WorkPuzzle

Employment Brand Part 2: What Is an Employment Brand and How Do I Develop One?

I’ve received a few questions back on the last WorkPuzzle I published.  Apparently, the concept of an “employment brand” is a new idea to many of you.  

Simply put, your employer brand is the image of your organization in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).

So, employer branding activities are the sum of a company’s efforts to communicate to prospective and existing staff what makes your company a desirable place to work, and the active management of a company’s image as seen through the eyes of its potential hires.  (Definition Source)

When we think about this concept, our mind naturally drifts to the large businesses that have prominent brands.  Take a look at AT&T’s career page and you’ll see a great example of how the branding efforts of a well-known consumer brand now naturally crossover to the realm of employment branding.

Of course, this type of implementation would be beyond the reach of most local or even regional real estate companies.  And I would argue that it wouldn’t be very effective either.  While many real estate companies certainly spend money on building their image in the mind of consumers, the crossover to employment branding is not as natural.  Why?  Because the business model of most real estate companies is such that each local office tends to have its own culture.  And this culture (and in essence its brand) is largely driven by the owner or manager of that local office.

For real estate offices, the employment brand tends to be heavily influenced by the personal brand of the manager of a particular local office. 

When you’re attempting to recruit new individuals to your team, the first questions that go through the minds of candidates have to do with the brand of the local office (What is the office about, and is it a place I can see myself working?) and the brand of the manager (Is this the type of person I want to work with?  Does his/her team of agents have characteristics that are intriguing to me? ).

Much of our discussion about employment branding is going to focus on the personal brand of the manager or owner of an office.  And, this is where things get interesting. 

The concept of personal branding was perhaps initially discussed in Tom Peter’s classic article “The Brand Called You,” first published in 1997.  As social networking has exploded in the last 5 years, so have the tools that equip a person to develop and promulgate a personal brand.

So, what’s it take to build a personal brand as a manager?  Here are 4 steps that you should consider:

1.  Discover Your Brand
2.  Create Your Brand
3.  Communicate Your Brand
4.  Maintain Your Brand

We’ll discuss how to Discovering Your Brand today, and then cover the remaining topics in upcoming discussions. 

Branding expert and author, Dan Schwabell, offers this advice on discovering your personal brand:

“The single biggest mistake people make is that they either brand themselves just for the sake of doing it or that they fail to invest time in learning about what’s in their best interests. The key to success, and this isn’t revolutionary, is to be compensated based on your passion. In order to find your passion, you need a lot of time to think, some luck and you need to do some research online to figure out what’s out there.

Brand discovery is about figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life, setting goals, writing down a mission, vision and personal brand statement (what you do and who you serve), as well as creating a development plan. Have you ever been called intelligent or humorous by your peers or coworkers? That description is part of your brand, especially if you feel those attributed pertain to you. To know if you’ve discovered your brand, you need to make this equation equal:

Your self-impression = How people perceive you

Before you enter the next step in the personal branding process, you’ll want to select a niche, whereby you can be the master of your domain. When I say domain, I mean an area where there aren’t many competitors Once you sort this all out, now it’s time to create your brand.”

I encourage you to take some time to put some thought into Schwabell’s suggestions and develop a clear vision of what you want those in your close geographic are to think of you and your office.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Employment Brand: Does Anyone Really Want to Work For You?

Earlier this week, I referenced an article written by John Sumser.  John is a recruiting guru from whom I've learned a lot over the last several years.  While John's blog is on my Google Reader, I often skip over his articles because I really have to be in a position to concentrate to digest his articles.

Every once in awhile, I dive into a month or two worth of his articles for a couple of hours and try to figure out what he’s saying.  Typically, I walk away with something that changes my way of thinking.

I did this over the weekend, and the same held true.  John recently wrote an article on employment brands that is quite insightful.  I'll publish it here, and then spend the next couple of WorkPuzzles discussing its implications for the real estate industry.

"Employment Branding is the craft of being so completely organized that you are ready with the right message for the right person when she comes along.

A brand is a relationship.

Brands only matter to the people who care about them.  Mention the brand name outside of the circle of people who have the relationship and you will receive shoulder shrugs.  Mention it inside the circle and you can spark a conversation full of passion and opinion.

