Reading around your MBA: book recommendations (part one)
In part one of Giselle Weybrecht’s guide to the most useful business books on the market for both MBA students and graduates, she takes a look into the benefits of Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points and Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.
While studying for your MBA courseyou should learn about finance, marketing, accounting and many other business topics. These are the hard skills that will help you to become an effective manager once your program is complete.
However some of the most important lessons you will learn during any MBA program are not focussed on finance and marketing. Many consider the most important lessons to be on working effectively in teams, communicating your ideas clearly through presentations, and working in an increasingly global business environment.
If you want to gain a head start on your MBA program, I’d advise taking some time to explore the popular books that focus on developing these soft skills in business. Remember that while the hard skills will make you a good manager, the soft skills will help you to become an excellent manager.
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson
How many PowerPoint presentations have you sat through in your life? How many have you given? How many can you honestly say were effective in communicating a message to the audience, or that considered who that audience was and what they needed to hear?
Most presentations are very wordy, vague and to be honest, dull. They are an opportunity to communicate an important message, and an opportunity that is all too often missed.
During your career, and your MBA program you will be asked to make countless presentations, and this resource should help you to communicate your ideas effectively. Beyond Bullet Points shows how to combine classic storytelling techniques with visual media in order to create clear, interesting and engaging presentations. It explores how to create visuals that send a strong clear message and that support your speech.
Atkinson’s book outlines a structure that will help. Start by setting the stage for the story, covering the where, when, who, why, what and how, before expanding into the use of logic to convince the audience to approve the solution offered. Finally end the story, recap and resolve the conflict.
As an added bonus, the CD that comes with the book provides lots of additional information, including templates and tips on how to make the most out of your presentations.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Carnegie’s book is a classic, having sold in excess of 15 million copies. Despite originally being published in 1936, the lessons taught have not changed in relevance.
The ability to interact and understand people as well as work effectively in teams are key points in gaining any MBA, as students practice the key skills they will need to become successful. However, a lot of the lessons in this book will be more useful post graduation.
How to Win Friends and Influence People provides an overview of effectively dealing with common human behaviour, before explaining methods of working with people effectively and how to communicate efficiently. Throughout, Carnegie covers all the bases, looking at techniques involved in ensuring a happy professional life as you work your way to the top, before covering the importance of ensuring your time outside of work is just as joyful.
Some may find that the information in this book is common sense. I feel that the challenge is how you choose to put the lessons into practice.
eading around your MBA: book recommendations (part two)
In the second instalment of London Business School MBA graduate Giselle Weybrecht’s guide to the best books available to both MBA students and graduates, she takes a close look at The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, as well as Barbara Minto’s The Pyramid Principle.
To catch up on Giselle’s first instalment, where she gives her thoughts on Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points and Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People click here.
The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
In business, a carrot is something used to inspire and motivate an employee. Despite what many may think, the carrot is not always money and it is important for managers to understand what the carrot is for their team, as well as for individual employees.
The Carrot Principle by Gostick and Elton is based on extensive research gathered from a study of over 200,000 employees in North America over ten years. They found that employees who feel valued are more productive, engaged and loyal.
In fact, nearly 80 percent of employees surveyed who quit their jobs did so mainly because of lack of appreciation. Of those reporting the highest morale at work, over 94 percent agreed that their managers were effective at recognizing their qualities and achievements. It also found that organizations that recognize excellence tend to be more profitable and can have more than three times the return on equity than those that do so the least.
This is a short book, but one that is-packed with useful and practical information that focuses on how to motivate people. It shows that the central characteristic of the most successful managers is that they provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. The authors suggest 125 ideas for recognizing employees and creating a day-to-day culture of recognition drawn from interviews with managers around the world.
The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto
The ability to communicate complex ideas in writing is an important skill whether you are a student working on an assignment or a manager putting together a presentation or analysis.
The Pyramid Principle is designed to help the reader to become that high quality writer, regardless of what they are writing about and whether it is business related. It explains how grouping ideas into a logical structure in the form of a ‘top-down’ pyramid structure means they are easier to understand. A lot of the focus is on the thought process behind someone’s writing, thinking critically about your ideas and using that to present stronger arguments.
Despite having some excellent lessons and examples to help the reader write more effectively, The Pyramid Principle is written in a style that sounds more like an instruction manual. Because of this, many have found the book best read when you have a current writing project you can apply it to.
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