Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Top 5 Best Business Books


If you’re a business entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur, chances are that at some point you will pick up a book full of great business advice. Sometimes we learn from our own experiences and mistakes, but it’s also good (and less painful) to look at some of the lessons others can pass on to us because of their experiences.

But where to start? There are lots and lots of books out there, and sometimes it can be hard to decipher which ones are winners and which are duds. Here’s a list and short synopsis of Amazon’s best five business books:

1.     Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins—This book explores the answer to the question of what makes a company achieve enduring greatness. Through five years of studies and comparisons, Collins and his team attempt to define what puts some companies above others.

2.     The One Thing You Need To Know:…About Great Managing, Great Lending, and Sustained Individual Success by Marcus Buckingham—What leads to outstanding achievement? Marcus Buckingham shares with readers invaluable lessons on how to succeed in the three most valuable areas of professional activity: management, lending, and individual success.

3.     The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni—In this instructive leadership fable, Lencioni explores the trials and tribulations of teams—and how to triumph over them.

4.     First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham—Another compelling read by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, this book explores how great managers break all the rules to find talented employees, set up expectations for them, motivate them, and develop them.

5.     Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink—In his newest book, Daniel H. Pink looks deeper into our humanity for what motivates us—and finds that our motivation is dominated by our need for control over our lives, continued learning, creativity, and becoming better people in a better world.