“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

Each year I read approximately 30 books for the pure pleasure of creating in my imagination the sights and sounds and smells of the world that the author has created in the pages of his book. I enjoy fiction and non-fiction alike.

I also read around the same number of “educational” books each year. I read these to challenge myself out of complacency and to spur growth, to resist stagnation and to broaden my horizons.

In 2019 I was fortunate to have read many compelling and thought-provoking books. Here are five that I found particularly noteworthy. In fact, I’ll likely revisit each of these again in the future – they are that good.

1. Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits by Greg Crabtree

Owning and running a small business can be rewarding, fulfilling, and even energizing if it is aligned with your passions and personality. But it can also be nerve-racking and anxiety-producing, often requiring you to make important decisions based on imperfect and incomplete information. When should you hire your next team member? Should you reinvest your profits? Are you even profitable to begin with? How can you be sure?

In Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential, Greg Crabtree offers succinct and clear guidance for running your small business. As an accountant and Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) implementor, this book is concise and well-written. Not a word is wasted. There’s no fluff.

Some of the gems of this book include:

• Use a forecast, not a budget
• Know your salary cap for your labor force
• Monitor your Labor Efficiency Ratio
• Pay yourself a competitive wage or your financials are misleading.

If you own/run a small business, this should be required reading.

2. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

As a young entrepreneur, I was confident in my abilities and astute in my observations. I could quickly recognize a potential client’s primary challenge and chart a path to overcome it. I could see where others could not. In short, I could be the hero I thought they needed.

Now, some twenty-plus years later, I realize that I was fortunate to have survived that period. That approach didn’t help me to connect with my potential customers. It placed me in the limelight and ignored their real needs. I slowly learned this the hard way by trial and error. Well, it was mostly by error.

I wish Donald Miller had written Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen sooner. It could have saved me from many of those errors.

Miller draws parallels between marketing and storytelling and shares how everyone, from a giant corporation to a small solepreneur can create a meaningful brand that connects with customers.

3. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

“Never talk about money, politics, or religion.” Many of us were taught this principle as a kid. Talking about these, especially money now feels wrong and uncomfortable. But, when you run a small business, you must learn to talk about money early and often.

In Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, former FBI Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss shares principles he and his team learned while negotiating some of the most extreme and contentious scenarios imaginable. The book is replete with concepts and tactics, including:

• Negotiation is not an active battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible.
• “No” is the start of a negotiation, not the end of it.  It seldom means, “I have considered all the facts and made a rational choice.”
• You are not going to logically convince someone that they are safe, secure, or in control.
• The more a person feels understood, and positively affirmed in that understanding, the more likely they are for agreement and change.

Whether you’re an accomplished and skilled negotiator or someone who actively avoids negotiations because it creates stress and conflict, you’ll likely find this book helpful.

4. Spy the Lie by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, and Susan Carnicero

You’re sitting across the table from some who keeps touching his face and covering his mouth as he speaks. He doesn’t make consistent eye contact with you. He’s obviously lying to you, right?

Conventional wisdom holds that he is being deceitful. The facts are not his friend. But, wouldn’t someone who is lying also know the conventional wisdom and make a gallant effort to overcome the traditional indicators? So maybe it’s the person who keeps his hands on the table and stares unrelentingly into your eyes that is lying?

Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception tackles this question head-on. The three former CIA officers share their experiences in detecting deception and spotting lies. They offer proven techniques for asking questions and observing responses that will help to uncover when a person is being forthright and when she is avoiding an uncomfortable truth.

In my 27-year career, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve worked closely with trustworthy colleagues and clients who earnestly seek to do the right thing. Nevertheless, I found this book insightful and engaging. It’s a good read.

5. The Only Sales Guide You Will Ever Need by Anthony Iannarino

Much has been written in the technical world about the “Accidental DBA,” that unfortunate IT Professional who is deeply skilled in one area such as System Administration or Application Development yet finds herself also responsible for keeping the SQL Server databases running. (In fact, our business is predicated on helping companies with Accidental DBAs.)

I am not an Accidental DBA. I’ve doing DBA work professionally for over 20 years. But I am an Accidental Sales Professional. I’m not particularly skilled in sales, yet it’s an integral part of any business, including The SERO Group.

