Since reading a non-fiction book is quite different than reading a fiction book I thought I’d round up some resources that will help you. For a more detailed write-up check out this post on The Practice of Leadership which provides a systematic way to read non-fiction.

(One quick note, this is aimed at those who read non-fiction on the side for enjoyment - it doesn’t apply to reading and studying text books )

If you are a frequent reader of business books you quickly realize that many books released are rehashed material just packaged differently. That’s the reality. Publishers need to make money like all businesses. Due to this you may have to start multiple books before you’ll find something worthy of reading. If you don’t find a connection with the book within the first 20-30 pages, don’t read it. There are far too many books out there to force your way through a book that you don’t enjoy.

Once you have your selection follow the three steps below:

1. Skim through Table of Contents, Index and opening chapter as it will explain what the book will talk about.
2. First time reading through, anytime you come across something worth highlighting or noting, I’ll put parenthesis around the section and then mark in the margin with a Q (for quote). Now if you have a library book this won’t fly so grab an index card and mark the page number down and a few words from the sentence. Keep the index card as your bookmark.
3. Once you’ve finished the book completely – go back to the highlighted sections and review the material. Since most people won’t absorb the information the first time through this will help you grow more familiar with the concepts the book is putting forth.

While the above steps are nothing groundbreaking when implemented I’ve found they help a lot more than just straight reading through. When it comes to reading non-fiction, I’m happy to takeaway 2-3 new ideas or facts.

If you find that this is too little to help you, below are some links that provide more detailed examples of reading non-fiction:

• How to read and digest a book
• How to Read a Book: Strategies for Getting the Most out of Non-Fiction Reading (PDF)
• How to Read Jim Collins, Michael Hammer, Tom Peters, Peter Drucker and the others…

Harry Beckworth, one of the worlds most respected brand strategists has been helping companies in such areas as positioning, branding and other various client relations. He wrote the top selling “Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing” back in 1997 which was one of the first books focused on selling services. He is back again with “You Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself” which is based on his 30 years of business experience.

As Harry says, “Living is Selling” so it is vital that you master the skill of selling yourself. He provides an endless amount of anecdotes and priceless tips on areas such as: speaking and listening, attitude and beliefs, and tactics and habits (for instance: how to remember names!).

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself” (5 copies available) answer this two questions:

Since we were late getting this post up, comment by 9pm CST on Sunday February 25th and be entered to win! 5 winners will be randomly selected.

Update: Winners have been selected!

When the design of the Ipod Nano was first announced in September of 2005, fans of Apple’s products were rejoicing. Enthusiasts could now enjoy all the same features of its larger brother, the Ipod, but now in a compact form. At the debut media showing, Steve Jobs pulled the Nano from his pocket to demonstrate how small it is. If you could imagine 5 credit cards stacked upon each other, then you could imagine the size and depth of the Nano. The buzz was there. Fans were frothing at the mouth. Apple was at the top of their game.

There was a problem though.

The front screens were breaking – and they broke easily. Nano owners attempted to imitate Steve and carry their Nano in the front pocket of their jeans. Once they pulled the Nano from their pockets they were shocked to see the screen cracked and scratched as if their pockets were lined with sandpaper. Fans were upset. Apple was mum on answering complaints. Those with broken screens wanted an answer. What would they do? Boycott the Nano? Take it up with large media outlets? Neither.

They utilized the power of the Web and got Apple to respond.

The Internet has allowed the mass collaboration of similar individuals. There are no borders on the Internet (that is if you don’t live in China). Geography, what used to be a barrier to collaboration, has become marginalized. As best selling author Tom Friedman says: the Internet has ‘flattened’ the world. If you have access to a computer and a high speed connection, you can participate on the Internet.

This low barrier to entry has spawned what is known as ‘social media’. You’ve experienced social media if you have ever visited a blog, or websites such as Flickr, MySpace, or YouTube.

Social media can be thought as the online tools (blogs, wiki’s, message boards) which allow people to create and share content which expresses their opinions and perspectives with others. Those who create this content are called ‘Citizen Marketers’. Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, who are word-of-mouth marketing experts, examine the dynamics of this group of citizens in their new book, “Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message”.

