Mike's Favorites

Five business books have had a significant impact on how Mike coaches.

1. Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney: This book is not for everyone. It was written by an investment banker who had studied to become a Jesuit priest. Mike has a favorite quote that applies to the role of an executive coach. “(A coach) encourages people to aim high and keeps them restlessly pointed toward something more, something greater. No ‘commonplace achievement’ should satisfy our ambition to excel.”
2. The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni: Mike makes this book required reading for each new coaching client. He finds that most leaders struggle with more than one of Lencioni’s five temptations.
3. Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing by Lee Thayer: It’s a tough read, but Mike says it’s the best book on leadership that he’s read.
4. Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Vern Harnish: If Thayer's book is the best on leadership, then Harnish has written the best on managing a business.
5. Inspirational Leadership - Henry V and the Muse of Fire by Richard Olivier: Mike met the author in 2003. He shares the lessons leaders can learn from King Henry with his coaching clients. Olivier calls the coach’s role that of a “brother-mentor.” Mike is especially fond of the quote from Henry IV on the importance of a coach, when young Prince Hal says to his Lord Chief Justice “My voice shall sound as you do prompt my ear…to your well-practiced wise directions.” What executive coach wouldn’t love to be told that?

Here are some of the favorites on Mike’s book shelf that aren’t in the business section.

1. Crossing the Unknown Sea by David Whyte: This book has influenced Mike’s work style and how he views his work.
2. Free to Choose by Milton Friedman. Friedman’s thinking has shaped Mike’s world view more than any other public figure. He is one of four Nobel Prize winners Mike has heard speak; he’s taken a class from another and met two more.
3. Kindling by Nevil Shute. Written in 1938 and set in England during the Great Depression; it celebrates the entrepreneurial class and their ability to create jobs. Mike believes it should be mandatory reading for elected officials, teachers and the clergy.

1. www.becker-posner-blog.com Anyone who reads this blog is clearly a geek. Mike has been a fan of Gary Becker since he heard him lecture at the University of Chicago in the mid-1970s. Becker's and Posner’s points of view are decidedly libertarian; their blog is a great example of the University of Chicago’s mantra, “ideas matter.”
2. www.tradesports.com This site bills itself as “the world’s largest prediction trading exchange.” Politics, current events, sports…it’s all here. Unlike watching the pundits on political TV talk shows, the people who hang out here put their money where their mouths are. Visit Tradesport.com to learn what the “smart money” thinks.
3. http://www.unclejayexplains.com Uncle Jay has been explaining the news since 1995. He does a superb job of using humor to skewer hypocrites on the right and left. Mike thinks it’s better than The Onion.

1. Casablanca. Mike never gets tired of hearing Bogey say, “I remember every detail; the Germans wore gray, you wore blue.”
2. The Big Lebowski. “The Dude abides.” Great stuff from the Coen Brothers.
3. Henry V (the Kenneth Branagh version). Anyone who lists Richard Olivier’s book among his favorites has to love this movie.
4. Streets of Fire. This movie, which stars the lovely Diane Lane, was a dud when was released in 1984. It was written with tongue planted firmly in cheek and has a terrific sound track. Mike has never met anyone who listed this movie among their favorites.

1. The Saw Doctors: This is an Irish rock band from Tuam in County
   Galway. Mike owns four of their CDs and he’s seen them perform live many times. There’s always music by the Docs in the CD player in his car. His favorite Saw Doctors song is titled Only One Girl. We think he likes it because it reminds him of his wife, Kim.
2. Frank Sinatra: Mike owns about a dozen Sinatra CDs and there are about five times that many Sinatra songs loaded on his iPod.
3. Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan: It’s on most lists of Dylan’s best and it’s Mike’s #1 Dylan album. His favorite cut is Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts.
4. Rubber Soul by The Beatles. The sound track for one entire semester of Mike’s college life.