If 2010 was all financial doom-and-gloom, 2011 seems to have been a year of reflection, inspiration, and influence. At least according to your picks for the best business book you read this year.

We asked fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter to share their favorite reads of 2011—new and old titles alike. While your 2010 picks had three books with the word "fail" in the title, this year is mostly about undertanding ourselves and making positive changes. Here's hoping the upward trend continues in 2012.

“Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions,” by Guy Kawasaki
Alltop.com co-founder and former Apple “chief evangelist” Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people.

“Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy,” by Martin Lindstrom
Marketing and branding expert Lindstrom, named one of Time’s most influential people of 2009, explores what truly influences our shopping decisions. The book presents findings from his three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study that peered inside the brains of volunteers as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products.

“The Four Steps to the Epiphany,” by Stephen Gary Blank
This 2005 books offers a step-by-step strategy of how to successfully organize sales, marketing and business development for a new product or company, with concrete examples.

“The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,” by Malcolm Gladwell
The 2002 bestseller from New Yorker magazine writer Gladwell examines how trends spread, from a health epidemic to fashion, and identifies three types of people—connectors, mavens, and salesman—who play key roles in influencing behavior. McCombs Professor of Marketing Mark Alpert even makes an appearance as an example of a “maven.”
 
“Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG’s Corporate Suicide,” by Roddy Boyd
Bloomberg BusinessWeek says, “Through superb reporting, Boyd has written one of the financial crisis genre's most important works." This book puts AIG at the center of the financial crisis, revealing inside information about the company’s affinity for risk and disdain for government regulators.
 
“Shake That Brain! How to Create Winning Solutions and Have Fun While You’re at It,” by Joel Saltzman
Consultant and speaker Saltzman challenges readers to question their assumptions, turn bad ideas into great ones and haves “Yes” meetings only.

“Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain,” by Ryan Blair
"Long before I became a millionaire entrepreneur, I was a punk with a juvenile criminal record, street gang experience, and a lot of emotional scarring,” writes Blair. “My teenage years were hardly the typical starting point for a normal, productive life, let alone a successful business career. Turns out, that didn't matter." This book is part-memoir, part-advice based on Blair’s transformation from juvenile crime to self-made multimillionaire.

Editor's Picks

"Advocacy: Championing Ideas and Influencing Others," by John Daly
Daly, a McCombs professor of management, espouses the notion that even good ideas must be sold through effective communication. He draws on research in the fields of persuasion, power relations and behavior change and illuminates the ways body language, storytelling and providing evidence play a role in convincing others to grab hold of an idea and run with it, rather than letting it whither. “Creative genius is seldom sufficient to make great ideas viable,” Daly writes.

"When We Are the Foreigners: What Chinese Think About Working With Americans," by John Doggett, Orlando Kelm, and Haiping Tang
A collection of eight short case scenarios from mainland China that were designed to help readers assess the cultural factors that come into play when North American business professionals work with Chinese. Doggett is a senior lecturer of management and Kelm is the associate director of Business Language Education at the Center for International Business Education and Research.

"The Development of University-Based Entrepreneurship Ecosystems: Global Practices," and "Global Perspectives on Technology Transfer and Commercialization: Building Innovative Ecosystems," by  John Butler
These new titles from Professor of Management and IC2 fellow Butler explore two of his areas of expertise: building a successful entrepreneurship community in higher education and innovative technology transfer environments from around the world.

Further Reading

Amazon.com Best Books of 2011: Business and Investing

New York Times Best Sellers: Hardcover Business and Paperback Business