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Bookshelf Trendy leadership metaphors abound among today's business books, but there's something very compelling about the stories and analo- gies laid out in High Altitude Leader- ship. Executive consultant Don Schmincke and mountaineer Chris Warner draw parallels between life- and-death expeditions to climb the world's highest mountains and everyday efforts to survive the world's ordinary boardrooms. For instance, they say, either enterprise can be destroyed by the same eight dangers: fear, selfishness, an overreli- ance on tools, arrogance, lone hero- ism, cowardice, comfort, and gravity. They don't bother to sugarcoat their lessons. "Both dead climbers and bankrupt companies are found grasping great tools," they write in the chapter that warns against being seduced by the hottest new prod- ucts. In another chapter they say, "Selfishness kills people, profits, and possibilities." The summiting stories that interleave the boardroom tales are absolutely riveting; and the busi- ness lessons are sensible, practical, and clearly stated. It might not get readers fired up to climb K2, but it will inspire them to think about how to succeed at other uphill battles. (Jossey-Bass, $27.95) by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie is a book of multiple parts, all quite interest- ing. It opens by emphasizing the reasons leaders should build on strengths, not shore up weaknesses. "When leaders focus on and invest in their employees' strengths, the odds of each person being engaged go up eightfold," write the authors, 62 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 If you're an entrepreneur, don't even think about trying to launch a startup without reading Guy Kawasaki's Reality Check. The subhead calls it an "irreverent" guide to outsmart- ing the competition, and never was a word so apt. But there's plenty of plain-spoken, tough-love, hard-to-hear advice bundled into these short chapters largely drawn from Kawasaki's blog. Are you planning an hourlong PowerPoint presenta- tion to possible investors? Keep it to 20 minutes, because setting up the projector won't go smoothly and people will arrive late. Are you convinced no one else is trying to launch a product similar to yours? Then there's either no market for it or you're too clueless to understand the competition. Do you think that Oracle is no threat to your new company? "Larry Ellison has his own jet. He can keep the San Jose airport open for his late-night landings," Kawasaki reminds the boastful entrepreneur. "Meanwhile, you're flying on Southwest out of Oakland and stealing the free peanuts." Frank contributions provided by lawyers, academics, and other authors add even more value to this blunt, honest, and engaging book. (Portfolio, $29.95) who draw on decades' worth of research from the Gallup orga- nization. Then the book breaks leadership traits into clusters of strengths and provides quick profiles of successful executives who have capitalized on one or more of these characteristics. The last half of the book is basically a blueprint for how any individual can maximize his effectiveness once he's identified which of the 34 distinct leadership attributes represent his strengths— or how he can manage employees who exhibit those traits. Each book includes a unique access key to an online assessment test to help read- ers determine where they stand so they can figure out how they can become better leaders. (Gallup Press, $24.95) In , Peter S. Cohan tells the story of Jim McNer- ney, a Jack Welch protégé at GE who revitalized 3M in his short term there and who has overseen the turnaround of Boeing. While Cohan, an adjunct professor at Babson, obviously admires his sub- ject's personal style, he's able to draw universal lessons from the way McNerney embodies the "eleven leadership challenges" that form the core of the book. These are largely familiar, but here they're illustrated by the specific ways McNerney has carried them out. For instance, the chapter on linking pay to profits describes how McNerney reallocated 3M stock options by performance rather than rank. He modified the approach when he encountered an entirely different culture at Boeing. McNerney, writes Cohan, "tailors his approach to each company according to the values that he feels he needs to reinforce." The book succeeds as a detailed look at a thoughtful leader. (Portfolio, $24.95) If you think the economy is bad now, just wait. That's the dark predic- tion made by Harry S. Dent Jr. in The Great Depression Ahead. He presents piles of historical data to make his point, drawing on over- lapping boom-and-bust cycles in Y Strengths Based Leadership ou Can't Order Change