W.I.N. Newsletter Special - Book Recommendations
Published: Wed, 06/30/10
and two book recommendations:
Policemag.com just posted a podcast about the new book If I
Knew Then: Life Lessons From Cops on the Street. You can listen to
the podcast at www.policemag.com and then click on the Podcast
link. Here is the link:
http://www.policemag.com/Podcasts/2010/06/If-I-Knew-Then-Life-Lessons-From-Cops.aspx
Mojo By Marshall Goldsmith
Mojo is the moment when we do something that's purposeful,
powerful, and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it.
This book is about that moment--and how we can create it in our
lives, maintain it, and recapture it when we need it.
In his follow-up to the New York Times bestseller What Got You Here
Won't Get You There, #1 executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shares
the ways in which to get--and keep--our Mojo. Our professional and
personal Mojo is impacted by four key factors: identity (who do you
think you are?), achievement (what have you done lately?),
reputation (who do other people think you are--and what have you've
done lately?), and acceptance (what can you change--and when do you
need to just "let it go"?). Goldsmith outlines the positive actions
leaders must take, with their teams or themselves, to initiate
winning streaks and keep them coming.
Mojo is: that positive spirit--towards what we are doing--now--that
starts from the inside--and radiates to the outside. Mojo is at its
peak when we are experiencing both happiness and meaning in what we
are doing and communicating this experience to the world around us.
The Mojo Toolkit provides fourteen practical tools to help you
achieve both happiness and meaning--not only in business, but in
life.
Linchpin By Seth Godin
Here is what Hugh MacLeod had to say about this book:
This is by far Seth's most passionate book. He's pulling fewer
punches. He's out for blood. He's out to make a difference. And
that glorious, heartfelt passion is obvious on every page, even if
it is in Seth's usual quiet, lucid, understated manner.
A linchpin, as Seth describes it, is somebody in an organization
who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced--her role is just far
too unique and valuable. And then he goes on to say, well,
seriously folks, you need to be one of these people, you really do.
To not be one is economic and career suicide.
No surprises there--that's exactly what one would expect Seth to
say. But here's where it gets interesting.
In his best-known book, Purple Cow, Seth's message was, "Everyone's
a marketer now." In All Marketers Are Liars, his message was,
"Everyone's a storyteller now." In Tribes, his message was,
"Everyone's a leader now."
And from Linchpin?
"Everyone's an artist now."
By Seth's definition, an artist is not just some person who messes
around with paint and brushes, an artist is somebody who does (and
I LOVE this term) "emotional work."
Work that you put your heart and soul into. Work that matters. Work
that you gladly sacrifice all other alternatives for. As a working
artist and cartoonist myself, I know exactly what he means. It's
not what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The only people who have a hope of becoming linchpins in any
organization, who have any hope of changing anything for the better
in real terms, are those who have the capacity to do "emotional
work" at a high level--to be true artists at whatever they set their
minds on doing. The guys who just plod around the office corridors,
just turning up for their paycheck.... Well, those guys don't have
a prayer, poor things. The world is just too interesting and
competitive now.
And Seth then challenges us, the readers, to become linchpins
ourselves. To make the leap. To become artists. To do emotional
work, whatever the sacrifice may be. It's our choice, and it's our
burden. Seth won't be there to catch us if we fall, but to become
the people we need to be eventually, well, we probably wouldn't
want him to, anyway.
Congratulations, Seth. You have penned a real gem of a book here.
Rock on.
--Hugh MacLeod
Take care.
Brian Willis
Winning Mind Training
Warrior Spirit Books