and for the success of your organization.

With accessible and profound insights on how to turn talents into strengths, and with the immediate on-line feedback of StrengthsFinder at its core, Now, Discover Your Strengths is one of the most groundbreaking and useful business books ever written.²

Ranking:

Barnes and Noble, # 4.
The New York Times, # 9.

Product Details:

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Free Press, The ( January 2001 )
ISBN: 0743201140

Author Website: www.marcusbuckingham.com

Where to Buy³ (prices subject to change):

Overstock.com: $16.90 + $1.40 S&H
Walmart.com: $15.89 + $5.54 S&H
Barnesandnoble.com: $19.60 + $ 9.48 S&H

Title: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

Author: Stephen R. Covey

Synopsis (from the Publisher):

That the world has changed and is continuing to change at a rapid pace is not news. People are much more aware of everything around them. The consumer revolution has accelerated dramatically. But something vital is missing in all of this change.

Leadership has not kept up with the changes going on in the world. From boardrooms to classrooms, leadership is being challenged on a daily basis yet no new leadership model has been given. In this new, important work, best-selling author Stephen R. Covey offers ideas of how leadership roles have changed and how one can take on the roles of the new leader.

Dr. Covey introduces the 4 roles of the new leader—modeling, path finding, aligning and empowering—and how those qualities can change you and your organization. He discusses how trust can be lost throughout organizations and how it is imperative that any organization brings trust back to the company if it is to survive. Covey also shows how to go from what he calls a “want to” person to a can-do person and how doing so can completely transform people and organizations.

Through his ideas, one will discover how to:

Use the four vital roles to establish trust and make growth a given
Build and sustain an atmosphere of respect and openness
Keep and inspire your most talented workers
Apply creative cooperation to reach new levels of performance
Stay more “promotable”
Develop leadership at every level of your organization
Take advantage of strengths and compensate for weakness
Reduce cynicism and improve morale
Stay flexible and focused to recognize larger opportunities.⁴

Ranking:

The New York Times: #15

Product Details:

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group ( November 2004 )
ISBN: 0684846659

Author Website: http://stevencovey.com

Where to Buy (prices subject to change):

Overstock.com: $9.48 + $1.40 S&H
Amazon.com: $8.59 + $3.49 S&H
Barnesandnoble.com: $18.20 + $3.99 S&H

Title: Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Synopsis (from the Publisher):

In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point , Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant— in the blink of an eye—that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work—in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”—filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology and displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.⁵

Ranking:

Barnes and Noble, #1.

Product Details:

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company ( January 2005 )
ISBN: 0316172324

Author Website: www.gladwell.com

Where to Buy (prices subject to change):

Overstock.com: $ 13.27 + $1.40 S&H
Buy.com: $12.97 + $2.40 S&H
Barnesandnoble.com: $15.57 + $9.48 S&H

Title: Winning

Author: Jack Welch and Suzy Welch

Synopsis (from the Publisher):

Jack Welch knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits.

Since Welch retired in 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer of GE, he has traveled the world, speaking to more than 250,000 people and answering their questions on dozens of wide-ranging topics.

Inspired by his audiences and their hunger for straightforward guidance, Welch has written both a philosophical and pragmatic book, which is destined to become the bible of business for generations to come. It clearly lays out the answers to the most difficult questions people face both on and off the job.

Welch’s objective is to speak to people at every level of an organization, in companies large and small. His audience is everyone from line workers to MBAs, from project managers to senior executives. His goal is to help everyone who has a passion for success.

Welch begins Winning with an introductory section called “Underneath It All,” which describes his business philosophy. He explores the importance of values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity for all.

The core of Winning is devoted to the real “stuff” of work. This main part of the book is split into three sections. The first looks inside the company, from leadership to picking winners to making change happen. The second section looks outside, at the competition, with chapters on strategy, mergers, and Six Sigma, to name just three. The next section of the book is about managing your career—from finding the right job to achieving work-life balance.

Welch’s optimistic, no excuses, get-it-done mind-set is riveting. Packed with personal anecdotes and written in Jack’s distinctive no b.s. voice, Winning offers deep insights, original thinking, and solutions to nuts-and-bolts problems that will change the way people think about work.⁶

Ranking:

Barnes and Noble, #2.

Product Details:

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers ( April 2005 )
ISBN: 0060753943

Author Website: www.straightfromthegut.com/index/index.html

Where to Buy (prices subject to change):

Half.com: $14.34 + $ 3.25 S&H
Amazon.com: $12.99 + $3.49 S&H
Barnesandnoble.com: $16.77 + $3.99 S&H

References

Book titles from lists compiled separately by Barnes and Noble Online and by The New York Times. Arranged by author’s last name and referenced as follows:

Barnes and Noble. "Business Life and Careers: Best Sellers." http://browse.barnesandnoble.com/browse/nav.asp?userid=Ac0wlLNB4r&bncatid=914505&visgrp=nonfiction. (accessed May 2, 2005).

Hardcover Business Best Sellers." New York Times , April 3, 2005. www.nytimes.com/ (accessedApril 19, 2005).
Simon and Schuster, Inc. "Description."www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=412203. (accessed April 19, 2005).
All prices are taken from Addall.com, a book and price comparison search engine of major online bookstores. Prices are subject to change. Shipping and Handling fees (S&H) are approximations. Actual fees are based off of destination.

Addall. "Price Comparison Search. www.addall.com. (accessed May 2, 2005).
Simon and Schuster, Inc. "Inside the Cover." www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=500512. (accessed April 19, 2005).
Time Warner. "Description." www.twbookmark.com/books/58/1586217194/index.html. (accessed May 2, 2005).
HarperCollins. "Book Description." www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060753943. (accessed May 2, 2005).