I love to read. I once read a quote that said “You only change because of two things, the books you read and the people you meet.” I figured, the best way to meet people from all walks of life is to read their books. I’ve learned that when you read a book, you're not only reading the authors insights and knowledge, but you're reading all of the collective wisdom they have acquired from others who have influenced them. So, for the past 10 years I've read over 120 books. Not all of the books I've read are listed, only the books that have made an impact to my thinking.
So, the purpose of listing the books below and writing the reviews is to provide a resource and reference of my recommendations. I hope that you will checkout the reviews for the books that interest you. Remember, you only change for one of two reasons; it’s the books you read and the people you meet that will change your life and your thinking.
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Category |
Book Name |
Author |
Description with link to Book Review |
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Personal Development |
The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth
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John Maxwell |
The premise of the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell is that focusing on growth is more important than focusing on goals. Obtaining a goal will help you accomplish a task or dream but personal and professional growth will change who you are. <Click here to read more> |
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Michael Gelb |
Mind mapping is a brain storming technique basis on word association with keywords such as family, democracy, revolution and others that trigger other words, thoughts and ideas. This is basically how the mind works as we think of ideas and brainstorm concepts. Mind mapping is a process for unlocking our individual genius and enhancing the we naturally think. |
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Your Executive Coaching Solution
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Joan R. Kofodimos |
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Stephanie Winston |
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David Allen |
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Bruce H. Lipton |
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Dig your well before you're thirsty
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Harvey Mackay |
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Seth Godin |
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What got you here won't get you there
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Marshall Goldsmith |
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The Miracle of Self Discipline
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Tracy Brian (CD Set) |
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Robert B. Cialdini |
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Stephen R. Covey |
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David Allen |
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Ram Charan |
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Sun Tzu |
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John C. Maxwell |
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Ken Blanchard |
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Stephen R. Covey |
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Brian Tracy |
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Zig Zigler (CD Set) |
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Earl Nightingale |
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John C. Maxwell |
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Rich Horwath |
The premise of “Strategy for You” is that strategy is a bridge for going from where you are today to where you want to go tomorrow in your personal and professional life. Strategy is a bridge that spans over the challenges and obstacles you will face from going from point A to point B. |
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Larry S. Julian |
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Laurie Beth Jones |
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George Barna |
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Jack Canfield |
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Pat Riley |
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Rudolph Gulliani |
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John Maxwell |
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John Maxwell |
The premise of The 21 Laws of Leadership is that leadership can be learned and it's based on principles and laws of nature. Once you understand the 21 laws and practice them you will improve and increase your leadership capability. It's only when you enhance your leadership ability can you truly increase your personal and professional effectiveness. |
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John Maxwell |
The premise of “Thinking for a Change,” is that to make changes to your life begins with a change in the way you think. The idea is that every habit, every action and every emotion is triggered by a thought. Your thoughts determine everything about your life. The way you think determines who you are and who you are determines what you do. Your thoughts determine your habits and your habits determine your future. People who are in the top of their industry think differently than those who are not. What I like about this book is how it guides you to change the way you think and it provides the step by step how to process to do it. |
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John Maxwell |
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John Maxwell |
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Peter F. Drucker |
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Todd Duncan |
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Shirzad Chamine |
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Brian Tracy |
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Stephen Covery & A. Roger Merrill |
“First Things First,” is a book written in 1994 by Stephen Covey and the Merrill brothers that changed my life and focused me on a daily habit of scheduling first things first. The premise of the book is to keep the main thing the main thing. |
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Stephen R. Covey |
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Michael Smalley |
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Dave Lakhani |
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Howard Henricks |
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The Richest Man Who Ever Lived
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Steven K. Scott |
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Developing the Leader Within You
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John Maxwell |
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James Allen |
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Timothy Ferriss |
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Ken Blanchard |
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Roger Fisher |
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The Tactics of Very Successful People
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B. Eugene Griessman |
The premise of “Time Tactics of Very Successful People”, is that we all have 24 hours in a day and that successful people and unsuccessful people all receive the same amount of time every day. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is how they utilize the 24 hours a day they have been given in a way that produces results and creates value. |
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George Burr Leonard |
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Archibald D. Hart |
