What Business Books Would You Recommend For Students To Read?

On Tuesday nights, Liz hosts a virtual cocktail party at 7pm at successful-blog.com.  Everyone is welcome and I go for the interesting conversation as well as links to blogs that I wouldn't have found on my own.  Liz sets out the menu of topics but anything is up for discussion. 

This week I asked my fellow bloggers at the party for advice.  I’ve decided to use business books instead of a textbook in an Organizational Behavior class in the spring. Topics in the class include leadership, motivation, communication, organization change, teams, power & politics, etc.  So my question was: what books would they recommend for my students to read?

Both Liz and Tim Johnson recommended two of Steve Farber’s books, Radical Leap and Radical Edge for Extreme Leadership.

Mike stated that Jim Collins' Good to Great "covered many important lessons throughout history" and that The Heart of Change by John Kotter was "simply the best and clearest-written book about organizational change management."

Leon had the idea that I should look at book reviews in other blogs for suggestions.  He's to send relevant ones on to me that he comes across.

Mike Sansone promised to put together a list for me.  One book he did mention was Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation.

And Liz offered to give it more thought and to call me over the weekend if I would give her my phone number.  And she did.  We spent over an hour discussing books and our careers.  She even shared a few pages of her next book with me which I am looking forward to reading.

So...I would like to extend the question to the rest of Liz's network as well as to my own readers.  What books would you recommend that all management students should read?

Comments

[Carolyn Manning]

Excellent idea to remove the textbooks from the classroom. I'd suggest Napoleon Hill, "Think & Grow Rich" and Rajesh Setty, "Beyond Code". Hope that helps some.

Carolyn

[Kent Blumberg]

Here is my list - five useful blogs and five useful books. The links are all in my post at http://kentblumberg.typepad.com/kent_blumberg/2006/11/books_and_blogs.html.

Blogs

My blog on leadership, strategy and performance.

Bob Sutton's "Work Matters" which covers organizational behavior mainly.

Susan Abbott's "Customer Experience Crossroads" all about creating branded experiences.

The "Servant-Leadership Blog" written by the Viterbo University faculty.

"Strategy Central," by Mark Howell about strategy, leadership and mission.

Books

Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management (Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, Harvard Business School Press, 2006, 276 pages). Evidence-based management. Summarized in my July 26 and 28 posts.

Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right (Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, Crown Business, 2004, 272 pages). The most usable model for thinking about business strategy. Summarized in my June 12 post.

Now, Discover Your Strengths (Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Free Press, 2001, 272 pages). Explains the theory of strengths psychology, how to apply it to your own development and that of others. Includes a link to an on line assessment tool to help the reader discover his or her key strengths. Covered in detail in my June 23 post.

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't (Robert I. Sutton, Warner Business Books, February 22, 2007, 224 pages). The impact that jerks have on business success, how to avoid being one and what to do about others who exhibit a*****e behavior. I reviewed an advance copy of this great little book on October 13.

The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors And Closing Deals Online (David Teten and Scott Allen, Amacom, 2005, 270 pages). Covers the full range of Web 2.0 tools and how to use them to build and sustain business. Summarized in my September 11 post.

[Kent Blumberg]

Note - link to my post above won't work, because of the period after html.

This should work:

http://kentblumberg.typepad.com/kent_blumberg/2006/11/books_and_blogs.html

[ann michael]

The list looks pretty good so far. I would endorse anything by Bob Sutton. Weird Ideas that Work is also fantastic. I did an in depth review on it here: http://managetochange.typepad.com/main/2006/08/weird_ideas_tha.html

If your students are new to the concepts of organizational change, The Change Monster (by Jeanie Daniel Duck) is a very easy read with great concepts in it.

Finding a biography of a good leader and emphasizing the leader's qualities, successes and failures might also be a good idea. I have read books on Lincoln, Elizabeth I, and (back in the business spectrum) Carly Fiorina, Lee Iacocca, Howard Shultz, etc. It's always great to point to real people - because they don't get it all right. One of the most important lessons is learning to recover when we mess up - right!

Something by Tom Peters would work on motivation, leadership, management, change - lots of fronts!

I would also select articles from Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and a few others. An FC article by Tim Sanders comes to mind: Love is the Killer App.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/55/love.html

Good Luck!
Ann

[Kenneth W. Davis]

Several recent popular books stress the growing importance of communication in business. Among my favorites are these. (They're also listed in the right column of my blog, at www. Manage Your Writing.com.)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. In this book, the psychologist who gave us the "flow" model applies that model broadly to the leadership of organizations.

