Amazon’s Best Management and Leadership Books of 2008

Trying to think of a good stocking stuffer for someone you know (or yourself)? The powers that be at Amazon.com have put together their “Best of 2008” lists. Here are their editor’s choices for best management and leadership books.

1. The Management Gurus: Lessons from the Best Management Books of All Time by Chris Lauer. Includes summaries of fifteen management classics, distilling thousands of pages about leadership, strategy, crisis management, organizational behavior, and more—perfect for busy executives and students.

2. Best Practices for Energy Venture Capital in 2008: Top VCs and CEOs on Energy Company Growth Plans, Valuations, Exit Strategies, and Raising Rounds of Capital (Inside the Minds) by Aspatore Books Staff. Experts provide best practices for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs at all stages of an investment with a focus on raising capital, establishing valuations, determining exit strategies, and structuring deals.

3. What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers by Bob Selden. A self-help book for people about to move into their first management role.

4.Wage and Hour Answer Book, 2008 Edition by Littler Mendelson. Gives authoritative, plain-English explanations of how and when the Fair Labor Standards Act and other wage and hour laws govern the employer-employee relationship, and what may happen when violations occur.

5. The Training Measurement Book: Best Practices, Proven Methodologies, and Practical Approaches (Essential Knowledge Resource) by Josh Bersin. Offers managers, executives, and training and human resource professionals a method for measuring their investments in a way that provides information that is both actionable, credible, and meaningful to corporate leaders. Using the methods outlined in this important resource, you can free yourself from traditional, often cumbersome measurement models and put in place pragmatic, useful, and easy-to-implement approaches for measuring training activities.

6. Make It Glow: How to Build a Company Reputation for Human Goodness, Flawless Execution, and Being Best-in-class by Tom Decotiis.Some companies just seem to have that special something–an atmosphere of success and trust that makes customers return again and again, employees stay and give their all, and suppliers offer their best prices and performances. In Make It Glow, DeCotiis shows readers the hard processes and practices behind the warm and fuzzy feelings, and demonstrates exactly how important those feelings are to success. Whether the business in question is a new startup or a decades-old enterprise that’s lost its reason to be, making it glow means making it prosperous, meaningful, and a source of pride. With DeCotiis’s methods, companies can sustain success and the rewards that come with it far beyond just the next quarter.

7. The 2008 Pension Answer Book by Stephen J. Krass. Discusses in detail the full spectrum of pension topics – from qualification requirements to taxation of distributions, from minimum distribution requirements to 401(k) plans. It covers the most up-to-date and significant legislative, regulatory, and case law developments affecting these plans.

8. Invest Like the Best: Using Your Computer to Unlock the Secrets of the Top Money Managers/Book and Idks by James P. O’Shaughnessy. Shows how to use your PC to duplicate the investment strategies and stock picking abilities of the nation’s top money managers.

9. The Business Money Book (Business Best) by Jeannette Cloud. Managing cash flow is taking care of the basics of your business-whether you sell products or services, are for-profit or not-for-profit. Cloud gives advice to keep companies on solid ground by emphasizing the basics and ensuring that everyone in the organization knows that money makes the world go around-or at least keeps the business going and the paychecks flowing.

10. Best Practices in Business Technology Management by Stephen J. Andriole. Despite the exponential growth of computing and communications technology, the inertia of old business technology management practices still drives most investment decisions in this area. Companies spend too much money on new technology, while their business models and processes underutilize the resources they already have. Written in a compelling, conversational manner, Best Practices in Business Technology Management advises those who buy, install, and support all types of computing and communications technology, empowering them to optimize their systems in new and innovative ways.