{"id":32,"date":"2006-08-18T18:49:23","date_gmt":"2006-08-18T22:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/?p=32"},"modified":"2009-02-20T13:07:22","modified_gmt":"2009-02-20T18:07:22","slug":"my-top-recommended-reading-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/32\/my-top-recommended-reading-list","title":{"rendered":"My Top Recommended Reading List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The following is a list of ONLY my top reading recommendations. I know the list looks long, but I assure you these are just the very best out of my library. I have put the symbol ** behind my absolute favorites. If after you go through the list, if you notice that I am missing a book that you really love \u2013 <strong>please send me a note with the title<\/strong>, I am always on the look out for excellent books!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><strong>Top books on leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis<\/li>\n<li>The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner **<\/li>\n<li>Primal Leadership by Goleman<\/li>\n<li>Leader to Leader by Hesselbin from the Drucker Foundation<\/li>\n<li>The Leader of the Future by Hesselbin et all, from the Drucker Foundation<\/li>\n<li>Flight of the Buffalo by James Belasco **<\/li>\n<li>Servant Leadership by Greenleaf **<\/li>\n<li>Leading People by Rosen and Brown **<\/li>\n<li>Authentic Leadership by Bill George **<\/li>\n<p><em>All of these are superb \u2014 I have another 50 when you finish these!<\/em><\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on ability to generate sales<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham **<\/li>\n<li>The SPIN Selling Fieldbook by Neil Rackham (very powerful)<\/li>\n<li>Integrity Selling by Ron Willingham **<\/li>\n<li>Relationship Selling by Jim Cathcart<\/li>\n<li>Changing the Game by Wilson<\/li>\n<li>Consultative Selling by Hanna **<\/li>\n<li>The Little Red Selling Book by Jeffery Gitomer (not the one on sales answers)<\/li>\n<li>Stop Telling \u2013 Start Selling by Linda Richardson<\/li>\n<li>How To Be A Rainmaker by Jeffery Fox (not his other How to\u2026 books)<\/li>\n<li>Getting In to Your Customer\u2019s Head by Kevin Davis<\/li>\n<li>Customers as Partners by Chip Bell<\/li>\n<li>Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith ** (great for selling services or virtual products)<\/li>\n<li>Question-Based Selling Thomas Freese **<\/li>\n<li>Bottom-Line Selling by Jack Malcolm (superb for understanding a customer\u2019s financials)<\/li>\n<li>Again \u2013 there are another 20 to add to this list \u2013 but these are a great start<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on running a great company \/ general business knowledge<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good to Great by Jim Collins **<\/li>\n<li>Built to Last by Jim Collins<\/li>\n<li>Results Rule! By Randy Pennington **<\/li>\n<li>Think Big \u2013 Act Small by Jason Jennings<\/li>\n<li>Great Places to Work by Levering<\/li>\n<li>What Really Works by Joyce<\/li>\n<li>What the Best CEO\u2019s Know by Krames<\/li>\n<li>In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters<\/li>\n<li>A Passion for Excellence by Tom Peters<\/li>\n<li>Liberation Management by Tom Peters<\/li>\n<li>Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter by Clarke **<\/li>\n<li>The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack **<\/li>\n<li>The Ten day MBA by Steven Silbiger<\/li>\n<li>Teaching the Elephant to Dance by James Belasco<\/li>\n<li>If Aristotle ran General Motors by Tom Morris<\/li>\n<li>Touchstones by William Band<\/li>\n<li>The Knowing-Doing-Gap by Pfeffer and Sutton<\/li>\n<li>The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman<\/li>\n<li>The Goal by Goldratt<\/li>\n<li>Tough Management by Martin<\/li>\n<li>Small Giants by Burlingham<\/li>\n<li>Warfighting by U.S. Marine Corps Staff \u2013 Gen. Gray **<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on customer service<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At America\u2019s Service by Karl Albrecht **<\/li>\n<li>Service America by Karl Albrecht **<\/li>\n<li>Customers for Life by Carl Sewell **<\/li>\n<li>Quality is Free by Philip Crosby<\/li>\n<li>Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service by Bell &#038; Zemke<\/li>\n<li>Managing Knock Your Socks Off service by Bell &#038; Zemke<\/li>\n<li>The Service Edge by Zemke<\/li>\n<li>Lesson in Excellence from Charlie Trotter by Clarke (also above in general business books)<\/li>\n<li>The Customer Driven Company by Richard Whiteley **<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on negotiation<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Negotiate THIS by Herb Cohen<\/li>\n<li>Think Before You Speak, by Lewicki<\/li>\n<li>Getting To Yes, Fisher, Ury<\/li>\n<li>Negotiating Rationally by Bazerman and Neale<\/li>\n<li>Gain the Edge by Martin E. Latz<\/li>\n<li>The Intelligent Negotiator by Craver<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on team building<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenbach and Smith**<\/li>\n<li>The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on dealing with conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Crucial Conversations by Patterson<\/li>\n<li>Difficult Conversations by Stone<\/li>\n<li>Crucial Confrontations by Patterson<\/li>\n<li>Effective Communication Skills for Scientific and Technical Professionals by Chambers<\/li>\n<li>The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense by Elgin<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top biographies of people who have built successful businesses<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nuts \u2014 about Southwest Airlines<\/li>\n<li>Pour Your Heart into It \u2014 about Starbucks &#8211; by Howard Schultz<\/li>\n<li>Who Says Elephants Can\u2019t Dance \u2014 by Lou Gerstner<\/li>\n<li>Moments of Truth by Jan Carlson**<\/li>\n<li>Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove<\/li>\n<li>Augustine\u2019s Laws by Norm Augustine<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top books on life balance, self-motivation, happiness and success<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A Strategy for Daily Living &#8211; by Ari Kiev **<\/li>\n<li>Quantum Leap Thinking by James Mapes<\/li>\n<li>Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders (yes, this is a business book)<\/li>\n<li>Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill<\/li>\n<li>As a Man Thinkth by James Allen **<\/li>\n<li>Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey **<\/li>\n<li>Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins<\/li>\n<li>True Success by Tom Morris<\/li>\n<li>Learned Optimism by Dr. Martin Seligman<\/li>\n<li>Taking Responsibility by Nathaniel Brandon<\/li>\n<li>The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz<\/li>\n<li>You Can Be Happy No Matter What by Richard Carlson **<\/li>\n<li>Living, Loving and Learning by Leo Buscaglia ********<\/li>\n<li>Managing Your Mind by Butler &#038; Hope<\/li>\n<li>Awareness by Anthony De Mello **<\/li>\n<li>Empires of the Mind by Dennis Waitley<\/li>\n<li>The Breakthrough Factor by Henry Marsh<\/li>\n<li>Getting Things Done by David Allen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Top biographies<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin<\/li>\n<li>The Last Lion by William Manchester (Churchill)<\/li>\n<li>John Adams by David McCullough<\/li>\n<li>Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow<\/li>\n<li>Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris<\/li>\n<li>His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>I also do a lot of reading on advertising, marketing and branding \u2013 so if you want a book recommendation on any of those topics, just send me a note.<\/em><br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:jkspence@aol.com\">\u00bb jkspence@aol.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is a list of ONLY my top reading recommendations. I know the list looks long, but I assure you these are just the very best out of my library. I have put the symbol ** behind my absolute favorites. If after you go through the list, if you notice that I am missing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}