When you give your whole team a say in everything from setting company-wide goals to fine-tuning your day-to-day operations, you get better buy-in from all of your employees. A remodeler I know is using Linda Case’s new book Business Straight to the Heart: The Remodelers Guide to Leadership, Management, and Success to do just that.

Bruce Johnson, co-owner of Lee Kimball in Winchester, Mass., bought a copy of this newly published book for each of his employees and turned a part of their monthly meeting into a book club. Each month, a different chapter is discussed with an eye toward ways to implement what they’ve learned into the fabric of their company.

“The meetings are designed to take the company to the next level,” Johnson told me. “We’ve been using the book as a framework for those meetings.” Topics include Learning and Earning Leadership, Building a Great Team, Planning to Succeed, and Magnetic Marketing. The remodeler admits that some of the content in the book is familiar, because the company has been well coached by Linda Case and was a member of Remodelers Advantage Roundtables™ for many years.  However, some of the best practices that the owners of Lee Kimball learned about were never implemented—until now.

“In each meeting, we take 45 minutes to an hour to discuss what we’re reading,” says the remodeler. “We go around the room and the discussions are very lively.” He’s glad to see his employees fired up about the book and how the company can use it. “It’s been great,” he says.

Whether you use this book or another that sparks your interest, creating an in-house book club is a fantastic way to create conversations, generate ideas, include everyone on the staff, and build a common language.

Other Book Club Ideas:

• Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard
• Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni
• EMyth Contractor by Michael Gerber
• Loyalty is Love by Beverly Koehn
• The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack

Click here to order any of these books.

If you’re interested in building a stronger team, identifying core values, or developing a vision and mission for your business then the Remodelers Advantage Business Coaches can help. Our senior Business Coaches have an array of interactive tools, along with the experience and knowhow to lead a highly productive session, involving everyone on your team.  Call us today at 301-490-5620 to get started.