Ben and Jackie have broken down Citizen Marketers into four categories: Filters, Fanatics, Facilitators and Firecrackers. Below you’ll find text taken from the book that summarizes each category.

Filters

• “Human wire services. They collect traditional media stories, bloggers rants and raves, podcasts, or fan creations about a specific company or brand and then package this information”
• “Amateur brand journalism..”

Fanatics

• “True believers and evangelists…they love to analyze the daily or weekly progress of a brand, product, or organization or persona and prescribe some courses of action. They are, essentially, volunteer coaches.”
• Food/entertainment topics are popular with fanatics
• “Assume activist role”
• “They want to contribute and often do so, even if the company isn’t listening.”
• “The delivery mechanisms built into many social media tools accelerate knowledge sharing. When collective knowledge is created at a faster rate, decisions can be made comparably faster, potentially resulting in faster action.”

Facilitators

• “Community creators. Their primary citizen marketer tool is a Web-based bulletin board or community software. Facilitators are like the mayors of online towns, and some online communities exceed the population of small cities.”

Firecrackers

• “Firecrackers are the one-hit wonders of citizen marketers.”
• “They typically attract considerable attention because they have created a song, animation, video, or novelty that generates a lot of interest but tends to die out quickly as the creators go one with their other work.”

As you can see, each group fulfills a special niche. One commonality of four groups is that their work incorporates the following traits:

• Personal Expression – opinions are their own, designed to inform, entertain, or analyze in a way that builds a case – unlike what a professional journalist, pundit, or analyst would do.
• Amateur status – volunteers and don’t announce their arrival with noisy banging of pots and pans of an expensive marketing program. They are transparent about their motives and associations.
• Freely given – Their work is not meant to steal money, time, or attention away from the company of their affiliation. It’s meant to enhance or improve it. Their work is a contribution to the commons.

It’s important to point out the size of users who fit under the ‘Citizen Marketer’ title. Only those who create content can be classified under one of the four F’s. Ben and Jackie’s research discovered that roughly 1% of people who visit a democratized website will create and interact with the content. When looking at the latest statistics of web users that equals to roughly 10 million people. That is like the entire population of New York City creating and interacting on the Web. Not a small size!

A common attribute of the Citizen Marketer is the democratization of content they create. Transparency will always beat out secrecy with this crowd. The same goes with democratization of content compared to content control. To be successful in wooing the Citizen Marketer you have to have an open, democratized website. What do the authors refer to when speaking about democratization?

What to do now?

Keys to democratizing your business:

The main ingredient for success is the democratization of the website content. Here are some ways to do so:

Contests – One of the easiest ways to experiment with citizen created content is with a contest. A perfect example is the commercial campaign that Doritos ran for the Super Bowl. Their contest called “Crash the Superbowl” has allowed citizens to submit their own commercials which are to be voted on by a community of users. This contest holds both the ideas of openness (allowing anyone to upload their commercial) and democratizing (allowing anyone to vote – Doritos doesn’t choose the winner- you do.)

Co-Creation – The t-shirt company Threadless has been as popular in my examples as they are in my clothes dresser. They are highlighted in the book as catering to the Citizen Marketer. They have given the amateur individual the ability to co-create t-shirts. Anyone with a design program and a computer can become apart of the community. Threadless doesn’t choose the winning designs, the community of users do. With the help of customers Threadless creates stylish t-shirts. If your design is selected to be placed for sale you get hooked up with gift certificates and free t-shirts. Allowing citizens to co-create builds a loyal fan base.

Community – The goal of building a community is to establish a central location on the web where fans can gather to discuss and debate all things relating to a product, movie, service, restaurant, ect.

A perfect example is TivoCommunity.com which has 130 thousand registered members and 1.2 million unique visits per month. It is the #1 site for users wishing to find and discuss anything relating to Tivo. The unique thing about TivoCommunity.com is that it has no affiliation with the company Tivo. The site was created by a fan of the product. Users have since flocked to the site creating a knowledge base which rivals anything Tivo could create on their own. Users have taken the open culture of forums and built a valuable resource for the technological device.

Apple not responding initially to broken screen complaints caused a negative backlash from a citizen marketer. This is where the power of one can create tipping points for action.

