How To Be A Productivity Ninja


Graham Allcott - 2012
    Thankfully there is a better way: The Way of the Productivity Ninja.Using techniques including Ruthlessness, Mindfulness, Zen-like Calm and Stealth & Camouflage you will get your inbox down to zero, make the most of your attention, beat procrastination and learn to work smarter, not harder.Written by one of the UK’s foremost productivity experts, How to be a Productivity Ninja is a fun, accessible and practical guide to staying cool, calm and collected, getting more done, and learning to love your work again.

The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance


Tony Schwartz - 2010
    The ethic of "more, bigger, faster" exacts a series of silent but pernicious costs at work, undermining our energy, focus, creativity, and passion. Nearly 75 percent of employees around the world feel disengaged at work every day. "The Way We're Working Isn't Working "offers a groundbreaking approach to reenergizing our lives so we're both more satisfied and more productive--on the job and off.By integrating multidisciplinary findings from the science of high performance, Tony Schwartz, coauthor of the #1 bestselling "The Power of Full Engagement, "makes a persuasive case that we're neglecting the four core needs that energize great performance: sustainability (physical); security (emotional); self-expression (mental); and significance (spiritual). Rather than running like computers at high speeds for long periods, we're at our best when we pulse rhythmically between expending and regularly renewing energy across each of our four needs.Organizations undermine sustainable high performance by forever seeking to get more out of their people. Instead they should seek systematically to meet their four core needs so they're freed, fueled, and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.Drawing on extensive work with an extra-ordinary range of organizations, among them Google, Ford, Sony, Ernst & Young, Shell, IBM, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Cleveland Clinic, Schwartz creates a road map for a new way of working. At the individual level, he explains how we can build specific rituals into our daily schedules to balance intense effort with regular renewal; offset emotionally draining experiences with practices that fuel resilience; move between a narrow focus on urgent demands and more strategic, creative thinking; and balance a short-term focus on immediate results with a values-driven commitment to serving the greater good. At the organizational level, he outlines new policies, practices, and cultural messages that Schwartz's client companies have adopted."The Way We're Working Isn't Working "offers individuals, leaders, and organizations a highly practical, proven set of strategies to better manage the relentlessly rising demands we all face in an increasingly complex world.

Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know


Jill Geisler - 2012
    In WORK HAPPY, she provides a practical, step-by-step guide, based on real-world experience, respected research, and lessons that will transform managers and their teams. It's a workshop-in-a-book, designed to produce positive, immediate and lasting results.Whether the reader is an experienced manager, a rookie boss or an aspiring leader, WORK HAPPY will supercharge their skills and celebrate the values that make anyone look forward to going to work. Jill Geisler offers concrete steps for improving each element of management including collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, motivation, coaching, and feedback, so that everyone on the team-whether in the office or working offsite-can do their best.WORK HAPPY takes management skills to the next level and proves that learning, leadership and life at work can (and should) be fun.

The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership


Richard Branson - 2014
    He has taken on giants like British Airways and won, and monsters like Coca-Cola and lost.Now Branson gives an inside look at his strikingly different swashbuckling style of leadership. Learn how fun, family, passion, and the dying art of listening are key components to what his extended family of employees around the world have always dubbed (with a wink) the “Virgin Way.”This unique perspective comes from a man who dropped out of school at sixteen, suffers from dyslexia, and has never worked for anyone but himself. He may be famous for thinking outside the box—an expression he despises—but Branson asserts that “you’ll never have to think outside the box if you refuse to let anyone build one around you.”This is a unique book on leadership from someone who readily admits he has never read a book on leadership in his life. So expect the unexpected.

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact


Chip Heath - 2017
    If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later? What if a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers? What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children? This book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.” And why our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our youth. Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. (What was that simple question?) Many of the defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we can create them? The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.

Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen


David C. Novak - 2012
    But how do you do that? There are countless leadership books, but how many will actually help a Taco Bell shift manager, a Fortune 500 CEO, a new entrepreneur, or anyone in between?Over his fifteen years at Yum! Brands, Novak has developed a trademarked program he calls Taking People with You. He spends several weeks each year personally teaching it to thousands of managers around the world. He convinces them that they'll never make big things happen until they learn how to get people on their side. No skill in business is more important. And Yum!'s extraordinary success (at least 13 percent growth for each of the last nine years) proves his point.Novak knows that managers don't need leadership platitudes or business school theories. So he cuts right to the chase with a step-by- step guide to setting big goals, getting people to work together, blowing past your targets, and celebrating after you shock the skeptics. And then doing it again and again until consistent excellence becomes a core element of your culture.This book has specific tools at the end of each chapter that will challenge you to reflect on how you're really doing on key aspects of leadership. And if you apply it, you'll immediately start to improve.You'll learn how to . . . • Get inside the heads of your people. You can't convince them of anything until you see the world from their perspective. • Think big. If your sales growth last year was 3.5 percent, don't aim for 4 percent this year, aim for 15 percent. Even if you fail, you'll probably do better than you would have with a smaller goal. • Practice "extraordinary authenticity." Show occasional vulnerability and admit when you don't have the answers. • Look for good ideas in unexpected places. Novak's team came up with Cool Ranch Doritos for Frito-Lay during a field trip to a grocery store's salad dressing aisle. • Choose a can-do mind-set. There's a huge difference between a boss who says "We can try this" and one who says "We can do this!" • Cheer for first downs, not just touchdowns. Publicly recognizing and rewarding small wins keeps everyone motivated for the long haul. • Get rid of cynics. In many teams one person will reject your values and spread negative energy. Moving that person out will show everyone else you're serious.Get ready to change the way you think about leadership-and more important, the way you practice it every day.

Reach Out: The Simple Strategy You Need to Expand Your Network and Increase Your Influence


Molly Beck - 2017
    You need connections. And to get connections, you need to Reach Out--fearlessly, strategically, and every day of the work week.For many, this is a daunting and confusing task.Reach Out shows readers how to use social media and simple digital tools to begin building and expanding the number of people they know. Author Molly Beck explains how to:-Establish and strengthen your digital presence-Develop career goals that Reaching Out can help you obtain-Think strategically about who you have already met, who you could strengthen a relationship with, and who your current connections know-Determine who to Reach Out to and push past common networking fears to do it- Apply step-by-step instructions on how to craft email and social media messages to those you want to connect with-Optimize your efforts by managing both your time and your inboxThe book features personal stories on networking from some of today's top thought leaders. Studies, statistics, and real world examples illustrate the key concepts of Reaching Out. Whether you're just starting out, changing jobs, or well-established and just eager to know more people, Reaching Out will help you turn career dreams into professional success by helping you connect with others who can put you on the fast track.

The Rules of Work: The Unspoken Truth about Getting Ahead in Business


Richard Templar - 2002
    Arm yourself with these 50 secret rules, and get to the top without breaking a sweat. * Hot book -- 55,000 copies sold in the UK, and 20,000 copies in Canada. * The complete success primer for today's manager: fun, irreverent, and real. * Why some people glide effortlessly past office politics, backstabbing, and unpleasant bosses...and how you can, too.

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love


Cal Newport - 2012
    Not only is the cliché flawed-preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work-but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers.Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love.So Good They Can't Ignore You will change the way we think about our careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.

How to Be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship


Annie McKee - 2017
    Many people in management positions are feeling fed up, burned out, and unhappy at work: the constant pressure and stress, the unending changes, the politics . . . People are feeling they can’t give much more, and their performance is suffering.But it’s work, after all, right? Should we even expect to be fulfilled and happy at work? Annie McKee answers with a definitive yes. She makes the most compelling case yet that happiness—and the full engagement that comes with it—is more important than ever in today’s workplace. Based on extensive research and decades of experience with leaders, this book sheds new light on the powerful relationship of happiness to individual, team, and organizational success.McKee’s research reveals that there are three essential elements that people must have in order to be happy at work:• A sense of purpose and the chance to contribute to something bigger than themselves;• A vision that is powerful and personal, creating a real sense of hope; and• Resonant, friendly relationshipsThe book is organized around these essential elements and shows how leaders can create and sustain them in the face of ongoing stress and pressure, as well as how to create a healthy, positive climate for their teams and other groups within their companies.How to Be Happy at Work will transform and enrich our understanding of what it means to be happy at work, and it will provide clear, practical advice and instruction for how to achieve this.