Charles Reade said it best in his most quoted maxim, “Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” The premise of book Habits of the Mind is that you are what you think about. All of your thoughts shape and create whom you are, they mold you into the person you have become and whom you will be in the future. What we think |
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How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling
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Frank Bettger |
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Donald T. Phillips |
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Booker T. Washington |
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Life and times of Frederick Douglass
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Frederick Douglass |
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Anthony Sampson |
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Charles Duhigg |
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Strategic Planning and Execution |
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Ethan M. Rasiel |
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Ethan M. Rasiel |
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Michael H. Hugos |
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Henry William Chesbrough |
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Gary Harpst |
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Peter Weill |
The premise of IT governance is that top-performing organizations have a systematic decision-making framework that enables them to achieve greater bottom-line results to their business goals, value and growth over their competition. Organizations that have implemented in IT governance framework have better clarity around their strategy and the part that IT plays in the implementation of those strategies. They also have better processes for more efficient and effective change management procedures and organizational accountability for tracking project benefits. |
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Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management
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Anand K. Sanwal |
The premise of Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management is that resource allocation (time, money, staff, information and corporate assets) along with making smarter business investment decisions is critical to a business’s value creation processes. This book provides examples from American Express regarding what they've entitled investment optimization and how they have used the principles of allocating discretionary funds weather for marketing, sales or technology investments with the same investment category and the best projects compete for the same dollars. |
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Enterprise Architecture at Work
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Marc Lankhorst |
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Kevin Lee Smith |
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Alexander Osterwalder |
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Integrated Cost and Schedule Control
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Ursula Kuehn |
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Effective Work Breakdown Structure
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Gregory T. Haugan |
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No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects
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Neal Whitten |
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Bryan Maizlish |
IT Portfolio Management Step-by-Step is a must-have for portfolio management practitioners. The book is grouped into four parts, an overview and back ground of what’s included in the material, the foundational elements of portfolio management, building a step-by-step plan and implementation guide, and PPM best practices. In the pages of this book, you will find information on the best practice approach for aligning, rationalizing, prioritizing, selecting, optimizing, tracking, monitoring and managing your organizations IT portfolio investments. |
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Strategic Project Portfolio Management
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Simon Moore |
Strategic Project Portfolio Management fills a gap in the literature of a project, program and portfolio management books by providing a comprehensive approach to managing IT investments based on Simon Moore’s experience as a Financial Portfolio Manager for Putman Investments and as a Charter Financial Analyst. The book is targeted at an executive audience, with the goal of enabling them to understand how project portfolio management empowers organizations to better map project investments to the overall strategy and goals of the organization. |
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Paul Leinwand |
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Optimizing Human Capital with a Strategic Project Office
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J. Kent Crawford |
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The Rise of the Project Workforce
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Rudolf Melik |
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J. Kent Crawford |
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Advanced Project Portfolio Management
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Gerald I. Kendall |
The premise of the Advanced Project Portfolio Management and the PMO is that project management is required for executives to execute their organizational strategy successfully. Without the right methodology, project lifecycle timing and strategic value projects are disconnected from the strategic direction of the senior executive team. In this book, Gerald Kendall and Stephen Rollins provide their guidance and insight to implement a PMO that will deliver strategic value to your organization. |
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Advanced Multi-Project Management
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Gerald I. Kendall |
Gerald Kendall and Kathleen Austin's book Advanced Multi-Project Management |
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Inc. EPMC |
"Project Portfolio Management," authored by the Enterprise Portfolio Management Council focuses on the key thinking and portfolio management processes developed by a number of senior portfolio management practitioners and experts with the goal of creating a community of senior portfolio management leaders. The authors come from a wide spectrum of industries and organizations in order to support and build up the portfolio management body of knowledge. |
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Ginger Levin |
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David Williams |
The premise of Enterprise Programme Management is to provide guidelines, best practices and new techniques to enhance an organization’s credibility in leading multiple projects as a single body of work. Program Management requires the integration of delivering milestones, products, solutions and critical capabilities. |
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Eliyahu M. Goldratt |
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Eliyahu M. Goldratt |
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Translating Strategy into Action
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Duke Corporate Education |
The premise of Translating Strategy Into Action is that understanding one's organizations strategic objectives and cascading those objectives throughout the organization into departmental and individual action plans can be a challenging task as the demand for limited resources continuous to increase. Translating strategy must be communicated up and down the organization from the board room to the mail room as well as across the value chain to partners and suppliers. |
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Harvard Business School Press |
