New Books offer Leadership, Marketing Tips

With the economy slowly starting to percolate again, some interesting business books are coming out with ideas to invigorate your business.

If you're having trouble getting psyched up to work on your business, you might want to read Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink, previously author of A Whole New Mind. Learn how to "tap into our deeply human need to direct our own lives" to move your business forward.

Talk about being on topic--probably everybody could use the advice in Dave Lakhani's How to Sell When Nobody's Buying. This one comes with a thumbs-up from uber-blogger Seth Godin. Because he's such a sales maven, he even created a video that sells you on the book, which he says can transform your sales operation in a flat week. And the book comes with five free video lessons for those who're visual learners. Clearly, social media is a part of his solution.

Also on the social-media front, Groundswell author and social-media consultant Charlene Li offers Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead. Learn how to relinquish secrecy and control in your organization and earn happier employees, in a safe and supportive environment, right here.

One of the trickiest things in business is creating a corporate culture that really embodies the values you want. Having worked at some dysfunctional major companies, I can testify to it. To help you with this important aspect of how you operate, veteran business author Jon Gordon offers Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture.

Finally, to get the word out on all the great changes you're making, Guerrilla Marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson teams with co-author Shel Horowitz to update his marketing philosophy for the 21st Century, in Guerilla Marketing Goes Green. Learn to improve both your profits and the planet, simultaneously. I'm thinking it will involve heavy use of that tree-saving device, the internet.