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less


Alex Soojung-Kim Pang - 2016
    Rest is something to do when the important things are done-but they are never done. Looking at different forms of rest, from sleep to vacation, Silicon Valley futurist and business consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang dispels the myth that the harder we work the better the outcome. He combines rigorous scientific research with a rich array of examples of writers, painters, and thinkers---from Darwin to Stephen King---to challenge our tendency to see work and relaxation as antithetical. "Deliberate rest," as Pang calls it, is the true key to productivity, and will give us more energy, sharper ideas, and a better life. Rest offers a roadmap to rediscovering the importance of rest in our lives, and a convincing argument that we need to relax more if we actually want to get more done.

Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results


Stephen C. Lundin - 1996
    In Fish! the heroine, Mary Jane Ramirez, recently widowed and mother of two, is asked to engineer a turnaround of her company's troubled operations department, a group that authors Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen describe as a "toxic energy dump." Most reasonable heads would cut their losses and move on. Why bother with this bunch of losers? But the authors don't make it so easy for Mary Jane. Instead, she's left to sort out this mess with the help of head fishmonger Lonnie. Based on a bestselling corporate education video, Fish! aims to help employees find their way to a fun and happy workplace. While some may find the story line and prescriptions--such as "Choose Your Attitude," "Make Their Day," and "Be Present"--downright corny, others will find a good dose of worthwhile motivational management techniques. If you loved Who Moved My Cheese? then you'll find much to like here. And don't worry about Mary Jane and kids. Fish! has a happy ending for everyone. --Harry C. Edwards

The Leadership Challenge


James M. Kouzes - 1987
    This new edition includes the latest research and case studies, and offers inspiring new and relevant stories of real people achieving extraordinary results.

Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your Employees to Give It Their All, and They'll Give You Even More


Mark Murphy - 2009
    Managers will learn to recognize their leadership style and understand how they, too, can become Hundred Percenters." Laura Christiansen, Vice President Human Resources, VTech Communications, Inc."Heavily-researched and loaded with tools and examples, this book shows you how to challenge your employees to achieve the kind of extraordinary results and innovations that every CEO dreams about. Every leader needs to read this book!"Ned Fitch, CEO, Kalahari Tea"Murphy finds that most workplaces are brimming with untapped talent. Only it's suppressed by goal-setting that discourages big ideas and leaders who focus on happiness rather than greatness.""Training Magazine"We've all heard the saying that a happy employee is a motivated employee. But what if that's not true?Leadership IQ CEO Mark Murphy says the "happy employee" philosophy doesn't work. A study of more than 500,000 leaders and employees shows that despite the billions of dollars organizations spend to satisfy and engage workers, 72% of employees admit they're still not giving their best effort at work. Rather, it's leaders who focus on making their people great--not happy--who inspire Hundred Percenter performance.If you talk to the employees behind today's great innovations, you're unlikely to hear, "I was inspired by a boss who coddles me." Instead you'd probably hear, "My boss challenges me and pushes me past my limits." Most workplaces are brimming with untapped talent-- only it's suppressed by leaders who fail to connect with and challenge employees to unleash their true potential.Here are just a few of the big ideas in "Hundred Percenters" The harder the goals you set, the better your employees will perform You should never use a Compliment Sandwich to deliver feedback Talented Terrors--people with great skills and a bad attitude--can destroy your company culture Before you can start motivating Hundred Percenters, you have to stop demotivating them You should never ask your employees if they're "satisfied"This groundbreaking book debunks management fads that don't apply to today's workplace and provides the facts, theories, and direction you need to become a 100% Leader. Apply Murphy's leadership lessons and you'll see innovation, productivity, and profits soar, while employee turnover rates plummet. "Hundred Percenters" will bring out the best in your workforce.

Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time


Rory Vaden - 2015
    New York Times bestselling author and sales-performancetrainer Rory Vaden brings his high-energy approachand can-do spirit to the most nagging problem in ourprofessional lives: stalled productivity. Millions areoverworked, organizationally challenged, or have amotivation issue that s holding them back. Vaden presents asimple yet powerful paradigm that will set readers free to dotheir best work on time and without stress and anxiety."