We are discussing books that are geared toward business growth and personal growth in this episode. These are books recommended by our team, owners and clients; books we feel have made an impact in the growth of our business and personal lifes. With so many great reads available, sometimes you can find it hard to narrow down where to start, so we did that for you by highlighting why these nine books are worth the read.
What we cover in this episode:
- 02:23 – The importance of processes
- 06:56 – Books for personal growth
- 19:03 – Business growth by leading and serving
The importance of processes
Three of the books discussed below are wonderful at digging deeper into what is needed for business growth. Although these can be applied to your personal life as well, these authors talk about the importance of processes within your business and organization and how they lead to overall success.
Traction does a great job at walking you through step-by-step of what you should be looking at within your organization, finding the improvements needed in your business, where to focus, and how to align your team to move in the same direction. Wickman writes out a perspective on the importance of the conversations and processes needed to aim your business and team at the same goals; and the need to be on the same page.
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
The main takeaway in E-Myth Revisited is focused on the growth of your business and how the establishment of processes your people can follow, is critical to business growth. Establishing and following processes will make the functionality of your organization’s daily tasks more operational. Not having to reinvent the wheel each time you do something new or implement a new action is critical to functioning more efficiently.
For example, when you are hiring new employees you are not always going to find the perfect fit. Sometimes you may go through multiple team members before the right person fills the position. The first time you train someone, it would be a viable option to document the onboarding process for critical tasks they will need to do. This way, you don’t waste time trying to recreate the same methods you used in the past. Processes run business, people run processes.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Lencioni writes a fictionalized story talking you through the five dysfunctions of a team and how they are needed for the overall success of your organization. The first of the five is the absence of trust. If there is not trust among your team, it sets an uneasy foundation for getting things done. You have to not only have trust in your team, but your team needs to trust you to have a solid ground to build on.
The second is fear of conflict in your organization. You must be able to have a team that voices their concerns and lets you voice yours. Good conflict is necessary for growth in business because it challenges the processes for the better. This is followed by number three, lack of commitment and number four avoidance of accountability. These are two components that are reflected in personal growth as well. Team members need to be committed to the goal and held accountable for their actions.
All of these lead to number five, inattention to results. With the lack of the previous four, results in personal and professional growth could remain stagnant. A business needs trust+conflict+commitment+accountability to equal the goal of results.
Books for Personal Growth
To succeed in your business growth, continuous personal growth can play a major role. The following book recommendations are focused on personal growth rather than business.
The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander
What is your why? How do you challenge yourself? How do you create what you want? This book brings to light the fact you are able to strive for what you want in life. It focuses on perspective and how that can help you open opportunities for yourself.
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
Diving deep into personal growth, this book amps up your self reflections. Figuring out where your priorities lay within yourself and your businesses. The Untethered Soul stretches your thinking on what your passion is for doing what you’re doing or want to do. It’s about freeing yourself from limitations, finding inner peace and helping you better understand your thoughts and emotions.
Business growth by leading and serving
Leadership and a desire to serve are qualities that will aid in the growth of your business. Leadership, ownership and doing those things effectively aren’t always
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Willink writes a book geared towards the tough love side of running a business. If you are in management, you are also in a leadership role, or at least that’s how you should be thinking. Anything that happens within your department or on your team is a direct reflection of you. This book highlights how accountability and responsibility are necessary to lead a team successfully. Extreme Ownership discusses how you build up your team by taking ownership of a mistake. You must figure out how to fix it rather than placing blame.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
This book outlines key action points for business growth and personal growth. If you are on the teeter totter of productivity and procrastination, implementation of these 7 habits would be beneficial to growth.
The habits start off with be proactive, in everything you do. Number two is, begin with the end in mind; meaning to think long term. What is going to make your life better or easier down the road? First things first and think win-win are habits three and four. Number five is seek first to understand and then to be understood. The habits end with synergize and sharpen the saw. All of these are great action items, especially when you have a long term goal that you want to strive for.
Selling to Serve by James Ashford
Selling to Serve is definitely a book for business growth and personal growth. It goes back to talking about your why. Why are you doing what you are doing? It isn’t good enough to just provide a service or just sell a product without putting meaning behind what you are doing or providing.
When you enjoy what you do, it shines through making the sales process easier. Forcing services and products on people when you don’t believe in it yourself just doesn’t work. If you are providing a product or service the consumer wants or needs, and you are doing it with the best intentions, it sells itself.
This book dives into the discussion of talent versus effort. You can be the most talented person in the room and still not be successful. The people who work hard and put in the effort and the time are the people who reap the rewards. This books reflects on whether grit is a product of nature or nurture and how this one factor has a large impact on success.
Conclusion
These books have so much information to offer in business and personal life. We just touch on the main ideas for you here but highly recommend you start with one that stands out to you and work on implementing the actions. With consistency and effort, you are sure to see the results you are striving for.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Traction by Gino Wickman
- The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander
- The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Selling to Serve by James Ashford
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
