Competence at Work: Models for Superior Performance


Lyle M. Spencer - 1993
    Includes generic job models for entrepreneurs, technical professionals, salespeople, service workers and corporate managers. Defines JCA and describes in detail how to conduct JCA studies. Suggests future directions and uses for competency research.

Stealing the Corner Office: The Winning Career Strategies They'll Never Teach You in Business School


Brendan Reid - 2014
    It is a unique collection of controversial but highly effective tactics for middle managers and aspiring executives who want to learn the real secrets for moving up the corporate ladder. Unlike virtually all other business books--which are based on the assumption that corporations are logical and fair--Stealing the Corner Office explores the unconventional tactics people less competent than you use to get ahead and stay ahead. It is your proven playbook to thrive and win in an imperfect corporate world.Stealing the Corner Office will teach you:How incompetent people so often get ahead, and what you can learn from them.How to make universally flawed corporate policies work in your favor.Why showing too much passion for your ideas can be career suicide.Why delivering results should never be your highest priority.These and many more controversial tactics will change the way you look at your career and how you manage projects, people, and priorities. Apply the 10 principles in Stealing the Corner Office and watch your career take off!

Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons I Learned Running Dunkin Donuts


Robert Rosenberg - 2020
    Throughout all the chaos, you need a mentor that has seen a business through the ins and outs and can offer guidance that will exponentially tip the odds in your favor to succeed.Robert Rosenberg took over as CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts in 1963, 13 years after the first restaurant was founded by his father William. In his remarkable 35-year run, he grew the company from $10 million in sales to over $2 billion with more than 3,000 outlets. Through his tenure, Robert learned important lessons on running and scaling a family business.Rosenberg shares his insider perspective on all the dramatic highs and lows that are part of the Dunkin’ Donuts story to guide you to your own success story.In Around the Corner to Around the World, Rosenberg helps you as he:Distills the characteristics of a successful company through all phases of growth.Provides a new perspective on the dramatic story behind the rise of one of the world’s most iconic brands.Tells the first-hand account and essential lessons learned from the tenure of one of the most successful CEO runs in modern business history.Reveals some of the dramatic and surprising plot turns in the story of Dunkin’s rise to global prominence.Around the Corner to Around the World tells a compelling story of lessons gleaned over a 35-year career building a small business into the iconic Dunkin' brand it has become.The harrowing twists and turns and sometimes existential threats to the business will enlighten anyone starting or running a business.

Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else


Geoff Colvin - 2008
    Greatness doesn't come from DNA but from practice and perseverance honed over decades. The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes, that enables you to achieve greatness.Colvin shows that the skills of business: negotiating deals, evaluating financial statements obey the principles that lead to greatness, so that anyone can get better at them with the right kind of effort. Even the hardest decisions and interactions can be systematically improved.This new mind-set, combined with Colvin's practical advice, will change the way you think about your job and career, and will inspire you to achieve more in all you do.

The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership


Bill Walsh - 2009
    There is no guarantee, no ultimate formula for success. It all comes down to intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing. When you do that, the score will take care of itself." (Bill Walsh) Bill Walsh is a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty that won three Super Bowls. In the process, he changed the way football is played-pushing it into the twenty-first century. Walsh is famous for his strategic brilliance and innovations, such as the West Coast Offense, but his enlightened philosophy of leadership was just as crucial, if not more so, to the unprecedented success of his teams. And that philosophy of leadership is just as powerful and productive in business or any other endeavor as it was for him on the football field. Prior to his death, Walsh granted exclusive interviews to bestselling author Steve Jamison. They became his ultimate lecture on leadership-illustrated by dramatic and apt anecdotes from throughout Walsh's career. A small sample of what you'll learn from one of America's greatest coaches: * Believe in People: Push them hard to be their very best. No one will ever come back later and thank you for expecting too little of them. * Professionalism Matters: There was no showboating allowed after touchdowns, no taunting of opponents, no demonstration to attract attention to oneself: "Champions act like champions before they're champions." * Keep a Short Enemies List: One enemy can do more damage than the good done by a hundred friends. * Protect Your Blind Side: Prompt yourself to aggressively analyze not only your organization's strengths, but also its unseen vulnerabilities. * Sometimes You Can't Have he Last Word. A leader cannot escape harsh criticism. Ignore the undeserving; learn from the deserving. Lick your wounds and move on. Your bruised ego will get over it. Additional insights and perspective are provided by his son Craig Walsh, by legendary quarterback Joe Montana, and by other important figures who knew Bill well. Bill Walsh taught that the requirements of successful leadership are the same whether you run an NFL franchise, a Fortune 500 company, or a hardware store with twelve employees. His final words of wisdom will inspire and enlighten readers in all walks of life.

