You selected the "We Recommend" link and were directed to "Jack Covert Selects". Don't be confused! Here, instead of run-of-the-mill staff recommendations, each month, our president and founder, Jack Covert, selects and reviews the very best new titles.

Jack Covert Selects - The Levity Effect The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up by Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher, John Wiley & Sons, 229 pages, $22.95, Hardcover, March 2008, ISBN 9780470195888 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.

Jack Covert Selects - Sway Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman, Doubleday Business, 206 Pages, $21.95, Hardcover, June 2008, ISBN 9780385524384 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.

Jack Covert Selects - How to Be Useful How to Be Useful: A Beginner's Guide to Not Hating Work by Megan Hustad, Houghton Mifflin Company, 232 pages, $19.95, Hardcover, May 2008, ISBN 9780618713509 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.

Jack Covert Selects - Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic: Inside One of the World's Most Admired Service Organizations by Leonard L Berry and Kent D. Seltman, McGraw-Hill, 276 pages, $27.95, Hardcover, June 2008, ISBN 9780071590730 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.

Jack Covert Selects - Good Is Not Enough Good Is Not Enough: And Other Unwritten Rules for Minority Professionals by Keith R. Wyche with Sonia Alleyne, Portfolio, 242 pages, $24.95, Hardcover, July 2008, ISBN 9781591842101 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.

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