It often seems like professional development books are a dime a dozen. In fact, a search of Amazon.com yields nearly 40,000 books to choose from. If you’re looking for something to read and don’t feel like sifting through thousands of options, take a look at our recommendations – you might find a good place to start.

Nathan: Now Is Too Late 2 by Gerald R. Baron

Alexis: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

Ashley: Ben & Jerry’s Double Dip: How to Run a Values-led Business and Make Money, Too by Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen

Doreen: StrengthsFinder by Tom Rath

Deborah: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Jenni: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Have we missed one of your favorites? Share your suggestions in the comments!

Photo credit: jcarbaugh

I had another “why didn’t I write about that” moment when I read Patrick Lencioni’s BusinessWeek article about Domino’s Pizza’s latest ad campaign. In the article, Lencioni talks about the company’s willingness to own up to its shortcomings and admit to not living up to their brand. As a result, he believes they will sell a lot more pizzas in the months to come, not because of the new ingredients they promise, but rather because of their “willingness to cross a line that most companies won’t even approach. Domino’s chose to make itself vulnerable.”

Reading the article, I tried to think back to the last time I had a pizza from Domino’s. While there are only a few pizza eating experiences I can qualify as “memorable,” I assume it’s been since college – maybe even high school since I tried their pizza. In any case, my impression of Domino’s is everything they described in the ad – ketchup for sauce and cardboard crust. Nothing I want to waste the fat and calories on.

So will this ad strategy work? It’s interesting to note that this decision was not done out of crisis as was Toyota’s recent admission to “not living up to standards.” Domino’s market share has been strong even through the recession. So, what about those customers who have been buying their pizza for 50 years? How will they feel when told that the pizza they have been eating is “totally devoid of flavor.” And what if they don’t like the new and improved Domino’s (can you say New Coke)? And will this mea culpa really cause people to change their perception of the company and the food they serve? Short term, it appears to be working – their stock value is up $4 from December. Long term – Domino’s had better taste good enough to not only get people talking about the pizza – but also to get more of them buying it.

Photo credit: AngelsWings

Did you know it’s National Women’s Business Week? Admittedly, these days, there is a “week” for everything. But, I couldn’t help but feel a little twinge of pride when I read that this morning.

As you may or may not know: Costa DeVault was founded by Linda Costa almost 25 years ago. Under the company’s original name, Wordwise, Inc., Linda began her business career out of the spare bedroom in her home … writing technical and creative copy for a variety of clients. Two years later she added design to the company’s repertoire. Today, her “startup” agency is creating big-time results for some of Central Florida’s most influential businesses.

It seems more and more successful women business owners, like Linda, are having a substantial impact on the evolving landscape of today’s workforce.

According to MomsRising, women-owned businesses:

Employ 23 million people (16 percent of the workforce, which is nearly double the number of those employed by the 50 biggest companies in the country combined);

Generate $3 trillion in revenue; and

Are more likely to offer supportive, *family-friendly benefits like flex-time and profit sharing.

Pretty powerful numbers. So, if you know a woman in the workforce, give her a shout-out. I’m proud that I work with some of the smartest women I know. Who are you celebrating this week?

*Costa DeVault offers flex-time and holds annual holiday parties and activities like “trick-or-treating.” Above is a coworker and I with our toddlers at last year’s Halloween celebration.

As we explained yesterday, Costa DeVault is taking a slightly different approach to #followfridays. At the beginning of each week, we’ll ask a question and the best answers will be posted here as our #followfriday recommendations. Consider this an experiment to find new people to learn from and network with.

This week’s question: What surprises you most about social media?

The best answers — and our #followfriday suggestions — are:

For valuing people’s willingness to share information:

• Deanna Ferrari (@dferrari): I would say the amount of diverse information I wouldn’t normally get from reading the news.
• Justin Goldsborough (@jgoldsborough): Continue to be pleasantly surprised by how willing people in socnets r 2 help each other. Call it the “help gene.”

For understanding how social media changes communication:

• Amanda Beals (@amandagbeals): Social media reconstituted communication — akin to Blade Runner. Thoughts r always prefaced w how can I connect ideas & ppl
• Narciso Tovar (@narciso17): RE: Surprise in Soc Med: Once U “get it” you start 2 see the MANY ways it can improve your overall comm efforts

Realizing that people embrace social media differently:

• Todd (@tjpip): What surprises me most is the way ppl fall in love w/ one SM app while excluding or minimizing others. (I’m guilty – Twitter over FB)
• Mary Deming Barber (@mdbarber): I still get surprised when comm folks don’t understand the social part of SM. I can forgive others but not prof comm.
• Eleanor Biddulph (@elbiddulph): Social media surprise? How “newbies” have embraced it and “seasoned pros” have resisted it! (Disclosure: This is my mom — a VP of customer service who tweets and blogs and totally gets how social media can help large organizations … and not just in a traditional PR sense.)

