They bridge the gaps between the individual and the collective, the person and the purpose. The most successful and effective HR professionals see their careers as a calling, and their work, though driven by corporate goals, is graced by a sense of purpose, a profound generosity, and a love for what they do and the constituencies they serve.HR from the Heart is a book for HR practitioners who love their jobs -- or want to. Libby Sartain, one of the country's top human resources executives, reveals how HR professionals create a synergy between business objectives and the needs and wants of employees. This inspiring book is equal parts motivational message and how-to, confessional and career guide. Filled with stories from Sartain's considerable experience, HR from the Heart offers a first-hand perspective on forging relationships, selling HR to the company, taking diversity beyond ""by the book,"" keeping policy in perspective, and more -- all while making the right career moves, staying engaged, and forwarding the strategic goals of the company."

    The force behind WordPress.com is a convention-defying company called Automattic, Inc., whose 120 employees work from anywhere in the world they wish, barely use email, and launch improvements to their products dozens of times a day. With a fraction of the resources of Google, Amazon, or Facebook, they have a similar impact on the future of the Internet. How is this possible? What's different about how they work, and what can other companies learn from their methods?To find out, former Microsoft veteran Scott Berkun worked as a manager at WordPress.com, leading a team of young programmers developing new ideas. "The Year Without Pants" shares the secrets of WordPress.com's phenomenal success from the inside. Berkun's story reveals insights on creativity, productivity, and leadership from the kind of workplace that might be in everyone's future.Offers a fast-paced and entertaining insider's account of how an amazing, powerful organization achieves impressive resultsIncludes vital lessons about work culture and managing creativityWritten by author and popular blogger Scott Berkun (scottberkun.com)"The Year Without Pants" shares what every organization can learn from the world-changing ideas for the future of work at the heart of Automattic's success.

    This book connects Lean tools to the Lean journey, shows how to identify and eliminate waste, and aids the reader in seeing Lean for what it truly is: to create a learning and problem solving culture. Written to educate the entire organization on the fundamentals of Lean thinking, this is the perfect source to engage all team members at all levels of an organization.

    More than half of all workers hate their jobs. In fact, job satisfaction and employee engagement have been declining for twenty-two straight years.One hundred years ago, a job and a paycheck kept workers satisfied. Now, pay barely makes the list. Employees' needs have evolved dramatically. But our leadership practices have failed to keep up.In Lead From The Heart, Mark C. Crowley presents compelling new evidence that the solution leaders need lies in the last place traditional business would seek it: the human heart. Twenty-first-century employees need to feel... valued, respected, developed, and cared for. Their work has to matter. Recent scientific discoveries tell us that it's the heart, and not the mind, that drives human performance and achievement.Drawing on decades of experience as a senior leader for regional and national financial institutions, Mark C. Crowley offers proof that leaders who intentionally engage the hearts of their employees will be rewarded with uncommon (and highly sustainable) performance and achievement. We've seen centuries of evidence of what the heart can do in sports, art, and music. Business is next.Lead From The Heart, and your employees will follow

    It was the first such approach to bridge the gap between organization strategy and the individual. Now, in this revised and expanded new edition, Rummler and Brache reflect on the key needs of organizations faced with today's challenge of managing change. With multiple charts, checklists, hands-on tools and case studies, the authors show how they implemented their Performance Improvement methodology in over 250 successful projects with clients such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Shell Oil, and Citibank.

    Listening this way is a radical act.Over the past 15 years, Nancy Kline has identified 10 behaviours that form a system called a Thinking Environment, a model of human interaction that dramatically improves the way people think, and thus the way they work and live. Listening - the quality of people's attention for each other - is the core of this method.In Time to Think Nancy Kline asserts that as change proliferates in our lives and our organisations, we must prize each other's minds above all else. We must learn how to help people think for themselves. In this book, she describes how we can achieve this and presents a step-by-step guide that can be used in any situation.Whether you want to have more productive meetings, solve business problems, create bold strategies or build stronger relationships, this book offers you a new world of possibilities.From blue chip companies developing high-powered teams to individuals seeking personal growth, a Thinking Environment has come to mean transformation of the highest quality.

    Offers easy-to-follow instructions, techniques, and hands-on tools that team leaders, consultants, supervisors, and managers have used to learn the basics of facilitation.

    A lot has been written about trust: about what it is and what it can do for people, families, companies, communities and countries. Often, good work is being sabotaged by interpersonal conflict, political infighting, paralysis, stagnation, apathy, or cynicism. Almost always, one can trace these problems to a breakdown in trust. It not only kills good work, it also inevitably creates some degree of misery, annoyance, fear, anger, frustration, resentment, and resignation. By contrast, in successful companies where people are innovative, engage in productive conflict and debate about ideas, and have fun working together, one can find strong trusting relationships. Having the trust of those you work with is too important not to be intentional about building and maintaining it. With this book, you will learn how to build and maintain strong trusting relationships with others, and repair trust when it is broken, by being intentional and consistent in your language and actions. Understanding and consistently demonstrating trustworthy language and behavior will help you earn and keep the trust of the people you work with.

