What if conficts at home, conflicts at work and conflicts in the world stem from the same root cause? Through a story of parents who are struggling with their children and with problems that have come to consume their lives, we learn from once-bitter enemies the way to find peace whenever we bring war upon ourselves.

This is the follow up to Arbinger's "Leadership and Self Deception" and while great as a stand-alone, is better served when you read the two sequentially. The concepts that were introduced in “Self Deception” are more fully defined and illustrated here. What is most important is that it becomes eminently usable and easily applied in your daily life.

If your relationships could use a bit of polish, this is a good start. As the book says, the choice between peace and war is within us all, and at all times. Choosing peace may not always be easy, but is always possible. The book offers a unique solution to the conflicts that cause pain in our lives.

Business to business selling has never been easy. In difficult economic times, the ability to sell strategically becomes much more important. The difference between the companies that win or lose are the ones that can sell and mange their customer base the best.

"Hope Is Not A Strategy" is a must-read if you're in the business of selling complex products or services to complex organizations. If you have ever lost a deal and wondered why, you may find the answers here. If you want to feel confident in winning tomorrow's deal, start with this book.

Strategic Hiring, Tomorrow’s Benefits Today
Stephen Blakesley
Published by Stephen Blakesley

Stephen Blakesley presents a complete system to successfully identify, develop and keep outstanding people. Executives and managers understand the significance of hiring and development, but often the urgency of running a successful business usurps the importance of identifying the best people and keeping them. Strategic Hiring puts things in proper perspective.

Stephen is a colleague of mine, and does a great job of creating a simple to use system for reducing turnover, increasing productivity and maximizing organizational performance.

I Quit, but Forgot To Tell You, Attacking the Spreading Virus of Disengagement
Written by the Terri Kabachnick
Published by The Kabachnick Group, Inc., Copyright 2006

From the liner notes: "As customers, we have been served by people who quit but never left. As employees, we have been managed by bosses who quit, but managed to stay. As managers, we have managed people who physically attend, but mentally pretend.

Let's face it. No one takes a job intending to fail. No employer hires with the intent to fire. Both parties want only the best. They both want to succeed. So what happens?"

Practical, thought provoking and timely, this is a great read. If you have been in business for any length of time, you have seen this issue and it's insidiously devastating effects. You may not have known what to call it. You now do...worker disengagement. These are the workers that seem to have retired in place, workers who have mentally checked out. These are the ones that my clients spend most of their time trying, with marginal success, to motivate.

The sad fact is that these are the people that you are entrusting your business to. They are the ones that create lagging morale in your other employees, poor customer service, and declining profits. They aren't just ineffective, they are damaging to your best efforts.

Leadership and Self Deception
Written by the Arbinger Institute
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2002

You're working hard, pushing yourself and your people. Your work and personal relationships are "difficult" or challenged in some way. Something is just not right, but you can't put your finger on it. It could be self-deception.

This is a practical guide to changing one's outlook on life, not just the way one conducts business. This book provides a realistic plan to look at one's self honestly and to begin to see reality as it truly is. If you would like to challenge your view of yourself and of how others see you and you see others, this is a good starting point.

Made to Stick, Why Some Ideas Survive And Others Die
Written by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Published by Random House, 2007

Urban legends, conspiracy theories and bogus public health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas—businesspeople, teachers, politicians, journalists and authors—struggle to make their ideas stick.

This book by brothers Chip and Dan Heath is well written, well researched, and has a good balance between story telling and how-tos. The ideas allow you to transform the way you communicate ideas. It shows us the vital principles of winning ideas, and tells us how we can apply the principles to make our ideas stickier.