andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

The Balance Myth

the-balance-myth


The Balance Myth: Rethinking Work-Life Success
by Teresa A. Taylor

Teresa Taylor is a former COO of a Qwest Communications. She writes about how she navigated her career while also juggling the demands of her personal life as a wife and mother of two boys.  As the title implies, she found that “trying to achieve this mythical ‘balance’ simply causes us endless frustration.” She uses layers of clothing as an analogy. You can add or remove layers to adapt to changing circumstances. “Thinking in layers allows you to integrate your work and your personal time to create one life and one family.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Career

Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters

success-built-to-last


Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters
by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, Mark Thompson

This book is about common traits of what the authors call “enduringly successful people” or “builders.”  The findings are the result of original research.

“The traditional definition of success was resoundingly trounced in this survey, as well as our personal interviews… Nowhere in the dictionary definition do you find any reference to finding meaning, fulfillment, happiness, and lasting relationships. No mention of feeling fully alive while engaged and connected with a calling that matters to you.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

The Dollarization Discipline

the-dollarization-discipline


The Dollarization Discipline: How Smart Companies Create Customer Value… and Profit from It
by Jeffrey J. Fox and Richard C. Gregory

Dollarization “is figuring out what your offering is really worth—in dollars and cents—to your customer.”   The book discusses the role of dollarization in sales, marketing, and product development.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, General

Everything Is Miscellaneous

everything-is-miscellaneous


Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
by David Weinberger

In the past, physical limitations led to classifications systems in which everything was forced into a single category. A library patron needed to know which shelf contained a particular book, so each book was assigned a category within the Dewey Decimal system. In the digital world, it is more useful for things to have multiple classifications.

“Reality is multifaceted. There are lots of ways to slice it. How we choose to slice it up depends on why we’re slicing it up.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

The Kindness Revolution

the-kindness-revolution


The Kindness Revolution: The Company-Wide Culture Shift that Inspires Phenomenal Customer Service
by Ed Horrell

Ed Horrell writes about poor customer service in American business. “What is really surprising, however, is the number of companies that view service as the item to cut in order to make more money. They decide to focus on getting new customers at the expense of keeping existing customers loyal… They lose sight of the fact that it usually costs around five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. ”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

The Truth about Search Engine Optimization

the-truth-about-SEO


The Truth about Search Engine Optimization
by Rebecca Lieb

The Truth about Search Engine Optimization explains what will improve your website’s visibility within organic search results. Just as importantly, it explains what can get your site penalized by the search engines. If you are looking for a programming manual with lots of sample code, this is the wrong book for you. Think of it as an overview of SEO for the CEO.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Confessions of an Accidental Businessman

confessions-of-an-accidental-businessman


Confessions of an Accidental Businessman: It Takes a Lifetime to Find Wisdom
by James A. Autry

James Autry worked his way up from copy editor of Better Homes and Gardens to president of the magazine division. This memoir gets off to a slow start talking about his childhood and military service, but it gets more interesting when he starts to focus on his publishing career.

There are some memorable lines in this book:

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management, Psychology & Neuroscience

What Keeps Leaders Up at Night

what-keeps-leaders-up-at-night


What Keeps Leaders Up at Night: Recognizing and Resolving Your Most Troubling Management Issues
by Nicole Lipkin

In this excellent book, clinical psychologist Nicole Lipkin explains the psychology behind many of the human behaviors that affect productivity and sound decision making in the workplace. “Good leadership requires dealing effectively with messy, quirky, unpredictable, confusing, irrational, and clumsy people. That is what makes the business of leadership so insanely difficult and complex.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

The One Thing

the-one-thing


The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan

This book is about finding your focus and making it your top priority in order to achieve extraordinary results.  Identifying your focus comes from asking The Focusing Question: “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?”

“The Focusing Question is a double-duty question. It comes in two forms: big picture and small focus. One is about finding the right direction in life and the other is about finding the right action.”

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