An owner of a broken Nano screen created a website under the URL flawedmusicplayer.com and posted pictures of his broken Nano. Shortly after the site appeared, word spread and he was receiving up to 30 emails an hour from other users with similar problems.

The site became a pressure point on Apple. Many believe the site was what forced Apple to change positions and finally release a statement that they would replace the broken screens.

The availability of high speed internet forever changed the way we are connected. The Internet is a 365×24x7 world and the Citizen Marketer will continue to play a vital role within it.

Some more goodies:

• Citizen Marketers website
• 7 reasons why small businesses should blog
• Extensive list of all the people, brands, and sites mentioned in the book
• Ten Questions With Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell by Guy Kawasaki

David Allen is the best-selling author of “Getting Things Done” and “Ready for Anything“. Hailed as the “Henry Ford of the Digital Age”, David has coached CEO’s and top executives of the Fortune 500 companies and more than 500,000 people in his 25 year career of teaching people a smarter, more productive way to work and live. David Allen’s site offers great resources such as Free Articles, Podcasts, a Newsletter, and tips and tools. With 278 positive Amazon.com reviews and accolades from Fast Company, Fortune, and the WSJ this book has received the stamp of approval. Think of it as the definitive guide on productivity.

Visit the David Allen Co. store to purchase the book directly.

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “Getting Things Done” (10 copies available) answer these two questions:

Comment by 9pm CST today and be entered to win! 10 winners will be randomly selected.

Update: Winners have been selected! Thanks for all the great comments!

Don’t forget tomorrow we are giving away 10 copies of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done“. This book is flying of the digital shelf right now. It’s currently the #8 top selling book on Amazon.com. “Getting Things Done” is the definitive guide for organizing your life’s to-do list and being more productive. If you are feeling stressed and need a new system for organizing tasks and managing your time this book is vital!!

One tip that can be quickly implemented into your life:

• Two-Minute Rule: if there’s anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term.

Update: To be entered in giveaways all you have to do is answer the question we post in the comments section. Check this previous giveaway for example.

StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths

If you aren’t familiar with StrengthsFinder, it was the online assessment tool which allowed you to discover your strengths. Gallup has broken strengths down into 34 areas or themes. After taking the test you would be presented with your 6 top strengths. This tool was most popular with the top selling management strategy book by Marcus Buckingham, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, whose main thesis was to focus on building employees strengths, not correcting weaknesses. This is the opposite of what most companies do now. Employees are typically sent to training to correct weaknesses. Marcus argues that motivating employees through building on strengths is a win-win situation for both employees and managers. I personally took the StrengthsFinder test and found it to be generally right on the mark. It’s worth checking out if you are looking to define what your strengths are.

Book Description:

DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO BEST EVERY DAY?
Chances are, you don’t. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.

To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced StrengthsFinder in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths. The book ignited a global conversation, while StrengthsFinder helped millions discover their top five talents.

In StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular online assessment. With hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, StrengthsFinder 2.0 will change the way you look at yourself—and the world—forever.

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t

Bob Sutton, co-author of one of the best business books to be released in the past few years, “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense”, is back again with a book that will sure top the best selling lists of the year. The Stanford professor is out to change the workplace – he wants to rid them of assholes. There is an interesting story behind the title. He was turned down from Harvard Business Press when he went to them to pitch the release. Instead of changing the title to a less ‘vulgar’ term he decided to go elsewhere. Why? Read his blog post “Why I Call Them Assholes’ to find out. (His blog definitely deserves to be on your feeds as well!)

From Publishers Weekly:

This meticulously researched book, which grew from a much buzzed-about article in the Harvard Business Review, puts into plain language an undeniable fact: the modern workplace is beset with assholes. Sutton (Weird Ideas that Work), a professor of management science at Stanford University, argues that assholes—those who deliberately make co-workers feel bad about themselves and who focus their aggression on the less powerful—poison the work environment, decrease productivity, induce qualified employees to quit and therefore are detrimental to businesses, regardless of their individual effectiveness. He also makes the solution plain: they have to go. Direct and punchy, Sutton uses accessible language and a bevy of examples to make his case, providing tests to determine if you are an asshole (and if so, advice for how to self-correct), a how-to guide to surviving environments where assholes freely roam and a carefully calibrated measure, the “Total Cost of Assholes,” by which corporations can assess the damage. Although occasionally campy and glib, Sutton’s work is sure to generate discussions at watercoolers around the country and deserves influence in corporate hiring and firing strategies.

