"We Need You To Lead Us." The call to action is clear and powerful, exactly what you would expect from marketer Seth Godin. But when is the last time a book's subtitle expected so much from you? Most business books are created to sell you something, some way you'll be improved or bettered. Think about how that simple statement turns all of the reader's expectations around.

In Tribes, Seth expands on his previous mantra: now, not only are we all marketers, but we are also now leaders. He says there are existing guilds, legions and platoons of people just waiting for someone to step forward, though fear will deter many from the call. "Fear of change is built into most organisms, because change is the first sign of risk." The irony is that change is exactly what tribes wants, but they need fearless crusaders leading the way.

There are differences between tribes and groups. Tribes are about connections and the communication that runs sideways between those connections. The members of a tribe share a vision and tell a story about who they are. And they do something, whether trading baseball cards or protesting a war. If any of the three conditions are lacking, the tribe becomes merely a group.

"What Do You Have to Lose?" Seth asks in one of his final riffs. He refers to Brad Garlinghouse and his Peanut Butter Memo, a missive imploring his bosses at Yahoo to change the direction of the company. His memo got leaked and ended up on the front page of The Wall Street Journal (imagine Brad's next week in Sunnyvale). That risk led to the firing of a CEO and Brad to a bigger role at Yahoo. Many people may find that kind of move too risky. But was it really a risk? Silicon Valley is full of companies looking for heretics like Brad. What Brad saw a tribe that needed leading.

I have reviewed every book Seth has written since I started this column in 2000. In Tribes, Seth certainly delivers his most important book since Purple Cow and quite possibly his most important book yet. It is time to look at Seth as more than a marketer. He too is a leader of tribes.

Two autobiographies, 200 some companies, even a Simpsons parody, and there certainly seems enough Richard Branson to go around the world (hot-air balloon pun intended) these days. By any standards the Virgin CEO has little left to prove, and could rightly be focused on enjoying those looming golden years on his privately owned Caribbean island ($20,500 a night if you’re interested). But instead, he wrote book number three. Will his energy make you feel lazy? Sure. Just check the publisher--Virgin Books, of course.

The extensive scope of the Virgin name is well covered here--from cell phones to prospective ventures in space tourism--and Branson's own unparalleled business zeal is evident just inside the cover. A copy from his journal lists a smattering of "Last year's new projects:"

3. Ordered 5 new A380XX's - biggest plane in world
4. Opened game reserves in Africa
5. Bought 5 miles Mayorcan Coastline for new hotel.

Generally conversational and non-stylized, evidence of Branson's characteristic spitting-contest bravado is intact. He isn't shy to remind us that Virgin is "the only one of the top twenty [brands] that has diversified into a range of business activities, including airlines..." Or that it's the "fastest company in history to generate over one billion dollars in revenue." And while basically his business advice takes a common sense, everyman's approach ("We run our companies professionally ... But the way we make sure is to see that people are having fun"), the combo of swagger and documented success makes for equal parts guidebook and page-turner. In the cluttered world of nuts-and-bolts approaches to management, Branson's is like a breathe of fresh air.

Business Stripped Bare is an entertaining read, surprising in that despite Branson's larger-than-life life, his business advice is still approachable. Business, he reminds us, is simply about "creating things" and that "business has to give people enriching, rewarding lives, or it's simply not worth doing." Even if you won't find groundbreaking specifics in Branson's biography, it's a story that reminds us of the limitless potential of ambition mixed with a healthy ego.

Don Schmincke, author of The Code of the Executive, has once again put his unique experiences on paper. For his new book, his co-author is world-renowned mountaineer, Chris Warner. The collaboration between a scientist and engineer--one who has become one of the most respected management gurus in the world--and an expeditionist who started his own company (Earth Treks) with just $592.00 was unexpected. Just how did this project between two seemingly polar opposites come to life? On a mountaineering expedition in the Andes, Schmincke--himself a mountain climber who had been pursuing expeditions in remote regions to advance his leadership research--met Warner. Don says of that meeting:

... I noticed something about Chris and his team. They were tight, focused, and professional. [...] He shared with me his experience of high performance teams tackling the world's most forbidding mountains. He also told me of dysfunctional teams collapsing under the strain of the challenge. [...] After hearing him analyze these leadership experiences, I knew I found the "laboratory" for my next book.