The only brands that matter are the ones that people care about.

The theory and development of branding has been reserved, historically, for companies that could afford large broadcast media campaigns.  The best examples of brand marketing are consumer product companies, from automobiles to popular music to varieties of American Cheese.  The term brand is used to cover a wide range of circumstances from name recognition to deep affinity.

Contemporary talk about 'personal branding' generally refers to the act of managing the fifteen minutes of fame that social media bestows.  Peppers and Rogers, the authors of popular books on database and relationship marketing, move the concept to tightly grouped members of a database.

It is useful to think about branding as an early stage technology.  Purely a 20th Century invention, branding, like many first generation technologies, began in organizations that could afford clumsy and inefficient approaches because of their sheer size.  For the past 70 years, branding has been a game of extensive spending to attract large numbers of people to a single product or company.

Today, however, the tools needed to build very clear, very small niche oriented brands are readily available.  Like much of marketing, the tools are now available from the desktop.  This 'downward evolution' of marketing creates both expanded opportunity and expanded responsibility at the department and operating unit level."

Notice what he says in that last paragraph:  "…the tools needed to build very clear, very small niche oriented brands are readily available."  This is great news for those who recruit for a living.

Do you see yourself (you personally) as having a brand?  Does your office (not your company as a whole) have a brand?  What do the candidates that you're trying to recruit think about your office's brand?  Do they wish they could be part of a team like the one you manage, or do they shrug their shoulders?

These are all important questions if you’re going to be successful at recruiting.  It's funny how much easier recruiting gets if you start attracting... 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Population Dynamics 2: Understanding Fundamental Changes

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the owners and managers of a large real estate company in the Northwest.  I enjoy these meetings because it gives me an opportunity to see and hear the realities of the business challenges many of you are facing.

The message I heard on Friday...the real estate world is changing quickly and there is a constant need to evaluate and plot a course to meet the changes.  As leaders struggle with this issue, our first inclination is to focus on surface issues (i.e. How do my circumstances today resemble something that happened in the past?).  But by doing this, there is a tendency to overlook the core issues that are responsible for the changes.

I touched on this topic last week.  How do you first find the “horizon” in your recruiting world and then work on developing tactics that meet reality?  As you ask yourself this question and wrestle with the answers, you may find that your “reality” is much different than you expected and even more troublesome to understand.

I ran across a discussion by John Sumser over the weekend that does a great job of illustrating one of these fundamental changes.  The topic is the traditional understanding of a population pyramid.

“I am going to stick with the pyramid idea just a little longer.  The theme is so embedded in our world view that it shapes the way we see, imagine and execute our possibilities.

The ‘Recruiting Funnel', where masses of candidates are winnowed down to a select few, is an example of pyramid theory.  The whole notion emerges from the longstanding shape of families and governments:  a few old people running things, lots of younger people ‘being run’.  It’s mommy, daddy, and five kids.  It’s the foundation of hierarchical management.  Large organizations, with their single point (winnowing) authority, perpetuate the view that pyramids are essential elements of society.

The reality is that family structure has changed.  One or two kids and two parents is not an organization that can be run hierarchically.  Combined with technology that is flattening our organizations, we’re in a transition period.  The pyramid is built into our perceptual framework and it’s outmoded.

Historically, economic growth depends on a pyramid structure.  More people, more work, more jobs, more goods.  We have no idea how to engineer growth without an underlying impetus of population expansion.”

So, John’s point is that the disruption of the traditional population pyramid changes everything.  It is a fundamental issue that must be understood in order to build successful recruiting strategies (or to run a government, or to market a college, or to build a restaurant clientele, etc.).  If you were to make plans without understanding this important piece of information, you'd struggle to be successful. 

I brought this example up to get you thinking about the fundamental issues that may be shaping your business.  Of course, population dynamics affect everyone, but many other important issues are industry specific. 

What are the foundational issues that have changed in your profession, industry, and community?  The companies that can successfully identify these issues and deploy tactics that address these changes are the ones who will find themselves significantly ahead of their competitors in the coming years.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Population Dynamics: Does Your Ideal Agent Really Exist?

As we start the New Year, many of our clients are putting together their recruiting plans for 2011.  It’s an exciting season for our company because we have the opportunity to hear about many new ideas, assist in implementation, and start to envision how 2011 will shape up.