ME, INC. How to Master the Business of Being You

Mind you that this isn’t a review, but this seems to be another popular release of the self-help themed book. While the self-help genre gets thousands of releases each year I can only be skeptical of another book which promotes ideals and platitudes you should follow. In the end self-help books rely on the human desire to find meaning which I personally don’t think you can find through books (at least from the volumes that I’ve read!).

From the Inside Flap:

This proactive, practical guide is unlike any self-help book you’ve ever read. It’s not about simple motivation or inspiration; that stuff only matters if you have a plan. Me, Inc. is designed to help you develop that plan and then execute it to perfection. It’s not a generic, one-size-fits-all program, but a personalized system for improving your life and filling it with purpose, meaning, and contentment.

In Me, Inc., business consultant and executive coach Scott Ventrella shows you how to achieve unlimited success by incorporating the basic principles of good business into everyday living. He starts by sharing the ten time-tested principles that guide most successful and enduring companies and shows you how to apply them to your life. Once you understand those principles, Ventrella helps you design your own custom “exceptional living plan”—much like a business plan—that will guide you on the road to an exceptional life.

What if you were the CEO of a mediocre company? Would you just sit back and let the business plod along on a road to nowhere? Of course you wouldn’t. Any competent CEO would get proactive and start developing and implementing a plan for success. Now think about your life. Isn’t it just as important as any business?

Over the course of twelve “milestones” and accompanying exercises, you’ll learn what you want and why, create your custom exceptional living plan based on your ultimate goals, use that plan as an everyday guide to living, and learn how to maintain your momentum and stay on track. You’ll take stock of your most important “clients,” gather feedback on your actions, set goals and priorities, and implement plans for change and constant improvement. Rather than float through life, you’ll take control, be your own boss, and steer You, Inc. into the black.

You only lead one life, so why lead an average one? Me, Inc. will show you how to stop living by accident and start living on purpose. When you embrace your role as CEO of your own life, you’ll live with enthusiasm, determination, purpose, and confidence. If you want to achieve your goals and dreams, now is the time to take charge and be the boss.

Today we are giving away 5 copies of the popular “Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps!”. As the global workforce has expanded and internet connections sped up over the past 10 years there has been a squeeze on professional jobs. Certain positions in the IT industry have become ‘commoditized’. The need to stand out and distinguish yourself is your only hedge against the changing dynamics of the job market.

As we’ve learned in other books such as “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink, we can’t rely on what worked in the past – change is needed. You’ll be become irrelevant if you don’t take personal branding in your own hands. In “Beyond Code” by Rajesh Setty you’ll learn ways to become invaluable to your employer. Although it was written for the IT professional in mind, it’s chock full of advice, examples, and interviews that anyone will find beneficial. As Tom Peters says in the forward, “Read this book as if your life depends on it. It does.”

Check out the Life Beyond Code blog Rajesh maintains. It has some great material that expands beyond the book.

Book Description:

“Through his work with hundreds of technology professionals, Rajesh Setty has had a bird’s eye view of careers that soared and careers that stalled. In the IT arena, Setty noted that while some people succeeded beyond imagination, most people seemed to get stuck about ten or fifteen years into their careers. After careful observation, interviews and insights, Setty realized that the top performers in the IT services industry definitely had a different set of standard practices for distinguishing themselves. To share their secrets, Setty created Beyond Code.

In Beyond Code, Setty explains that today’s tech pros are facing the crisis of commoditization and that in order to thrive, it is imperative that they learn to stand out. Moreover, Beyond Code functions as a blueprint for professionals who want to go from acceptable to exceptional.

Beyond Code explains how technology professionals can supercharge their careers by winning what Setty calls the Inner Game and Outer Game. Complete with exercises, examples, and insights, Beyond Code provides a recipe for technology professionals to raise above the commodity crowd and become remarkable.”

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “Beyond Code”(5 copies available) answer this question:

Comment by 9pm CST today and be entered to win! 10 winners will be randomly selected.

Update: Winner’s have been selected! Rajesh was impressed with all the great comments that he selected everyone that commented to win!

