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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

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I love to learn and I love to read. I also love sharing what I like about the good books I’ve read with other people interested in leadership. Here’s a list of the five best books for leaders that I read this past year.

These are by no means the only good books, or even great books, that I read this year. They’re the best of a really good lot. And these are not the best books that came out in 2007. They’re books that I read this past year. I’ve included some comments on each book.

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This is one of the first books I read in 2007 and it made it to my "arms-reach" shelf. You should buy this book if you want to improve your own communication or want to identify good stories and examples that will convey your message. The bottom line for me is that after reading the book, I have specific knowledge tools that I can apply to my writing and marketing messages that will make those messages better.

Fired Up or Burned Out by Michael Lee Stallard
This was one of the last books I read this year. It had all three things I look for in a popular leadership book. I want to see research that supports important points. I want to see stories because that's how we humans remember things best. And I want to see a lucid and logical presentation that packages the book's insights in ways that front-line leaders can use them.

Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Bob Sutton
I picked up this book as part of a self-education project on Evidence Based Management. It is worth buying for any or all of three reasons. It's worth buying for putting a lot of solid management guidance, in well-written form, between two covers. It's worth buying for the introduction to the principles and practices of evidence-based management. And, it's worth buying for the specific analysis of six key issues that leaders wrestle with.

Better by Atul Gawande
Here's another book from my Evidence Based Management research. Evidence Based Management takes an approach modeled on Evidence Based Medicine, so I read several books about medical decision making, the use of studies, etc. This book offers you great lessons if you want to understand how science and performance management come together as they should in business or any other field of endeavor. That's because the author sets out to answer a question that is as important for people in business as it is for people in medicine. "What does it take to be good at something when it is so easy not to be?"

The Science of Success by Charles G. Koch
I saved the very best for last. Do not let the title make you think that this is one of those airy-fairy motivational books. The subtitled is "How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company." That company is Koch Industries. The author has spent his lifetime studying how the sciences of economics and human nature can be the used to run a company profitably. The system he developed and continues to field-test is based on the Austrian School of Economists (Hayek, Schumpeter, von Mises et al) and other thinkers such as Michael Polanyi. I'm about to start my fourth reading.

So, there you have it, the five best books for leaders that I've read this year. What's on your list?

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

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Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.