Business at The Beach - Summer Business Reads

Traditional thinkers will tell you that “beach reads” are realm of thrillers, mysteries and other lighter fare. While I love a good thriller, I for one think sand between my toes should not limit my ability or desire to learn. Here are a stack of my recommendations for business books to take along on your next jaunt to a sandy stretch or wherever you choose to relax and unwind; some might even give you inspiration for when you head back to the grind.

The Obstacle Is The Way – Ryan Holiday (Portfolio Books)

I love the basic concept of this book and the fact that I think anybody in business can relate to the idea putting maybe too much effort into avoiding that issue, project, or report that stares at us from the corner of the office. As much as we hope, wish, ignore or just generally try to avoid it, it never really goes away and with the passing of time it starts to loom even larger.

In The Obstacle Is The Way, author Ryan Holiday shows us how to avoid the traps of fear, frustration, confusion, helplessness and even anger and find our way to the answer that more often than not is part and parcel of the issue that we are stymied by. Simply put, you can’t avoid your way to success, but you can apply the same principles have put into play by successful leaders stretching back to the Roman Empire.

This is a great read for wherever you are in your leadership career; just starting out on the leadership track, mid-cycle looking to take that next step or a seasoned pro seeking new inspiration to fuel your fire.

Mistakes I Made at Work – Edited by Jessica Bacal (Plume Books)  

I am always intrigued by trends or what I perceive as a trend and their seems to be a noticeable movement in the business world to celebrate…failure! Well maybe celebrate is a strong word, but recently there have been a number of pretty solid books that at the very least highlight, the opposite of success.

While not necessarily focusing on failure, Jessica Bacal has done an admirable job of getting 25 women from widely varied fields with equally diverse levels of success to sit down and talk on the record about some of their less than stellar moments in the workplace in Mistakes I Made at Work. Along the way Bacal also avoids falling into a rut of all too similar areas of business misadventure.

I found her approach of doing a brief set up of each of the participants background/careers, followed by the subject putting things in their own words and then wrapping the short essays with a handful of bullet point takeaways to be easy to digest and an effective tools for sharing useful information.

The Elements of Journalism – Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel (Three Rivers Press)

Certainly not a “traditional” business book, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel are the authors of The Elements of Journalism, what is widely considered one of the definitive treatises on journalism. In this revised and updated third edition of the book Kovach and Rosenstiel have accounted for the changing journalistic landscape to include the exponential growth of social media.

With the rise of content marketing, native advertising and business news operations, this makes for a great primer for those who are approaching content development and production from a non-journalism background. Re-reading this classic provided me with a handful of aha moments that I can put to use in my own content marketing operation.

Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Greg McKeown (Brown Business Books)

If you’re old enough to remember The Ed Sullivan Show, then you likely also remember the amazing talents of Erich Brenn, a regular on the show, famous for his act where he kept a set of plates spinning on sticks. (You can search YouTube if you’ve never seen it.) Anyone who is part of the current, “do more with less approach” to business can probably relate to Mr. Brenn’s often frantic, frenetic challenge to keep the plates spinning.

Now Greg McKeown, cited as a “leading essentialist” offers up Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, but don’t confuse this with a way to get more things done in less time, or to better manage your calendar; it really boils down to a new approach to thinking that focuses your efforts only on what truly matters. Those essentials are where the wins are and are the things that produce your highest level of satisfaction.

Imagine a world where all of the extraneous (for lack of a better word) bullshit that so often bogs us down was cast out and your energy could be focused on those essential elements. It’s an appealing thought, but it possible to be within reach? That’s where the biggest challenge lies for most of us.

Duct Tape Selling – Think Like A Marketer – Sell Like a Superstar – John Jantsch (Portfolio Books)

Does the thought of picking up the phone and making a cold call leave you shaky and busting out in a cold sweat? Does trying to make a sales script sound “natural” push you to the brink of your sanity? Then John Jantsch may have the perfect solution to your woes in the form of Duct Tape Selling -Think Like A Marketer – Sell Like a Superstar.

Jantsch plays a high value on becoming a subject matter expert and then connects the dots between developing and executing a platform and converting that expertise into sales. While there are plenty of books detailing content marketing and platform, Jantsch makes the missing connection to actual conversion. Content without conversion is just more stuff and nobody is looking for more stuff! This is truly where the rubber meets the road.