Balanced Scorecard Step-By-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results


Paul R. Niven - 2002
    The book provides a practical road map, step-by-step, to plan, execute, and sustain a winning scorecard campaign. Easy to read . . . tells a powerful story with lessons learned/best practices from global customer implementations. Must-read for anyone interested in BSC or grappling with how to create a strategically aligned organization. --Vik Torpunuri, President and CEO, e2e AnalytixIn Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Second Edition, Paul Niven provides an intuitive and incredibly effective blueprint for transitioning strategic ambition to execution. Paul's pragmatic approach provides leaders with a tool for managing a company's journey from strategic ideas to world-class performance. The Balanced Scorecard is a masterful tool for guiding companies through transformation, and I speak from personal experience when I say Paul's blueprint works! It is the most effective guide I have seen. Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step will serve any leader well if their ambition is to efficiently engage their teams in achieving a set of strategic goals. --Allan A. MacDonald, Vice President, Sales and Customer Solutions Bell Canada National MarketsPaul Niven has done it again!!! With this book, he has further operationalized the enlightened Balanced Scorecard concept into a fully functional system that optimizes business execution and performance! --Barton Johnson, President, Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation, The Reverse Mortgage Specialist

Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life


Jim Benson - 2011
    People need to be effective.Productivity books focus on doing more, Jim and Tonianne want you to focus on doing better. Personal Kanban is about choosing the right work at the right time. Recognizing why we do the things we do. Understanding the impact of our actions. Creating value - not just product. For ourselves, our families, our friends, our co-workers. For our legacy.Personal Kanban takes the same Lean principles from manufacturing that led the Japanese auto industry to become a global leader in quality, and applies them to individual and team work. Personal Kanban asks only that we visualize our work and limit our work-in-progress. Visualizing work allows us to transform our conceptual and threatening workload into an actionable, context-sensitive flow. Limiting our work-in-progress helps us complete what we start and understand the value of our choices. Combined, these two simple acts encourage us to improve the way we work and the way we make choices to balance our personal, professional, and social lives.Neither a prescription nor a plan, Personal Kanban provides a light, actionable, achievable framework for understanding our work and its context. This book describes why students, parents, business leaders, major corporations, and world governments all see immediate results with Personal Kanban.

18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done


Peter Bregman - 2011
    Based upon a series of short bite-sized chapters, his approach allows us to safely navigate through the constant chatter of emails, text messages, phone calls, and endless meetings that prevent us from focusing our time on those things that are truly important to us. Mixing first-person insights along with unique case studies, Bregman sprinkles his charming book with pathways which help guide us -- pathways that can get us on the right trail in 18 minutes or less.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose


Tony Hsieh - 2010
    You want to learn about the path I took that eventually led me to Zappos, and the lessons I learned along the way. You want to learn from all the mistakes we made at Zappos over the years so that your business can avoid making some of the same ones. You want to figure out the right balance of profits, passion, and purpose in business and in life. You want to build a long-term, enduring business and brand. You want to create a stronger company culture, which will make your employees and coworkers happier and create more employee engagement, leading to higher productivity. You want to deliver a better customer experience, which will make your customers happier and create more customer loyalty, leading to increased profits. You want to build something special. You want to find inspiration and happiness in work and in life. You ran out of firewood for your fireplace. This book makes an excellent fire-starter.

The Art of Influence: Persuading Others Begins With You


Chris Widener - 2008
    As Chris Widener’s inspiring story reveals, it’s not something you "do" to other people but rather something that starts with how you shape and transform your own life. Forget about manipulation and slick fast-talking; The Art of Influence teaches that your ability to influence others begins from within.

Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership


Ruma Bose - 2011
    And Mother Teresa was its leader.How did this nun with no formal business training create a global brand, become a powerful fund-raising and public relations magnet, and lead a worldwide organization through every phase of growth over the course of forty-seven years? What were her secrets?When we shift our lens and view Mother Teresa from a leadership perspective, a wonderful success story emerges, one filled with inspiration, life lessons, and impact.Ruma Bose spent time in Calcutta working as a volunteer with Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity in 1992. Over time, she discovered that Mother Teresa’s success resulted from the careful application of eight simple and unexpected principles.Through the pages of this book you will have the unique opportunity to learn these principles, share Bose’s experience with Mother Teresa, and discover how to apply Mother Teresa’s principles whether on a single project, throughout an organization, or in your life.Modern, well-timed, and humane, Mother Teresa, CEO helps you discover how you don’t have to be a saint to be a great leader!

Founder’s Pocket Guide: Startup Valuation (Founder's Pocket Guide Book 1)


Stephen Poland - 2014
    This guide provides a quick reference to all of the key topics around early-stage startup valuation and provides step-by-step examples for several valuation methods. In more detail, this Founder’s Pocket Guide helps startup founders learn: What a startup valuation is and when you need to start worrying about it. Key terms and definitions associated with valuation, such as pre-money, post-money, and dilution. How investors view the valuation task, and what their expectations are for early-stage companies. How the valuation fits with your target raise amount and resulting founder equity ownership. How to do the simple math for calculating valuation percentages. How to estimate your company valuation using several accepted methods. What accounting valuation methods are and why they are not well suited for early-stage startups.

Beyond Blame: Learning From Failure and Success


Dave Zwieback - 2015
    Our increasingly complex world demands that we continuously learn from failures (and successes) in order to survive and thrive. And yet, our learning is too often undermined. We construct biased but comfortable stories, which often feature a simple, single "root cause"--a villain, someone to take the blame. Having done that, we short-circuit the possibility of developing any deeper understanding of the complex systems we work with. With this common approach, our systems will become more fragile and drift into failure. In this concise and entertaining book, I.T. veteran Dave Zwieback describes an incident that threatens the very existence of a large financial institution, and the counterintuitive steps its leadership took to stop the downward spiral. Their novel approach is grounded in proven concepts from complexity science, resilience engineering, human factors, cognitive science, and organizational psychology. It allows us to identify the underlying conditions for failure, and make our systems (and organizations) safer and more resilient.- Get a clear understanding of the downside of blame- Learn how to identify (and counteract) cognitive biases in groups- See how organizations can determine the real root cause of problems- Establish real accountability with your organization- Use the Learning Review Framework to fully learn from failures of complex systems- Find practical insights and tips for moving beyond blame in your own organization

Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business is Easier Than You Think


Luke Johnson - 2011
    Running your own business is nowhere near as tough as you might think. So what are you waiting for? Luke Johnson is Britain's busiest tycoon, with a personal fortune estimated at £120 million. From Pizza Express and Channel 4 to his incisive Financial Times column, Johnson has spent two decades on the business frontline. In Start It Up, Johnson sets out to inspire - and guide - every budding entrepreneur. He tackles the issues that really matter: finding the right idea, sourcing funds, and getting the best from the people you meet on the way - chiefly yourself. 'A must-read for inspiring entrepreneurs, probably the best book available on the subject' John McLaren, Management Today 'Part rant, part outpouring of useful knowledge gleaned from 20 very successful years in business. There is a great deal here that is good' Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, Financial Times 'For the budding entrepreneur, this clear, thoughtful and passionate how-to guide will be an excellent first investment' Economist Luke Johnson is one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs with an estimated personal fortune of £120 million. He is Chairman of Risk Capital Partners and The Royal Society of Arts, and a former Chairman of Channel 4 Television. He writes columns for the Financial Times and Management Today. In the 1990s he was Chairman of PizzaExpress, which he grew from 12 restaurants to over 250; he also founded the Strada pizzeria chain and owns Giraffe and Patisserie Valerie. He lives in London and is married with three children.

Rework


Jason Fried - 2010
    If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses.  What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You'll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of "downsizing," and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.