Richard Saul Wurman: Information Anxiety 2. The father of "information architecture" beautifully displays specific strategies for fighting the war against info-glut.

Terry Pearce: Leading Out Loud: Inspiring Change Through Authentic Communications. A leading executive coach presents a remarkably deep and broad discussion of leading through communicating with integrity.

Mark H. McCormack: On Communicating. The famed sports marketer shares his street-smarts on effective business communication.

Tom Peters: The Brand You 50. This small book, one of a trilogy called Reinventing Work, offers fifty tools for becoming a "brand," whether as an entrepreneur or as an employee.

Levine, Locke, Searls, and Weinberger: The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual. Born on a Web site, this book signals what I predict will eventually be seen as the biggest change in the history of business communication.

Sam Deep and Lyle Sussman: What to Say to Get What You Want. Almost all business communication guides give us the "how" of speaking and writing. This book gives us the "what," by portraying 44 types of bosses, employees, coworkers, and customers, and advising us on what to say to each.

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Great question Delaney! I left a note by Liz' because I missed this post by you, but I'll offer my quick thought here: have you looked at http://www.personalmba.com ? Josh Kaufman put together quite a list there, published a nice ChangeThis manifesto, and has a TON of resources there that could help you out.

[Delaney Kirk]

Wow! I just got back from teaching a workshop in Michigan and see you all have done all my research for me!! Now...I do have this stack of papers to grade...Seriously, if you happen to be in St Pete, Florida this next semester, I would love to have you as a guest speaker! Or just come by and sit in on one of the classes and see how we're doing with your book choices...

[Delaney Kirk]

Kent, Thanks for the links to your blog with reviews of the books you've mentioned--you're making my job easy!

[Delaney Kirk]

Carolyn,
Thanks for the suggestions. I visited your blog--was impressed and will be back for a more indepth read!

[Delaney Kirk]

Ann,
I love the idea of a biography! I also will be teaching a class on Managing Diversity and was interested in your recent post "Manage To Change Manifesto." Thanks for coming by.

[Delaney Kirk]

Ken--thanks for your list. I'm using Tom Peters's book, Brand You 50 in a management class right now and agree it's a great one for seniors in college to read. I'll check out the rest of your list.

[Delaney Kirk]

Phil, I had not seen this website-thanks for sharing-looks like it will be useful. I've also had several people suggest I use your book in my class also!

[Mike Sansone]

Sorry it's overdue, but here's the list I promised:

Leadership

- Radical Leap, Steve Farber

- Radical Edge, Steve Farber

- The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John Maxwell

- The Wisdom of the Flying Pig, Jack Hayhow

- Virtual Leadership, Jaclyn Kostner

- H.I.M.M. (High Impact Middle Management), Lisa Haneberg

Motivation

- See You At the Top, Zig Ziglar

- Radical Careering, Sally Hogshead

- Becoming a Category of One, Joe Calloway

- Beyond Code, Rajesh Setty

- 10 Ways to Make it Great, Phil Gerbyshak

- Career Intensity, David Lornezo

Communication

- Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, Brian & Jeffrey Eisenberg

- Social Intelligence, Karl Albrecht

- Winning With People, John Maxwell

- Spreading the Ideavirus, Seth Godin

Organizational Change

- Six Disciplines for Excellence, Gary Harpst

- Change the Way you See Everything, Kathryn Cramer

- Mavericks at Work, Wm Taylor

- Business Think, David Marcum

- Alpha Dogs, Donna Fenn

Teamwork

- The Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom Kelley

- The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, John Maxwell

- Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi

- The Virtual Handshake, David Teten

[Delaney Kirk]

Mike,
Great list-thanks! I'm looking forward to reading some of these myself over the Christmas break.

[Mike]

Delaney,

I'll add a couple of suggestions to the great list you've already got. From a web/blog perspective, check out David Maister's work. He's got great insights into all of your topics.

As for books, I'll throw out a business novel, Eli Goldratt's "Critical Chain". It's primarily about project management (which all of your students will no doubt deal with), but shows several examples of organizational resistance and change. As a bonus, it tweaks traditional business school curricula (or is that a bad thing?).

Mike

[Delaney Kirk]

Thanks. I've used Goldratt's The Goal before. Not familiar with this book but will check it out.

[Paul Di Carlo]

Hi

While all the books listed range from good to great, the one book missing is the outsiders view of change and the challenge of 'helping' clients to move forward - Fearless Consulting by Peter Block - an essential read if you want to engage in business change or understand organisational behaviour.

[Delaney Kirk]

Thanks for the suggestion—I haven’t seen this book but will check it out
over the holiday break.