Anthony Iannarino’s book The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need was written for people like me. It’s for honest people who truly want to help other businesses succeed. There are no manipulative tactics or unscrupulous presentations described. Rather his approach is one of learning to listen to your potential customer to determine if your product or service may help them reach their goals.

I’m not a connoisseur of sales books. I’ve only read a few. But this one has proven helpful to me.

A Few Honorable Mentions

There were many other books I read in 2019 that I’d recommend adding to your list. In most any other year, these would have made my Top 5 List.

• The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
• Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella
• The Go-Giver by Bob Burg
• Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle

I’m always looking for suggestions for books to read. Let me know if you’ve found a book particularly compelling.

The post 5 Books I’m Glad I Read in 2019 appeared first on The SERO Group.

It’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts. – John Wooden

As an avid reader and life-long learner, this quote by Coach John Wooden really speaks to me. I don’t want to wax too philosophical here, but life is a journey and we owe it to ourselves and those we influence to stretch ourselves and continually renew our minds so that we can be our best with our God-given talents.

There are a lot of ways to do that. One is to read voraciously. Each year I try to read or listen to at least 50 books. Some books I read for fun and entertainment. Many I read to learn something – how to be a better speaker, how to learn a new outdoor skill, how to better hobby farmer, and yes, how to be a better leader in my business.

Recommended Reading

I’m often asked to recommend books on specific topics. That’s why I created a Recommended Reading list. Each year I add a book or two to the list. 2018 was a banner year for my reading; I added four books to the Recommended Reading list. If you only read a few books each year, read these.

• It’s Your Ship by Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff. The United States Navy doesn’t have a monopoly on the highly-regimented, top-down leadership style. In fact, many companies still have this corporate culture. In It’s Your Ship, Abrashoff recounts how he was able to take a below average ship and turn it into one of the best ships in the Navy. His crew developed a sense of ownership and pride in their work. His bosses recognized Benfold’s accomplishments and rewarded the crew with additional liberty and flexibility. Abrashoff’s approaches work in the corporate world as well. This book is a must-read for leaders.
• Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. In the book, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin share some of the leadership lessons they learned on the battlefield where a minor mistake could have grave and lasting consequences. They distill the lessons into principles and share how they can be applied to business and everyday life. This book should be required reading for all high school seniors and business majors.
• The Like Switch by Jack Schafer. Jack Shafer spent years with the FBI, preparing spies for their missions and helping to recruit spies from other countries. During his career, he developed strategies for reading people, building trust, and developing long-term relationships. This is not a book about deceitfully manipulating people. This book shares how to build better and stronger relationships.
• Permission to Screw Up by Kristen Hadeed. Many business and leadership books are sanitized and polished. The authors share their successes without revealing the many painful mistakes and setbacks that plagued them along the way. This is not one of those books. In her book, Permission to Screw Up, Hadeed shares how she inadvertently started and grew a business hiring only millennials. She tells her engaging and personal story in an entertaining and thought-provoking way. In the end, the leadership lessons she shares seem more real and less academic, more applicable and less theoretical, more heartfelt and less boastful. Entertaining and informative, this book will help you build a better team.

Other Books Worth Your Time

I also read a lot of books that narrowly miss being added to the list. They are really good books but just don’t quite make the “hall of fame.” Here are the Top 5 Books I read in 2018 that didn’t quite make the Recommended Reading list but are still worthy of your time.

1. Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson, et al. The authors provide sound tactical advice for handling difficult situations with others. They explain why these conversations are important to have and offer guidance on how to approach them.
2. Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute. Written as a fable, the book illustrates how we frequently trap ourselves in a “box” of self-justification. We create an internal narrative that places blame on others and blinds us to what is really happening.
3. Finish by Jon Acuff. According to the author, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. Many people start something, a personal goal at home or a professional project at work, but tend to lose interest or find it too challenging to finish. In this humorous book, Acuff shares ways that he’s found to finish what you’ve started.
4. Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I’ve read a lot of books on productivity over the years looking for how to accomplish more in a shorter period of time. McKeown contends that this is the exact wrong approach. We should focus on getting only the right things done and eliminate everything else.
5. The Bullet Journal by Ryder Carroll. For years I’ve searched for a way to manage my To Do list. I’ve tried paper-based systems (ala Getting Things Done), electronic methods, and everything in between. I’ve written about my attempts in the past. I’ve finally found a system that works for me – The Bullet Journal.

