Each year I read dozens of business books. My goal is to find at least one idea from each book that will help me be better at what I do and/or run my business more effectively. That’s what I love about business books. The really good ones offer many implementable ideas. So, just in time for the big Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, here’s my list of the books you’ll want to buy for yourself and as gifts for colleagues (including your boss).
1. Trust Matters More Than Ever: 40 Proven Tools to Lead Better, Grow Faster & Build Trust Now by David Horsager (BroadStreet Publishing Group)—Horsager is the world’s leading authority on trust. His mantra is simple: “A lack of trust is your biggest expense.” As the book’s title implies, Horsager shares 40 trust tools based on his proven eight-pillar framework to help you build trust with customers and employees.
2. The Employee Experience Revolution: Increase Morale, Retain Your Workforce, and Drive Business Growth by John DiJulius (Greenleaf Book Group Press)—The beginning of a powerful customer experience (CX) strategy starts with a strong employee experience (EX). DiJulius has taken his concepts for customer service and applied them to the employee experience. The book is filled with insights, tactics and strategies that will help any organization build an employee experience that drives growth and success.
3. 100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life: The Path to Permanent Business Success by Richard Weylman (Mango Publishing)—I love books that are filled with common sense, easy-to-understand and implementable tactics and strategies—and this book is full of them. Maybe not all 100 will work for you, but if all you get is one, this book has exponentially paid for itself.
4. Extraordinary Transformation: An Entrepreneurial Blueprint for Leaders Who Seek Transformational Growth in Any Organization by Nido Qubein (High Point University)—I’ve had the pleasure of visiting High Point University several times, and in full transparency, HPU recently invited me to be its customer experience “Expert in Residence.” Even without that opportunity, I highly recommend this book. I’ve experienced Dr. Qubein’s lecture on HPU’s transformation from small university to what is now recognized by The Princeton Review as the No. 1 best run college in the nation. He has always preached that it doesn’t matter if it’s a university or a shoe store, and using HPU as a case study, he teaches us the principles of how extraordinary and transformational growth apply to any type of business.
5. The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: New Rules for Building a Business Around Today’s Customer by Blake Morgan (HarperCollins Leadership)—Morgan is recognized as a customer experience futurist. She has recognized that customers are less loyal to the brands they do business with than ever before. Through extensive research and interviews, she created eight “laws” to help guide you and your organization to maintaining a focus on your customers.
6. Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI by Mark Abraham and David C. Edelman (Harvard Business Review)—Did you think there could be a list of business books in 2024 that did not include at least one on the subject of AI? Of course not! The authors focus on how AI can create a personalized CX that increases sales, creates customer loyalty and builds trust. They teach the Five Promises of Personalization: Empower Me, Know Me, Reach Me, Show Me and Delight Me.
7. Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders: A Guide to Building a Culture of Belonging by Eddie Pate and Jonathan Stutz (Barrett-Koehler Publishers)—Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is still a hot topic, but it is often misunderstood. Both authors held leadership positions at Amazon and Microsoft. They write and teach from experience. Employees want to feel psychologically safe, which translates to feeling like they belong at work. This impacts the culture and positively impacts customer experience. What’s happening on the inside of an organization is felt on the outside by customers.
8. The Century-Old Startup: The Nordstrom Way of Embracing Change, Challenges, and a Culture of Customer Service by Robert Spector (Gamzu)—Outside of members of the Nordstrom family who work in the business, Spector may be the leading expert on how Nordstrom achieved its extraordinary success. In this book, he takes us back to Nordstrom’s beginnings, more than 100 years ago, and highlights how the business evolved as life and world-changing events threw “curveballs” their way. I always enjoy learning the secrets behind the success of any successful brand, especially one known for its legendary customer service.
9. The Triple Fit: How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships and Boost Growth by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi (Harvard Business Review)—Consider this question posed in the introduction: “What if we—supplier and customer—were one company?” The answer to that question is the foundation of what this book is about. At the end of each chapter are reflection questions. The answers to these questions will be what brings the book’s content to life.
10. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari (Random House)—This may be one of the most interesting books on AI and information I’ve ever read. Consider this quote from the publisher: “Is AI humankind’s most significant invention—or our last one?” The history of accumulating information has shown that it creates power—and how it can destroy that power. We are in the infancy of understanding AI’s capabilities, and we can only guess what the long-term implications of adopting it will be. I found the book to be fascinating, and at the same time, it sparked fear.
There you have it! My 2024 Top 10 list. Go to Amazon or your favorite bookstore and give a gift that potentially keeps giving in the form of useful information that can help create personal, career and business success. Happy Holidays!
This post was originally published on here
