800-CEO-READ Blog

Jack Covert Selects - A Working Stiff's Manifesto

A Working Stiff’s Manifesto by Iain Levison; Soho Publishing; 164 Pages; $22.00 Hardcover; April 2002; ISBN 1569472807

This is another one of those books that doesn’t quite fit into any conventional business book category. A Working Stiff’s Manifesto is the story of one man’s ‘adventures’ in the job market. Armed with a military background, an English degree, and a goal to someday write the Great American Novel, Iain Levison is a hard and good worker who bounces from job to job looking for one he can stick with, one that offers respect, individuality, creativity and some freedom. Offended by micromanagement and the inane expectations and insane deadlines demanded of workers, somewhat defiant, and utterly uninterested, Levison is not the ideal employee, but the stories of his hiring and firings certainly make for interesting reading and make the reader sympathetic to his plight. He is smart enough to move up quickly among the ranks, but finds that managing and leading means reinforcing inane rules that he can’t quite tolerate regurgitating. He understands that he is part of the problem: “Aside from making me a liability at sales and a lot of other professions, a four-year university English degree has made me impatient at the few jobs I can get. It’s filled me with a sense of entitlement. This makes it difficult…waiting for a promotion which, incidentally, I really don’t want. So to half the world I’m unemployable, and I’m not interested in the other half.” So, in taking jobs that range from hard labor, to pirating cable, to trucking cross-country, to conventional temp service work, Levison searches for the right answer while trying to pay his bills. A portion of the book tells of his time in Alaska working on the crab ships – horrifying stuff that will make you appreciate your own job.

The lessons of employment are hard-learned for both Levison and the reader. One story with much impact starts when Levison takes a job with a man who owns his own computer-wiring company. The man’s ladder collapses as he rants at Levison’s lack of inherent ability, and he is severely injured. Shaken by the event, Levison reflects: “It’s ironic that this man who works so hard for his independence now has to room with his mother. Those are the choices. That’s the glamour of running your own business. Kill yourself to survive.” As you can tell, this book doesn’t pull punches and is not meant to delude anyone into believing that satisfying employment is an easy thing to find. However, it is entertaining and interesting reading. Levison’s writing style is easy and amiable, and he tells a good story. Filled with cynical humor, the book does a good job of presenting the problems faced by a large segment of the population too educated to be satisfied being laborers, but without the drive to succeed within the confines of the pre-existing capitalist structure that is the work-a-day world.

So, is this a business book that will change the way you run your business? Maybe. Perhaps it will allow you to look at your employees with different eyes. Is this a book that, as an employee, will change the way you look at your job? Maybe. Perhaps you will realize that it could be a lot worse, or perhaps it will make you appreciate your earned vacation and the friendship of your co-workers, or maybe it will inspire you to rejoin the hunt for the perfect job. Whichever, I think this book provides plenty of fodder for self-reflection, and I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Jack Covert Selects - First Among Equals

First Among Equals: How to Manage a Group of Professionals by Patrick J. McKenna and David H. Maister; Free Press; 288 pages; $26.00; Hardcover; April 2002; ISBN 0743225511

In First Among Equals, McKenna & Maister tackle the difficult task of being a group leader within a professional service firm. What makes this kind of management difficult, the authors explain, is not only the inherent hierarchy that emerges when one group member is elevated above others, but that being a group leader tends to counter the individual success that typically leads to compensation in a professional’s career. When made a group leader, the professional must find time to lead and still do her own work, because only through doing her own work well, can she be a model for the group. As you can see, this is a sticky situation. While the natural tendency of a firm will be to nominate the most successful professional to the role of leader, it is not typically the most successful who will be the best leader. Instead, McKenna & Maister suggest, the main goal of a group leader is to excite, to spread enthusiasm, to perform the role of “chief cheerleader and chief critic”. One phrase I particularly liked was that the group leader of a group of professionals is “The guardian of the long-term.” This shows the different mindset required of a leader.

Unlike many business books which discuss theory and not application, McKenna & Maister will show you exactly how to be a great group leader. This book relies heavily on the thoughts and research of some pretty experienced folks in this field and you will enjoy learning from them. Astoundingly practical information can be found in such chapters as “Give Recognition” and “Resolve Interpersonal Conflicts”. In the chapter, “Deal with Your Crises”, the authors ask: “How do you respond to dramatic events?”, and they then take you through the steps with which you will calmly handle the situation. They also list in very basic terms the different types of chaos one may come up against as a group leader. For instance, perhaps a key member of the group is leaving, or someone made a mistake, or a client is lost; or an employee must be laid off, or even dies. McKenna & Maister will lead you through it. Nothing like a leadership book that actually teaches you how to lead. This is one book that you will keep on your shelf for years and the pages will be dog-eared.

