Books and White Papers on Running Successful Projects

Leadership is an art. As a project manager you need to become a better leader. You will not find that in any single book or class. You need to learn, study and practice. It helps you develop tools to better understand the difficult situations you face daily.

Since its original publication in 2000, Leadership and Self-Deception has become a word-of-mouth phenomenon. Its sales continue to increase year after year, and the book ’s popularity has gone global, with editions now available in over twenty languages.

Through a story everyone can relate to about a man facing challenges on the job and in his family, the authors expose the fascinating ways that we can blind ourselves to our true motivations and unwittingly sabotage the effectiveness of our own efforts to achieve success and increase happiness.

As a project manager, you are all about selling and persuasion. If you are not good at it, you better learn now. This book focuses on communicating in a way to get people to react to you.

Setting up meetings with corporate decision makers has never been harder. It's almost impossible to get them to pick up the phone. They never return your calls. And if you do happen to catch them, they blow you off right away.

It's time to stop making endless cold calls or waiting for the phone to ring. In today's crazy marketplace, new sales strategies are needed to penetrate these big accounts.

Discover how to:

Target accounts where you have the highest likelihood of success.
• Find the names of prospects who can use your offering.
• Create breakthrough value propositions that capture their attention.
• Develop an effective, multi-faceted account-entry campaign.
• Overcome obstacles and objections that derail your sale efforts.
• Position yourself as an invaluable resource, not a product pusher.
• Have powerful initial sales meetings that build unstoppable momentum.
• Differentiate yourself from other sellers.

Every project manager and business analyst should read this book. Ignore the implication of the title, which is just an acronym for a process, and dive in to what the customers real problem is that you are trying to solve. This will change your project deliverable to the most value they have ever received.

Written by Neil Rackham, former president and founder of Huthwaite corporation, SPIN Selling is essential reading for anyone involved in selling or managing a sales force. Unquestionably the best-documented account of sales success ever collected and the result of the Huthwaite corporation's massive 12-year, $1-million dollar research into effective sales performance, this groundbreaking resource details the revolutionary SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) strategy.

Do you need to persuade someone that your project is worth doing? Maybe you are the CEO and need to sell a new vision and the project to go with it.. If so, you need to Start With Why. Too often your first reaction is to start with what and that will not inspire people to meet your dream.

Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty?

Projects drive change and you need to get people to switch to that change to make your project successful. Switch is a great book on how to help make that happen.

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?

As they say in the army, never volunteer. Nowhere could that be truer than when it comes to project sponsorship. Given a choice between a root canal and project sponsorship, most managers and executives start looking up dentists on the internet. It is a sad fact—one that project managers must deal with on a daily basis. It is often the project manager’s first solid opportunity to lead up.

Recently I received the book Strategies for Project Sponsorship by Vicki James, Ron Rosenhead, and Peter Taylor, all good friends of mine and trustworthy twitter contributors. It took a while for the book to trickle “up” to the top of my stack; however, when it did I was more than impressed.

Featuring nearly 70 case studies—real-world examples of what works, what doesn’t, and why—drawn from Todd Williams’ extensive experience, RESCUE THE PROBLEM PROJECT is an indispensable resource for everyone with a stake in project success.  Read the entire press release here.