Clipped from: https://paysimple.com/blog/the-2020-summer-reading-list-for-small-business-owners/
When you’re running a business it’s never a bad idea to learn from experts in the field.
Luckily for small business owners, most of the world’s top business leaders and entrepreneurs share one thing in common: they read (a lot).
Warren Buffett credits his success to reading and Bill Gates reads about 50 books a year. Mark Cuban says he reads more than three hours a day and Elon Musk learned how to build rockets by, you guessed it, reading.
So from learning how to better manage your team to growing your enterprise to the next level, we put together a list of must-read books for the summer.
And if you feel like you’re too busy to read, start with Atomic Habits by James Clear, it is sure to help you change your habits so you have more time to read.
1. The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization by Peter Drucker
This short book challenges readers to take a close look at the heart of their organizations and what drives them. A tool for self-assessment and transformation, answering these five questions will fundamentally change the way you work, helping you lead your organization to an exceptional level of performance.
Peter Drucker’s five questions are: “What is our Mission?”, “Who is our Customer?”, “What does the Customer Value?”, “What are our Results?”, and “What is our Plan?” These essential questions, grounded in Peter Drucker’s theories of management, take readers on an exploration of organizational and personal self-discovery, inspiring positive change and new levels of excellence.
James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you’re having trouble changing your habits, it’s not your fault. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to achieve a new goal.
3. The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
In this concise, easy-to-read story, the authors teach readers three very practical secrets about leading others—and explain why these techniques continue to work so well.
As compelling today as the original was thirty years ago, this classic parable of a young man looking for an effective manager is more relevant and useful than ever.
Gallup scientists have studied more than 1 million work teams to determine exactly why people followed the most important leader in their life. In Strengths Based Leadership, Tom Rath and Barry Conchie reveal the results of this research.
Based on their discoveries, the book identifies three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in others’ strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership. Filled with novel research and actionable ideas, Strengths Based Leadership will give you a new road map for leading people toward a better future.
Bonus: A unique access code allows you to take a new leadership version of Gallup’s StrengthsFinder program. The new version of this program provides you with specific strategies for leading with your top five strengths and enables you to plot the strengths of your team based on the four domains of leadership strength revealed in the book.
Never Split the Difference takes you inside the world of high-stakes negotiations and into Voss’s head, revealing the skills that helped him and his colleagues succeed where it mattered most: saving lives.
In this practical guide, he shares the nine effective principles―counterintuitive tactics and strategies―you too can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal life. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference will give you the competitive edge in any discussion.
6. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
After decades of research, Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this book, she shows how success in almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.
People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great managers and leaders can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.
7. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.
By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy—instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
8. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
If the daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out, this book can help. Learn to be more productive and more satisfied with life.
In The ONE Thing, you’ll learn simple strategies for achieving better strategies in less time so you can accomplish extraordinary results in every area of your life.
9. The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon
The Energy Bus takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride that reveals 10 secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment at work and at home. Jon infuses this engaging story with keen insights as he provides a powerful roadmap to overcome adversity and bring out the best in yourself and your team.
10. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
In this New York Times bestseller, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini—the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations.
You’ll learn the six universal principles of influence (reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity) and how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and, just as importantly, how to defend yourself against dishonest influence attempts.