Jack Covert Selects - Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web by David Weinberger, Perseus Publishing, 200 Pages, $25.00 Hardcover, April 2002, ISBN 0738205435

One of the early landmark books about the Internet was The Cluetrain Manifesto, co-authored by David Weinberger. The book was notorious for talking big, even called “pretentious, strident, and absolutely brilliant” by the reviewer at The Wall Street Journal. How about this sub-title for over-promising? One can only hope this book is as successful at living up to its promise as The Cluetrain Manifesto was. While I’m not sure it is quite the book Cluetrain was, it certainly offers a perspective of the web that is overarching and singular. If you yearn to “understand” the web, not from a user stand-point (what is a URL?), but wish to better grasp how the web has changed society (does the web simply encourage the loner in all of us?), then this is certainly a worthwhile and dynamic read.

The author has divided the book into eight chapters, starting with an overview and then mapping out Space, Time, Perfection, Togetherness, Knowledge, Matter and Hope. Yes, he does tackle these subjects, and it is indeed this vastness of subject that intrigues the author. Yes, sometimes it seems like a stretch, but I’ve got to tell you that this guy can write - very well and very convincingly. For example, talking about space and the Web:

“Unlike the real world, there is no expense of empty space that gets diminished every time someone stakes a new house. Web space is infinite (me: I love to think about this idea) in that it can’t be used up, but it’s not infinitely big. It’s not a container waiting to be filled; it is more like a book that’s being written.”

I received the galley, the pre-release copy, over six months ago and have been picking the book up and digesting every since. The author has a great sense of humor: for example, he talks about a site called Rageboy.com, writing: “the site contains an idiosyncratic collection of essays by a writer with too much personality for his own good.” That writer is the co-author of the aforementioned Cluetrain Manifesto.

Why read this book? What does this book offer as “takeaways”? This is a book that will give you new and potentially better way of looking at something (the Web) that didn’t exist for most of us six or seven years ago and now has become a force we can’t ignore. For me, this book gave me constant insights into the phenomenon that the web has become.

Jack Covert Selects - Floating on the Page

Floating off the Page: The Best Stories from The Wall Street Journal’s “Middle Column” Edited by Ken Wells, Wall Street Journal Books, 280 Pages, $24.00 Hardcover, April 2001, ISBN 0743226631

As readers of this little exercise called Jack Covert Selects know, I love what I call ‘Airplane Reads’. These books should be packed in the front pocket of your carry-on so that when you are waiting out a lay-over or just too bored/tired/burned out to work on the expense report, you can pick it up and have a nice read. Our friends at The Wall Street Journal have compiled those fun middle columns which began appearing in 1941 into a “best of” book. These stories are at least interesting, often funny, and always well-written. I just finished a story from 1986 about dwarf-throwing called Little Feats and what a brouhaha that occupation caused in England. They interviewed Lenny the Giant (the dwarf in question) and you will learn that he makes $68 per night and loves it. Huh. One of my favorite stories is called The Waning Days of Mr. Coke. This loving tribute is to Robert Woodruff, the true genius behind the Coke brand who finally sought acknowledgment for his role in 1981. He was 91 years old, nearly blind and deaf, but at the time controlled 17 percent of the company stock. He lived on a 30,000-acre ranch surrounded by memorabilia from Bobby Jones, who, along with Woodruff, founded Augusta National and the Masters.

The book is broken up into provocative categories like: The Way We are Now, Style (my favorite, being the styling guy I am), Things You Might Not Know, Men at Work (Mr. Coke), Obsessions, What We Wrote Home About, Play’s the Thing, Notions and Controversies (Lenny can be found here) etc. While this book won’t help you change the world or change you life, it will stimulate and broaden your mind…and keep you busy during a lay-over, which is not a bad thing.

Jack Covert Selects - Poker MBA

The Poker MBA: Winning in Business No Matter What Cards You’re Dealt by Greg Dinkin and Jeffrey Gitomer, Crown Business, 240 Pages, $23.95 Hardcover, April 2002, ISBN 0609609866

I have followed Jeffrey Gitomer’s career for many years and even had the privilege of spending a morning with him when he last came through Milwaukee. I learned a tremendous amount about sales (Jeffrey’s specialty) and my own company during that conversation. For this book, Jeffrey has teamed up with Greg Dinkin, a professional poker player (yup, you read that correctly). The result is a book packed with war stories, fun anecdotes about poker games, business negotiations and business practices. In the introduction, the authors spend some time pointing out the similarities between poker and business. To illustrate (italics are mine):

“How good are your opponents?
Every business needs to understand its competition.
Do you have a big enough stake?
Every business needs adequate financial resources.
How much is the vig?
Every business has to cover its overhead before it can make a profit.
How much money is in the pot before the draw, and how much money is
expected to be in the pot after all the betting?
Every business needs to know how big the market is and how much of the market
that business can hope to conquer.
What are the odds of catching the cards that will make you a winner?
Every business needs to know how to calculate risk.”

See, not as off-the-business-base as you may have thought. If you enjoy business books with a catchy theme to pique your interest and assist your comprehension, and you like strategy and games that emulate risk-taking business maneuvers, this is the book for you. The design of the book is fun with a table of icons, such as Jokers, Winning Hands and Chapter Aces, that are then found throughout the book and provide extra value. Dinkin and Gitomar, just like Kenny Rogers before them, will teach you to “know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em”.