As they climbed together, they discovered links between biological leadership insights and death-zone mountaineering experiences, and decided to share these insights with a larger audience.

High Altitude Leadership offers a surprisingly candid outlook on leadership, epitomized by the first sentence in the introduction: "Leadership often sucks!" In studying leadership in one of the most dangerous, unforgiving environments—the Death-Zone, an altitude above 26,000 feet where it is impossible to survive for an extended time period due to lack of oxygen--they discovered that the dynamics of mountaineering can act as metaphors for urgent business challenges.

When you are in the Death-Zone, you can't grab a book to look for new theories, you can't dial a consultant, and motivational speakers are finally short of breath. Up here the best teams emulate behaviors only seen in the highest-performing organizations--and the worst teams wallow in their dysfunction.

Each chapter starts with a documented journal entry from an expedition. Then the authors look at one crucial lesson--or "danger" as the chapters are titled--that can occur and discuss that danger in three ways: how the danger affects an organization; survival tips; and how to instill the opposite view of that danger into an organization. In the chapter, Danger #4: Arrogance, Chris tells the story of a climb gone wrong from over-confidence. In applying this danger to business, they offer insights to detect arrogance in organizations by simply looking at the symptoms of the employees.

High Altitude Leadership reminded me of Leadership Moment, Michael Useem's excellent book that relays nine leadership principles through stories about real people in tight real life situations who experience a leadership moment. Here, the authors present crucial leadership principles learned from a dangerous expedition and bring these lessons back to the world of business with details and examples from their experiences.

Ted Turner is an amazing man who has accomplished amazing things. He has won the America's Cup. He helped get cable off the ground with his Atlanta TV station, which would later be called WTBS. He bought a struggling Atlanta Braves team just to add sports to that fledging cable channel, and under his patronage the team went on to be one of the most successful baseball organizations of the past twenty years. Perhaps too he can be called the father of the 24-hour news cycle as he created CNN, in part to satisfy his own desire to watch the news later in the day. These are only a few of his accomplishments, a list too lengthy to include here.

But perhaps his greatest gesture of largess--and the most obvious example of why his is an unique story,-- was his 1997 commitment to give the United Nations a billion dollars. As Turner was flying from Atlanta to New York to receive a special humanitarian award from the UN, he was going over his financial statements and discovered that, since the Time Warner purchase of his company nine months before, his stock had appreciated from $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion. On the spot, he decided to give that money to the UN. And, when the donation was announced, Turner challenged other billionaires to follow suit. He explains that he couldn't legally give the UN money as a private citizen, but created a foundation that was able to support UN projects.

Turner's story is not only about his business successes and failures, however. It is instead a life story which details his relationships, including a complex one with his father, quite a complex man, and also his marriage to Jane Fonda. Throughout, I found the writing to be straight-forward and engaging. As Turner relates the story of when his world fell apart with the AOL-Time Warner merger, he also has people involved--both his friends and his non-friends--tell their side of the story. His "firing" from AOL Time Warner is reconstructed so well that you are compelled to believe you are getting the whole truth--not just his side of the story.

Ted Turner has written a book that, I believe, other autobiographies will be compared to in the future in terms of his honesty and candor. I read this book cover to cover, spontaneously shared sections I found particularly intriguing with others in the office, and recommend it highly.

Peter Drucker, the man often referred to as "the inventor of modern management" died in 2005. Drucker was an author of numerous influential business books. From his first major book published in 1946, Concept of the Corporation--with it's inside look at GM--to his final book, Peter F. Drucker's thoughts and writing are timeless and brilliant.