Today we are giving away 10 copies of the controversial book “The Halo Effect” by Phil Rosenzweig. Phil, a professor at IMD Business School in Switzerland, thinks that todays business publications are failing us. The leading magazines and best selling books promote the idea that if you mimic the companies they highlight then you will achieve success too . Phil believes these theories are flawed. It is more complex than that.

The Halo Effect, or the activity of exaggerating the merits of companies on the upswing, and magnifying its faults when it falters, is rampant in management books and business magazines. If we let the Halo of the company performance affect our judgements, then we restrict our ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses in a objective manner. Phil’s blog continues the discussion of current examples of the Halo Effect by the media. Check it out!

In a brilliant and unconventional book, Phil Rosenzweig unmasks the delusions that are commonly found in the corporate world. These delusions affect the business press and academic research, as well as many best-selling books that promise to reveal the secrets of success or the path to greatness. Such books claim to be based on rigorous thinking, but operate mainly at the level of storytelling. They provide comfort and inspiration, but deceive managers about the true nature of business success.

The most pervasive delusion is the Halo Effect. When a company’s sales and profits are up, people often conclude that it has a brilliant strategy, a visionary leader, capable employees, and a superb corporate culture. When performance falters, they conclude that the strategy was wrong, the leader became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture was stagnant. In fact, little may have changed—company performance creates a Halo that shapes the way we perceive strategy, leadership, people, culture, and more. The Halo Effect is widespread, undermining the usefulness of business bestsellers from In Search of Excellence to Good to Great.

The Halo Effect is a landmark book that replaces mistaken thinking with a sharper understanding of what drives company performance. It’s a guide for the thinking manager, a way to detect errors in business research and to reach a clearer understanding of what drives success and failure. For managers who want to separate fact from fiction in the world of business, The Halo Effect is a much-needed antidote to the conventional thinking that clutters business bookshelves.

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “The Halo Effect” (10 copies available) answer this question:

Comment by 9pm CST Wednesday February 7th and be entered to win! 10 winners will be randomly selected.

Today we are giving away 10 copies of the recently released “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything“. Flickr, YouTube, Linux, Wikipedia are instantly associated with the Internet social movement of collaboration on a mass scale. This movement is creating a ripple effect change on the way businesses run in the twenty-first century.

The Internet has turned into a platform which enables companies to host their R&D labs (InnoCentive), create better software than what large corporations offer us (Firefox or any open source software), and assemble innovative and original television content (CurrentTV). It is evident that peer production communities are here to stay for a while. How will you leverage this within your company? Read this book to find out.

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything”(10 copies available) answer this question:

Comment by 9pm CST today and be entered to win! 10 winners will be randomly selected.

Update:Winners have been selected!

We have some great book giveaway’s coming up in the near future. Starting with tomorrow’s giveaway!

10 copies of “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” by Don Tapscott this Friday February 2nd

There have been a lot of interesting releases on the subject of mass collaboration/wisdom of crowds/leaderless organizations over the past few years - Wikinomic’s being the most recent. It’s a hot subject that been getting a lot of attention from the media with articles such as this one and this one.

From Wikinomics.com:

In the last few years, traditional collaboration—in a meeting room, a conference call, even a convention center—has been superseded by collaborations on an astronomical scale.

Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.
A brilliant primer on one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand the key forces driving competitiveness in the twenty-first century.

Based on a $9 million research project led by bestselling author Don Tapscott, Wikinomics shows how the masses of people can participate in the economy like never before. They are creating TV news stories, sequencing the human genome, remixing their favorite music, designing software, finding a cure for disease, editing school texts, inventing new cosmetics, and even building motorcycles.

10 copies of the “The Halo Effect” by Phil Rosenzweig on Monday February 5th

“The Halo Effect” is an iconoclastic look at management theories. Who is in the cross hairs of his critique? Business magazines such as Business Week and Fortune. Both are guilty of applying simple phrases to explain the success and failures of companies they feature. This oversimplification leads to delusions on parts of managers who want to emulate success in their own companies. Phil also takes aim at such books as In Search of Excellence, Built to Last, and Jim Collins best selling Good to Great. “The Halo Effect” definitely rocks the proverbial ‘business book’ boat.