Issue No. 120 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Dec. 31, 2008) features the Top-10 books of 2008. As you welcome in 2009, here's a recap of the books I've reviewed in 2008 (Issues No. 70 to 119). To download a PDF of the chronological list of book reviews, visit the Book Bucket page at the Management Buckets website. I reviewed 46 books and two DVDs in 2008.
Here are my Top-10 picks of the year for the books I reviewed. It's a tough assignment to narrow it down to 10, since all of us are at different levels of competency within the 20 buckets. But...maybe this will be helpful to you.
2008 Book-of-the-Year
Note: The updated version (see book cover) is still thin enough (90 pages, plus resources and study questions) so both staff and board members will actually read the book. The book walks leaders through “The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization.” They are:
1) What is our mission?
2) Who is our customer?
3) What does the customer value?
4) What are our results?
5) What is our plan?
The Other 9 Books:
1) The Five Temptations of a CEO (Patrick Lencioni) - Order from Amazon.
Lencioni delivers deadly serious solutions to the five temptations of CEOs. All leaders and managers must: 1) Choose results over status; 2) Choose accountability over popularity; 3) Choose clarity over certainty; 4) Choose conflict over harmony; and 5) Choose trust over invulnerability.
Discussing the second temptation, he writes, “Work for the long-term respect of your direct reports, not for their affection. Don’t view them as a support group, but as key employees who must deliver on their commitments if the company is to produce predictable results. And remember, your people aren’t going to like you anyway if they ultimately fail.”
Three cheers for Wes Willmer, general editor, and his labor of love by inspiring 20 thinkers to contribute chapters to this important book. Willmer writes, "A basic premise of this book is that believers are on the wrong road when it comes to giving and are therefore not generous." He describes the biblical way, the transformational way, to biblical generosity. He's supported by 20 articulate experts, including R. Scott Rodin, Dick Towner, Howard Dayton, Brian Kluth, Lauren Libby, Todd Harper, Rebekah Basinger, John Frank, Ron Blue, Paul D. Nelson, Daryl Heald and others.
3) Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together (Ron Hall and Denver Moore) - Order from Amazon.
While we celebrate the incredible in-the-trenches spirit that permeates the people who serve the homeless, the addicted and those in need of emergency shelter—let’s face it—it’s difficult to put a face on the overwhelming statistics of poverty.
Here’s an idea. Take a break from your leadership and management books and read this week’s poignant true story. The book jacket says it all: “A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery. An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.” (View the movie.)
4) The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington (Robert D. Novak) - Read my review.
Ten years ago, following a four-year investigative journey from his Jewish roots to the Christian faith, a college student challenged him, "Mr. Novak, life is short, but eternity is forever." He writes, "I became convinced that the Holy Spirit was speaking through this Syracuse student." He embraced Christ and was baptized and confirmed at St. Patrick's in Washington, D.C. in 1998.
Warning: it's 662 pages long. Guarantee: you'll wish it was 1,000 pages. And yes, I read every page. While the chapter titles make it easy to scan, don't--you'll miss the morsels. It gets my highest recommendation.
5) Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide (John Jantsch) - Order from Amazon.
Don’t Work With Jerks! “When I talk to groups of small business owners at workshops,” writes John Jantsch, “I will often make the statement that when you properly target your clients, you will discover that you no longer have to work with jerks.” It’s all about identifying, defining and focusing on your ideal client. Peter Drucker preached the big picture: focus on your primary customer. Now Jantsch helps you zero in with detailed intentionality.
The first premise of this book is that what most business leaders think is their greatest challenge really isn't," says Harpst, who implemented more than 60,000 business management systems. "In most of my 20-year tenure as CEO of Solomon Software, I was in react mode, moving from one crisis to the next." So he makes the analysis simple with four quadrants focused on strong or weak strategy, coupled with strong or weak execution. The four quadrants: 1) growth wave, 2) fire-fighting, 3) profit wave, and 4) balanced and predictable.
Note: See his 2023 book, Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others. (Read my review.)
7) You've Got to Be Believed to Be Heard: The Complete Book of Speaking in Business and in Life (Bert Decker) - Read my review.
The book is a page-turning joy to read--it grabbed my emotions and my brain. You'll appreciate Decker's insights on what makes a politician an effective communicator (Bush at Ground Zero versus Bush today). You'll never listen to your pastor or public speakers the same way again and you'll recognize bad habits instantly like the fig leaf flasher, the finger-pointer, and the sin of hiding behind lecterns (and pulpits).
Another no-no: reading your speech. You'll also understand why communicators must first build trust--and why university students encountered a bubble gum machine outside their president's "open door policy" office.
8) Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell) - Read my review.
What does the "Matthew Effect" (per the first book of the New Testament) have to do with hockey players born in January? Teachers, parents and grandparents will be amazed at his data on I.Q., education and school vacations--the U.S. school year is 180 days long. Japan's is 243 days.
9) Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (David Allen) - Order on Amazon. Note: In 2025, I included this book in my special list of 12 time management books. See the list here.
“The real issue is how we manage action.” Example: Will a task take less than two minutes? Do it. If more than two minutes: delegate it or defer it. (Allen has a helpful yes/no flowchart for handling “stuff.”) He uses “buckets” terminology (I like this guy) and says you must master the five functions of collection, processing, organizing, reviewing and doing.
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