Favorite Books of a Table Group Consultant

The hosts of the CFO Bookshelf Podcast are fans of Brian Jones, one of the consultants of The Table Group, the professional services firm founded by the author, Patrick Lencioni. On this week’s show, Brian told us what he’s been reading. My favorite question was asking about his favorite Lencioni book.

This Week’s Segments

1. A Mild Rant about a David C. Baker Blog Post
2. Three Imperatives for Financial Leaders During COVID-19
3. Brian’s Reading List

Additional Show Notes

The Mild Rant

Mark discusses a blog post by David C. Baker about Eight Important Gauges on Your Financial Dashboard. Mark assumes the financial dashboard is a report viewed regularly such as weekly and/or monthly. He explains why Billings/FTE does not belong on this report.

Mark makes it very clear that he loves the 2Bobs podcast along with David’s book, The Business of Expertise: How Entrepreneurial Experts Convert Insight to Impact + Wealth. He just believes this strategic metric should be placed elsewhere and reviewed annually.

Three Imperatives For Financial Leaders During COVID-19

1. ABL – Always be learning. Mark also addressed the difference between rusting out and burning out.
2. Navigating During Uncertain Times – Mark tells the story from a favorite 2020 book entitled, Nerves of Steel. This is the first time he had ever heard of the pilot training concept, Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Mark focused on navigating.
3. Never Forget Who You Are – are we seeing company core values being stress-tested during this pandemic? More than ever, we need to remember who we are and what we stand for. Mark recommends a re-read of Drucker’s, Managing Oneself.

The Reading List of Brian Jones

Recent Reads

1. Leave Something on the Table
2. Good Economics for Hard Times
3. Extreme Economies
4. Upstream
5. The Product Mindset
6. As Needed for Pain

Lencioni Books

Favorite Lencioni Book – The Advantage

Most Under-rated Book – The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family

Books that Inspired

1. Life is Tremendous
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
3. Good to Great
4. Straight from the Gut
5. The Jeffrey Gitomer Books (includes the Little Red Book of Selling)
6. All Lencioni Books

---

How to Connect With Brian Jones

If you want to learn more about Brian Jones, you can read his bio at the Table Group’s website. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, and he’ll follow-up with you promptly.

As of this show, Brian has published two short videos on organizational health, and he’s going to post more in the months to come. I’ve enjoyed watching both.