Jeffrey Krames has been an editor, writer and publisher for twenty plus years. As he states:

...I thought the definitive book on Drucker had not yet been written. I had no intention of writing a biography, but rather a book that would accomplish two important objectives: one, to showcase his most important management philosophies and signature strategies, and show how they are as useful today as they were when Drucker first espoused them; and two, to reveal how many of the best-selling business books of the last two decades were built on ideas that he originated.

I believe that the author accomplishes these goals admirably.

I started reading this book because I know the author, and Drucker has always fascinated me. But truth be told, Drucker also somewhat intimidated me. I know people who have interviewed him and I always enjoy hearing about listening to his accent and how dazzling he was. "Drinking from a fire hose" seems to apply when you got him talking.

Krames starts the book with the story of how his wife thought this heavy accented phone caller was a crank caller. Then, when he figured out who had called, he calls back, but Drucker is so deaf that they reverted to letter writing. Just before Christmas 2003, Krames drives up to Drucker's modest house for two all day interviews surrounding six agreed upon questions. For the next eight hours, none of these questions are asked.

Topics range from the relatively recent arrival of the middle manager--since the Second World War--to one of his key assumptions that management is a practice, and success is measurable. Drucker describes the traits needed to be a capable manager:

Can hire, fire, organize...promote
Is completely accountable for results
Knows how to delegate upstairs
Makes informed decisions after thinking through the time frame
Really thinks it through and then communicates it
Is the right person for the business plan
Asks what needs to be done and sets a new priority
Ends meetings with clear assignments...most meetings end in murkiness

Jeffrey Krames relates Drucker's stories like the talented writer he is. What hooked me into this book is that the author had me practically sitting in Drucker's living room and the Italian restaurant for lunch as the great man told stories.

Authors Joseph Pine and James Gilmore told us "Work is Theatre" in their 1999 book The Experience Economy. The authors drew on the arts, in particular theatre, and explored the metaphor between business and the stage. The script for a play is "the basic code of events," much like how a firm choreographs the exchanges between sales, order entry, operations, and distribution. The performance itself is the product delivered, the value created. The metaphor grows as human resources become the casting department, and the director's role resembles a more dynamic version of the typical project manager or business leader. We chose another book this month that exposes those same parallels.

Notes on Directing by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich was written for the aspiring director looking to improve their craft. The book publisher Walker & Company recognized the same thing I did and chose the subtitle "130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director’s Chair." This book is about getting a group of people all on the same page and accomplishing something, whether it’s staging a play, launching a product, or holding a bake sale.

The book is delivered in short bursts and an active voice. Do this. Don't do that. Here are just a few of business corollaries you'll find:

29. Directing is mostly casting. Some say directing is 60 percent, others say 90 percent. Regardless, it's a lot. There is not a more important single decision you will make during production than who you put into a role. ...

61. Sincerely praise actors early and often. ... Rather than correcting your actors all the time, get into the habit of frequently telling them what they are doing right. ...

65. Never, NEVER bully ... ... either by shouting or sarcasm, or worse of all, imitation. It will get a laugh and make an enemy. ...

70. Please, PLEASE be decisive. As the director, you have three weapons: "Yes," "No," and "I don't know." Use them. Don't dither; you can always change your mind later. Nobody minds that. ...

Guy Kawasaki gives entrepreneurs two options when they ask him about their ideas--"the truth or 'feel good' pablum." Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition offers no such choice. It is a book of smart and brutally honest advice for entrepreneurs.

As a venture capitalist, Kawasaki has witnessed scores of entrepreneurs pitch their companies, and it's not often pretty. Mr. Kawasaki wants to help, possibly so he doesn't have to sit through so many awful pitches. When discussing how to put together an executive summary for possible investors, he counsels:

Do not attach a presentation. Save your presentation for the face-to-face meeting. It probably sucks anyway, so you're only burying yourself if you attach it.

and:

Do not brag about an MBA degree. Most venture capitalists want to invest in hardcore engineers, not overhead--also known as, MBAs. ... focus on engineering and sales experience, because in the beginning, all you need is someone to make a product and someone to sell it.