As this process unfolds, I’ve noticed a trend.  Many companies tend to quickly focus their efforts on the tactics of recruiting and don’t take time to consider the bigger picture.  The tendency is to use last year’s methodologies as a baseline and then try to tweak things to get results.  Planning in this manner will result in missed opportunities.  Instead, take some time to step back and look at the horizon. 

In recruiting, the term “horizon” includes understanding the “population dynamics” of your area.  Once you’ve figured out who you want to recruit, you’ll need to know if there are enough potential candidates available in your recruiting area for optimal goal achievement.

Experienced agent recruiting, convincing experienced agents to leave their company and join your team, is a great example of one way to identify a group of potential agents.  You have a vision of your ideal agent.  This includes a list of characteristics such as revenue history, experience level, current company, reputation in the marketplace, etc.  The more complete and valid you make your ideal agent profile, the better your chances will be of finding an agent who will produce the needed revenue in your organization and help you realize a return on your recruiting efforts. 

But, do the population dynamics of your recruiting horizon support your vision?  If your requirements are too specific, you’ll be unable to meet your goal AND you’ll likely need to lower your standards and hire agents who do not meet your long-term objectives.  To get an answer to this question, consider some of these factors: 

1. Geography.   Get a map and draw a circle around your office.  As the radius, use whatever distance you believe people will reasonably travel to be part of your office.  Now, mark each competitive real estate office inside your circle on the map.  Next to the office, write the number of agents who work in that office.
2. Age / Gender.   While it is frowned upon by EEOC regulators to exclude anyone from your office based on age and gender, there is nothing wrong with focusing your proactive recruiting efforts on the specific individuals who will best meet the needs of your team in the years to come.  Many real estate offices have a substantial number of agents who will retire in the next few years.  You can increase the diversity in your office by hiring younger agents who can grow into their positions.  Also, some groups of clients are better served by hiring one gender rather than the other.  Again, the point is not to exclude anyone, rather to build your team with the optimal players who will maximize revenue.
3. Client Focus and Success.   Effective real estate sales execution is a neighborhood-by-neighborhood exercise.  If your office is getting shut out of certain neighborhoods by your competitors, then how can that problem be solved by recruiting?  It only makes sense to target the individual neighborhoods where you’re missing opportunities.  Can the agents who are successful in those neighborhoods be lured away from their companies?  If so, it’s a big win for your office.

There are probably several more population dynamics categories that can be targeted.  The point is that defining what kind of population is available is an important first step in building a recruiting plan.  If you don’t have this starting point, then deploying recruiting tactics may quickly and effectively lead you to an undesirable destination.

Going through an exercise like this will produce one of two results:  The hopeful result is that you’ll have identified exactly who you’re looking for, know whether the potential candidates exist in your recruiting horizon, and be ready to attack the challenge of hiring them with energy and excitement.  The more common result is that this exercise will help you realize that your objectives may not be realistic.  If this is your result, work to identify new sources for locating candidates and review well-thought-out compromises you are willing to make in order to meet your long-term objectives.  With either result, you’ll have a clearer view of your recruiting horizon and will have further defined your goals for the year. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Why Pry? Improving Productivity

In the last two blogs (1,2), I discussed the vital importance that attention and interest play in improving productivity.  I built a case that interest and attention are the most important ingredients for increasing productivity in those you manage.  Furthermore, I emphasized that prying into the lives of your agents is the only way to know what motivates them deeply.  Chances are, if they have fallen into a slump, they've probably forgotten their primary motivation for doing what they do.

In addition, I mentioned a study in last week's editions that has spurred some questions from readers.  The number one question I've received is, "What is the Hawthorne Study?"
 
The answer to this question should motivate you to set aside ample time to adequately address a very important human need...  The study took place at a Western Electric factory outside of Chicago, between 1924 and 1932.  Although the study wasn't originally designed to research productivity, it in fact did illuminate a great deal on the subject.

In essence, what the researchers found after carefully measuring peoples' performance, was that the measuring, in and of itself, improves productivity.  Researchers concluded that the workers worked harder because they knew that they were being individually monitored -- They hypothesized that being treated as special (as evidenced by working in a separate room), and having an attentive and interested supervisor, were the real reasons for the productivity increase.  The above is called to this day: "The Hawthorne Effect."
 
