Book Recommendations
I have been really impressed by Susan Scott's book "Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time". I don't think I have been so excited about a book since I read Nancy Kline's "Time to Think." (see below)
To quote the jacket blurb, Fierce Conversations illuminates the path to a new degree of authenticity, a new way of expressing who you are and what you believe as a person and a leader.
Check it out on Amazon UK by clicking on the following link: Amazon.co.uk: Fierce Conversations
A book which I use all the time is Nancy Kline's "Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind". It is one of those rare books which I can hardly live without. You may well already have a well-thumbed copy in your office or living room, but if you haven't then you owe it to yourself to read it. It's full of extremely useful advice about all aspects of listening to other people in order to bring out the best in them. And in the process you yourself will grow.
Of course if you don't have (and don't want) any clients, employees, colleagues, family or friends then you won't need it -- but the rest of us can check it out at Amazon.co.uk: Time to Think
"Get Clients Now" is not just theory -- I know several people who say their businesses have been transformed by it. So if you are a coach, a consultant, an architect, a lawyer, a dentist, an osteopath or in any other client-based business, check it out at Amazon.co.uk: Get Clients Now
Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" has been a ceaseless source of inspiration to me since I bought my now very dog-eared copy. I've been right through the twelve week course twice (no, I didn't do every exercise!). And the "morning pages" she describes have been at the root of my own creativity for years. As well as an excellent book for individuals it is brilliant done as a group. It is also a mine of useful exercises even when you are not doing it as a formal course.
In a way I feel it's a bit of a waste of time writing this review because I can hardly believe that any reader of this website wouldn't already own this book. But if by some mischance you are one of the few who has missed out so far you can check it out at Amazon.co.uk: The Artist's Way
For anyone who has ever had ambitions to be a writer, the essential book to read is Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within". I first read it more than ten years ago and still use the methods given in it all the time. It's not so much learning how to write as finding out that you already are a writer.
It's one of those marvellous books, like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which succeed in giving you that "I can do it! I can do it!" feeling you got when you first learnt to stay upright on a bicycle.
Check it out at Amazon.co.uk: : Writing Down the Bones
I'd just about finished my first attempt at writing this review when my computer crashed and I lost the lot. In the past I would have screamed and shouted at the wretched machine, but this time I just rebooted and started again without turning a hair. How did I accomplish this amazing feat of mind control? By using the techniques described by Dr. Patricia Carrington in her book The Power of Letting Go: A Practical Approach to Releasing the Pressures in Your Life. If you've heard of the Sedona Method, her approach is very similar but at about a twentieth of the price. And it really works! Check it out at Amazon.co.uk: : The Power of Letting Go
If you've benefited from the Inner Game books to improve your tennis or your golf game, then Timothy Gallwey's The Inner Game of Work: Overcoming Mental Obstacles for Maximum Performance is the one that can improve your work game. There are loads of lessons to be learned from this book, but the one that has most influenced me is the crucial role of observation and feed-back in improving any desired quality. It's the sort of book that one needs to re-read at regular intervals because you will learn something new every time you pick it up. Learn about Self 1 and Self 2, the STOP Tool, the Critical Variable and many other practical ways of transforming the way you work -- and think!
Check it out at Amazon.co.uk: : The Inner Game of Work
Getting Business to Come to You by Paul & Sarah Edwards and Laura Clampitt Douglas is the most useful and comprehensive guide to growing a business that I have yet come across. It's a big thick book and there is an immense amount of information and guidance in it. However you don't have to read the whole thing (though it wouldn't do any harm if you did!). Each chapter is pretty well self-contained. I have read complete books by other authors which have been less help than some of the individual chapters. In particular the chapter on "Niching -- Deciding What You Want to Become Known For" is in my opinion worth the book's price on its own. I built my own business using just a few of the principles in this book, and I never fail to get something new out of it every time I look in it.
Check it out at Amazon.co.uk: : Getting Business to Come to You
Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Still Don’t Work and What You Can Do About Yours is the book for anyone starting or trying to improve a small business. He deals with all the mistakes that small business owners habitually make, and shows how to build your business systematically. The classic trap for a small business is that when you finally start getting clients, you become so busy that you no longer pay attention to where the business is going. This can mean that you end up working all hours of the day and night for nothing like a sufficient reward. If this describes your situation (or if you want to avoid getting into it), then you need this book!
Check it out at Amazon.co.uk: E-Myth Revisited
Nathaniel Branden’s The Art of Living Consciously is a book which I have read several times. I don’t for a moment agree with everything he says, but he is always thought provoking and a fine antidote to some of the less rigorous thinking that goes around in the self-help field.
Particularly valuable are the sentence completion exercises included in the book. There is a 22-week program Facilitating Living Consciously and a 20-week program on Facilitating High Performance in a business context. My favourite quote from the book: “Honouring one’s true wants can be not an act of self-indulgence but an act of courage.”
Check it out at Amazon.co.uk: The Art of Living Consciously
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