Q #105: Which books provide the best advice that C-level executives need when facing several of their greatest challenges?

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

In consecutive Q&As, I respond to these questions:

# 103: “What are the greatest challenges that C-level executives now face?”

# 104: “Which skills are needed to face each of those challenges?

# 105: “Which books provide the best advice for facing each of those challenges?

One man’s opinion, I think these books provide the best advice that C-level executives need when facing several of their greatest challenges:

Measuring performance accurately, fairly, and consistently

Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, Dean R. Spitzer

The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book: A Survival Guide for Managers, Dick Grote

Attracting, training, and then retaining the best workers

The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, Leigh Branham

Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay (4th edition), Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People, Revised and Updated Edition, Bradford D. Smart

“Growing” leadership at all levels and in all areas of operation

Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis, Ram Charan

Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers, Erika Andersen

Engaging employees

Engaged Leadership: Building a Culture to Overcome Employee Disengagement, Clint Swindall

Engaged! How Leaders Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come to Work, Peter Stark and Jane Flaherty, Susan Suffes and Jessica Swift (Co-Editors)

A Sense of Urgency, John P. Kotter

Establishing and sustaining an “innovation culture”

The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization, Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman

Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates, Peter Skarzynski and Rowan Gibson

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I apologize for the length of this Q&A but, honestly, I do not know what to delete.

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob