Business Coaching for Owners & Managers of Small Businesses

Books, Journals, Links Here are some books, articles, and links to material that I have found to be very useful. After you have looked around, go to the Make a Suggestion page and send your favorites.

• Drucker, Peter F. , The Effective Executive ( New York: Harper & Row 1966) revised 2002
  Although the language and the examples are now quite dated, this is still my basic text for how to approach the issues facing a General Manager.

• Drucker, Peter F., Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices ( New York:L Harper & Row, 1973)

• Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management ( NY: Harper Perenial 1986)

• Gabarro, John and John P. Kotter, “Managing Your Boss” ( Harvard Business Review, May-June 1993, pp. 150-157) and re-issued as a Harvard Business School Classic.
  Get this out of your library or buy it online.  I first read this in the ’80s when a boss gave it to me as part of his “new boss orientation process” with all of his direct reports. It is a terrific guide the the important practice of thinking “upwards” – training yourself to take the perspective of a problem from several ranks above you. Also important as a guide to being successful by making your boss successful.

• Allen, David, Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity ( NY: Penguin Books 2003) Now almost an industry by itself, if only learn to follow the first rule that says (to paraphrase), “If you come on a task that takes only a minute, do it now. Otherwise, put things in order, file them.”

• Bossidy, Larry and Ram Charan, Confronting Reality: doing what matters to get things right ( New York: Crown Business 2004) This is a much more current book. Like Drucker it focuses on getting the right things done, results.
  

• NIST – Baldrige National Quality Program – Criteria for Performance Excellence.
  For years this has been a standard for building high-performance organizations. It is studied and applied around the world. There are now three versions, Business, Education, and Health Care. Get the most recent revisions and other information on the NIST site.

• Buckingham, Marcus and Donald D. Clifton , Now, Discover Your Strengths (Free Press, New York 2001) A book with a link to a web-based assessment tool. Interesting data-driven take on the drive to focus on strengths. You will be interested in your own profile and then may want to use it with others in your organization.

• Rath, Tom Strengths Finder 2.0 Here is a link to the website (opens new window)
• Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience ( Harper Row, NY: 1990) My friend Gessner Geyer at Brainergy recommended this book to me (in fact he gave me a copy). It describes the processes of “flow” and how we might spend more of our time in a state of “flow”. Now, you might be asking, :”What is this “flow”?” In fact we all have experienced it but we generally can not bring ourselves into it regularly. Flow is those periods in which we are totally involved in some activity. The world seems excluded and all of our energies and faculties are applied to the task we are engaged in. Flow is a state of maximum integration and energy. I have found this very useful in conjunction with my “Seize your Time” approach to time management. (podcast)
  
  
• Goldratt, Eliyahu M. & Jeff Cox, Goal, The: a process of ongoing improvement revised edition ( Croton-on-Hudson, NY: North River Press, 1986) This old standby remains a must read for those who need to learn how to think in a “systems” or “process”. Constraint theory remians a useful heuristic for solving problems.

• Goleman, D. (1998). , Working with Emotional Intelligence. ( New York: Bantam Hardcover.)
• Gronroos, Christian, Service Management and Marketing: managing the moments of truth in service competition ( DC Heath: Lexington Books 1990 Boston)  Service production is growing to be the predominant mode of production in the world. This great book will provide you with a sound theoretical and practical framework to envision your own service production system. Especially valuable are the insights into the customer side of services and Moments of Truth.

• Jacobs, Jane, Cities and the Wealth of Nations A bit of out-of-the-box thinking from one of the more provocative public intellectuals of the 20th century.

• Kegan, Robert. , The evolving self : problem and process in human development
  A great, dense, exciting book about the paths we can follow in our development as human beings. Very valuable for general managers who are interested in broadening their people management horizons. This is another book suggested by my friend Gessner Geyer at Brainergy.

• Keyte, Beau and Drew Locher, The Complete Lean Enterprise: value stream mapping for administrative and office processes ( Productivity Press, NY, NY 2004)  This is a more recent book on Values Stream Mapping. Good accompaniment to Learning To See by Rother and Shook (see below)

• Kindleberger, Charles P. , Manias, Panics, and Crashes: a history of financial crises, fourth edition ( (New York: Wiley 2000)  Why a book about economic history on this list? Just a bit of history that supports what every business manager already knows, markets are not rational nor perfect. Lots of great stories starting with the Tulip Mania in Holland in the 16th century.

• Monden, Yasuhio, Toyota Production System ( Norcross, GA: Industrial Engineering and Management Press)
  This old book is still a great introduction to TPS (Toyota Production System – the underpinnings of Lean)

• Porter, M.E., Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. ( New York: The Free Press. (1985). )
• Rother, Mike and John Shook, Learning to See: value stream mapping to add value and eliminate muda, version 1.1 ( Brookline, MA:Lean Enterprise Institute, 1998) Although value stream mapping is just one among many powerful lean practices, its place at the beginning of many lean ventures makes this book a must read.

• Sternberg, Robert J. , Successful Intelligence: how practical and creative intelligence determine success in life ( Penguin Putnam)  Building an awareness of the complexity of the intelligences of people is a strong first step to being more successful in managing people.

• Suzaki, Kiyoshi, The New Manufacturing Challenge: Techniques for Continuous Improvement ( New York: The Free Press, 1987) A very practical, hands-on guide to many lean practices.

• Womack, J.P., D.T. Jones, & D. Roos, Machine That Changed The Word, The: the story of lean production ( Harper Collins, New York, 1991) The background story of how Lean came into being.
  
• Womack, James P. and Daniel T, Jones, Lean Thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation ( NY: Simon&Schuster, 1997)  Although not up to date, this is still a very worthwhile introduction to the American version of the Toyota Production System.