    

    It embraces a range of disciplines, from Technology to Human Resources, from Legal to Risk. Yet, unlike other senior executive roles, there is no established framework or body of knowledge to support the COO. This book de-mystifies the COO role and breaks it into 16 core elements; the three fundamental pillars of Culture, Strategy and Change, plus 13 technical areas. It outlines responsibilities, warning signs, and how to boost performance. It equips you with the questions you need to ask to gain early insight, diagnose the issues and move into execution. Drawing on industry standards and enriched with expert insight and real-life current examples, it condenses a vast range of knowledge and experience into one accessible read. This book, which can be consumed in one sitting, will make you a more effective leader, faster. This is the book that current COOs wish they had at the outset of their journey. It is the book that your CEO, Board and team need you to read. ‘A must-read guide for all aspiring COOs. Packed with practical insights and based on real life experiences, it gives a clear and powerful road map for this transformational organizational role.’ Justin Forsyth, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF ‘It is rare for a single book to command such breadth of expertise, practical insight and advice that is so easy to put into action. This is a consequence of the superb clarity of Jennifer’s writing, and the fact that she has earned her expertise – and the scars that come with it – from working on the business end of the stick for over twenty years.’ Mark Waddington, CEO, Hope and Homes for Children ‘Crisply written, clear and to the point.’ Ben Brabyn, CEO, Level 39 ‘An impressive read. De-codes the very tricky role of COO and inspires you on how to be a great one.’ Niamh O’Keeffe, Author of “Your First 100 days” and “Your Next Role” ‘The defining text on the role of the COO and its component parts. This is an informative and useful read for existing COOs. It is a must read for new COOs, aspiring COOs and most importantly CEOs and Heads of HR in hiring COOs for their organisations.' Paul Ford, CEO, Anchura Partners ‘The role of COO is a balancing act, and requires multiple hard and soft skills. This nifty handbook provides a shortcut to understand the critical skills required, and is filled with nuggets of practical and accessible advice.’ Sinead Mahon, Banking COO ‘This book takes one of the most frameless and unstructured roles in business today, and using personal experiences seeks to help others to demystify the role and deliver insight on how to be effective and successful. Insightful and extensive, a book I would have loved to have access to when I was starting out in my career.’ Pam Murphy, COO, Infor

    The authors identify 10 qualities, attributes, and skills that help to explain Lincoln's effectiveness, despite seemingly insurmountable odds:1. Implementing and sustaining a mission and vision with focused and profound clarity2. Communicating ideas effectively with precise and straightforward language3. Building a diverse and competent team to successfully address the mission4. Engendering trust, loyalty, and respect through humility, humor, and personal example5. Leading and serving with emotional intelligence and empathy6. Exercising situational competence and responding appropriately to implement effective change7. Rising beyond personal and professional trials through tenacity, persistence, resilience, and courage8. Exercising purposeful visibility9. Demonstrating personal growth and enhanced competence as a lifetime learner, willing to reflect on and expand ideas10. Believing that hope can become a realityChapters devoted to each element explore the historical record of Lincoln's life and actions, then discuss the implications for modern educators. End-of-chapter exercises provide a structure for reflection, analysis of current behaviors, and guidance for future work, so that readers can create their own path to success--inspired by the example of one of the greatest leaders of all time.

    This book contains specific, carefully formulated psychological tactics that can be applied to any business situation, with any person. This book offers readers the opportunity to use the most important psychological tools governing human behavior, not just to level the playing field, but to create an automatic advantage in today's business world. The book will arm the reader with the tactics to: * Get back any customer you've lost. * Find out who in your company is loyal to you and who is not. * Get any group of people to get along and work as a team. * Turn a lazy worker into an ambitious go-getter. * Fire anyone easily, without an argument or even a difficult conversation. * Dilute the impact of negative publicity quickly. * Collect money owed, no matter how long it's been overdue. * Inspire your client, colleague, or boss to go along with your idea or plan. * Manage the unmanageable-get any employee to fall in line with the company line.

    New

    In his latest book, management expert Ken Miller discusses how the processes of state and local government became so complicated and inefficient – and how to start cleaning up the mess. With his typical irreverent and funny tone, Ken lays out the simple ways that public-sector leaders can tear down all the twisted, broken parts of government and rebuild it stronger, leaner and better equipped to help citizens. Full of clear, concise tips on increasing government’s capacity, Extreme Government Makeover is essential reading for everyone in government, from top-level executives to managers and employees on the front lines.What you’ll learn in Extreme Government Makeover• The one and only thing government needs to focus on to get out of this crisis• How government can perform its vital functions 80 percent faster, at less cost and with better quality• The DNA of government complexity and how we can genetically modify it • How to spot the “moldy” thinking that is making us all sick• How to get rid of 40 percent of your agency’s workload• How to find the hidden costs of government• What the next generation of customers and employees are going to do to your operations• Why technology isn’t the answer• Most importantly, you’ll learn a new way of seeing the work of government – and a better way to make that work great.

    Organizational pioneer Schein updates his influential understanding of culture--what it is, how it is created, how it evolves, and how it can be changed. Focusing on today's business realities, Schein draws on a wide range of contemporary research to redefine culture, offers new information on the topic of occupational cultures, and demonstrates the crucial role leaders play in successfully applying the principles of culture to achieve organizational goals. He also tackles the complex question of how an existing culture can be changed--one of the toughest challenges of leadership. The result is a vital resource for understanding and practicing organizational effectiveness.