Effective Training and Development

This month’s top 10 features Arnie’s top 10 business books. Some old, some new, but all worth the read.

In no particular order:

1 Being Happy (Andrew Matthews). A top book with simple, but essential tips to achieving the title. Brilliantly written, and supported by excellent cartoons. Andrew started as a professional cartoonist, before establishing himself as a major self-development specialist. Buy it, read it, and pass it on…

2 Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway (Susan Jeffers). Her seminal book, essential reading for anyone low in self confidence, and facing fears and anxieties which get in the way of your own development and achievement. She’s written many books since, all excellent, but this is still the best.

3 Unlimited Power (Anthony Robbins). Very American, which might put some off, but the messages are usually superb. An early populist for NLP (neuro linguistic programming), but get through the language and listen to the messages. And…it has clearly worked for him!

4 Getting Through (Godfrey Howard). The best book I’ve ever read on written communication. He practices what he preaches - it is a joy to read, with wise advice combined with humour, and plenty of examples.

5 Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Lynne Truss). A more recent work on written communication, with a focus on punctuation. It’s a laugh-out-loud book, with some sharp observations and loads of humour to underline some of her pet hates and hangups. Agree, disagree - but you’re bound to enjoy if you like witty humour, effortly expressed.

6 How Would You Move Mt Fuji? (William Poundstone). A very different book, its focus is on creative problem solving (an example of which is in the title). Why are such questions used at selection interviews? What skills are they probing? Can you prepare for such preposterous questions?…..and what’s the answer!

7 Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion (N J Goldstein et al). A great book to dip into. It consists of 50 articles or chapters, each featuring a research-based method of influencing a target individual, group or market.

8 The Luck Factor (Richard Wiseman). Why do some people seem to be luckier than others? Is this true? A fascinating book, in which Wiseman makes a convincing case that most ‘lucky’ people actually make their own luck. A book that could change your life….

9 Nasty People (Jay Carter). A gem of a book, truly helpful if you have to work with ‘invalidators’. An invalidator (nasty) is someone who always seems to undermine or invalidate whatever you do or say.

10 SUMO Your Relationships (Paul McGee). This has so many of my ideas that I thought I’d written it! So obviously I think it’s good!! (SUMO stands for Shut Up, Move On….)