The author doesn't pull any punches, even on himself. In explaining his decision on whether to call Chapter 10 "the top ten lies of investors or of venture capitalists," he writes,

I chose "venture capitalists" because they lie more often and are better at it. If you can handle their lies, you can handle any investors.

Although a long book, the chapters are short and bullet-pointed for easy digestion. He also has prominent guests in the book such as the author of The Elegant Solution, Matt May, Made to Stick authors Dan and Chip Heath, Influence author Robert Cialdini and author of The Strategy Paradox Michael Raynor, among many others. Many are Q&As, such as Chapter 13: The Inside Scoop on Venture Capital Law, in which Guy asks Fred Gregarus of the Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick and West "the most common questions entrepreneurs ask their attorneys--or that they don't ask their attorneys and later regret not asking."

Considering the $500 dollar an hour cost of most corporate lawyers, Guy suggests that the chapter with Gregarus alone is worth the cost of the book. I would argue that many chapters in this book are worth that cost, and there are 94 chapters, all clear and concise and addressing a new issue.

Reality Check is a very practical, yet highly entertaining book. If you're looking for a self-help book that coddles your entrepreneurial fancies, this book is not for you. If you're starting a business and looking to understand the world you're walking into, you won't find a better, more honest and enjoyable guide than Guy Kawasaki.

In 1997, Harvard Business School Press released the best book on change that I have ever read, entitled Leading Change. Authored by Professor John Kotter, it is so good that Todd and I included it in our book, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, due out in February of 2009. In Leading Change, Kotter gives the reader an eight-stage process needed for a successful change initiative.

In the decade since that book's release, his audiences asked him time and again about the first stage of that process, "establishing a sense of urgency," and how to accomplish it. Change cannot be accomplished without urgency, and A Sense of Urgency was written to answer that difficult problem. As Kotter states:

The Strategy [is to] create action that is exceptionally alert, externally oriented, relentlessly aimed at winning, making some progress each and every day, and constantly purging low value-added activities--all by focusing on the heart and not just the mind.

The author proceeds to lay out four sets of tactics to help you undertake creating this sense of urgency within your organization. The stories Kotter uses to illustrate these tactics are generally stories you haven't heard before, like that of the successful grocery chain that didn't notice the change going on around them until it was too late. This story helps to illustrate Kotter's first tactic of "bringing the outside in." If you are lucky enough to have had "historical success," it can lead to a "we know best" culture, which can insulate organizations from the outside world. Another issue is with a relatively strong position compared to others; you have a tendency not to look outside for disruptions. Finally with success often comes size, which adds to the lack of looking outside.

One of the reasons I like John Kotter and his teaching style is that he knows the job is never done. Let's assume you've created a sense of urgency and had a change initiative succeed. How easy is it going to be to keep a sense of urgency strong after that initial success? Well, it's not easy, and Professor Kotter knows it. The final chapter of the book covers this problem.

The ultimate solution to the problem of urgency dropping after successes is to create the right culture. This is especially true as we move from a world in which change is mostly episodic to a world in which change is continuous.

This concise, easy-to-read book, written by one of the premier minds on the subject, will be the perfect roadmap to successful change, both for now and for the long-term.

Bain & Company have produced some of the best books coming out of consulting industry over the last decade. Chris Zook's trilogy--Profit from the Core, Beyond the Core, and Unstoppable--is a treatise on the benefits of strategic focus in any organization. Fred Reichheld simplified customer surveying and satisfaction metrics with The Ultimate Question, and Chairman Orit Gadiesh shared experiences from Bain Capital in Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use. Somehow, though, we missed one.

In March, Collins Business published The Breakthrough Imperative by Bain partners Mark Gottfredson & Steve Schaubert. The neutral title and lack of media attention caused most (including ourselves) to miss this book and this review is our way of going back and rectifying that.