No matter your superpowers, you can always learn something new. And these books can help.

What about you? Read any good books lately?

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That’s the premise of Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley. In it, Stanley contends that we are all far too busy. We have too many commitments at work and at home; we’re stretched too thin, being pulled in every direction. There’s no way we’ll accomplish everything. Sound familiar?

So Many Things, So Little Time

So what do we do? We try as hard as we can. We spend a few extra hours at work to try to get caught up, cheating our family of that time. We take a long lunch or call in sick to get some personal things done, cheating work.

But we still come up short. No matter how hard we try, some things will be left undone. There’s just too much to do. We can’t do it all. We will miss some commitments that we’ve made. The only question is which ones.

Who Are Cheating?

For many of us, the two largest sources of commitments come from work and family. Think about those for a moment.

At work, you are replaceable. As good as you may be at your job, you’re still replaceable. If you quit, they will find another person to do your job. If you do your job poorly, they’ll fire you. If business becomes slow, they’ll lay you off. The company has very little, if any, loyalty to you as an individual. Yet many of us have great loyalty to our work. We work long hours, often burning the midnight oil, in the hopes of getting caught up or being recognized for a promotion.

Conversely, at home, no one else can fill your shoes. You are the only husband or wife that your spouse has. Only you can be the mother or father to your kids. No one else can fill your role. And your family has nearly unlimited loyalty to you.

Yet when push comes to shove, many of us choose to cheat our family rather than work. We choose to devote extra time to the entity that has zero loyalty to us while robbing those that have nearly unlimited loyalty to us. We focus on areas where we are replaceable at the expense of areas where we’re irreplaceable. We choose to spend our time doing things that will be obsolete in five short years while cheating in areas where our impact may be felt for a lifetime or even longer.

Why? And what could we, should we do about it?

Making A Conscious Choice

In Choosing To Cheat, Stanley tackles this problem. He doesn’t pretend to have easy answers. But he does call your attention to the problem and offer some creative ways to approach your work and home life. I definitely learned a lot from the book.

It’s a short, easy read. You can easily finish it in one sitting or on a short flight. But it can be life changing if read with an openness and taken to heart. I have a good friend who would say that it literally helped to saved his marriage.

So, if you’re cheating, are you choosing wisely?

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At times, however, the saying has proven itself to be true. That’s why sometimes it’s best to state the obvious, rather than taking it for granted.

In his book “The Lazy Project Manager“, Peter Taylor doesn’t tackle the basics of Project Management as a profession. Do don’t buy the book as a Project Management how-to guide; it’s not intended to be that. Taylor rightly observes that much has already been written on the topic. He even provides list of resources that he’s found helpful in the back of “The Lazy Project Manager”.

Instead Taylor attempts to supplement the purely academic studies of Project Management with practical and actionable approaches.

A Common Sense Approach

“The Lazy Project Manager” focuses on the subtle nuances of how to shepherd a project from its initial phase through to its completion. Taylor concentrates on working with your team to move the project toward success. He advocates using humor to diffuse a situation, evaluating the team personnel, and remembering that communications is more than just the message.

Much of what he shares should be considered common sense, especially to a seasoned professional. However, the advice proffered will likely be helpful to many who are new to the project manager role.

This short book is replete with anecdotes from Taylor’s experiences. He shares some of his successes as well as his miscues over the years. He recounts his missteps and what he’d do differently now that he’s on the other side of the mishaps.

Proper Planning

Despite the intentionally eye-catching title, the book’s premise can be distilled down to the old adage of the 7 P’s: Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Pitifully Poor Performance.

Taylor contends that most projects require an awful lot of work up front and if done well, the long middle part of the project goes very smoothly. Eventually every project wraps up with a flurry of concluding activities at the end.

The book models this as well. The first portion of the book sets the stage. Then Taylor offers to let the reader skip the middle section and just right to the end of the book where the final two chapters summarize everything that you may have skipped.

Overall

I suspect many who buy the book can easily skip to end without missing anything; I certainly felt as though I could have. Others may find the middle, though it sometimes wanders a bit, to be helpful.

The eight reviewers on Amazon give the book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I think that’s a bit on the high side. I’d give it a 3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars. But then, I’ve been self-employed 15+ years and I’ve managed hundreds if not thousands of projects.

Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it. – Walter Chrysler

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