Most of you know, we at Tidemark write about measurement, metrics, and accountability exhaustively.  Attention to these things has been proven to increase performance dramatically.

So, what about agent production?  How can you apply the Hawthorne Effect to your agents?

1. Set up meetings, alone, with each of your agents.  Make sure that they hear you tell your assistant to not be interrupted during your meeting.
2. Coach them by deliberately prying about their life, their goals, their families, their dreams...
3. Coach by setting goals, measuring progress, and holding agents accountable.
4. Follow up!  You must track and follow up to show you care.

The above...... research shows, in and of itself...... will increase motivation.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Most Brilliant Ingredients For Productivity

Earlier this week, I shared the importance of learning what motivates your agents.  While writing, it became clear to me that many managers are very uncomfortable doing this.  Many feel that asking about an agent's personal life is out of bounds, inappropriate, or at least irrelevant.  Nothing could be further from the truth...

Over the past six years of consulting in this industry, it is with great confidence that I can tell you that the best managers in the business are curious about the lives of their agents.  They take great pride in knowing the names of their agents' dogs.  Previously, I pointed out why this knowledge of an agent's personal life is important for motivation and goal setting.  So, in this and the next blog, I'll help you stragglers get over your fear of getting too personal with your agents, by helping you see that making the next coaching session a very personal one could improve this year's productivity significantly.

First, some research:  The Hawthorne Studies (Western Electric Company, 1929-1932) has helped us understand the connection between workplace relationships, morale, and productivity.  It was found, without question, that interest and attention increases commitment and productivity.

INTEREST AND ATTENTION!  Brilliant!

After 25 years in Clinical Psychology, I can say, without any hesitation, that interest and attention from parents to children would solve 75% of all mental illness across the country.

And, so too, a high percentage of problems with productivity could be likewise addressed with interest and attention.  So, put away or delegate the busy work, and get on with the important task of attending to your agents.

In the next edition, I'll help those who may not know how to pry...do it well! 

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

How to Motivate Your Agents

I spent the better part of this afternoon reviewing articles about how to motivate sales people and real estate agents, and was surprised to find nothing of real value.  The problem is, the articles that I read focus on a one-model-fits-all mentality, when we all know that people respond differently to various modes of motivation.

For example:  The reason I clean the kitchen is different from the reason my wife cleans the kitchen -- She cleans it because she likes a very clean kitchen.  I clean it to have a happy wife.  And, I have to admit...I occasionally lose track of my motivation.  When this happens, I don't clean the kitchen until I am reminded of my real motivation.

Here's another example of motivation:  I have a client who just set a goal of doubling his net worth.  He has already led a successful life and has accomplished numerous goals, and simply needed a new one.  He really doesn't value money that much.  Rather, he is simply using the goal as the "flag on the hill" to help him create, plan, network and execute the next chapter in his life.

There is no substitute for one-on-one coaching to help agents explore, confirm, or for the first time, assess their own motivation for selling homes.  What is it that they want for their family... their future...this next year?  Will they do what it will take to get there?  How can they keep their primary goal front and center?  Knowing why they are sitting in so many open houses, besides just saying that they have a job, is what will keep them doing the work that will keep them in business.

Your responsibility is to spend time with them.  Get to know them.  Pry into their lives.  Most people will invite you to.  If you haven't noticed, people love talking about themselves... especially when you can help them stay focused on what counts.

For those of you who are uncomfortable prying...In the next edition, I'll share the two most important ingredients to productivity that will surely change your mind...

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Trends and Opportunities for 2011: What Will the New Year Bring in the Recruiting World?

I know I mentioned on Monday that I would wrap up this discussion, but I found an outstanding article earlier this week that is worth sharing.  The article was written by Kevin Wheeler.  Kevin is a recruiting guru who has worked with many of the best companies in the United States.  He has become one of the most well-respected voices in the recruiting industry.  I’ve read many of Kevin's articles over the past several years and have benefited greatly from his viewpoint.

