Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59185
be used in specific situations. What more could a reader ask? (Jossey- Bass, $27.95) Finding a great employee is tough. Finding a great CEO is even tougher. In Finding the Best and the Brightest, Pennsylvania State management pro- fessor Peg Thoms presents the best way to identify, recruit, and select candidates for top positions. It's essential for those doing the hiring to thoughtfully outline what traits and skills they require in a specif- ic position and then conduct a series of struc- tured interviews with a small pool of candidates. Thoms makes the point that there is no one leader who will be good in all situations, and she reiterates this by building the book around leadership vacancies in six organizations: a fish- ing club, a Fortune 500 company, a high school, a historical society, a Rust Belt city, and an urban hospital. While the president of the Sunshine Fishing Club will need to be honest, optimistic, friendly, and devoted to fishing, the historical society's direc- tor of PR must have high energy, excellent writing skills, and strong interpersonal skills. Thoms offers guidelines for conducting the interview—and for deter- mining which candidates are the very best. (Praeger Publi - cations, $34.95) What would you do if you were braver? That's one of the ques- tions executive coach Graham Alexander has asked top CEOs who were stressed, over- worked, or feeling trapped in their current jobs. It's only one of dozens of questions that he poses throughout the slim, thought-provoking Tales from the Top, his account of more than 25 years of executive coaching. The book challenges CEOs to take hard looks at themselves, honestly evaluate what they have and what they want, and admit some of their deepest fears and insecurities. While many of his questions and suggestions are likely to induce some uncomfortable squirming for anyone who tries to answer or comply, the overall tone of the book is positive. Alexander believes any executive can improve his position—and his life—even if he has to make difficult choices to do so. (Nelson Business, $22.99) If you've always wanted to sit down and hear great marketers and business gurus trade battle stories, The Big Moo is for you. Seth Godin edits a collection of quick, provocative essays by 33 authors, including Tom Peters, Guy Kawasaki, Malcolm Gladwell, and Dan Pink. None of the contributions has a byline; each one needles the reader to think harder or think differently. One essay is nothing but questions: "What if we could charge ten times as much for this? What if we had to charge one-tenth as much?" Another consists of an icon- oclast's debate with nay-sayers: "They say I'm extreme. I say I'm a realist. ... They say, 'Improve and maintain.' I say, 'Destroy and reimagine.'" The title refers to Godin's earlier book, Purple Cow—the product or invention that sets a com- pany apart. As he says in his introduction, "A big moo is the extreme purple cow, the remarkable innovation that completely changes the game." Spend some time with these authors, and you'll feel as if you can corral a whole herd. (Portfolio, $19.95) "The work environments of today are ambiguous and subject to constant change," write Gerald R. Ferris, Sherry L. Davidson, and Pamela L. Perrewé in Political Skill at Work. These environments require "employees who are socially astute, flexible, adaptable and able to per- form effectively through it all—that is, people who are politically skilled." Political skill is not the weaselly ability to manipulate people to achieve self-serving ends. Rather, they say, it is the ability to understand others and influence them in ways that benefit the organization. Political skill comprises four key attributes: social astuteness, interper- sonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity. The authors—two business professors at Florida State University and one research scientist at New York University—explain how managers can cultivate political skill and how they can use it. Readers will quickly agree with the authors that "real political skill is a positive force." (Davis-Black Publishing, $32.95) s z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 55