North Dakota State University
NDSU Extension Service

Personal Development -- Books

The 8th Habit
Steven Covey
408 Pages
The sequel to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, this book discusses how you can take effectiveness and change it into greatness. This books offers many timely suggestions and practical hands on skills.

Blink!
Malcolm Gladwell
2005, 277 Pages
This book is about "how we think without thinking", about choices that seem to be made in an instant that actually aren't as simple as they seem. It reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend time deliberating. Being written by a psychologist who studied how our brains really work every day, this book can change the way you understand every decision you make.

The Color of Water
James McBride
2002, 314 Pages
A Black Mans Tribue to his White Mother…The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.

Coping with Difficult People
Robert M. Bramson
1981, 226-page Book - 1 hardcover publication, 1 paperback publication
This book is about impossible people and how to cope with them. It teaches you how to deal with hostile customers and co-workers, indecisive bosses, over-agreeable subordinates, or any type of person you could call a difficult person. The book teaches you how to identify, understand, and cope with difficult people.

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D.; Harry Paul; John Christensen
2000, 107-page Book
By applying simple lessons learned from Seattle's Pike Place fishmongers, a manager discovers how to energize those who report to her and affect an astonishing transformation in her workplace. Accompanying videos also available.

Goal Setting for Results: Success Strategies for You and Your Organization
Gary Ryan Blair
2003, 44 Page Book
This book offers goal-setting methods, insights and suggestions -- including exercises and checklists -- to those seeking to enhance their businesses and their careers.

The Human Element: Productivity, Self-Esteem, and the Bottom Line
Will Schutz
1994, 276 Pages
The complexities surrounding the diversity of individuals within the entire workforce is the main focus of this new work. Schutz offers a solid perspective which demonstrates that people and process are not mutually exclusive. Clarifying his view of interpersonal workforce relationships by devising a Periodic Table of Human Elements, he argues that self-concept and self-esteem are essential to the success of any organization. Schutz's "Human Element" seminar, now in multiple offerings worldwide, is summarized here, but using and applying his methods will likely require a long-term commitment and professional assistance for many.

Inventurers Excursions in Life and Career Renewal
Janet Hagberg and Richard Leider
1978, 178-page Book
Life is change, change is growth, and you are responsible for both. A personal and practical tool, this book describes a renewal process known as inventuring. It shows adult readers how to find out, step by step, what they want out of life and career and then helps them take positive action in expanding and exploring the options. This innovative concept of inventuring begins with an examination of all aspects of the whole life cycle -- body, mind and spirit, as well as career factors.

Inventurers Excursions in Life and Career Renewal - 3^rd Edition
Janet Hagberg and Richard Leider
1988, 240-page Book
Three themes that emerge most strongly in this book are balance, harmony, and purpose, both in our lives and in our careers. The authors lead you through a process called "inventuring" -- an excursion into self-discovery that will help you clarify your inner values and achieve personal success.

Mastering Executive Arts and Skills
Crawley A. Parris
1969, 205-page Book
This book provides you with a composite program for mastering the specific skills you must develop to move quickly and surely into the big-money and high-status areas of the business world.

Memory System: Remember Everything You Need When You Need It
Bob Burg
1992, 196-page Book
Here's a book you'll never forget because it will give you a powerful new system to help you remember and recall anything you want...any time you want. Names, dates, numbers, times, places...everything! And you'll be able to remember them all as easily and naturally as you remember your own name. A powerful memory is not a gift a lucky few are born with; it's a mental faculty you can develop and strengthen -- and use to your advantage. Just work through this book, do the exercises, follow the guidelines and you'll find yourself able to remember far more than you ever dreamed possible -- with far less effort.

The Passion Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering, Developing, and Living Your Passion
Richard Chang
Organizational Management
2000, 285 Pages
A sincere and young-sounding author spells out his seven steps for discovering your vocational passion and making it a greater part of your life. Chang says that passion is a right and a power we all have--a necessary fuel for launching and maintaining anything worthwhile. While he drifts into pure encouragement from time to time, most of the program is action oriented and is fleshed out with effective personal stories. Clarity of purpose and a clear plan are vital to the productive life. The author's reading style becomes more mechanical as the program unfolds, a characteristic that puts more pressure on the content to maintain interest.

Personal Accountability: Powerful and Practical Ideas for You and Your Organization
John G. Miller
1998, 300-page Book
Featured at the Extension North Central Region Administrative Leadership conference and national Epsilon Sigma Phi conference, Personal Accountability encourages us to practice "the question behind the question" to bring to life ownership, creativity, trust, courage and integrity.

Procrastination: Why You Do It, What To Do About It
Jana B. Burka, Ph.D. and Lenora M. Yuen, Ph.D.
1983, 221-page Book
The authors offer a probing, sensitive, and sometimes humorous look at a problem that affects nearly everyone. They base their advice on firsthand experience counseling a wide range of procrastinators, from the mild to the chronic, and examine why we put things off. The authors offer loads of practical advice on how to manage procrastination and offer tips on living and working with procrastinators you may know.