The authors believe there are four laws that great managers use to diagnose a business and plot a successful course. The first law, "Costs and Prices Always Decline," is a lesson familiar from college economics classes, but not one you normally associate with management. "Competitive Position Determines Your Options" is reminscint of Porter's Five Forces but goes further to define the realistic options for a company given its place in the market. The third law is a cornerstone Bain concept, "Customer and Profit Pools Don't Stand Still," stressing the emphasis on net income potential versus indiscriminately capturing sales and gaining market share.

The final law is the most surprising: "Simplicity Gets Results." "Keep it simple" is a message we appreciate in the communications and manufacturing processes, but often overlook in corporate strategy. The temptation is to offer whatever customization the customer requests. Bain's research finds that this is a mistake. Looking at industries ranging from aerospace to fast-food, Bain found the companies with the least complex offerings (i.e. less items on the restaurant menu) grew 30% to 50% faster than the average and 80% to 100% faster than the companies with the most complex offerings.

The Breakthrough Imperative reads like a mainstream business book with writing that is clear and concise, but the described analysis you'll find plays to the MBA crowd. The book is best read by managers with profit and loss responsibilities (or those soon hope to obtain those responsibilities). But, we are reviewing The Breakthrough Imperative to encourage others to take a chance and expose themselves to new ideas that will help them compete and grow business.

We tend to get an overly negative picture of Africa from its coverage in the press and on the silver screen, with stories focused on war, poverty, disease and corruption. This book awakens its reader to the great potential hidden by--and sometimes resulting from--the many challenges Africa faces, challenges innovative entrepreneurs are quietly addressing.

Author Vijay Mahajan took a "consumer safari" to explore what opportunities exist in Africa and lays them out in great detail in this book. He doesn't shy away from the continent's many obstacles, and recognizes time and again the need for better governance and charitable work on the continent. But, in detailing the promises and successes business has had in positive transformation, he shows that entrepreneurs aren't waiting for their governments to get on board. As Mahajan states:

While politicians look to change regulations and charitable organizations look to make up deficiencies, entrepreneurs create wealth. They ask: What are the opportunities?

Africa Rising is a hopeful book. Instead of the bleak picture we so often see on the news, the reader is immersed in stories of African business success and given a detailed picture of its markets. After recognizing that:

Just as it does not make sense to talk about an Asian market, or even an Indian, Chinese, or U.S. market, we need to be aware that discussing the African market covers up a multitude of complexities.

The author begins peeling away those layers, splitting the population into three consumer groups, looking at the continent's regional markets, and discussing opportunities in specific markets and industries.

Many in China have already seen the light, and Chinese businesses have been flocking to Africa--not only for the continent's resources, but also to meet its consumer's needs. This book will hopefully awaken more in the West to the promise and importance of Africa.

Majahan stresses again and again that as Africans begin to tell their story, our understanding of Africa will begin to change. He paints a vivid picture of a continent that he believes is, economically, where China and India were 20 years ago--on the brink of a great transformation.

Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher have written a book whose tone perfectly matches its subject--levity. It isn't a word you often hear when discussing business strengths, but The Levity Effect makes a compelling and often hilarious case for why fun should be more common in the workplace. The effects of levity and a sense of humor have on one's career and a company's bottom line have been extensively researched and the authors have gathered it all in these pages.

Most notably, the Great Place to Work Institute, which produces Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For," has found that "employees in companies that are denoted as 'great' responded overwhelmingly--an average of 81 percent--that they are working in a 'fun' environment" (13). And, as the authors point out, "If you had invested your beloved dough in the '100 Best' companies to work for over the past decade, you would have earned almost two times the return to the S&P 500" (19).

On a more personal note, "the Harvard Business Review reported that executives with a sense of humor climb the corporate ladder more quickly and earn more money than their counterparts" (137). This all makes sense, of course. People who are happy in their jobs are bound to be more productive and personable, more likely to dive into a project with excitement and have success doing so.

The case made in the Levity Effect--and research documented therein--is not only compelling, it's convincing. Part One of the book makes "The Case for Levity." After introducing the topic and providing some of the preliminary research, the book delves into chapters dedicated to each component of levity and the positive effects they have on the workplace: Humor improves communication; Fun inspires creativity; Respect engenders trust; Lightness positively affects health; and Wit creates wealth.

