Recommended Resources for Executive Career Management
Category:Executive Effectiveness
Lead By Example: 50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results AMACOM<< Order Now >>
Filled with examples of visionary
leaders who have achieved greatness,
John Baldoni’s most recent book, Lead
by Example [Amacom, 2009], offers a
leadership guru’s insights on how to
inspire others and build lasting results.
The internationally recognized leadership
consultant, speaker and author removes
the intricacies of leadership and offers
50 easily understandable ways leaders can
inspire results. Built around character,
communication, defusing tension and
developing team confidence, Baldoni’s
50 ways to inspire results gets to the
heart of what makes a leader effective.
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation Crown Business<< Order Now >>
The outline for company success
hasn’t really changed much over the
years. It’s a fairly standard formula of
creating relevant new products and
services and attracting new customers to
buy those offerings. If done right, revenues
and profit will grow. What A.G.
Lafley, chairman and CEO of Proctor
& Gamble, and Ram Charan, a noted
author of several business books (including
the bestseller Execution) propose in
their new book, The Game-Changer, is a
new way of reaching revenue goals and
improving profit margins. They suggest
that leaders become more innovative in
their approach to running businesses.
In the book, Lafley and Charan
define a game-changer, in part, as a
“visionary strategist who alters the game
his business plays or conceives an entirely
new game; a creator who uses innovation
as the basis for sustaining profitable
organic growth and consistently improving
margins; a leader who understands
that the consumer, or customer, — not
the CEO — is boss.”
Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow Josssey-Bass<< Order Now >>
Chip Conley, the founder and CEO of
Joie de Vivre Hospitality, superimposes
the contemporary workplace over
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
in Peak: How Great Companies Get Their
Mojo from Maslow [Jossey-Bass, 2007].
The office is just one stop on the road to
self-actualization, and Conley recognized
that human core needs can be fortified
through relationships with employees,
customers and investors. “If humans
aspire to self-actualization, why couldn’t
companies, which are really just a collection
of people, aspire to this peak also,”
Conley wondered; and he endeavored
to create an environment that cultivated
“peak experiences” at Joie de Vivre.
How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership McGraw-Hill<< Order Now >>
How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership [McGraw-Hill, 2008] is a refreshing course of bite-sized nuggets by Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman and CEO of Carlson, that reads like a personal diary interspersed with meaningful quotes from notable authors, historians, poets and others.
A Manager's Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best from Your Employees AMACOM<< Order Now >>
The workforce is the competitive
advantage for every organization
but even high-potential and high-performing
employees need some
occasional extra development to really
shine. Authors Brian Emerson and
Anne Loehr give some examples of how managers
can strengthen their teams — and
organizations — with employee
coaching.
Building Conflict Competent Teams Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
Expecting employees to always agree and work in complete harmony is unrealistic, as disagreements abound. But skilled leaders have the ability to see the opportunity to transform spirited debates into a platform for new ideas. In Building Conflict Competent Teams, authors Craig E. Runde and Tim A. Flanagan extend the messages from their previous book, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader, so that executives can strengthen corporate foundations.
You Want Me to Work with Who?: Eleven Keys to a Stress-Free, Satisfying and Successful Work Life...No Matter Who You Work With Penguin<< Order Now >>
This book is a couple of years old, but I recently heard the author speak at a SHRM regional conference, and the messages were timeless. "I really like my job, except for the people," author Julie Jansen recalled someone telling her, and she said the book demonstrates how to deal with colleagues in a way that is constructive, rather than through deceitful or passive-aggressive behavior.
"People have problems — home, stress — and they don't say, 'Today is the day I am going to sustain my work relationships,'" said Jansen. "Everyone has their own agenda, personality, communication style, work habits. Even if you screen for fit, problems can arise."
Jansen's Eleven keys to a stress-free, satisfying and successful work life...no matter who you work with will help you cope with situations where coworkers — or anyone — push your buttons, and gain better control of yourself and the relationship.
Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct, and Disrupt the Global Serach for Leadership Talent Davies-Black Publishing<< Order Now >>
Would I be featuring this book
if the author, Joe McCool,
was not a trusted colleague and friend?
Absolutely, because executives who
recruit will find it fascinating and
insightful, and executives who work
with recruiters to achieve their own
career goals will be enlightened to
learn the inside scoop. In this Q&A,
Joe and I talk about how executives
can use the messages in Deciding Who
Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive,
Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for
Leadership Talent [Davies-Black, 2008]
to their advantage.
Q. Why should executives read this
book? What will they learn about
executive recruiting that will help
their own career plans?
In his endorsement of Deciding Who
Leads, Wharton School management
professor Peter Cappelli acknowledges
that “Executive recruiting is arguably
the most important task in the world
of business...” Yet the influence and
impact that executive recruiters have on
corporate performance and management
succession, as well as executive careers,
has really been overlooked. While the
book focuses on the organization consequences
of their work, I believe it offers
today’s executives a lot of perspective
about how their career plans might eventually
marry with the organizational
leadership agenda of a new employer.
I think executives will come away
from the book with a fresh view of the
role so-called “executive headhunters”
play in management recruiting and also
about how the process is still plagued by
dysfunction. If anything, I hope the
book can help executives understand
that executive recruiters essentially
orchestrate a mutual commitment
process between the hiring organization
and the executive job candidate.
I hope it also informs their own
interactions with executive recruiters and
offers some rationale for why they should
enter the career courtship process with
their eyes wide open and with the utmost
discretion, since it usually only proves
successful for one or maybe two of the
dozens of executives who might be contacted
during the course of any search
assignment.
True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
At the keynote address Bill George, professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, gave at The Conference Board's Executive Coaching conference earlier this year, he synthesized authentic leadership in a single statement: "Authentic leaders have a sense of purpose, lead with their hearts, and develop long-term connective relationships."
His book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership [Jossey-Bass, 2007], expands upon that simple premise by offering a personal development plan that focuses on:
Knowing your authentic self: self-awareness is central to this endeavor.
Practicing your values and principles: this is your moral compass.
What motivates you to be a leader? The answer requires time and experience.
Building your support team: they provide support for your leadership journey.
Staying grounded: be the same person at work and home.
Hug Your People: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire, and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results Hyperion<< Order Now >>
In his book, Hug Your People: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results [Hyperion, 2008], Jack Mitchell explains how a "hugging" culture can yield the best talent and equally successful company performance. It's a strategy that Mitchell, CEO of clothing stores Mitchells/Richards/Marshs, has used for years. Mitchell's book includes stories and examples from his own life and relationships with employees, and he shares some of the secrets behind making employees happy and how to create and maintain a "hugging" culture in any company.
Hiring Secrets of the NFL: How Your Company Can Select Talent Like a Champion Davies-Black Publishing<< Order Now >>
Whether your primary role is recruiting or you have oversight into building your own team, this book will shed insight into the selection process used by top sports strategists. In Hiring Secrets of the NFL: How Your Company Can Select Talent Like a Champion, author Isaac Cheifetz outlines how to recruit and retain top performance with an eye toward the future, not the past, and he shows how to apply the value-investing method to avoid overpaying for talent.
Cheifetz says that to achieve recruiting success the goals of the position should be clearly defined; there should be consensus among organizational decision-makers on the critical qualifications of the position; a reporting relationship based on analysis and benchmarked best practices should be established; and ensure the recruiting process is managed efficiently and proactively.
A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher AMACOM<< Order Now >>
For those who have devoured everything written (40 books!) by the management guru Peter Drucker, this tome from his former student and nearly lifelong friend will be a welcome banquet. In A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher, author William Cohen, PhD, recounts what he learned in the classroom as the first graduate of Drucker's management program.
Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success Random House<< Order Now >>
Chris Matthews, of Hardball and the Sunday morning show that bears his name, learned strong life lessons from his proximity to the White House and the campaign trails, which he shares in behind-the-scenes bipartisan anecdotes.
Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success ties political observation and gossip to some basic values. Matthews masterfully tempers his scrutiny of key political players with an engaging style in an easy-to-read compilation.
Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively offers self-assessments so that leaders can determine how well they react to problems in the workplace and learn new styles for addressing and correcting disruptive behaviors. There are many ways in which conflict competent leaders can create conflict competence throughout their organization. Four things leaders can do are:
Model effective conflict behaviors.
Encourage others in their organizations to develop and use constructive conflict management skills.
Coach, mentor and mediate others.
Champion organizational change that improves conflict competence.
In 30 Days to a More Powerful Memory [AMACOM, 2007], author Dr. Gini Graham Scott provides tools and techniques to support better memory function. The first couple of chapters explain the neurological processes of short- and long-term memory for those who need to learn the "how" first, but the rest of the book is more action-oriented.
Mayday!: Asking for Help in Times of Need Berrett-Koehler Publishers<< Order Now >>
What's your favorite reason for going it alone, figuring things out yourself and not asking for help? Don't want to appear incompetent or weak? You want something done right, so you do it yourself? It will place an unfair burden on someone else?
According to M. Nora Klaver's book, Mayday! Asking for Help in Times of Need, [Berrett-Koehler, 2007], sending up a signal will make you stronger. Klaver not only counters all the reasons why people are resistant to asking for help, she provides a 7-step process for reaching out and getting the assistance you need.
Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
If a comprehensive six-step prescription for building a leadership brand crafted by best-selling business authors and one of the chief innovative and creative thinkers appeals to you, then this is the book to get. Written by University of Michigan professor Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, co-founder of The RBL Group, this book is not a quick read but a slowly digested outline of how to create a customer-centric organization with positive brand identity that delivers value to stakeholders.
The authors combine brand strategy with case studies to showcase the effectiveness of a top-down reputation enhancement program. As a result, leadership-branded companies are not only differentiated in the marketplace but they are best prepared to eclipse the competition. Ulrich and Smallwood's recommendations for this six-step strategy are:
Build a case for leadership brand. "Leadership helps make strategy happen. Without the right leaders at all levels, an organization can't deliver on its brand promise to customers, its financial promise to investors, its social promises to community stakeholders, or its cultural promise to employees."
Create a leadership brand statement. "Leadership brand becomes the process whereby the identity of the external customer translates to the behavior of the internal employee and organization processes. When this connection of the outside and inside is made real (in terms of both rhetoric and action), we call that a statement of leadership brand."
Assess leaders against the brand. "When assessments are a part of a thoughtful development process, there is great likelihood that the leadership brand is realized with leaders who have the right stuff...at the right leadership stage...that delivers the right results in the right way."
Invest in leadership brand. "Identify and support the training, developmental opportunities and life experiences needed to encourage the specific practices that instill your company's leadership brand in executives and managers throughout the organization."
Measure leadership brand investment. "Over the past 15 years, the measurement of leadership effectiveness has been characterized by two divergent approaches. One is the competency approach; the other looks for a concrete return on the training investment."
Build leadership brand awareness for key stakeholders. "Build a long-term reputation by communicating the efficacy of your company's leadership brand to interested stakeholders — customers, employees, investors, suppliers."
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant Harvard Business School Press << Order Now >>
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant (Harvard Business School Press, 2005) is designed to get marketers and business leaders to think about the space that lies just beyond the competitive "red ocean" waters.
"The real opportunity is not to fight to capture more market share in existing red ocean, but to create and capture blue oceans of uncontested markets and leave competitors behind," explained author Reneé Mauborgne at the HSM World Business Forum in New York last year. But Mauborgne recommends having emotional measures in place, and to never get too excited with innovation alone. "Only get excited when you know how to link your innovation through your strategy and performance ... that is where your money is."
The book, co-written with W. Chan Kim, presents The Four Actions Framework — the method for finding your Blue Ocean space:
Eliminate: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
Reduce: Which factors should be reduced well-below the industry's standard?
Raise: Which factors should be raised well-above the industry's standard?
Create: Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?
What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom about Management Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Build relationships with people, rather than technology; be honest; and listen. These principles drive much of Jeffrey Pfeffer's analysis in What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom about Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2007). Using real examples of business challenges, Pfeffer delves into the thinking and processes behind organizational decisions; outlines the results; and illuminates where improvements may lie.
For example, many companies look to cut their workforce, salaries and benefits when they run into financial trouble, but Pfeffer says, "When companies are facing their greatest competitive challenges is precisely the time when they most need employee loyalty and effort." Instead, the author suggests companies look at quality and service, which often requires the efforts of the front-line people whose pockets you are tempted to pick as a quick fix.
Another common mistake Pfeffer found was how stock price is often the force behind business decisions, and that CEOs of fast-growth companies were spending as much time on investor relations as they were on operations and more time than they spent on product development.
What is often overlooked is that past and anticipated share value is not reliably predictive; and employees, customers and communities are equally important stakeholders as investors. Taking a public company private is one solution to eliminating the stockholder pressure, along with finding multiple measurements for performance.
"Leaders need to reliably measure the processes that produce competitive success and not obsess about a measure, the stock price, that seems to be neither particularly reliable nor valid," says Pfeffer.
The Taboos of Leadership: 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You about Leaders and What They Really Think Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
Think it’s lonely at the top? It’s also filled with pain, shame, emotional conflict, power struggles and embarrassment, according to author Dr. Anthony F. Smith’s findings. Not every minute of every day, but there are moments where a top executive wishes for a roadmap to navigate all the feelings surrounding leadership.
Through history, research and both high-profile and anonymous examples culled from his coaching experience, Smith exposes the secrets in the executive suite, leaving leaders to examine whether the taboos are helpful or hurtful to the organization.
The Taboos of Leadership: 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You about Leaders and What They Really Think not only demystifies many of the real-world experiences of corporate leaders, the presentation is without judgment, as Smith’s insightful analysis dilutes the power of taboo.
The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know McGraw-Hill<< Order Now >>
Your business card may indicate you are a leader, but do you sound like one? “Communicator” was the top ranked adjective both search firm and human resource professionals used to describe leadership in ExecuNet’s 15th annual Executive Job Market Intelligence survey; and Dianna Booher’s new book, The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know, outlines the actions needed to improve interaction across all spoken and written channels.
In a straightforward manner, Booher takes the reader through the “10 C’s” of effective communication, devoting one chapter to each. In Chapter 3, “Is It Clear?” the author translates organizational clichés that “muddy messages and mar your image as a clear communicator and straight shooter,” such as No-brainer = if you don’t see it as clearly as I do, you’re off your rocker; Initiatives = what used to be called goals and plans; Branding = marking dead stock in inventory that hasn’t sold in years with a new “look and feel” so that it finds its way to market again.
Booher says that “stringing these terms together in paragraph after paragraph from document to document makes communication bland and meaningless,” and she suggests starting with the punch line – the reason for your message – before supplying endless background information filled with jargon.
Chapter 9, “Does Your Communication Make You Look Competent?” holds a key lesson for data junkies: facts are just numbers until they are used to tell a story, and Booher advises using story-telling, analogies and metaphors to help deepen the audience’s understanding of your message.
The book reinforces the power of language and how leaders can effectively use it to unite people around ideas, projects, teams and strategy. While poor communicators can still succeed, they sometimes have to sacrifice support, satisfaction and time to achieve goals. Booher’s communication tutorial helps leaders to create allies, therefore enabling collaborative success toward a unified vision.
I Didn't See it Coming: The Only Book You'll Ever Need to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business Wiley<< Order Now >>
Leaders are typically skilled in crisis management, with contingency strategies ready for rollout anytime some process, procedure or initiative fails – but executives rarely have a “plan B” for their own career derailment. In I Didn’t See It Coming: The Only Book You’ll Ever Need to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business, the authors warn managers to pay attention to signals that a pink slip or some organizational upheaval is forthcoming, and to have an exit strategy that will minimize downtime.