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Joel Litman |
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Avinash K. Dixit |
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The 4 Disciplines of Execution
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Jim Huling |
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Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times
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Stephen R. Covey |
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Dee Jacob |
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Business Management |
Theory of Constraints Handbook
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James Cox III |
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Robert Newbold |
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Customer Experience Management
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Bernd Schmitt |
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Leadership in the ERA of Economic Uncertainty
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Ram Charan |
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Managing the Professional Service Firm
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David H. Maister |
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Peter Weill |
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John Kotter |
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High Impact Interview Questions
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Victoria A. Hoevemeyer |
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Garr Reynolds |
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Michael Sampson |
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Robert M. Galford |
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Robert B. Cialdini |
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Ram Charan |
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Al Ries |
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Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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Peter F. Drucker |
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Steven D. Levitt |
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Jerry S. Wilson |
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Michael J. Gelb |
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D. A. Benton |
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Business @ the speed of Thought
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Bill Gates |
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Gary Hamel |
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Michael J. Gelb |
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Keith R. McFarland |
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A. K. Pradeep |
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Tom Peters |
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The Education of an accidental CEO
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David Novak |
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Robyn Meredith |
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Gary Hamel |
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Ken Blanchard |
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Bill Murphy Jr. |
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Warren Bennis |
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Tahl Raz |
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Michael Masterson |
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Larry Bossidy |
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Michael Sampson |
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Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People
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Edward M. Hallowell |
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Chip Heath |
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Geoffrey Colvin |
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Peter F. Drucker |
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Malcolm Gladwell |
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Chip Heath |
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Dave Marcum |
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Jeffrey J. Fox |
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Jeffrey J. Fox |
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Kenneth Blanchard |
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What customers want you to know
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Ram Charan |
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A. G. Lafley |
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Ram Charan |
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Peter Economy |
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Steve Hamm |
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Joan Magretta |
The premise of the book, "Understanding Michael Porter" is that clear strategic thinking is essential for managers at all levels of an organization. This essential guide provides the foundation for understanding the basic principles of competition and strategy and establishes a framework in which Michael Porter's writings are easier to digest than his original texts. A direct quote from the book states that, "Strategy is not fast food". The essence of strategy is not only choosing what to do but also choosing what not to do. |
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Deep Dive
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Rich Horwath |
The premise of Deep Dive is that there are four types of strategic thinkers. These four types of strategic thinkers embrace a very different approach to utilizing proven repeatable processes for building organizational strategy. Deep Dive takes into account our need as strategic thinkers to understand the type of thinkers that are most effective and a process for making the most of our limited resources while also taking smart steps to accomplish your goals. The four strategic thinkers are beach bums, snorkelers, scuba divers and free divers. |
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Michael E. Gerber |
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Let's Get Real Or Let's Not Play
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Mahan Khalsa |
The premise of “Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play” is that business development must be totally client focused. Customers want to buy and not to be sold a bill of goods. This is a paradigm shift or a new mental model that advocates a methodology where two companies mutually decided to work together with the goal of meeting the client’s needs while providing a profitable engagement for the service provider, trusted advisor or professional service organization. |
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Marketing / Social Media |
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Timothy L. Templeton |
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Mark W. Schaefer |
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Mark W. Schaefer |
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C.C. Chapman |
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Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Marketing
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Neal Schaffer |
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David Meerman Scott |
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David Kirkpatrick |
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Dharmesh Shah |
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Seth Godin |
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John Jantsch |
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Seth Godin |
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The New rules of Marketing and PR
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David Meerman Scott |
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