Accountability Resources

Below are some of my all-time favorite reads. They are in no particular order. These books have delivered tremendous value to me both professionally and personally and hope they will do the same for you. Good reading. I welcome you to contact me with any feedback you have about any of the books listed below at Alan@AlanDobzinski.com.

Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you!

201 Ways to Say No Gracefully and Effectively by Alan Axelrod & Jim Holtje At one time or another, we all have a problem in saying the magic word N.O. Some of us, of course, are better at it than others. It’s really all about drawing boundaries. In this short read, the authors list 201 ways in which to say, “No.” Go through it and pick out 10 or 20. It’s fun; it helps give you a higher level of consciousness on being aware of saying, “No” so that you can take care of yourself first to be better equipped and have a strong enough personal foundation and in return be better able to help others.

First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman This is one of my all-time favorite managerial/coaching/leadership books. It goes totally, repeat totally, against conventional wisdom yet it makes absolute perfect sense. It was a best seller for months and months when it first appeared and since then, Buckingham has gone on to write two or three other books that developed from this original work. . I cannot tell you how much I have learned about being a more of an effective leader and how to work better with people and, additionally, taken the information that I have learned within this book to help better coach my clients. Again, one of my all-time favorite reads. Enjoy!

Fish! by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul & John Christensen This is a very cool and true story about a small group of people that show you how you can work together as a great team and have out of site fun doing it. It’s all about working together at a fish market in Seattle, WA. P.S., if you can get your hands on the video of this book, do it. It’s about 22 minutes long and well worth it.

Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect by Dr. Bob Rotella Stop! No this is not a book only for golfers, although a golfer would certainly relate more to Rotella’s writing. This book goes beyond golf and into life skills, as well. Dr. Bob is a sports psychologist that works with many of the professional golfers on the PGA tour. A cool read.

Selling to VITO by Anthony Parinello “VITO” stands for Very Important Top Officer. For those of you who are in sales, this would be a great read, as Parinello has many, many out-of-the-box ways in which to reach potential customers. Caution: Some of his methodologies may be considered way, way out of the box; however, stick with it and just take what works for you. It has been extremely helpful to me.

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber E stands for Entrepreneur. For any one that is thinking about going into business or is even in business, this is a classic. This book really gives a true reality check of what being in business for yourself is really all about. Both the positives as well as what you may not have thought of. I’ve read this book two or three time; highly recommend.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz This is a book that I recommend to my clients when they are “taking things personally,” which of course we all do at one time or another. Some of us are better than others at handling it. The second agreement in Ruiz’s book is “Don’t Take Anything Personally.” Yet, 99% of the time when I refer this book, my clients read all four of the agreements, the others being: “Be Impeccable with Your Word” – “Don’t Make Assumptions” and “Always Do Your Best.” Note: For some readers, this read could border on “spirituality” and I ask that you go in with an open mind, filter anything out that you do not want to take and just go with Ruiz’s content. I have referred this book to many high-level CEOs at rather large companies and they wound up distributing this to their entire executive team. Seems to be worth a peek!

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard For those Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers, I find that when I recommend this book to your generation, many of you are unfamiliar with Blanchard’s classic (written in the 80’s). It is a very short read about how to manage people and look for things people do right as opposed to, well, you know the other side. A must read. You can knock it off lying in bed one night just before you go to sleep and wake up the next morning with a smile!

The Power of Focus Co-Authored by Jack L. Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Less Hewitt The subtitled of this book is How to Hit Your Business Personal & Financial Targets with Absolute Certainty and the authors deliver! This book helped me tremendously getting back to the basics, being focused and getting more of what I want.

The Power of People by Charles P. McCormick This is a classic written back in the 1930’s by one of the McCormick family members of the famous McCormick Spice Company, a Fortune 500 company. This is a powerful read for anyone who wants to learn better, more effective ways on working with people and relationships: Note: You will probably find this book out of print and will have to search “Out of Print” Sources.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Yes, you have probably already read this even though it was written back in the 1930s. It still sells thousands and thousands of books each and every year because of its great content. Napoleon Hill is THE Master at surrounding himself with great people and the book reveals all of their secrets, including the principle of the mastermind which states that when two or more like minds come together, it creates what Hill refers to as “an invisible third mind” which really means 1+1=3. If this book does not have you reflect and get motivated, read it again or dial 911

What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles Bolles puts out an annual edition of his book which has been around for years. It’s mainly designed for people that want to explore a new or different career. However, I recommend this to anyone regardless of whether you are in a job search or not. Reread his book approximately every five years just to do a check-in and learn more about yourself. Intrigued? Get it; many great exercises!

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith I had the privilege of seeing Goldsmith speak in person and was fortunate enough to get a signed copy of his book. He brings a tremendous amount of energy to the table and it shows in this book as well. Although this book may be mainly designed for people that have recently gotten into a new position or are about to be promoted into a new position (you can see that the title coincides with moving up; In fact, on the front cover, there appears a ladder [as in climbing – get it?]). Goldsmith brilliantly identifies 20+ behaviors that leaders either (a) do not recognize that they are demonstrating at all or (b) they may know that they do it and don’t have a clue as to the extent of the negative affect that it has on their employees.

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Thank you for spending your precious time in reviewing my list of recommended books. I hope that you will take away some value from one or some of the above and I’d like to hear from you about your favorite books and what it is that you derived value from that.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Alan M. Dobzinski

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