Coaching | Consulting | Learning

Resources

Looking for quick inspiration you can pick up? Here are some favorite resources we recommend to our clients and friends:

• Books for Leaders
• Books on Coaching
• Books on Dialogue
• Books on Emotional Intelligence
• Books on Strengths
• Just Good Books

BOOKS FOR LEADERS

Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box
by The Arbinger Institute
The authors use examples from the characters' lives – both at work and at play – to show how self-deception distorts our view of ourselves and others and can destroy our interactions, despite what we sincerely believe are our best intentions.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't
by Jim Collins
Going from good to great doesn't necessarily require a brilliant CEO, leading-edge technology, or even a dazzling business strategy. Collins reveals what great companies have in common: a corporate culture that finds and promotes disciplined people who think and act in a disciplined manner

Leadership Challenge: The Most Trusted Source in Becoming a Better Leader
by James Kouzes and Barry Posner
Kouzes and Posner explain the five keys to leadership excellence and provide action steps. "What we have discovered, and rediscovered, is that leadership is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women," say the authors. "People make extraordinary things happen by liberating the leader within everyone."

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
by Patrick Lencioni
This work details the five dysfunctions of teams (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results), it includes a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams, and provides specifics to help them understand and overcome these common stumbling blocks.

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization
by Peter Senge
The five disciplines are drawn from science, spiritual wisdom, psychology, the cutting edge of management thought, and the author's own work with top corporations that use his methods.
Mastery of these five disciplines helps managers overcome their obstacles to growth – both their own and their companies'.

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
by Rosamond Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
This is not just another self-improvement book. It's a collection of illustrations and advice that suggests a way to change your entire outlook on life and, therefore, change your possibilities. The relevance to corporate situations and relationships is made clear, and not by the use of dry case studies.

BOOKS ON COACHING

Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life
by Laura Whitworth, Henry Kimsey-House and Phil Sandahl
The first edition of Co-Active Coaching helped launch the professional practice of coaching. In the latest edition, the authors explain how coaching has become an integral part of successful organizations' toolkits for developing leaders, working with teams, and building the individual competencies.

Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work
by Marilee Adams
Change Your Questions, Change Your Life provides easy-to-use tools that can make an immediate difference in both your business and personal lives. That's because "questioning" is a skill rarely taught in school. But doing it well — asking the right questions of the right people — can change attitudes, actions, and results for the better.

Taming Your Gremlin: A Guide to Enjoying Yourself
by Richard David Carson
Don't like self-help books? Or maybe they haven't worked for you? Here is a more creative yet workable approach to solving life's problems. Through the metaphor of the gremlin, you will find ways to identify and eliminate the persistent, self-defeating aspects of your personality.

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life
by John G. Miller
Leaders whose workplaces demand straightforward advice that brings about positive change will find this book helpful. Miller's main point is that positive change begins with changing oneself: "Instead of asking, 'When will others walk their talk?' let's walk our talk first."

BOOKS ON DIALOGUE

Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in Business and in Life
by William Isaacs
Professional and personal communication can be a process of thinking together - as opposed to thinking alone, and then trying to convince others of our positions by refusing to consider other opinions and ultimately getting angry and defensive. Here are some concrete approaches for effective listening and speaking.

A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear and Distrust at Work
by Annette Simmons
Organizations cannot succeed with a culture of half-truths, doctored information and - let's not mince words — outright lies. To function at their best, businesses must create an environment where people feel safe to tell the truth, no matter how unpleasant the truth might be. Here's how to create that kind of culture.

BOOKS ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
by David Goleman
Goleman details the five skills that are critical to our emotional intelligence and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical health. There's great news: emotional intelligence is not fixed early in life.

The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success
by Steven Stein and Howard Book
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is fixed and unchangeable. The real key to personal and professional success and happiness is your Emotional Quotient (EQ), which you can develop. By doing so, you can increase your confidence and optimism and create better relationships. Here's how.

BOOKS ON STRENGTHS

The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry
By Sue Annis Hammond
The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry is an introduction to the idea that change can be managed by focusing on what works.

The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change
by Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) encourages people to identify, examine and build on what works well — when people are at their best — rather than focusing on what's going wrong. The authors are pioneers in this technique and explain how organizations can use it for sustained positive change.

Now Discover Your Strengths
by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton
Focus on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses … what a concept! This book describes 34 positive personality traits and explains how you can build a "strengths-based organization" by taking advantage of the positive traits that are already present within your people.

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
by Marcus Buckingham
How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work? Most people do not come close to making full use of their assets. This book aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths.

Play to Your Strengths: Stacking the Deck to Achieve Spectacular Results for Yourself and Others
by Andrea Sigetich and Carol Leavitt
Leaders don't achieve greatness simply by eliminating their weaknesses. It's their strengths that lead to their success. This book provides hands-on, practical tools to identify and maximize strengths to improve engagement, performance, and satisfaction. Aren't you ready for an employee development strategy that really works?

JUST GOOD BOOKS

Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion
by Pema Chodron
What could be more appropriate for the times we live in? Chodron provides short readings to help us develop compassion and awareness in the midst of our daily challenges. More than just a collection of "thoughts for the day," Comfortable with Uncertainty is a simple framework for spiritual study.

A Whole New Mind
by Daniel Pink
Move over left-brainers! A Whole New Mind reveals the six right brain abilities individuals must master in our increasingly outsourced and automated world. It provides tools, tips, and exercises to help individuals and organizations sharpen their right-brain capacities.

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle
What does "living in the now" mean? Tolle's easy-to-understand writing, encouraging voice, and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever asked that question. Find out how your thoughts and emotions get in the way of your ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.

The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources
by Lynne Twist
We all have attitudes toward money. Examining those attitudes can give us insight into our lives, our values, and our beliefs about prosperity. This book demonstrates how we can replace feelings of scarcity, guilt, and burden with experiences of sufficiency, freedom, and purpose.

Home |  Coaching |  Consulting |  Learning |  Our Services |  Keynotes |  Resources |  About Us |  Contact Us

Copyright © BluOpal ® Consulting. Web site designed by Webeclectic.com.
BluOpal ® is a registered trademark belonging to BluOpal Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.