Part Two of the book is entitled "Getting Lighter" and is where the authors provide some actionable applications companies and managers can use to provide more levity in an organization. Chapter Seven is entitled "142 Ways to Have Fun at Work," and is literally a laundry list of suggestions for the less levity-prone management teams out there.

While much of the business world is still so "buttoned up," seemingly worried that people won't take their jobs seriously if they're enjoying themselves, having fun may just be your new competitive advantage.

Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. It's the 1984 NBA draft and the Portland Trail Blazers choose a promising 7-footer over the future face of basketball. It's one of the great "what were they thinking?" coulda/woulda moments in sports history. But, as Sway informs us, the thought process that led to that decision may very well point to many of our own boneheaded shortcomings in business and everyday life.

The Brafman Brothers--Ori, the coauthor of The Starfish and the Spider, and Rom, with a Ph.D. in Psychology--team together their professional insights of behavior to outline the ways in which (and why) "we're much more prone to irrational behavior than we realize" (4).

In the preface, the authors joke that, along with their lawyer uncle, they form the Jewish mother's equivalent of the holy trinity--lawyer, doctor, businessman. This anecdote is indicative of the casual, pickup-and-skim nature of the work, but the conclusions they come to are striking, pertinent, and universal to our very nature as human beings. There are certain mistakes we simply seem prone to: we tend to go to great lengths to avoid possible loss, we give people and things qualities based on initial perception, and we are largely blind to all evidence that contradicts our initial assessments. For instance, researchers have found that "the variable most responsible for an NBA player's time on the court ... was his draft selection order"(69).

This book is far from a copy-and-paste work of case studies, though. Instead, the Brafmans guide the reader through a chilling tale of a doomed KLM flight, an era of college football dominance, and a deaf ear turned to one of the greatest violinists alive. And their conclusion? We are basically out of tune with the inherent subconscious nuances that really shape so much of our decisions and world. The authors expose many of those nuances, providing insights and lessons that should help the reader avoid similar lapses in judgment.

Sway is more than a worthy addition to the emerging canon of "way we think"
literature. It is part history lesson, part psychological query, and part catalog of some of the greatest foibles of recent human history--and why they were made (Vietnam, unveiled!). You'll also find within these pages that personal applications abound, including ways to prevent a repeat of the Trail Blazer's historic misjudgment of talent. As the Brafmans point out, the entire way your company hires may be obsolete, and you wouldn't want to let insignificant factors prevent the hiring of the future Michael Jordan of your sales team.

Basic common sense and courtesy sometimes seem to be lacking in today's organizations. So what if someone had read (and re-read) all the important "success literature" of the past 100 years, put it together in one resource, and then modernized it for the contemporary business world?

Megan Hustad has done just that with her new book, How to Be Useful, showing how to restore courtesy in your work and your organization, and move up in the world while doing so. In her book, Hustad draws lessons from recognizable sources such as Stephen Covey, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, and Donald Trump, and other, more surprising ones like Emily Post and Helen Gurley Brown--even Paris Hilton and Jennifer Aniston. But Hustad makes it work, putting many years worth of these "success books" to the test of today's more cynical business world.

One simple story Hustad relates is of a woman offering a beverage to a client. He replied that "apple juice would be fine." She didn't mention that all they had was coffee. Instead, she went to a vending machine, saw they were all out, went to a store across the street, purchased 2 cans of juice and returned promptly with them. In the not-too-distant future, she got a promotion. Could it have been the courtesy displayed? It certainly didn't hurt her chances.

Hustad has done the legwork that many people just don't have the time or the energy to do. Many of her resources will be new to business readers which makes the material fresh and useful. She does scorn some materials that many have stood by for years. For example, she firmly believes that nothing from the 1970's needs to be scrutinized, analyzed or discussed, because, other than the book Dress for Success, there were no original business ideas in that decade.