Kevin's recent article highlights some predictions for 2011 and is particularly insightful.  Since he doesn’t specialize in the real estate industry, I’ll provide some commentary on how Kevin's thoughts apply to what you may be experiencing.

Hiring Situation

“Mid-level hiring will remain slow, and there will be few additions to support administrative staff.  Much of this hiring will be outsourced to Recruitment Process Outsourcing companies (RPOs) and agencies that specialize in specific areas.  The demand for workers with minimal skills will shrink even further as technology replaces them.  Many organizations have already replaced receptionists with automated sign-in systems and automatic call systems.  Accounting and bookkeeping systems are using OCR to automatically input receipts and other data into their systems.”

“Mid-level hiring” is the category of positions that we see typically make a transition to the real estate industry.  The good news…the supply will be good (lots of people will remain out of work).  The bad news…many people in this position can’t afford to start a real estate career, or don’t want to risk giving up their current job (if they still have one).

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

“RPO will continue to grow as a service with more sophisticated approaches and more technology.  Some firms will focus on specific regions or on functional verticals.  These RPOs will invest the time and conduct research that will help them build large communities of candidates with narrow, deep expertise.  They will do this cheaper and better than a corporate recruiter can because of dedicated resources and investment in technology.  Corporate recruiting functions need to build better ways to assess RPO firms, establish firm performance criteria, and negotiate contracts based on how well your needs are met, rather than on cost.”

In the interest of full disclosure, Tidemark is an RPO firm.  These are the issues we focus on every day and companies use our services because it’s cheaper and more effective than sourcing candidates on their own.

Talent Management

“I have long advocated that every organization should increase its focus on developing a holistic and integrated approach to talent.  That will begin to happen in earnest this year.  Every major survey, including those from Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the Boston Consulting Group, indicate that CEOs are now relentlessly focused on getting better people in their organizations and are willing to put the resources in place to make it happen.

Critical positions need to be clearly identified, and there should be a plan as to how those positions will be filled.  The plans should rely on a mixture of internal promotions/transfer as well as external placement.  Development should be a key component and lead to a percentage of positions being filled by newly trained internal candidates.  Entry-level hiring can feed this pool, as long as development and assessment are in place.  Rigorous performance assessment in real time as well as feedback to recruiting on success traits are also important parts of a successful talent management plan.”

As we talk to real estate leaders across the country, we constantly hear about the lack of talent at the first-level manager position (commonly referred to as a branch manager or sales manager).  This is, by far, the number one issue that limits growth for most real estate companies.  How can this be solved? Understand and apply the “talent management” strategies that companies in other industries have developed.  One quick warning…doing this is not quick, easy, or cheap.

Employment Brand

“Building a believable and vigorous brand will consume more time and resources than it did in 2010.  A recruiting website will be much less critical, although still important, to success.  It will be more important to use a variety of marketing tools, including targeted marketing, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as LinkedIn, to interest more people in learning about your organization and opportunities.”

We’ve spent a bunch of time in WorkPuzzle over the past year talking about positioning your company in the mind of the potential candidate.  Just like someone needs to envision your company as the best choice when buying or selling a house, they also need to see your company as one of the most desirable places to work in your local marketplace.

Internal Sourcing Teams

“Internal sourcing teams will morph from a focus on Internet search, which will remain a small part of the process, to a major focus on social media.  The purpose of the sourcing team will be to ensure a supply of interested people who can be turned into candidates by a combination of skilled recruiter involvement and sophisticated marketing tools.  These teams will be small, technically highly skilled, and capable of being community managers, marketers, and experts in identifying and assessing key candidates virtually.”

In late November and early December, Dave Mashburn wrote a WorkPuzzle series about Lessons from an Expert Recuiter.  This series (1,2,3,4) highlights Kevin’s point.  There is no substitute for having one of the most talented individuals in your company be the first line of interface to the candidates who are considering making a transition to a real estate career.

Social Media

“In every way, the backbone of the recruiting function will be its ability to use social media — the tools that connect and engage millions of potential candidates.  Their success will be in how effective they are in convincing people to take part in the sub-communities that they create for their firms.  This will require a strategy that has been carefully thought out and is revisited constantly and updated as its effectiveness is evaluated.

