Books!

Happy New Year! I’m switching gears from my normal EFT posts to tell you about my favorite business/leadership books. I read one each month and have whittled it down to a list of my favorites. These are the ones I paraphrase often. I’m grateful for the collective wisdom from the following titles:

1. “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives our Success” by Adam Grant
   First of all, if you don’t know Adam Grant - look him up and read everything he writes. He’s an organizational psychologist and everything he writes is backed by research. He’s the best kind of nerd. This book in particular validated my leaning toward generosity. In the past I’ve been afraid that I am too soft or that I won’t be able to really meet my goals because I’m not competitive enough. Well - Adam Grant says that givers win. The research shows that in the long run - givers (instead of matchers or takers) earn the most trust, have the biggest network and end up being more successful. One caveat - to actually make it to the finish line and not burn out, they have to learn how to say no and focus on the type of work that gives them energy.

2. “Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter” by Liz Wiseman
   I picked this one up because I was looking for women authors (shocker - men have dominated the business/leadership genre). This author’s last name should be Wisewoman. This wise woman convicted me time and time again as I read her pages. Essentially - the best and most efficient leader is one that empowers others. If a leader is too far ahead of their team, too enthusiastic or too in the weeds when trying to be helpful - they’re actually doing more harm than good. Great leaders make others feel like they’re smarter after having been around them. Great leaders know how to bring out the best in their team - multiplying energy and resources.

3. “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters” by Priya Parker
   This is such a beautiful book. My biggest takeaway is to be intentional about every moment in any gathering I host: whether that’s a team meeting, a dinner party or a training session. Transitions are important. Have you ever been to a party and the host doesn’t direct the next steps (i.e. - “Let’s take this conversation to the couch,” “Let’s toast to the birthday girl,” etc,)? The host doesn’t want to be bossy - but the guests are left feeling awkward and looking for any cues as to what’s happening. This is such a simple, easy shift that makes all the difference in a guest’s experience.

4. “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown
   It’s been a minute since I’ve read this one, and I could probably use a re-read. The title really says it all. The concept is easy to understand (the more focused you are, doing less but doing it well - the more balanced, happy and successful you can be) - but to be honest, this is really hard to apply. I remember feeling inspired and ready to do less. I’m still on that journey. This book is a good jumping off point, but in my experience, to actually focus and do less - you have to look inward to see what’s getting in the way. I think that’s part of why I wrote I Have Feelings About This. I wanted to take the concepts from a book like this and fill in the gaps with something deeper.

5. “When Women Lead: What they Achieve, Why they Succeed and How We Can Learn from Them” by Julia Boorstin
   This book is full of stories of women leaders making a huge impact on the world! I read this and felt so incredibly hopeful. After reading When Women Lead, I stopped beating my head against the wall on how to help make systemic change. I decided to focus my energy on supporting and giving financially to those that are already doing it! You always hear about the problems - rarely do you read about what’s being done to solve those problems. Thank you, Julia! I started looking for people who are already doing the work and found Healing in the Margins. I made a connection and now give them consistent financial support. Listen - we don’t all have to be system changers. But, if system change is important to you, it’s your responsibility to support the organizations that are busting their ass to make a difference.

6. “Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen” by Donald Miller
   This is a really clever book about marketing. Miller gives a formula (using the basic template that informs any fiction plot) to help business owners communicate their message. If you’re having trouble with what to say on your website, read this book!

7. Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business” by Jenny Blake
   This is a must read. Before you say you have no time to read this book (oh, the irony) - think of all the time you’ll save by reading this book. Learn the importance of automation. Jenny says anything you replicate, you have to automate. For example, if you write out the directions for your office to every client (or manually cut and paste from a previous email) - you need to learn how to use gmail templates so it’s a click of a button. This alone will save you so much time. If you don’t have an EHR - Jenny would frown in your general direction. Automate, create systems - free your time!

8. “Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less” by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwart
   Y’all. After reading this book, I can’t help but judge all the wordiness in the world. Say more with LESS! As I type this, I’m thinking - are all these words necessary? Am I losing people to confusion? Smart Brevity is written by dinosaur newspaper journalists who had to figure out how to keep up with the times. They came to realize - with digital media -  attention span is short! In Twitter fashion, they got better at getting their message across. This book has a forever impact on how I write emails, these blog posts (how am I doing?) and my website. I want it to affect how I talk. I’m not there yet.

9. “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber
   I recently had to change banks for Red Therapy Group. In the process of the transition, the branch manager gave me this book. I would have never picked it, and it’s weird that I started to read it. The picture of the author on the back cover is of an old white guy with a white hat. I kid you not. The title isn’t good, and it was written in the late 90s! What’s an E-Myth anyway? And yet - it has sold millions. Essentially, it’s kicking my butt. The premise is, most business owners just want to fire the boss - so instead of actually scaling and working themselves out of the job - they are still doing their first job (therapist, painter, baker, financial planner, etc) AND have inherited the beast that is running a business. The goal - work yourself out of a job, so all you have is a business. I am probably always going to do some therapy, but this book encouraged me to find more time to work on the business and not as much in the business. (E in E-Myth is short for entrepreneur - something you have to read a few pages to figure out).

That’s my list! I’m tempted to throw one more in there to make it a round 10, but these really are the best ones so far. So, I’m going to leave it at awkward 9. I wish you all the best in your business!

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