What’s in your company library? How many books? What are they? Do you have employees do book reports and presentations to the rest of the staff?
I’m not talking about training or operations manuals. I’m talking about books. For example, here are two rows in Patrick Morin’s training library. I took these pictures yesterday during our annual retreat:
I’ve written about Patrick before:
For years, our marketing team has traveled to Portland, Oregon, to meet with Patrick and his team at the hugely successful Roof Life of Oregon. In addition to being excellent technicians, they’re also excellent leaders and human beings.
Every year, when we meet, I look for new books in the training library. I’ve noticed most of our great clients have similar collections for their employees. I’m going to encourage the rest to do the same.
Why have all these books? As we were looking through the shelves together, I asked Patrick.
I’ve read all those books and they’ve changed my life. I’m convinced that they’ll change other people’s lives if they read them, too.
Our business is people. If you want to help others, you’ve got to be reading books about communication, about listening, about leadership, about persuasion.
What else is up there? Strategy. Goal setting. The value of trust. There’s just things up there that are paramount to having a long-term, high-quality life. I like to hang out with the people that work here. I think they’re amazing. As they read … they’re better off for it. We all are.
I’ll ask you again:
What’s in your company library? How many books? What are they? Do you have employees do book reports and presentations to the rest of the staff?
For those that don’t have a library yet, what books would you suggest they start with?
Also for those that don’t have one, why not? And if you don’t plan on changing that, why not?
Patrick and his team would like to speak with you.
You asked “…don’t have a library yet, what books would you suggest they start with?” Here is a tiny start of a list:
– Steven Pressfield – The War of Art (http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/)
– Otto Kroeger / Janet Thuesen – Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work (http://www.amazon.com/Type-Talk-Personality-Types-Determine/dp/0440507049)
– Napoleon Hill – Think and Grow Rich (http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Start-Motivational-Books-ebook/dp/B00H4J1KPY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=)
– Jason Fried / David H. Hansson – Rework (http://37signals.com/rework/)
What books do you recommend people start with, Tim?
Tim,
The Dream Manager by Mathew Kelly is the first book I would suggest picking up. This is the one that started the fire for me and changed my outlook on the way that business really works and how it can change peoples lives.
Below are a few others off my bookshelf that I would recommend. I cannot wait to see all of the other suggestions that come in. Great post.
– The One Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
– The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
– Start by Jon Acuff
– The Wizard of Ads Series (Roy Williams)
– Anything on Sales by Zig Ziglar
– Any thing by Dale Carnegie
P.S. – I have been looking for a book for a long time that I thought I got as a suggestion from one a presentation you and Ryan did some years ago. It was something about how to become known as an expert in your field but for the life of me I cannot remember the title and I have be unable to find it… does anyone happen to know this one?