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Self-improvement books and your MAP

by Miki Saxon

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Yet another management book, this one telling you that there are five major supports for great management

  • motivating others,
  • attracting and retaining top talent,
  • planning and organizing group performance,
  • driving results throughout an organization, and
  • lifelong development.

Which book doesn’t really matter and I’m not arguing with the list, but you’ve been told similar things over and over. While you really work at making them happen, your results are spotty and you’re not sure why.

Even when you follow the author’s how-to’s exactly your results leave you feeling less than satisfied.

What’s going on? Is there something wrong with you—or is it them?

More importantly, how do you fix it?

To paraphrase an old song, “The answer, my friend, is blowing in your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).” Right, in your MAP and not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because you are unique and books are written in a ‘one size fits all’ manner.

This doesn’t mean that you need to change your MAP (unless you decide that change would be beneficial), but it does mean that you need to find books, or parts of books, that resonate with your MAP. Doing so will supply you with tools you can really use and increase your satisfaction.

Here are three quick tests you can use when shopping for self-improvement books.

  • Read the Table of Contents – how someone organizes and presents their material needs to feel right to you or absorbing it moves to the difficult-if-ever category.
  • Scan some of the information and see if it makes sense to you – if you dip into the book in several places and each time find yourself scratching your head then it’s likely that the author and you are on a different wavelength. This doesn’t make either of you wrong, just different, and that kind of different makes your learning more difficult.
  • Read two or three paragraphs in at least three different places – evaluate whether the writing flows for you. No matter how good the content if the writing is so poor/dull/scholarly/etc. that you don’t enjoy it you won’t read it. And if you do manage to plow through it you’re unlikely to absorb it, which defeats the whole purpose of reading it.

Finally, being considered an expert doesn’t guarantee synergy with your MAP and it’s your MAP that needs to connect—not mine and not the reviewer’s.

How do you decide in which books to invest your time?
What are you favorite improvement books?

One Response to “Self-improvement books and your MAP”
  1. Sue Massey Says:

    Hello. I was reading someone elses blog and saw you on their blogroll. Would you be interested in exchanging blog roll links? If so, feel free to email me.

    Thanks.

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