Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert is the founder and former president of 800-CEO-READ. His Jack Covert Selects column grew out of a “new releases” column he ran in the local paper’s business pages, and blossomed into a monthly review series that ran in business journals and newspapers across the country. As the company grew, other members of the management and marketing team began writing reviews for the series, but Jack continued to contribute his own voice until his retirement in 2014. We kept the series—now weekly—alive under his name for another year, and transformed it into our current Editor’s Choice series at the beginning of 2016.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Producing Prosperity
By Porchlight
Producing Prosperity: Why America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance by Gary P. Pisano & Willy C. Shih, Harvard Business Review Press, 192 pages, $27.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Fearless at Work
By Porchlight
Fearless at Work: Timeless Teachings for Awakening Confidence, Resilience, and Creativity in the Face of Life’s Demands by Michael Carroll, Shambhala Publications, 240 pages, $16. 95, Paperback, November 2012, ISBN 9781590309148 I recently told Andrew Hill of The Financial Times that business books, in their core and their soul (if you’ll permit me that anthropomorphism), are self-help books where people go to make their company better, their job better, themselves better. Sometimes that sort of enlightenment comes indirectly, from books on strategy or a compelling biography that deepen your understanding through stories of success.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Makers
By Porchlight
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson, Crown Business, 257 pages, $26. 00, Hardcover, October 2012, ISBN 9780307720955 The Industrial Revolution began in the middle of the 18th century, and has provided an increasingly stable economy ever since. Innovations in mining, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and technology provided jobs and contributed toward a better quality of life around the world.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Leading So People Will Follow
By Porchlight
Leading So People Will Follow by Erika Andersen, Jossey-Bass, 224 Pages, $26. 95, Hardcover, October 2012, ISBN 9781118379875 Call it what you will: “Buy-in,” “Loyalty,” or “Enthusiasm. ” Use whatever metaphor for the phenomenon you like—maybe “Everyone’s onboard” and “rowing the oars together”—but the simple reality is that every organization needs leaders, and leaders need followers.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Mind Over Mind
By Porchlight
Mind Over Mind: The Surprising Power of Expectations by Chris Berdik, Current, 288 Pages, $26. 95, Hardcover, October 2012, ISBN 9781591845096 “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ” Most people are familiar with that idiom and would agree that power has an intoxicating effect on even the most moral person.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The Pause Principle
By Porchlight
The Pause Principle: Step Back to Lead Forward by Kevin Cashman, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 192 pages, $16. 95, Paperback Original, September 2012, ISBN 9781609945329 Kevin Cashman’s classic Leadership From the Inside Out has been a consistent presence around here since he first published it nearly 15 years ago, so we were excited to see he is sharing his knowledge in a new book, The Pause Principle. Especially one with this paradoxical message: “Pause powers purposeful performance.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
By Porchlight
The first thing to know about Daring Greatly is that it is engaging but unadorned. It’s an important distinction to make about a book we are recommending to a business audience, because while the book falls solidly into the self-help genre, Daring Greatly isn’t soft or amorphous despite its focus on feeling, on “vulnerability."
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - So Good They Can't Ignore You
By Porchlight
So Good They Can’t Ignore You: When Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport, BusinessPlus, 304 pages, $25. 99, Hardcover, September 2012, ISBN 9781455509126 I have a dear friend that has worked in the arts community for decades tell me recently that what strikes him most about great artists is not their passion, but their “toughness. ” I was reminded of that statement again when I picked up So Good They Can’t Ignore You, a great new book on career development by Cal Newport being released this month by BusinessPlus.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Us Plus Them
By Porchlight
Us Plus Them: Tapping the Positive Power of Difference by Todd L. Pittinsky, Harvard Business Review Press, 272 pages, $27. 00, Hardcover, August 2012, ISBN 9781422177778 This past Sunday morning, eleven miles from our office here in Milwaukee, a prejudiced and hate-filled man walked into the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin and opened fire, murdering six people and wounding four others.
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - Winning the Story Wars
By Porchlight
Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell—and Live—the Best Stories will Rule the Future by Jonah Sachs; Harvard Business Review Press, 264 pages, $27. 00, Hardcover, July 2012, ISBN 9781422143568 A popular pursuit for business and current affairs writers is to produce work that investigates and exposes all the various ways that marketing manipulates consumers. And there is certainly cause for concern.
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