Books to Watch: August 2014

Well here we are again—Summer is drawing to a close and we've hardly put a dent in that towering stack of summer reads. Don't fret, though—we still have a few weeks to sneak in a couple more books. Here are some new titles for Summer's end that'll help you start your Fall off right, with plenty of great ideas and new perspectives. The Leadership Playbook by Nathan Jamail July 31 / Gotham Books / ISBN-13 9781592408665 Sales and leadership guru Nathan Jamail breaks into the Big Five after finding sensational success with his first two self-published books on sales and leadership. The Leadership Playbook brings a coach-like culture to the world of business, offering easy-to-understand wisdom for leaders looking to motivate their teams and stimulate sales and growth. Jamail's experience as a consultant proves a valuable asset here, and he shares much of what he's learned from years in the field among an impressive lot of Fortune 500s. The Power of Noticing by Max Bazerman August 5 / Simon & Schuster / ISBN-13 9781476700298 Harvard Business School's Max Bazerman has created a comprehensive guide for sharpening your powers of perception for the improvement of your overall leadership value. The Power of Noticing is the result of Professor Bazerman's years of challenging his students to expand their awareness of critical data, events and connections for the improvement of decision making and leadership. The book brings a great array of engaging case studies that help drive home Bazerman's argument. The Lenovo Way by Gina Qiao & Yolanda Conyers August 22 / McGraw-Hill / ISBN-13 9780071837248 The Lenovo Way gives an invaluable overview of how Lenovo became the global leader in PC sales after a head-turning acquisition of one of the worlds most widely recognized PC brands. Qiao and Conyers take the story of Lenovo's rise and show us how to build a winning company culture across a global marketplace and how to lead innovation successfully despite an ever-changing demand in that global marketplace. Aligning Strategy and Sales by Frank V. Cespedes September 2 / Harvard Business Review Press / ISBN-13 9781422196052 With so many books focused on the elevator pitch, closing the sale, or other minute sales techniques, Aligning Strategy and Sales is a refreshing change of pace. Frank Cespedes digs deeper into improving a company's sales and performance by looking at creating stronger connections between a company's broader mission and strategy and the sales force on the ground. The book stresses better communication between management and sales, strategic hiring, and effective delegation of responsibility that allows staff to both manage and sell.