So, what do you think? We want to hear what surprises you most about social media and what you think about our #followfriday experiment. As always, thanks for reading.

About a year-and-a-half ago a coworker introduced me to Pandora. At that point, I hadn’t found a place online that I really connected with. Of course, I visited CNN and MSNBC for news all day and occasionally iTunes or PerezHilton, but that was it. Call it a personal preference, but Facebook and MySpace were never for me, and I begrudgingly LinkedIn for business reasons.

But here was a free site that allowed me to create my own radio stations to play genres of music that I selected … without any commercials. Anything I didn’t like got a thumbs down and was never played again. Frankly, it seemed too good to be true, but I have been listening to Pandora ever since. When I heard that the company was having trouble making money because users didn’t look at the site very often (making banner ads a tough sell), I found myself thinking about ways to help and have been sending suggestions to them from time to time.

I have gone on to buy a SqueezeBox that would let me listen to my Pandora stations at home, and I check the site daily to see when the BlackBerry application will be ready so that I will have it on my phone too. I have quite literally driven friends crazy talking about what a big fan I am.

I have always been a bit resistant to following the crowd – and in a true Gen-X/Nick Hornby sort of way, I haven’t wanted to be a part of what has been happening online. Social media just wasn’t for me. But the other day when I found myself Tweeting Pandora’s “Online Community Manager,” I knew resistance was futile. Thanks a lot, Pandora.

Costa DeVault participated in yesterday’s Corporate 5K. More than 11,000 local professionals ran — or walked — just over three miles through the streets of downtown Orlando. Even though our 11-person team definitely wasn’t the quickest, we did enjoy the exercise, weather and mingling with other local businesses. We’ll be back next year!

Here’s an analogy for you: Social media is the new rock and roll. Just stop and think about it … see? Lots of similarities. For example, both evolved out of something else. (Rock and roll from R&B, folk music and jazz; social media from Web 1.0, AOL chat rooms and people’s desire to be heard.)

But, let’s look at the cultural impact.

• Barrier breaking. In the 1950s, racial tensions were surfacing. “Separate but equal” was overturned … Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus — you know the history. Along came this new genre of music that mixed what one DJ called “black and white music.” Concerts crossed racial lines. Clearly, rock and roll didn’t end racial discrimination, but it did help bring people together. Likewise, social media eliminates barriers. It doesn’t matter if you (or your brand) have a lot of money or a little … whether you’re the coolest kid on the block … or a huge geek. Your opinions matter and your voice can be heard, thanks to social media. Social media breaks down walls between you and your consumers.

• Dismissed as merely a fad. As my new Twitter friend Jennifer Wilbur pointed out yesterday, Variety magazine proclaimed that rock and roll would be dead by June, 1955. Well, here we are 50-plus years later … still rocking. Social media? Even though some (wrongly) predicted the end of blogging and Facebook’s immediate demise — both are still here … going strong and gaining in popularity.

• Generational overlap. Rock and roll and social media were first obsessions for “young people.” Think of those heartthrob rock idols — Elvis, the Beatles, Rolling Stones. The younger culture pushed rock and roll … and slowly but surely, the adults quit panicking about Elvis’s swiveling hips and got on board. Likewise, social media started with teens and college kids; however, the recent announcements from Twitter (with more than 10 million users) and Facebook (topping 200 million active users) prove that social media isn’t just child’s play. Grown-ups — and not just the uber-techy ones — are getting social online, too!

• “Save the world” mentality. Remember that scene in “Almost Famous” when they’re trying to define rock and roll? Jason Lee’s character, Jeff Bebe, says, “Rock ‘n roll is a lifestyle and a way of thinking… and it’s not about money and popularity. One of these people is gonna save the world. And that means that rock and roll can save the world … all of us together.” Early rock and rollers wanted love and peace … to make the world a better place. That same mentality is found in many social networks. Danny Brown’s amazing #12for12K is just one example.

So, what do you think? Are we ready to declare social media as this generation’s rock and roll?

Photo Credit: Truus, Bob & Jan