We have a couple bookshelves stuffed with excellent wisdom for employees (and me) to read. Most of what I’ve learned over the years comes from books. If you consider the life altering and improving value books have, it is incredible you can buy them so cheap. Inexpensive books are one of the wonders of modern capitalism. A few thousand dollars in books, and the requisite time to read them, can be worth millions or billions and make life much easier by learning from the mistakes of others.

Our actual bookshelf.

Business

  • Traction; Get A Grip On Your Business
  • The First 90 Days
  • What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School
  • Built to Last
  • Antifragile
  • In Search of Excellence
  • Your Marketing Sucks
  • Strategy; Pure and Simple
  • Zombie Loyalists; Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans
  • Remote; Office Not Required
  • Built To Sell
  • Jamming; the Art and Discipline of Business Creativity
  • Fooled by Randomness
  • The One Thing
  • Zero to One
  • The Intelligent Investor
  • The Practice of Management
  • Out of the Crisis
  • Business Leadership the Marine Corp Way
  • High Output Management
  • The Deming Management Method
  • The Great Game of Business
  • How not to be Wrong
  • How
  • The Hard Thing about Hard Things
  • Leave it Better than you Found it

Hiring

  • The Fred Factor
  • Hiring for Attitude
  • Hiring Greatness
  • Job Interviewers
  • Hiring the Best
  • The Smart Interviewer
  • Who
  • Topgrading

Team leadership

  • Good to Great
  • Five Dysfunctions of a Team
  • The Art of Influencing Anyone
  • Dealing with Difficult People
  • How to be a Great Boss
  • Grit
  • Extreme Ownership
  • One Minute Mentoring
  • The Armed Forces Officer
  • Gaining Favor with God and Man

Negotiation & Sales

  • Go for No!
  • The Negotiation Book
  • You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar
  • Pathways to Change
  • Negotiating for Dummies
  • Negotiation; readings, exercises, and cases
  • Bargaining for Advantage
  • Negotiating with Giants
  • Secrets of Power Negotiation
  • Million Dollar Consulting
  • American Negotiation Behavior
  • How to Negotiate Anything
  • Compelling Selling
  • The Greatest Salesman in the World Part 1 and Part 2
  • Thank You For Arguing
  • Start with No
  • How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling
  • Smart Calling
  • The Ultimate Sales Machine
  • SPIN Selling
  • Exceptional Selling
  • Persuasion Engineering
  • Never Split the Difference

Recruiting

  • Search & Match
  • The Rich Recruiter
  • The Ideal Team Player
  • Recruiting 101
  • The Professional Recruiter’s Handbook
  • The Recruiter’s Almanac
  • Mastering the Art of Recruiting
  • Cold Calling Techniques
  • Headhunter Hiring Secrets
  • How to Become a Better Executive Recruiter
  • Billing Power
  • The Recruiter’s Adventure Book

Communication

  • Difficult Conversations
  • Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business
  • Fierce Conversations
  • “I Can See You Naked” A Fearless Guide to Making Great Presentations
  • The Definitive Book of Body Language
  • How to Say It; for executives
  • Just Listen
  • Power Questions
Questions, answered

The short version.

Why should business leaders invest in books instead of just training?
Because inexpensive books are one of the wonders of modern capitalism: a few thousand dollars in books, plus the time to read them, can be worth millions by letting you learn from the mistakes of others. Considering the life-altering value a few good books carry, it is remarkable how cheaply they can be bought.
What hiring books does Ambassador Group keep on its shelf?
The hiring section includes Who, Topgrading, Hiring for Attitude, Hiring Greatness, Hiring the Best, The Smart Interviewer, and The Fred Factor, with a separate recruiting shelf covering titles like Search & Match, The Ideal Team Player, and The Professional Recruiter's Handbook.
Which leadership and team books make the Ambassador Group list?
Good to Great, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Extreme Ownership, Grit, How to be a Great Boss, One Minute Mentoring, and Dealing with Difficult People, among others. The business shelf adds Traction, The First 90 Days, High Output Management, Antifragile, Zero to One, and The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
What books help with negotiation and difficult conversations?
On negotiation: Never Split the Difference, Start with No, Bargaining for Advantage, and Secrets of Power Negotiation, plus SPIN Selling and The Ultimate Sales Machine on the sales side. For communication: Difficult Conversations, Fierce Conversations, Just Listen, Power Questions, and The Definitive Book of Body Language.