Whether they use Facebook, Hyves, LinkedIn, or another community is immaterial.  What matters is that the community they choose attracts the kind of people they need.  New smaller specialist communities may arise over the next year, and staying abreast of these, or even creating them, may make the difference between success and failure.”

This is an area that needs growth for many real estate companies and it’s an arena that is a major focus for our company in 2011.

Kevin’s Summary

"In many ways 2011 will look a lot like 2010 but with more focus on implementing the initiatives that were started in 2010 and in being realistic about the use of RPO, outsourcing, and the need to focus on critical positions."

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Trends and Opportunities For 2011: What are the Best Sellers Trying to Tell You?

Happy New Year!  I’m going to wrap up this discussion today by sharing some insight from some of the bestselling business books of 2010.  The popular blog 800CEOREAD and Inc. Magazine compiled the list below.  I think we can learn about trends and opportunities by noticing what others are reading.   

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath; Gallup Press -- The original Strengths Finder book was published in 2001.  A full decade has passed and people are still trying to figure out where they best fit in the workplace.  This particular book was published in 2007 and it’s still at the top of the list.

The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann; Portfolio -- People are trying to find meaning in their work and purpose in the arena of business.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath, Dan Heath; Broadway -- When things are difficult, change is necessary to stay in business and make sense of the new realities.

Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World by John Hope Bryant; Jossey-Bass -- You’ll see a lot of the books on this list addressing the emotion of fear.  There’s a lot of fear out there…

Return of the Gold: The Journey of Jerry Colangelo and the Redeem Team by Dan Bickley; Morgan James Publishing -- This is a story of how the NBA has sunk to an incredible low after many good years in the past.  There are many organizations that need to make a comeback after being beat-up by the recession.

Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today’s Profit and Drives Tomorrow’s Growth by Inder Sidhu; FT Press -- Great case study on a great company.  

Rich Dad’s Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money by Robert T. Kiyosaki; Business Plus

Accelerating Out of the Great Recession: How to Win in a Slow-Growth Economy by David Rhodes, Daniel Stelter; McGraw-Hill -- More fear.  Both of the previous books offer help on making sense of what is happening in the economy.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin; Portfolio -- Many people are concerned about keeping their jobs and maintaining a viable career.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter; Hyperion -- More change.  People want help with setting a path for the future, as they are feeling anxiety about their current situation.  

How Companies Win: Profiting from Demand-Driven Business Models No Matter What Business You’re In by Rick Kash, David Calhoun; HarperBusiness

Keep Swinging: An Entrepreneur’s Story of Overcoming Adversity & Achieving Small Business Success by Jay Myers, Darren Dahl; Morgan James Publishing -- Entrepreneurs are alive and well.  Although they try to make it sound new, businesses have always found success through identifing and meeting needs. 

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone by Mitch Joel, Business Plus -- Businesses are still trying to make sense of the social networking phenomenon.

Rich Dad’s Prophecy: Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History Is Still Coming… and How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit from It! by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L Lechter; Business Plus

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith; Hyperion -- Some guys are just good at publishing books!  This is the second book on this list by each of these authors. 

The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace by Lynn Lancaster, David Stillman; HarperBusiness

Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down by Vineet Nayar, Harvard Business Press -- People always want help dealing with employees and people.  For some reason, we never seem to get this totally figured out.

The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures by Frans Johansson; Harvard Business Press -- This is one of those eclectic idea books that capitalizes more on great writing than on meaningful ideas (ex. The Tipping Point and Freakonomics).  These books were all the rage a few years ago, but are now starting to wane...

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon; Crown

Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business by Josh Bernoff, Ted Schadler; Harvard Business Press -- These are the motivational business books that tend to make it into the bestseller lists each year.

The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? by Ian Bremmer; Portfolio

Spend Shift: How the Post-Crisis Values Revolution Is Changing the Way We Buy, Sell, and Live by John Gerzema, Michael D’Antonio; Jossey-Bass -- Small businesses are worried about how the government will impact their ability to be successful in the future.

Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuck; Harper Studio

The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? by Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, Jim Eber; Business Plus

Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn’t Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now by Vickie Milazzo; John Wiley & Sons

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I hope this helps you gain some perspective for the year ahead.  If some of these concerns resonate with you, pick a couple of books off the list and start your own reading program for 2011.   

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.