Curious, Healing

Books about healing, business, and fun

business

“Find a Job Through Social Networking” by Diane Crompton

by Leave a Comment

Subtitle: Use Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and More to Advance Your Career

Recommended to me by: Nancy Hyde

A practical guide to networking online. Details about how to use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as more general networking tips on “building one’s brand.”

I read this a little at a time over a few months. The first few chapters were too basic for me, since I’ve had an online presence for 20 years. Then I got stuck on the exercises to develop one’s message and tagline, since it didn’t feel like the right time to do that work in relation to finding a software job. I skimmed through the rest, which has specific details on different online networks.

Useful tips: there are networks based in Europe, like xing.com. Groups on LinkedIn help raise one’s visibility. Facebook is being used more for business networking.

This book has good, basic advice for networking and job hunting. The examples are a little too cheerily positive for my taste, but of course they’re going to use successful examples. Recommended if you want to learn more about this topic.

Available at biblio.com.

“The Referral of a Lifetime” by Tim Templeton

by 2 Comments

Subtitle: The Networking System That Produces Bottom-Line Results… Every Day!

Recommended to me by: Karen Wehrman

A quick and amusing read, this book teaches a method of getting referrals and building business, illustrated with fictional vignettes. The vignettes are slightly dated in their attitudes toward women, but at least women are shown as successful business owners.

The system is based on treating customers and contacts with integrity, staying in touch consistently, and asking for referrals. While it is recommended to outsource sending “items of value” every month (the author’s business provides that service), it is also recommended to make the system fit each particular business.

I recently realized that my business is personal, not personalized. I send hand-written thank you notes, not cards printed by a service. I spend a couple of days each month writing a substantive article to send to my mailing list.

While I don’t think this book outlines the only way to succeed at business, and I don’t think it’s a perfect fit for my business, I’m going to keep thinking about the suggestions and how they might apply. It wouldn’t hurt to emphasize my commitment to service and ask for referrals more often!

Available at bookshop.org.

“Bright-sided” by Barbara Ehrenreich

by Leave a Comment

Subtitle: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America

Barbara Ehrenreich starts with the personal – her surprise at the mandatory positivity around her breast cancer diagnosis – and veers to the political – how delusional positivity contributed to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. In between, she gives a brief history of New Thought, Christian Science, business and life coaching, and positive psychology, with unsubtle negative digs at the people involved. She also draws connections between megachurch pastors and corporate CEOs.

I read this book with an odd mix of relief and defensiveness.

I completely agree that delusional positivity is frightening and unhelpful, and it’s a relief to see that clearly pointed out. She describes feeling alone in a big coaching seminar because no one else was acknowledging the misuse of quantum physics. I’ve been in that situation, wondering if I’m the only one in the room politely not laughing at the pseudo-science rather than eagerly swallowing it whole.

At the same time, a more grounded positivity has been helpful in my life. Asking “What am I doing right?” rather than “What am I doing wrong?” shifts my focus and allows me to see that, in fact, I am doing a lot of things right. I have benefited from a life coach’s services. My own work borders on coaching and sometimes involves helping clients shift their focus to positive aspects of their situations.

Overall, I enjoyed the beginning and ending of the book, but wished the middle held fewer judgments about various people’s appearance and “invalidism”. I hope people will heed her call to awareness, realism, and action, while maintaining hope that change is possible.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Get Clients Now!” by C. J. Hayden

by Leave a Comment

Despite the intimidating cover, this book is filled with compassionate, practical suggestions for getting a marketing program off the ground.

Getting clients is divided into four stages:

  • Filling the pipeline
  • Following up
  • Getting presentations
  • Closing sales

For the 28 day program, the book recommends focusing on a single stage, and committing to a set of 8-10 daily or weekly actions from a menu of suggestions. The actions include both direct marketing and incremental work on longer-term “Success Ingredients” such as a brochure or website.

There are helpful sections on choosing realistic goals and managing resistance when it inevitably arises. As well as choosing activities, you choose a Special Permission, such as “I have permission to ask for what I want” or “I deserve to be successful.”

Worksheets for choosing a program and tracking progress can be downloaded at the Get Clients Now website.

For myself, I find that I need more flexibility than this intense 28-day program provides, but the structured approach makes marketing seem a lot less mysterious. It is reassuring to see how many of the “success ingredients” I’ve created along the way, and how many of the recommended activities I’ve incorporated into my marketing, even if I don’t do 8 of them per day.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” by Seth Godin

by 1 Comment

Recommended to me by: Seth Godin’s blog

Seth Godin brings together several of his ideas about how to survive in our changed economy. His main premise is that non-thinking “factory” work is no longer the road to security. “Factory” is in quotes because he uses it to include any job which involves following the rules and doing what the boss says.

He redefines several other words, including “art” (a gift that changes the recipient), and “artist” (someone who gives such gifts in a business context).

I love his idea of “emotional work”, which is one of the possible ways to make “art.” Emotional work includes both confronting ones own resistance, and creating genuine connections with others. I know I’m much more likely to frequent a shop where the employees or owners give me the gift of emotional connection.

Which brings us to his main definition, “linchpin”: someone who does their emotional work, creates art, gives that little bit extra to both coworkers and customers, and becomes essential to a business.

He talks at length about the importance of “shipping” – completing the art or product and sending out into the world – and the “lizard brain” or resistance that gets in the way. This was the most problematic redefinition for me, because he makes it clear that he’s referring to the amygdala and limbic system, which evolved in mammals, not reptiles.

While it’s useful to think of resistance as a separate voice and notice what it’s saying without letting it take over, I was uncomfortable with the dismissive, combative attitude he seemed to be promoting. I’m more comfortable with the compassionate attitude in Cheri Huber’s How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, which I happened to be reading at the same time.

The writing is choppy, reminiscent of his pithy, paragraph-long blog posts. I read his blog with interest every day, but find the style distracting in a full book.

Seth Godin has also published the book’s ideas in a freely available PDF.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The No Asshole Rule” by Robert Sutton, PhD

by Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Robert Sutton blog post (via Twitter)

It’s a rare business book that focuses on warmth, kindness, and peaceful, loving environments. This compassionate little book, subtitled Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, does so with clarity and conviction.

In this book, you’ll find:

  • A definition of assholes (also known as jerks, bullies, tyrants, etc.)
  • The costs of employing them
  • How to implement and enforce a “no asshole” rule, including heartening positive examples
  • How to avoid behaving badly ourselves, including a self-test
  • Survival tips for unavoidable asshole-ridden situations
  • What people get out of behaving badly

The main message:

Treat the person right in front of you, right now, in the right way.

I am delighted to discover that some corporations and academic departments value respect and kindness. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to follow their example.

Available at bookshop.org.