Written by former CBS Radio president Nancy Widmann, former senior vice president of human resources at American Express Elaine Eisenman, PhD, and former senior vice president of morning television at ABC Amy Dorn Kaplan, the authors report on the experiences that caused the word “former” to be indelibly attached to their high corporate ranking, along with the lessons learned. “We don’t see what can take us down and blindside us,” Widmann said in her recent presentation to the Southern Connecticut chapter of SHRM, adding that it was important to have close advisors who serve as a “reality check.”
In what she calls the “contingency plan for life,” Widmann advised professionals to have a reserve of money; a “board” that includes a lawyer, financial advisor, professional mentor and personal mentor/coach; and marketability. “Crank up your curiosity,” Widmann recommended. “Always be picking up valuable bits of information everywhere and think about how it all pieces together. Information will keep you from being blindsided.”
Maintaining an exit strategy will not only prevent you from being unaware of imminent threats, Widmann said it would mean you are a better leader because you’ll take risk and be willing to challenge your people.
Acting as a corporate rearview mirror, the book reveals “10 red flags and what they mean” including:
You are handed unattainable profit goals = Management is squeezing you out
There are suddenly many closed-door meetings that you were not informed about = You are no longer in the information loop
Pressure on you for short-term profits becomes extreme = The company is being pumped for sale
Taking Advice: How Leaders Get Good Counsel and Use It Wisely Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
In Taking Advice: How Leaders Get Good Counsel and Use It Wisely, Dan Ciampa, an experienced advisor to leaders and organizations worldwide and former Chairman & CEO of Rath & Strong, explains that few leaders know how to make the most of the advice they receive. The result? Failed attempts to change or improve an organization; problems for executives in new leadership positions; or worse. In short, it can mean the difference between success and failure.
Ciampa explains the current disparity when it comes to executive counsel and guidance. More than ever, outside advisors are offering advice on increasingly costly projects; yet ironically, this advice has become more ubiquitous and leaders have grown less satisfied with it––especially when dealing with high-stakes, unfamiliar situations that require assertive action, speed, and wise judgment. In Taking Advice, Ciampa is the first to offer a needed new theory of advice-taking – with rules, frameworks, and crucial insights for any leader.
Much in the same way the media passes judgment on a new President, the extent to which you can successfully integrate into the fabric, culture and social dynamic of a new employer organization — regardless of how closely you match the position requirements — will hinge largely on the impressions you make within your first 100 days on the job.
The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan: How To Take Charge, Build Your Team, And Get Immediate Results (Wiley, 2006) is a practical guidebook for executives and those who hire them about navigating the potentially treacherous waters of an executive-level transition. Author George Bradt is the founder of executive integration firm PrimeGenesis in Stamford, CT.
FUTURE, INC.: How Business Can Anticipate and Profit from What’s Next AMACOM/American Management Association << Order Now >>
In FUTURE, INC.: How Businesses Can Anticipate and Profit from What’s Next, professional futurist Eric Garland demystifies the rigorous science of looking for changes on the horizon and gauging their impact. Accompanied by examples and helpful checklists, Garland breaks down methods of collecting information, analyzing trends, and using the findings to guide strategic planning. He reveals his secret for predicting the future, combining a few simple techniques with curiosity about what’s currently happening everywhere.
Garland takes readers on a journey through an actual and fun futures study – the future of beer – providing the time-tested tools and expert strategies to:
Identify interconnections among emerging changes in society, technology, economics, ecology, and politics.
Determine when a trend is really a trend, something concrete and meaningful, and not merely media hype.
Evaluate forecasts based on hard data and weed out wild speculations.
Draw specific, significant implications about the future and dismiss vague claims.
Create scenarios – stories about the future that people will remember and act on.
Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters, by Yale leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward, examines the psychological and practical reasons why some leaders are able to return to the corner office and others never do.
Anchored in decades of original research, in-person interviews, and scholarly studies across multiple fields – including strategy, leadership, psychology, political science and anthropology - Firing Back identifies the four common barriers to career recovery:
the debilitating psychological stress of failure;
the reputation challenges that correspond with the actual distinctive nature of each person’s failure;
societal biases about failure; and
varied challenges depending on different industry and corporate cultures.
Sonnenfeld and Ward examine each barrier against current behavioral research and illustrate them with case studies to provide the first comprehensive theoretical model of resilience. Following the identification of the barriers to recovery, the authors examine the elements of the recovery process that enables leaders to overcome their personal obstacles.
The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your E-mail Before It Manages You Berrett-Koehler Publishers<< Order Now >>
Has e-mail got you spinning like a hamster on a wheel?
E-mail overload is epidemic in the U.S. workplace. Now hope and help are here in a new book with four simple, high-impact solutions. In this quick-read how-to guide, by leading experts on e-mail efficiency and etiquette you will discover a simple system that will help you eliminate needless e-mails, write better messages, and file and find information in a flash. Reclaim your life with the practical advice offered to all “hamsters” who are ready to put an end to spinning wheels with e-mail overload.
TALENT FORCE: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business Prentice Hall<< Order Now >>
TALENT FORCE: A NEW MANIFESTO FOR THE HUMAN SIDE OF BUSINESS, by Rusty Rueff and Hank Stringer, explores how to locate, attract, and retain high quality talent in a global economy that makes it more difficult and more important than ever, to have the best people contributing to the growth of your company.
The character of the job seeker has changed. Today’s best people have radically new expectations and approaches to work. Rueff and Stringer reveal how competition, technology, retiring Baby Boomers, and overseas outsourcing are changing the ways that both individuals and companies approach the talent market.
Candidates know as much or more about the companies they interview than the companies interviewing them – today it’s all on the internet. Employers need to be much more creative and comprehensive when looking for talent. Discover how candidates are using technology to evaluate opportunities, benchmark their compensation, and create new back channels of communication about work life at your company – and your competitors’.
Authors Rusty Rueff and Hank Stringer recognize that it’s no longer enough to have a “work force” you need a high-impact TALENT FORCE.
Your Leadership Legacy: Why Looking Toward the Future Will Make You a Better Leader Today Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Your Leadership Legacy: Why Looking Toward the Future Will Make You a Better Leader Today, by leadership development experts Robert Galford and Regina Maruca, argues that leaders should think about their legacy on their way into a position as opposed to on their way out.
Most executives think of legacy as something to worry about later in their careers, at the edge of retirement – if at all. But for leaders looking to further develop their skills, it is never too early to start thinking about the kind of influence he or she will have on a company. In fact, the earlier leaders begin to consider their legacy, the more effective leaders they will be today as well as over the course of their careers.
In Your Leadership Legacy, Galford and Maruca demonstrate the importance of legacy to leadership development and introduce an approach called legacy thinking – a powerful framework to help leaders ensure that their priorities – both personal and organizational are reflected in their actions.
How do you want to be remembered? Your Leadership Legacy will help you discover how to craft your work, build your legacy, and experience personal satisfaction and achievement throughout your career.
Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
In Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, Ken Dychtwald, Tamara Erickson and Robert Morison explore the unprecedented shift in the age distributions of the general population and the labor force, and show why no organization can ignore these demographic trends and their implications. Considered by many to be the single most important trend of this century, the changing demographics will have—and are already having—a fundamental, pervasive impact both on the way business operates and on how each of us, as individual employees, lived our life.
Based on decades of extensive research, Workforce Crisis not only provides the statistics and data that detail how and why these changes are occurring, but also shows how organizations can adjust to the ongoing conditions of the shortage by facing the challenges and taking advantage of the corresponding opportunities.
