Knowing what your strengths are and then working through your strengths will change your business and professional life. Here are three books worth reading (and I have read them more times than I can count).

Now, Discover Your Strengths – Buckingham, Marcus & Donald O. Clifton

 Welch, Suzy.   10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea.

This is an OUTSTANDING book whether you are an introvert or an extrovert.  I learned so much from reading Laney’s book.  I wish it had been written years ago and that I had known about it. Her information is enlightening and her suggestions are smart and reasonable.  She knows what she is talking about and doesn’t offer ideas that an introvert would eschew.  This is an excellent follow-up book to the ‘Networking for Introverts’ workshop – which you may receive as an immediate download – learn more here:  www.meggin.com/NetworkingforIntroverts.php.

“Holy moly!”  This book is a treasure trove of information for anyone who is a writer.  Just click on the link and once you get to the Amazon page, you’ll see several of this book’s brothers and sisters (including an on-line version), too.  Note:  It’s not necessary to purchase the Writer’s Market book every year, but if you intend to write and get your ideas out there in any number of different formats, then you need to buy one every couple of years, at least.  You can also find this book at essentially every public library.  Check it out!

Just the title alone intrigued me…and then when I read the Seven Principles of Fierce Conversations, I was hooked. For example, Principle 6 is “Take Responsibility for Your Emotional Wake.”  Scott points out that for leaders, there are no “trivial comments.” Since reading this book, I have highly recommended it in my leadership training seminars, and have used as a core text in a year-long training. Reading it will have an impact on your professional and personal life–even if you don’t do anything. If you DO follow some of her suggestions, your personal and professional lives will be “fiercely” affected.

Excellent book based on the “Do Babies Matter” study (by Mason & Goulden) as well as additional research conducted by the two authors (mother & daughter). 

Anyone who manages others (even yourself!) will gain from reading this book and putting into practice the concepts presented by the authors.  Read and answer the 12 Questions that “measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees“ on page 28. Your own answers may cause you to decide to change where and how you work and the answers that your employees give are truly a measure of your organization’s productivity.

 It’s incredible that they are making sure that all of us who have learned so much through their research can also share it with young people.  Worth buying, for sure!

Are you kidding me?  1001 ways….  And it’s true.  It’s quite the hefty book (704 pages) and it’s stunning the number of different ideas that are included.  Out of that number, any one of us can surely find at least…10 ideas we can use.  Or maybe even 100… 

First of all, what a great title! As someone who has endured hundreds…no, make that thousands…of meetings that were deadly, the title caught my eye immediately. The content did not let me down. Lencioni’s “fable” books (e.g., The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; The Five Temptations of a CEO; The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive) have the potential to be forced, but I don’t find them to read that way. I wanted to keep reading this book (and his others) because I wanted to know what happened. Not all business books pull me through in that way! Excellent book if you run meetings or if you attend them.