The Richest Man in Town
V. J. Smith
2005, 95 Pages
This book is about a simple man who ran a cash register. He worked hard and was good to people. That, in turn, made him happy. He showed V. J. how to be a better person, not one wealthier or more successful or more powerful.

Quality Interviewing
Robert Maddux
1988, 66 Pages
This book is for anyone interested in learning job interview techniques, especilly those who select others to work with them. Whether an employment interviewer, first line supervisor, chairperson of a committee, project leader, school administrator, restaurant manager, government official, owner of a small business, or senior executive, you must be able to assess candidates nd arrive at the best choice.

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey
1989, 340-page Book
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. The seven habits are be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, seek first to understand then to be understood, synergize and sharpen the saw.

The Second Shift
Arlie Russell Hochschild
Personal Development
Book
1997, 325 Pages
The author takes us into the homes of two-career parents to observe what really goes on at the end of the “work day.” Overwhelmingly, she discovers, it’s the working mother who takes on the second shift.

Strengths Quest: Discover and Develop Your Strengths in Academics, Career, and  Beyond
Donald O. Clifton and Edward ‘Chip’ Anderson
2004, 306 Pages
This book states that the challenges faced by students and learners of all ages are not limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Often, they lie in gaining direction, making decision, and building self-confidence. Fortunately, the keys to successfully meeting these challenges already exist within you: Your own natural talents will be the source of your greatest achievements.

Take Effective Control of Your Life
William Glasser, M.D.
1984, 236-page Book
Glasser explains his exciting new "control theory"- how each of us can better control our emotions and actions to live healthier and more productive lives.

Taking Charge Constructively
Dwight Palmer
1995, 197 Pages
While this book is primarily about growth and development in emphasizing understanding and involvement individually, it addresses the subject in a broader context which reaches into and involves the larger community as well.

Taking Charge of Your Life
Leland W. Howe
1977, 101-page Book
Successful people have discovered it is up to each person to make things happen. The author invites you to join those people who can overcome their human failings and live successful, meaningful lives. The method he outlines is simple, practical, and fun. The key is to recognize your unique strengths and develop them into the foundation of your personal success. By tuning into basic human needs and through a process of observing, thinking and questioning, the author shows you the road toward attaining your goals.

T.G.I.M.: Making Your Work Fulfilling and Finding Fulfilling Work
Charles Cameron and Suzanne Elusorr
1986, 208-page Book
Work satisfaction, as much as any other factor in your life, is essential for true happiness. T.G.I.M. can show you not only how to find deeper personal fulfillment from any job you may have, it can lead you toward one of the greatest discoveries you can make: finding the work you were born to do. T.G.I.M. is a practical book that aims to transform your "job" into an "affair of the heart." This book uses dozens of revealing techniques and effective self-exploration exercises.

The 8th Habit
Steven R. Covey
408 Pages
The sequel to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, this book discusses how you can take effectiveness
and change it into greatness. This books offers many timely suggestions and practical hands on skills.

Three Boxes of Life: And How to Get Out of Them
Richard N. Bolles
1981, 461-page Book
This book is an introduction to life/work planning. The author demonstrates that our lives are rigidly defined into three periods based on primary activity -- education, work, and retirement. During each of the "box-like" stages, we do little other than this primary activity. In analyzing the boxes, the author provides a structure to deal with the transition into each of the three periods.

Training Games for Interpersonal Skills
Phillip Burnhard
264 Pages
Anyone who's a trainer knows that trying to improve people's interpersonal skills can be one of the most sensitive and challenging of all training assessments.  This book is designed for wide-range use in everything from management development to customer service training to personal growth workshops.

When Giants Learn to Dance: Mastering the Challenges of Strategy, Management, and Careers in the 1990s
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
1989, 115-page Book
To remain competitive, more and more companies are trimming down and getting in shape with reorganizations, new management ideas, and fresh business strategies. The impact on growth and productivity can be dramatic if the right balance is maintained. But the impact on your career may be disconcerting, if not disastrous, if you're not prepared for the emerging changes. When Giants Learn To Dance is the first comprehensive business strategy book to address the pressing challenges facing companies and careers today. The new key to the fast track is a flexible package of skills and services that you can take anywhere.

Who Moved My Cheese?
Spencer Johnson, M.D.
1998, 94-page Book
Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. The characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls.

Your Perfect Right: A Guide to Assertive Learning
Robert E. Alberti, Ph.D. and Michael L. Emmons, Ph.D.
1983, 212-page Book
This assertiveness training classic features new material on relationships, thinking assertively, anger expression, and overcoming anxiety. The procedures are designed to help you improve personal relationships, express needs and feelings more effectively, use anger constructively, face uncomfortable situations in a straightforward, honest way, and build self-confidence. This book will show you the important differences among passive non-assertion, aggressive bullishness, and the honest-and-expressive-but-not-pushy brand of assertiveness that can help you express yourself positively and respect others at the same time.

Books can be checked out for one month, audio and video tapes for two weeks. Contact the Distribution Center at NDSU.distributioncenter@ndsu.edu or 701 231-7882 to check out Staff Resource Library materials, or stop by Morrill 10 to browse the shelves.