In Workforce Crisis, the authors also demonstrate how these shifts will have major implications for each of us, as we work longer and, perhaps, very differently in the years ahead.
Power Mentoring: How Successful Mentors and Protégés Get the Most Out of Their Relationships Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
Many of the world’s
most successful
people (Bill Gates and Bill
Clinton, for example)
credit mentoring as a
major factor in their
achievements. Research
shows that mentoring can
be a very effective way to
advance one’s career and
improve one’s knowledge
and skills. But the traditional
models of mentoring
have failed to keep up with trends in
the business world. Programs based on
career longevity with one organization no
longer mesh with the new dynamic of
career opportunism where work has
become a series of employers and learning
opportunities.
In this new world of work, individuals
need to be proactive in creating mentor/
protégé relationships and in establishing
networks of multiple relationships
across organizations and industries.
Authors Ellen Ensher and Susan Murphy
interviewed 50 top leaders and their
rising-star protégés in technology, politics
and the media to discover close-up examples
of how mentoring has played an
important part in leading to individual
success. From this research, Ensher and
Murphy have identified
mentoring strategies that
have evolved in this new
work environment.
In their new book,
Power Mentoring: How
Successful Mentors and
Protégés Get the Most Out
of Their Relationships,
Ensher and Murphy offer
strategies and best practices
for establishing and
achieving success with
these relationships, and
they explain what it takes
to develop a “power mentoring” network.
The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success Davies-Black Publishing<< Order Now >>
In The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success, former Fortune 500 HR executive and executive coach Scott Eblin identifies what separates success from failure for new and experienced executives. In his research for the book, Eblin interviewed more than thirty executives from many of America’s leading organizations, including Avon, Capital One, Clear Channel, Northrop Grumman, and Sprint. The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success presents their personal stories, including how they stumbled -- then succeeded -- in their transition to the next level of leadership.
Eblin’s bottom-line message to new leaders: What got you there won’t keep you there. You must learn new beliefs and behaviors and, more importantly, let go of old ones -- even though they’ve driven your success up until now. The basic tenet of Eblin’s been-there, done-that advice for achieving “executive presence”: Convey confidence, no matter how you feel inside. Insecure executives, he says, make lousy leaders.
THE DNA OF LEADERSHIP: Leverage Your Instincts to Communicate, Differentiate, Innovate Platinum Press<< Order Now >>
Building on the foundation of her first book Creating WE, organizational anthropologist Judith Glaser’s new book focuses on what she calls “leadership DNA”. In The DNA of Leadership, Glaser explains what your leadership DNA is: "The ability of organizations to reach their next level of greatness is determined by the atmosphere. The atmosphere is determined by the quality of the relationships. The quality of the relationships is determined by the quality of the conversations and behaviors. As a leader, you have in your grasp the ability to create and shape an environment that inspires greatness at every level.”
Through her work with major corporations, Glaser has identified seven vital leadership genes -– seven dimensions along which leadership can be expressed. Like cellular DNA, these leadership practices bond together in pairs -- one half (the I-Centric side) leading to stagnation, and the other (the We-centric side) leading to growth.
In The DNA of Leadership, Glaser illustrates each of the seven genes with a case study from a company she has worked that exemplifies what a particular gene looks like when it is effectively expressed. After presenting this best practice example, Glaser offers an illustration of what can happen when the I-Centric side of a particular gene takes over. She then reveals the steps leaders must take to move to the We-centric pole of the gene. Here, she emphasizes the importance of language, describing how powerfully words affect culture, and explaining how to create the kinds of conversations that will open doors, rather than close them. She completes the discussion of each gene with specific practices leaders can graft onto their own corporate cultures.
With detailed self-assessment tools, The DNA of Leadership makes it possible for businesspeople to judge where they stand on each of the seven leadership genes, as well as where their organization as a whole stands. And the book concludes with a chapter offering "DNA exercises" to help create the workplace culture that will enable organizational evolution.
The Manager's Step-by-Step Guide to Outsourcing McGraw-Hill<< Order Now >>
Outsourcing is a hot topic
in business today or as
executive coach and author
Linda Dominguez notes —
one hot potato! Many leading
companies see outsourcing as a
panacea for improving profits,
while others view it as a worrisome
cost cutting strategy.
Subcontracting work to an
outside vendor need not be
controversial or as complex and risky a
job as one might expect.
In The Manager’s Step-by-Step Guide
to Outsourcing, Linda Dominguez shares
the guidance and counsel of her executive
and corporate clients, as well as the advice
of experts to give managers the knowledge
and tools necessary to consider the
decision to outsource. She also provides
a detailed understanding of what needs to
be done to successfully outsource a business
unit and sustain this success with
a comprehensive strategy.
The Manager’s Step-by-Step Guide to
Outsourcing imparts in a very readable
context the new skills executives must
learn to deliver results, and best practices
for creating sustainable shareholder value
without sacrificing quality, productivity,
relationships or control.
Creating We: Change I-Thinking to WE-Thinking & Build a Healthy, Thriving Organization Adams Media<< Order Now >>
If your company has recently been acquired, merged,
restructured, downsized, or is in the midst of rapid growth or
expansion – there is a strong likelihood that it may be unable to
sustain the sense of unity it once had. If this is the case chances
are it’s on the road to fail. What can be done to achieve a
healthy environment in an organization struggling with the
impact of rapid change?
Creating WE, by visionary executive coach Judith E.
Glaser, will guide you to building a healthy, thriving
organization. Glaser shows readers how “I-centric” work
environments cause “unhealthy thinking” to develop that dooms
companies to fail. Healthy environments are dependent on “We-
centric” executives whose sensitivity, focus on engaging others,
and decisive leadership ability has a positive impact and
influence on creating growth.
Creating WE is about creating healthy organizations.
Creating WE is about team building and leadership
ability. Creating WE is about YOU – knowing yourself;
knowing how others see you; and learning how you can improve
your communication ability to be a more effective leader.
Radical Collaboration: Five Essential Skills to Overcome Defensiveness and Build Successful Relationships Collins<< Order Now >>
Radical Collaboration, by James W. Tamm and Ronald J. Luyet, is a how-to manual for everyone who wants to be more skillful at building relationships, both professional and personal. It offers both problem solving skills and interpersonal insights in a quick, easy-to -read format. The book is based on the premise that businesses and organizations are increasingly focusing on the collaborative skills of employees. It's the first book to teach both the external negotiating skills and the internal, self analysis required to collaborate.
Flight Capital: The Alarming Exodus of America’s Best and Brightest Davies-Black Publishing<< Order Now >>
The best and brightest in America are returning to their homelands in record numbers -- and with them is going U.S. technological and economic preeminence. In Flight Capital, David Heenan, a leading expert on globalization, explores this exodus through the personal stories of dozens of successful, foreign-born professionals who are leaving America for opportunities in their native lands. Drawing on their experiences, Heenan analyzes the economic, cultural, and political factors that are driving this flight, as well as the initiatives that countries are using to attract top talent.
What does such a “reverse brain drain” mean for America’s future? What to do? The answers do not require a dramatic reversal of America’s present course, says Heenan. They do, however, call for a series of innovative reforms -- from revamping immigration policies to overhauling public education that U.S. leaders from government, business, and academia must wake up to before it’s too late.
Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion offers a field-tested framework for creating the resonance that fuels great leadership. Authors Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee provide the crucial lessons and tools for leaders, in all companies and organizations, to be more effective, successful, and enduring in today’s rapidly changing world.
Leaders who can create resonance are people who either intuitively understand or have worked hard to develop emotional intelligence – namely, the competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. They act with mental clarity, not simply following a whim or an impulse.
Boyatzis and McKee, co-authors with Daniel Goleman of Primal Leadership outline the path to resonance and show how intentionally employing these qualities creates effective and enduring leadership. In short, Resonant Leadership offers inspiration — and tools — to spark and sustain resonance in ourselves and in those we lead.
