Relevance
Hitting Your Goals By Knowing What Matters
David Apgar
Jossey-Bass, $27.95, 205 pages

Where would the consulting industry be without logical solutions to problems? Thanks in part to David Apgar, the world may never know. Apgar is the managing director of the Corporate Executive Board’s finance practices. His new book, Relevance, demonstrates his proficiency in the field as it aims to help readers target which data are important. “The information revolution is drawing to a close as our expanding information resources bury decisions under ever higher piles of conflicting data,” reads Apgar’s introduction. The reason for this devolving? Relevance, he says, is being neglected. To further demonstrate his views on accelerating learning and making decisions, he offers real-world examples from business such as Toyota and Capital One. Their inclusion only serves to make the tome more, well, relevant.

Crucibles of Leadership
How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader
Robert J. Thomas
Harvard Business Press $29.95, 264 pages

Defining moments—or crucibles, as author Robert J. Thomas puts it—can take an average leader and make him or her a great one. But those same life-changing events can have the opposite effect, seemingly arbitrarily, on another person. What’s important, says Thomas, the executive director of Accenture’s Institute for High Performing Business, is not so much the event itself, but the would-be leader’s response to that event, a response that requires self-reflection and inner growth in order for real change to happen. Thomas cites the examples of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war experience and Oprah Winfrey’s childhood abuse as these kinds of experiences. Thomas not only offers his research, but also his ideas on transforming your own level of leadership, with activities like videotaping yourself at work among them—which illustrates that events are important, but so is effort.

Make or Break
How Manufacturers Can Leap from Decline to Revitalization
Kaj Grichnik and Conrad Winkler With Jeffrey Rothfeder
McGraw-Hill, $17.95, 212 pages

When one thinks of “hot” industries in the United States, typically manufacturing does not immediately come to mind. But Booz Allen Hamilton vice presidents Kaj Grinchnik and Conrad Winkler want to change that—and do so in their new book, Make or Break, which is part of the strategy+business magazine series from the consultancy. The duo, after studying many U.S. manufacturing companies, including pharmaceutical, consumer goods and automotive sectors, has developed a new playbook for leaders—and would-be leaders—in the industry. Grinchnik and Winkler’s ideas and suggestions come from studying manufacturers that are thriving, such as Lego, Mercedes-Benz and Procter & Gamble—and while they acknowledge that joining the ranks of those firms is not easy, they assure readers that it is possible. With their ideas,
perhaps manufacturing will rise to “hot” status once again.

The Nonverbal Advantage
Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work
Carol Kinsey Goman
Berrett-Koehler, $19.95, 216 pages

Individuals communicate a great deal of information in the workplace—without ever saying a word. While the science of body language is nothing new, The Nonverbal Advantage author and Kinsey Consulting president Carol Kinsey Goman says there are plenty of simple exercises readers can do to gain control over the messages they’re sending to each other, such as altering breathing patterns or conversational distances when speaking. She also points out different subconscious body movements that can signal an engaged participant or someone who is feeling left out of the crowd. While anecdotally entertaining, there are much greater implications for her research: In an age of misinterpreted tones in e-mail or on the phone, it’s increasingly important for consultants—and in fact, anyone in business—to communicate effectively.