The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer. A fantastic case for a better management perspective, mainly that little things like progress can affect big things like profitability.

Influence by Robert Cialdini. This is the classic text on how to persuade others and resist persuasion yourself based on solid research into psychology.

Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense by Bob Sutton and Jeffrey Pfeffer. Perhaps the most under-rated book on evidence-based management. The title is easy to forget but the content inside is not.

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. Leaders are usually called to bring change or movement to an organization. The Heath Brothers lay down well-researched but entertaining instruction on how to change things when change is hard.

Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen. Jim Collins much anticipated new release. Collins’ research methods may be criticized by academic scholars, but his insights give engaging analysis into how companies succeed in tough times.

Creative People Must Be Stopped by David Owens. Perhaps 2011’s greatest text on organizational creativity and innovation. Owens outlines the six types of constraints innovators face and how to remove them in your organization.

Adapt by Tim Harford. There are a lot of books on the value of failure. However, Tim Harford’s is perhaps the best researched. Through engaging stories and solid analysis, Harford outlines why success seems to always start with failure.

Drive by Dan Pink. The corporate world owes Daniel Pink a debt of gratitude. Drive became a classic read in record time by explaining the implications of motivational in a readable, applicable manner.

The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. The single must-read book on leadership. Do not let 2012 pass without reading this book.

Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rummelt. While strategy seems to be complex and mysterious, it can actually be simple. Rummelt explains what makes a good strategy and how to create one.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The only psychologist to win the Nobel Prize in Economics provides a stimulating perspective of the decision making process and the rational model of judgment.

The Portable Guide to Leading Organization by David Burkus. Yes, this is shameless self-promotion. Our first release from LeaderLab gives you an outline of the significant research in leadership, management and organizational behavior while also giving you the warm feeling of supporting the site you love.

The idea that creative expression is a motivational drive is powerful – but it may be incomplete.

Nitin Nohria Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee outline another model of motivation in a 2008 Harvard Business Review article aptly titled “Employee Motivation.” Their thesis is similar to Deci (and hence Pink’s) in that it acknowledges traditional reward systems but then transcends them. However, they offer FOUR drives that motivate individuals to contribute in organizations: Acquire, Bond, Comprehend (similar to Pink’s idea of mastery) and Defend.

Nohria, Groysberg and Lee go further by outlining four levers that organizations can utilize to get the most out of their people: Reward systems, culture, job design and performance-management processes.

Both the Deci-Pink model and the Four-Drives model share a common and vital lesson for organizational leaders: if you want the most from your people, you have to do more than just pay them to show up.

Money Is Not The Best Motivator – Forbes.com Article

0:00 Introduction

1:19 What is motivation 3.0?

3:50 Talk to us about some of the research you explore in the book.

6:40 What advice can you give organizational leaders on how to use this research?

10:20 How do these findings apply to sales organizations?

17:30 What is emotionally intelligent signage?

21:30 What are you reading?

Referenced Resources:

Drive – Dan Pink

Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely

Emotionally Intelligent Signage

Nothing to Envy – Barbara Demick

The book is divided into three parts. Part One builds a case first against the commonly used “Carrot and Stick” mindset of motivation. Pink cites various scientific studies and examples of how providing incentives is not only ineffective, it some instances it can even reduce a followers enjoyment of the task they’re being incentivized to complete. Part Two outlines the three elements of motivation, not according to common sense or trial and error, but according to what the science says. Part Three provides a “Toolkit” for those seeking to implement this new understanding of motivation.

Very few business books actually speak to the science of organizational or leadership theories. Those few that do are rarely interesting to a mass audience. Drive is different. In Drive, Pink not only presents the solid science of organizational motivation but does so in a way that captures the readers attention and answers the question, “What do I do next?” Although it was released in late December, Drive will be the must read for 2010.