3 Books Your Management Team Should Read this Summer

Effectively managing and developing an all-star team at your landscape, pavement maintenance or snow removal contracting business is a huge undertaking. It takes a lot of time and patience and sometimes it can can be very trying. But it’s also one of the biggest rewards you’ll reap and a key component to building your company’s culture. Any and all time you can devote to this task is worth it.

Sounds good right? Spend the time, develop the team and your all-stars will help you take it all the way home. The problem is, business owners like us are usually extremely busy and don’t always have as much time as they would like to devote to this.

Develop Your Management Team with Books

I wouldn’t necessarily say I ‘enjoy’ reading in my downtime, but I understand the value of great research and learning about someone’s story- which you can get pretty quick and cheap by picking up a book and spending a few minutes here or there browsing through.

So in order to help you develop your team when you’re not physically with them, supply them with some great reading material. Motivational, self-help or how-to books your management team can read in their downtime can go a long way in helping them hone their skills. Trade publications are also a good place to go for valuable insights and success stories from peers, which can also be very motivating.

Clearly there are millions of books to choose from, and it’s hard to go wrong, but here are three of my favorites, some old, some new.

3 Books for Your Management Team to Read this Summer

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. This book was first published in 1936 and offers personal and professional advice that is still applicable today. Chances are, your managers have read this one already. But hey, maybe it’s worth a second go-round.
The Genius in All of Us, by David Shenk. This book demonstrates that any one of us can achieve greatness. We restrict ourselves by placing limits on what we think we can and can’t do, which Shenk explains with science and data.
The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. Coyle shares three key elements that help you unlock your talent and apply it to what you want to excel at. This is a great read for anyone in any position at the company.

To encourage your team to read in their downtime, create a company ‘library’ of sorts in the break room or a common area where your team has access to some great books for free.

What is your favorite book? Tell us in the comments section of this post.