Career coach Graham Alexander, who has spent more than two decades working with executives around the world, presents the strategies he's developed to help executives break down barriers preventing them from operating at peak performance in his new book, Tales From the Top: Ten Crucial Questions from the World's #1 Executive Coach.
Tales from the Top presents the common pitfalls encountered by Alexander in the world's boardrooms and executive suites and the lessons learned by others in overcoming these pitfalls. Alexander provides many practices and specifics that can be easily implemented in your work and personal life.
Alexander advises executives to ask themselves what unique value they bring to their businesses. Then they must pinpoint the three things that they can do, day in and day out, that will add the most to the business. Alexander stresses that sticking to these three high priority items will prevent their lives from turning into endless to-do lists and allow them to make the best use of their time. Moreover, he says that leaders should not isolate themselves behind closed doors. They need to interact with their employees, tapping workers' strengths, and delegating assignments in order to lighten their own workload.
Among the questions that Alexander wants leaders to ask themselves are:
What would happen if I did less?
What tasks can only I do? What can I assign to others?
Is the business running me or am I running the business?
What message am I sending to my employees?
If I fell under a bus, what would happen to the company?
Is my family suffering because of my job?
Am I taking care of myself? How is my physical health?
Using examples and case studies from his years of consulting, Alexander gives you the tools necessary to assess your own job and make pivotal changes in your life, both at the office and at home. Tales From the Top is a short book with practical advice for those who need a few answers to get back in the game.
Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising Portfolio Hardcover<< Order Now >>
Phil Dusenberry, the former chairman of BBDO North American, helped shape some of the most successful ad campaigns of the last thirty years including the perfect GE slogan, “We bring good things to life.”
He spearheaded Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign ads, advised Visa to compare itself to American Express not MasterCard, and he’s the guy who set Michael Jackson’s hair on fire during a famous Pepsi commercial.
Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall-of-Fame Career in Advertising is both a memoir and a practical handbook filled with instructive anecdotes from Dusenberry’s famous ad campaigns. Well written and fun-to-read, it offers great lessons about what really works in the fiercely competitive game of trying to stick in the consumer’s mind. Do you want to learn how to tackle communications problems from a unique angle and hit home runs, not just singles? If you are in marketing, treat yourself to this insightful and entertaining book.
Naked in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career Fireside<< Order Now >>
Author Robin Wolaner’s career has
cut an interesting path through the
publishing world — she began as a copywriter
for Penthouse and went on to
found Parenting magazine. In between,
she readied Runner’s World for a national
launch and managed Mother Jones.
Along the way, Wolaner has collected
stories about being a woman in business,
resulting in her first book, Naked
in the Boardroom: A CEO Bares Her
Secrets So You Can Transform Your Career.
Written with women in mind, but helpful
to men as well, Wolaner outlines the
triumphs and pitfalls of being a leader,
illustrated with some “Naked Truth”
lessons, “Baring It” truth-telling and
“Stripped-Down Wisdom.”
Among the
Naked Truths:
Never help someone a second time if
they didn’t report back the results of
the first reference.
No one is a fully competent working
mother.
The time to arrange credit is when
you don’t need to borrow.
Forget the mission statement and all
that jazz: When a company has to lay
off employees, that’s when its values
are realized.
Inept cheating makes matters worse.
So even if your moral code permits
cheating, refrain on practical grounds.
Get Your Ship Together—How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership From the Keel Up Portfolio Hardcover<< Order Now >>
Former U.S. Navy Commander Michael Abrashoff attracted worldwide attention for his success in turning around a struggling ship, the USS Benfold--the subject of his acclaimed bestseller, It's Your Ship.
Abrashoff never claimed to have all the answers. He knew that there are plenty of creative leaders in the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard who could teach us how to motivate, inspire, and get great results under pressure. So he asked around, found fascinating leaders in every branch of the U.S. military and the business world, and interviewed them about leadership and teambuilding. The result is Get Your Ship Together--How Great Leaders Inspire Ownership From the Keel Up.
In Get Your Ship Together, Abrashoff introduces us to many exemplary people and then explores his or her most interesting leadership insights and how they came to perceive them. The book offers a series of lessons distilled from their experiences and the experiences of Abrashoff. These lessons about motivating, inspiring and getting great results under pressure can be applied in the business world.
Performance Without Compromise Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
For over 40 years Emerson Electric achieved consecutive annual increases in earnings per share and dividends per share. This remarkable record, which spans varying economic cycles from the 1950s through 2000, ranks among the longest in American business. Today, Emerson remains one of the world’s most admired, innovative, successful companies. What is the secret behind it’s outstanding performance?
Celebrated business leader Charles F. Knight – who was CEO of Emerson for 27 of its consistently profitable years – argues that Emerson’s long-term competitiveness is the result of a dynamic management process carried out with unrelenting discipline. In Performance Without Compromise, Knight reveals the Emerson management process in detail for the first time.
Strong leadership is at the core of everything Emerson achieves. It begins at the top of the organization and is rewarded and expected at every level. For anyone leading a company or wanting to instill a sense of pride and excellence in their work group, Performance Without Compromise offers valuable lessons about leadership, management and competitiveness.
Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
Reviewed by Karen Armon
Skillful persuasion often includes the
art of storytelling. Throughout history,
stories have proven to be extremely
effective methods for guiding people
through complex and difficult transformations.
Using the narrative story provides
context for organizational challenges,
develops ethical standards for
knowing how to deal with change, and
sparks innovation when leaders need to
develop collective resolve. Stephen
Denning’s 2004 book, Squirrel Inc.: A Fable
of Leadership Through Storytelling gives
hard-bitten leaders a solid business reason
for developing organizational stories.
Storytelling, according to Denning,
“...isn’t talking about fairy tales or the traditional
stories told to children. It’s talking
about the sorts of stories that are told
every day in organizations throughout the
world by busy executives to achieve realworld
objectives.”
Organizational stories provide clarity
in transmitting executive knowledge and
legacies, while also communicating values
that give life and context to standards,
sharing information that tames
the grapevine, and motivating others
through transformational times.
Executives who purposefully embed stories
within their culture convey their
mission, corporate brand and market
positioning elegantly. Along the way
they often discover employees and customers
moving from a skeptical — or
even hostile — viewpoint to one of connectedness
and, even, passion.
Think about the types of stories that
have circulated through your own leadership
lexicon. The story of the FedEx
employee who braves the winter storm
and uses extraordinary means to deliver a
package to a customer; or the story about
the IBM employee who made a milliondollar
mistake and thought he would be
fired only to find out that Tom Watson
had a different viewpoint; or, even the
story about Jack Welch firing a portion of
sub-standard employees during a public
meeting. These are all legends that meet
the criteria of organizational narratives.
In his book, Denning takes you
through his seven major forms of narrative
stories and their appropriate usages. He
shows the leader how to develop a narrative
based upon the overall objective and
purpose. Then he provides a structure in
which to design your story and what
phrases are necessary within the story to
support your objective. Finally, Denning
gives you a method for determining
whether or not your story will be successful.
Delightfully, Denning uses the story
of Squirrel Inc. to provide a backdrop for
the book making it an easy read and
demonstrating the usefulness of narratives.
The seven different types of stories
outlined in Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of
Leadership Through Storytelling are:
It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy Warner Business Books<< Order Now >>
Book Review by Louise Kursmark
It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy is the story of how the
author/commander D. Michael
Abrashoff was able to transform one of
the poorest-performing ships in the U.S.
Navy into its top performer in multiple
areas of measurement — often achieving
“impossible” standards and besting other
ships with long-standing records of high
performance.
In 11 chapters, Abrashoff explains his
philosophy of leadership. The tenets are
as simple — and as powerful — as “Lead
by Example,” “Create a Climate of
Trust,” and “Look for Results, Not
Salutes.” Peppered with fascinating anecdotes,
It’s Your Ship is a quick read that
communicates a lot of meaningful information
in clear language and short chapters.
