"Skip the Books! Find A Mentor and Build a Network" !?

I just finished reading ‘Sacred Hoops - Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior’ by Phil Jackson. I was intrigued by the idea that the man that guided The Chicago Bulls to 3 NBA Championship victories in the 1990’s had based his management style on a combination of Zen Philosophy and the principles of the Lakota Indians (can’t imagine either of those would feature in Alex Ferguson’s biography). In the end it was a very ‘lightweight’ but relatively enjoyable read (largely due to the anecdotes of working with Michael Jordan) that had a simple insight; that teams become unified around singular goals and that a degree of selflessness on the part of all team members and its leader is required if the group is to be successful.  I liked the idea that leaders need to take a holistic view of life to get the best from people who work for them (it should probably be required reading for anyone re-entering the banking industries or financial markets) and the choice quote was “ everything derives its essential nature from its dependence on everything else”. Overall not sure it was worth 225 pages, as with many ‘business’ books the insights seemed pretty obvious. The simple message (wrapped up in a sports analogy) applies to most things in life.  I would paraphrase it generically as follows;

Singular Goal      +             Talented Individuals      +             Correct Motivation          = Desired Outcome

(I couldn’t help but think this is where the current Grimsby Town team are going wrong and that maybe the addition of a couple of ‘dream catchers’ and a lava lamp in the Blundell Park dressing room would get them out of their current funk).

It was while I was finishing the book yesterday that through a piece of serendipity a twitter post came through that tapped right into my current thinking, namely how much time is it worth spent reading ‘business’ books. The tweet read “@pJozefak Skip the Books! Find A Mentor and Build a Network Early in Your Career http://bit.ly/12xi3R “ I thought this was a interesting idea as I am a massive believer in the power of Mentors (see www.horsesmouth.co.uk) and it is obvious that in an internet age most books on ‘business’ are outdated by the time they get into print. That notwithstanding it did make me reflect on whether any books, business or otherwise have helped me in my working life and the answer was a definite yes. The right balance between real life experience and the written experience of others has got to be the right answer. Here are five that I’ve found useful and why;

Martin Watkins ‘The First 90 Days’ – solid planning across multiple scenarios for anyone entering a new business.

Alan Leighton ‘On Leadership’ – thoughts from a man (and his network) who went ‘plural’ and has been involved in many of the UK's great businesses.

Robert Pirsig ‘Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ –  a philosophical treatise on life and amongst other things our relationship with technology.

Geoffrey Best 'Churchill - A Study of Greatness' – a man with an appetite for adventure, who reinvented himself multiple times and took the country through WW2. Also a man who drank Champagne for breakfast and never got out of bed before lunchtime. What a great role model.

Levine, Searls, Weinberger and Locke ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’ – one of my favourite books of all time which I rhapsodized about before.