Top 5 Books to Read this Fall

5 Books to Read this Fall - Center for Performance Improvement

What specific books do the top auto dealership leaders and managers recommend right now?

Get Your #AutoRetail on with Our Fall 2017 Book List!

To find out, I reached out to Dealer Principals and key managers from different sectors in the retail industry: general management, the sales and marketing departments, Internet and business development, finance, fixed operations, and administration to find out about the books that they find insightful, motivating, or inspiring. 

Below is a list of interesting books that touches on everything from leadership to performance to overall business management. 

To kick it off, I will share a few hot-off-of-the-presses books that I have really enjoyed ... followed by some classics. 

1. "Unshakeable" by Tony Robbins

After interviewing fifty of the world's greatest financial minds, Tony Robbins writes a step-by-step playbook, taking you on a journey to transform your life and accelerate your path to financial freedom. No matter your salary, your stage of life, or when you started, this book will provide the tools to help you achieve your financial goals more rapidly than you ever thought possible.

Robbins, who has coached more than fifty million people from 100 countries, is the world's #1 life and business strategist.

2. "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. (less)

3. "Grit" by Angela Duckworth

In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, athletes, students, and business people-both seasoned and new-that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called “grit.” Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur “genius” Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.

Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that-not talent or luck-makes all the difference. 

4. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie

One of the cruel challenges of being a leader is that many of our basic instincts are wrong. Bossing people around, assuming the worst, and believing everyone thinks just like us are some of the easiest rookie mistakes to make. 

Fortunately, Dale Carnegie is here to help.

How to Win Friends & Influence People is a classic on leadership. Carnegie breaks down in simple terms many of the most helpful ways to understand others, as well as how to accomplish all that a leader needs to by working with a team. Carnegie can give even the most rigid engineer essential lessons on leading others well.

5. "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason

The Richest Man in Babylon gives some simple rules of money:
1) Start fattening your purse: save money. 
2) Control your expenditures: don’t spend more than you need. 
3) Make your gold multiply: invest wisely. 
4) Guard your treasures against loss: avoid investments that sound too good to be true. 
5) Improve your ability to earn: strive to become wiser and more knowledgeable.

No matter what kind of reading you enjoy, these titles have got you covered. Put down your phone, pick up one of these books and get up to speed on the latest!

Got some other recommendations? Let us know!