By pulling some of the etiquette and social commentary from the past into the current discussion about the workplace, Megan Hustad provides an approach to relationships that is missing in much of today's business literature. With its "where we've been and where we're going to" mentality, How to Be Useful puts those 7 Habits and How to Make Friends in a much needed context, providing a refreshing take on business.

Over a century ago, a family of doctors in a small Minnesotan town formed an organization that has gone on to touch countless lives. These days, over 42,000 employees, students and volunteers go to work every day at Mayo Clinic's three U.S. campuses--one each in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona. But, talking to the clinic's patients, you'd never think the care they received came from such a large entity. Mayo Clinic has grown exponentially over the years, but has retained its human touch throughout. How has Mayo Clinic done it? Leonard Berry and Kent Seltman answer that question with this book.

In profiling this one very special organization, Berry and Seltman touch on almost every aspect of business--from the loftier issues of Vision, Values, and Purpose, to the everyday issues of customer service, management structure, hiring and branding. The authors tackle each issue methodically and know exactly when to step back and let those within the Clinic and their patients tell their own stories, keeping the book fresh and inspiring.

One such story is from Dr. Breanndan Moore. He was called in to work on a kidney transplant in the middle of the night, and noticed a technologist still in the lab. Being her supervisor and fearing the worst, he called her into his office the next day, asking why she had been in the lab at 2 a.m. It turned out that earlier that day she accidentally used the wrong solution on an antibody test and couldn't read it. She had come back just to do the test again. That was commendable, but Moore wondered why she didn't wait and redo the test the next day. She replied "Dr. Moore, I can't have the patients at Mayo Clinic waiting an extra day in the hospital just because I fouled up a lab test."

That technologist was behind the scenes, unknown to patients, and she wasn't expecting to be rewarded for her extra work--she didn't even expect anyone to know about it. It is employees like her that make Mayo Clinic what it is, and it is Mayo Clinic's culture that creates employees like her. Not every business has the high calling that Mayo Clinic has. Not every employee goes to work everyday clearly knowing that the work they do will benefit a life other than their own. But, the lessons and methods provided in this book can help any management team instill a culture and purpose to effectively manage an organization around.

The Mayo brothers established and built "one of the world's most admired service organizations" with solid values and a practicality in operations that is truly clinical. What else would you expect from a Midwestern family? The Mayo Clinic continues that work today, and you can expect those same qualities in this book.

It's no secret that the leaders of America's largest corporations do not reflect the makeup of our country's population. Looking at the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, there are: four African Americans, four Latinos, five Asians and 13 women.

Why is this still true in corporate America and how can we change it? This is what Keith Wyche tries to resolve in Good Is Not Enough, written with Sonia Alleyne. First, he suggests that not only is there a managerial issue to be dealt with on the corporate level, but that employees themselves must do things differently to make it in today's business world.

If a company's culture is counterproductive, it can be hard regardless of what you do to stay, get promoted and bring about change. So, get out. Find some place better. Once finding a new organization, the authors discuss how to "fit in" and make the corporate culture work for you, explaining that this can be accomplished by changing perception (how one is seen), visibility (making oneself accessible), and knowing when to move over/get out, find a mentor, and be more prepared. Each focal point has its own chapter and contains several examples and explanations.

Chapter 6, in particular, deals with the skills that one must have to excel in the corporate world, and applies to everyone making their way up in business. If you cannot communicate, don't have some leadership skills, and can't be a team player, you won't get far in any organization. Wyche counsels employees not to look for Gold Stars at work. In the workforce, just doing great things isn’t enough. You often won't get noticed by just doing outstanding work. You need to meet with your superiors, show others what you've done and let them know that you're there if they need you.

Good Is Not Enough demonstrates how minorities in the workplace can, and have, overcome obstacles to thrive in previously uncharted territories of corporate America. But the lessons laid out here are useful to anyone in the workforce who is underappreciated or thinks they may not be reaching their full potential within their company. With any job, some aspects are easy to change: how you approach a job or present yourself. Others are impossible. This book is a guide to the pieces that one can change to help overcome the challenges that one can't change.