Business Bunkum

William Holstein of Chief Executive lists The 6 Worst Business Books.

I won't go that far - my books are so obscure they seldom make any list - but I believe that some of the biggest sellers are among the worst. Perhaps that's simple envy.

My consulting practice requires that I read an extensive number of management and leadership books, if only to know what's influencing my clients. Over the years, I've developed these guidelines:

1. Beware of any book that features an animal as the central character or which labels managers as various animals. You are working with people, not porpoises.
2. Thumb through the book at the bookstore and if you don't immediately find one good idea, put it back on the shelf. If one is there, it's well hidden.
3. Be wary of sequels to a best seller that was worthy. Most likely, the sequel will be an echo of the original. After all, if the material was any good, why wasn't it in the original?
4. Don't pay attention to the blurbs from well-known executives that gush on about how this book is must reading. It isn't, they probably haven't read it and often they are friends of the author.
5. Be skeptical of any executive who writes as if he or she single-handedly turned around a company. It didn't happen that way.
6. Don't accept any "one size fits all" formula. It doesn't.
7. Beware of any books with solutions that are either too simple or too complicated. In the first instance, things are being overlooked, and in the second, you'll probably never implement it.