What’s most compelling are the
results that were attained under
Abrashoff ’s leadership. The success of his
methods can’t be argued with!
One of the most interesting things
I learned from the book was the importance
of allowing ideas to move up the
organizational chain. It is often the team
members who do the actual work on a
project who have the best ideas about
improvement. Through this approach,
Abrashoff was able to eliminate millions of
dollars of unneeded expenses and achieve
operational improvements in all areas.
I also like the way Abrashoff espouses
respect for his team. As he states, many of
his crew would be selected last by any
other organization. They are young, often
minimally educated, and come from very
diverse and often challenging socioeconomic
environments. Yet by listening to
them and getting to know them, he
found that they have hopes, dreams,
ambitions and good ideas — just like the
Naval Academy-educated officers. By
creating an environment of respect and
giving crew members authority to act on
their own ideas, he was able to get better
results than he and his officers alone ever
could have.
This book is an enjoyable read and an
inspirational source of good ideas for
managers at all levels.
The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction Crown Business<< Order Now >>
By Richard Smith and James M. Citrin
Why do some executives ascend to the top and prosper – having extraordinary careers, while others of equal talent never reach their potential or aspirations? James M. Citrin and Richard A. Smith of Spencer Stuart, the world's most influential executive search firm, set out to explore this question. Based on in-depth original research Citrin and Smith identified straightforward patterns evident in extraordinary careers.
It turns out that extraordinary careers follow a strikingly consistent trajectory, marked by five distinct patterns that distinguish the very top from the rest of the pack Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction, by Citrin and Smith provides strategic career advice based on these patterns that can be used by everyone who wants to build a rewarding and personally satisfying career.
The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness Free Press<< Order Now >>
It has taken Covey 15 years to follow up on his wildly successful book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -- a tome that has created a legion of leadership driven disciples. In The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, Covey builds on the previous seven with material designed for the age of the information and knowledge worker.
The 7 Habits are designed to move one from dependence to independence to interdependence, combining business language with common sense with folk tales. The end result is a series of methods that inspire one to achieve personal and professional goals. Through examples that illustrate proactivity, personal mission statements, balance, mutual agreements, understanding, synergism and renewal, Covey guides achievement-seekers through the principles that make up the seven habits.
In the space where personal, leadership and organizational greatness overlaps lies the 8th Habit, which seems to be much more complex than the earlier seven. For example, Covey covers the first seven habits in 384 pages -- roughly 55 pages per habit -- but the author devotes an entire 432 pages to that small spot where greatness converges called the 8th Habit.
Included with the book is a DVD of short inspirational movies, and a personal workbook is available as a companion. While the content is valuable, the personal investment needed for the 8th Habit alone can rival a college course by the time all the materials are digested. I was left wondering if busy executives would have enough time to make the self-learning commitment to this one habit.
The essence of the 8th Habit is what makes it such a heavyweight -- find your voice and inspire others to find theirs. Before one can fully embrace this teaching habit, a real sense of the "hardwired birth gifts" must be achieved. In other words, deep introspection and critical self-analysis is the springboard to this habit.
Beyond personal growth, the 8th Habit sets the stage for vast organizational change. Covey identifies the antiquated industrial-age business model as the major impediment to personal greatness. By encouraging businesses to move from an industrial-age model filled with management and controls to the information and knowledge worker model, deep reserves of human potential can be unleashed.
Just as the 7 Habits book inspired a range of spin-off products - CDs, tapes, journals, calendars and affinity books - I suspect Covey's newest book will follow the same trend. If you found value in the previous seven and you have time to fully read, absorb, understand and apply the teachings in The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, you'll appreciate the volume. If not, pick up the abridged audio CD and take a shortcut to greatness.
You’re In Charge – NOW What?: The 8 Point Plan Crown Publishing Group<< Order Now >>
You're In Charge – NOW What? by Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin, key executives at Spencer Stuart (one of the world's leading executive search firms), present "The Spencer Stuart 8 Point Plan For The First Hundred Days" to help leaders maximize their professional success by building a sound foundation when they make a move. The authors studied more than a hundred of the most visible leadership transitions over the past five years with a special focus on more than 50 chief executives who took the job within the past three years.
Neff and Citrin have distilled their research interviews into first-hand stories of many CEOs in the spotlight today. Bringing life to the book, these stories tell us of the successes and failures but most of all about the lessons learned during their first hundred days at the helm. If you are about to start a new leadership job, the valuable advice and practical suggestions these CEOs offer will enrich your first hundred days.
In Winning, Jack Welch shares his business passion and philosophy as he explores the substructure of principles to his approach to business; the mechanics of a company; the competition -– the world outside your organization; and managing your career and having it all.
The book is divided into 4 sections:
Section one introduces readers to Welch’s “four principles to his approach to business.”
In the second section, Welch addresses the innards of organizations including people, processes and culture. You will learn about leadership, hiring, people management, firing, managing change and crisis management.
Section three focuses on the world outside your organization. How you create strategic advantages, devise meaningful budgets, grow organically and grow through mergers and acquisitions are a few of the topics.
“Your Career” is the title of section four. Welch advises readers on how to manage the arc and the quality of professional life.
Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance Portfolio<< Order Now >>
Do you put off your own professional dreams to achieve your boss’s or board’s, because you "have to pay your dues?" Do you believe that hard work and effort will get you past any obstacle? Do you perform better when you are practicing or preparing than when the work really counts? Do you feel like you are good at your job but never when the boss, recruiters or anyone else you might want to impress is looking over your shoulder?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be suffering from what author John Eliot calls "over-motivation." In his new book, Eliot lays out an interesting and persuasive case that in America’s work culture, diligence is a misplaced virtue with an "irresistible" appeal. Over-motivated executives will hammer away at any request or suggestion they are given by their superiors, and break their back trying to make it work. Unfortunately, the results of their work rarely equal the effort, and this "grunt" mentality will only break them down in the end, Eliot writes.
Clearly relishing the part of contrarian, Eliot uses examples of executives he has worked with or observed to demonstrate that those who achieve exceptional performance are the ones who understand that hard work is overrated, setting goals is a big no-no, thinking is a mistake, apologizing works against you, and stress is something to be harnessed — not avoided. With a client roster that has included senior executives at NASA, Adidas, the United States Olympic Committee, and Goldman Sachs, Eliot’s counter-intuitive approach has shown it often works and certainly is worth considering in your own professional life.
Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change Harvard Business School Press << Order Now >>
By Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony and Erik A. Roth
If you have a stake in an industry’s future, your success is directly tied to your ability to accurately assess current trends and predict the outcome of such things as the impact of emerging technologies, government regulations, changes in the competitive landscape, and changes in an organization’s leadership. Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change is a valuable resource that will help you determine which companies are best positioned to capitalize on industry growth.
Seeing What’s Next is based on the proven theories outlined in The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution. This new book offers a practical model that helps decision-makers spot the signals of industry change, determine the outcome of competitive battles, and assess whether a firm’s actions will ensure or threaten future success.
The first part of the book helps readers develop an intuition about how to use the theories of innovation to predict industry change. The second part shows how to use these theories to look in the future of five distinct industries -– aviation, education, semiconductors, healthcare and telecommunications. The in-depth industry case studies provide lessons on how to spot which firms are sowing the seeds of self-destruction and which are planting the seeds of growth.
Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value Jossey-Bass<< Order Now >>
A featured commentator on National Public Radio and a former Business Week "Top 25 Manager," George does not offer up sweet-sounding vagaries in Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. Instead, George delivers generous doses of wisdom that's been tested in the boardroom, on Wall Street, and in some of the toughest and most competitive markets in the U.S. At the heart of George's book is a call to leaders to empower the bold and brave leader waiting within most executives by developing the five essential dimensions of ethical leadership: purpose, values, heart, relationships and self-discipline.
