Secrets of Great Rainmakers: The Keys to Success and Wealth
is short sales book by Jeffrey J. Fox. They say in life that we are all sales-persons, so books like this are good to read every so often.
Fox's book is rare in that he has interviewed many "rainmakers" and taken their personal philosophies and stories and complied them into this book. He discusses many topics including "Heed the first Buy Signal" and "Killer Sales Questions #1 and #2."
Most touching to me was his chapter on Paperboys. It seems the majority of the rainmakers and highly successful people he interviewed had in common a first job as a paperboy. He said, if you have to hire two equal candidates, but one had a paper-route in their youth, and the other did not--hire the paperboy. This made me feel good because I come from a family of paperboys.
Mike J Berry
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, written by Patrick Lencioni, he discusses--well, five dysfunctions of a team.
Lencioni's style with his books seem to be a sort of fable-story-type narrative in the first part, and then real meat in the latter part. I have to confess I skipped about half of the fable stuff, but found the meat at the back to be very interesting.
The five dysfunctions he examines are:
- Absence of Trust
- Fear of Conflict
- Lack of Commitment
- Avoidance of Accountability
- Inattention to Results
Being a single guy, I could most readily identify with #3, Lack of Commitment. And the more I think about it, all of these dysfunctions could be more-or-lesss applied to dating.
His book comes complete with a team-assessment worksheet, and directions on how to identify and overcome these five dysfunctions. A good read for any manager.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com