Revival of the Fittest: Why Good Companies Go Bad And How Great Managers Remake Them Donald N. Sull<< Order Now >>
In business, finding yourself or your company as the cover hero of a major business magazine should make you a bit wary, argues Donald N. Sull in his new book, Revival of the Fittest: Why Good Companies Go Bad And How Great Managers Remake Them.
Describing what he calls "active inertia," Sull suggests that many companies and managers fall victim to their own success by forgetting to take care of business and focusing too much on the tempting external trappings of success, e.g. magazine covers, praise from management gurus and building other "monuments to your success." Sull includes an eight-point checklist to determine if you or your firm is at risk for active inertia. Check "yes" to two or three and you should be nervous. Four or more means you are already in active inertia.
To overcome active inertia, Sull outlines how managers must explicitly commit to transforming their organization's existing success formula through "transforming commitments.". The book contains examples of firms and managers who have successfully used the strategy, including IBM, Nokia, Asahi Breweries and Samsung.
Leadership Lessons from Lewis & Clark's Daring Westward Expedition Jack Uldrich<< Order Now >>
If Tony Soprano can be a source of management guidance, why not trailblazers Lewis and Clark? From Jesus to FDR, from General Grant to Genghis Khan, there is a large subculture in the publishing business world of books that purport to glean key examples from the lives of the famous (and infamous) and apply them to management.
Tony Soprano of the HBO Series fame has the advantage of being able to "whack" an errant employee. But that's not a tool found in the Employee Handbook at the typical Fortune 500 firm. Therein lays the challenge for books that draw inspiration from the famous: Unless it is realistic and relevant to the American manager of 2004, what good is it?
Happily, author Jack Uldrich has done a generally excellent job drawing lessons from the heroic and inspirational "management style" of explorers Lewis and Clark, as they navigated the unexpected for 863 days over a course of 8,000 tough miles. Uldrich, author of The Next Big Thing Is Really Small, uses well-documented events of the Lewis and Clark expedition and relevantly applies them to principles of leadership for today's rapidly-changing and often-unknowable business environment. Imagine a Ken Burns documentary with insightful analysis from Jack Welch, and you have a sense of the informative and engaging approach Uldrich utilizes.
How to Choose the Right Person for the Right Job Every Time McGraw-Hill<< Order Now >>
By Lori Davila and Louise Kursmark
We often cannot judge what we can’t see, and unfortunately résumés only offer a partial view of the candidate. A complete assessment often comes after the person is hired, which could be too late –- and quite costly –- in some cases.
In How to Choose the Right Person for the Right Job Every Time, the authors, Lori Davila and Louise Kursmark, pit the traditional interview against the behavior-based interview, and the comparisons clearly illustrate the value of asking the right behavioral questions.
Beginners will find 401 behavior-based sample interview questions included in the book, efficiently categorized into 50 competency areas, allowing hiring managers to formulate a more complete picture of the candidate.
The book also guides hiring decision-makers through the legalities of asking certain questions, along with a blueprint for implementing company-wide behavior-based interview programs. Worksheets and forms are also provided, which allows human resource departments to standardize their hiring procedures.
The book demonstrates how both the company and the candidate benefit from behavior-based interviews. Companies using these techniques gain a competitive edge by hiring the most qualified individuals, while candidates are judged according to the same measurements.
Realizing the Promise of Performance Management DDI Press<< Order Now >>
Performance management is a concept designed to reach beyond employee appraisals and measurements into the very structure of the organization as a means to drive business goals and company growth. As complicated as the process may seem, implementation can be even more daunting, but for the organizations that have a performance management system in place, the benefits justify the means.
Author Robert W. Rogers is also the president of Development Dimensions International, Inc. (DDI), a global human resources consulting firm. Rogers’ experience in human resources, coupled with DDI’s research and case studies, present compelling reasons for performance management implementations. Rogers equates an effective performance system with a high-performance workforce and culture, leading to success-driven organizational alignment.
While the book outlines the objectives and benefits of performance management systems, it is not meant to be a comprehensive “how to” guide. However, the case studies, best practices, charts, graphs and references present a deep view of how performance management works, along with some necessary components for implementation.
Joy at Work, A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job PVG<< Order Now >>
By Dennis W. Bakke
Dennis W. Bakke tells the story of how he challenged the business establishment with revolutionary ideas as cofounder and longtime CEO of AES in his new book, Joy at Work, A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job. Bakke uses the success story of AES, a worldwide energy giant with 40,000 employees in 31 countries and revenues of $8.6 billion, to make his case that the stranglehold of “creating shareholder value” can be replaced with more timeless values: integrity, fairness, social responsibility, and above all fun. AES was founded with the business model and operating ethos –- “let’s have fun!”
Bakke presents the case that corporate success can be achieved by giving employees unprecedented responsibility and respect while holding them strictly accountable. Joy at Work, A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job is part memoir and part inspirational business model. It is a remarkable story told by a remarkable man. From farm boy to the executive suite –- this is a story about Bakke, the success of AES, the pursuit of a vision, and the belief that this vision can become a reality if companies are willing to take the leap and practice what Bakke preaches.
It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys Viking Books<< Order Now >>
By Marilyn Paul, Ph.D.
Overbooking, running late, canceling appointments at the last minute, missing deadlines, feeling overwhelmed, losing your keys –- it can happen to anyone once in awhile. But such behavior can become a way of life –- one that is very hard to change.
In It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys, management consultant Dr. Marilyn Paul guides you on a path to personal change that will bring true relief from the pain and stress of chronic disorganization. Written from personal experience, this book provides relief to those who are on an anxiety roller coaster, striving to achieve goals amidst the personal frenzy of inner and outer obstacles.
Usually books on getting organized provide tips for keeping your desk neat or creating “To Do” lists. It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys addresses the symptoms of disorganization and offers a clear, practical path to personal growth that is holistic and comprehensive in nature. Dr. Paul provides readers with the necessary traction for consistent and lasting change.
Between Trapezes : Flying Into a New Life with the Greatest of Ease Rodale Books << Order Now >>
For anyone who has ever been afraid to move forward and just as afraid, or unable, to stay put in a job, Gail Blanke's new book is an inspiration. Between Trapezes, Flying into a New Life with the Greatest of Ease is a positive, yet realistic book full of on-target personal case studies of people who lost jobs, left jobs, hated jobs and found themselves frightened and un-tethered in the air casting about for a safe landing — between trapezes. This metaphor aptly describes the sensation of the situation many of us are experiencing in our lives today.
Between Trapezes offers specific examples and scenarios that helps the reader give flight to dreams or bucks them up when no safe landing is in sight. Where many books of this genre rely too heavily on inspiring quotes from spiritual leaders of the past, Between Trapezes, Flying into a New Life with the Greatest of Ease is an effective mix of inspiration and perspiration.
At the core of Blanke's philosophy is the belief that you need to rid yourself of preconceived notions in order to position yourself for the positive leap and landing you've always wanted to make. Letting go can be scary. If you need a helpful push to leap into the great unknown, embrace uncertainty and discover the job of self-reinvention — Gail Blanke can show you how.
Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage: Five Keys to Becoming a More Effective Leader Dearborn Trade Publishing << Order Now >>
In Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage: Five Keys to Becoming a More Effective Leader, executive coach Dr. Susan J. Bethanis takes us behind the scenes of her coaching practice. Readers can “listen in” on the confidential conversations between a promising executive and his coach. Among the book’s many memorable lessons are the five keys to becoming a corporate sage:
Reflect more to attain higher emotional intelligence
Get good at small talk and build strong networking and influencing skills
Hire great people and craft an inspiring vision
Coach employees in-the-moment to sustain your team’s vision
Develop a global perspective
The appendix summarizes the skills and tools introduced throughout the book so that readers can put the lessons into practice in their own lives. Readers will also find questions to inspire and guide them as they undertake their own journey to greatness.
Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage is a practical leadership guide that takes the mystery out of executive coaching and makes it accessible to all who want to become better, wiser, and more productive leaders.
Face-to-Face Communications for Clarity and Impact (The Results-Driven Manager Series) Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Face-to-Face Communication for Clarity and Impact helps you improve your in-person communication skills, including speaking directly, giving criticism, and asserting yourself in uncomfortable situations.
Teams That Click (The Results-Driven Manager Series) Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Teams That Click outlines the must-have skills of the effective team leader, from identifying and selecting the right mix of people, managing member conflicts, and devising effective reward systems.
UNSTUCK: A tool for yourself, your team, and your world Portfolio<< Order Now >>
Do you feel stuck in your business, in your work life or in life in general? Not to worry. Getting unstuck is an integral art of business – and life, for that matter. Often people get stuck because the most ambitious and rewarding work brings with it the most challenges. The question is, how long can you afford to be stuck and what are you going to do about it?
UNSTUCK is a smart, fearless and totally practical guide to turn to for inspiration and immediate solutions. It’s not just meant to be read; it’s meant to be enacted. And it’s based on the proven results and practices the authors have discovered working with IBM, SONY, Hewlett- Packard, Nike, Gap Inc., and a host of other companies and leaders.
Whether you need to step back to move forward, motivate a struggling team, change your goals, or create a clearer vision, UNSTUCK helps you diagnose your situation, identifying the most important challenges, and implement the right tools and techniques to get things moving again while you have fun doing it!
Presentations That Persuade and Motivate (The Results-Driven Manager Series) Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Presentations That Persuade and Motivate guides you through every step of developing and delivering effective presentations, from overcoming stage fright and customizing your message to fielding tough questions and closing with power.
Winning Negotiations that Preserve Relationships (The Results-Driven Manager Series) Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Winning Negotiations That Preserve Relationships covers all the bases in the fine art of successful negotiation, from dealing with difficult adversaries to leading a compelling argument to building trusting relationships.
Managing Yourself for the Career You Want (The Results-Driven Manager Series) Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Managing Yourself for the Career You Want is your personal career advisor, with tips and advice on everything from finding mentors, boosting networking skills, and evaluating future job prospects.
Make the Rules or Your Rivals Will Crown Publishing Group<< Order Now >>
Shell's new book, Make the Rules or Your Rivals Will, demonstrates how business geniuses like Henry Ford, Walt Disney and Rupert Murdoch shared an instinctive understanding that the rules often predefine the game and determine the winner. As each of these titans demonstrated, the person who controls, or shapes, these rules is usually the person who wins. Noting that many managers shy away from rule-making, perhaps from a fear of legal or political entanglements, Shell argues that the smartest executives know that the law is far too important to leave to the lawyers.
The Wisdom of Alexander the Great Lance B. Kurke<< Order Now >>
Life is all about opportunities and timing. Take the case of Alexander the Great. If he were alive today, the empire builder and military genius of 500 B.C. would probably be one of the richest and most charismatic business leaders in the world. That's the thesis of an engaging and interesting book from Lance Kurke, Ph.D. and president of Kurke and Associates, a company providing strategic planning, leadership development and executive coaching.
Kurke's well-written book is peppered with relevant examples where Alexander nimbly reframes a problem to flip a disadvantage into a winning situation. He also pulls in illustrative situations from modern firms and leaders at Apple Computer, General Motors, Ben & Jerry's and the U.S. Marine Corps, among others.
Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest: The Coaching Secrets Top Executives Depend On Scott Blanchard<< Order Now >>
Whether you are in the market for an executive coach or want to coach yourself, Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest: The Coaching Secrets Top Executives Depend On by Scott Blanchard and Madeline Homan could prove to be an invaluable resource that will challenge your preconceived mindset about your strengths and weaknesses.
Backed by fourteen years of high-level executive coaching — and the enthusiastic endorsement of Scott's father, Ken — authors Blanchard and Homan guide readers through their own personal coaching journey with a well-articulated three-part process that begins with a probing twenty-five question assessment, moves to the Three Perspectives (which help you focus on how you are perceived, your own self-image, and self-imposed limitations), and finally, the Seven Leverage Points (SLPs). Covering the bulk of the book, the SLPs provide thought-provoking specific scenarios that will help you make a candid self-assessment and take steps to harness your strengths while addressing your weaknesses.
The New Job Security: Five Strategies to Take Control of Your Career Pam Lassiter<< Order Now >>
In a job market with sharp transitions, intense competition and high turnover, many workers still rely on career management techniques that no longer effectively advance their careers. In a new job economy, new strategies are needed. Using 30 years of career development expertise, Lassiter demonstrates how to achieve life-long professional success with The New Job Security.
Complete with real-life stories, evaluation tools and solid direction, Lassiter's strategies are a compass for workers throughout their career. Far more persuasive than any interviewing tips or how-to-write-your-résumé ideas, The New Job Security empowers professionals to use change, skills and attitude to their advantage for a lifetime of competitive edge.
If You Want It Done Right, You Don't Have to Do It Yourself!: The Power of Effective Delegation Donna Genett<< Order Now >>
If you find yourself overwhelmed and exhausted by the piles of work on your desk but wary of trusting your team to take on tasks that might lighten your load, consider spending a few hours reading a book that offers real world tips on how to delegate effectively. Psychologist Donna M. Gennett's new book, If You Want It Done Right, You Don't Have to Do It Yourself! The Power of Effective Delegation, provides six clear steps to effective delegation. Written in an engaging, crisp style, the book illustrates its key points with scenarios taken from today's workplace.
Central to Gennett's strategy is to make certain that you clearly define the task you are delegating, outline the hard deadline timeframe that accompanies the task, and identify "checkpoints" where you will meet with the staffer to review progress and offer guidance as needed. Gennett also offers useful advice on how to decide just how much authority you can give to various members of your team and what kind of tasks are best suited to delegating.
The result? You'll have more time to think, to strategize, and ultimately to enjoy and thrive in the job you were hired to do.
The First 90 Days: Critical Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels Harvard Business School Press<< Order Now >>
Michael Watkins in his new book, The First 90 Days: Critical Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels provides tested real-world advice designed to help the new executive make a strong first impression that becomes their foundation for long-term success in the job and their career.
Underpinning Watkins approach is something he calls “the breakeven point.” That’s the point in your new job where you go from net consumer of value — learning the ropes, etc. — to becoming a net creator of value in the corporation. In a recent survey of 210 CEOs, midlevel managers took an estimated 6.2 months to reach the breakeven point. That’s a significant amount of downtime given the fact that each year over half a million managers enter new positions in Fortune 500 companies alone.
Watkins offers what he calls a “proven blueprint” or ten-part roadmap to create your own 90-day acceleration plan, including how to promote yourself, accelerate your learning, match strategy to situation, secure early wins and create coalitions. Each point is backed by specific insights, diagrams, tips and examples that should make it easier for you to reach the “breakeven” point well ahead of the six-month average. It also gives you the tools to boost the performance of those around you, especially your team.
Now, Discover Your Strengths Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.<< Order Now >>
NOW, Discover Your Strengths offers the reader a "revolutionary program" that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths - and those of the people you manage. The program is based on the Gallup Organization study of more than 2 million individuals whose psychological profile analysis identified the most prevalent human strengths. The program helps readers identify their talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy consistent, near-perfect performance.
At the heart of the book is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder Profile. Each book contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder Profile. This web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful signature themes. Once you know which of the 34 themes you lead with, the book will show you how to leverage them for powerful results for your own development, for your success as a manager and for the success of your organization.
ISBN: 0743201140
