In The Fred Factor, bestselling author Mark Sanborn relates the four principles of injecting passion into our work and life through the story of Fred, his Denver postman, and others like him. No matter where we are in our career, no matter our position in the organization, no matter our current involvement, we can all transform our lives from the ordinary into the extraordinary by bringing fresh energy and creativity to our life and work.
Partner Your Project is a step-by-step guide on how to develop working relationships that result in successful projects that are on-time, on-budget, safe, and of quality. Even two decades after it was first published, Partner Your Project is being used in classrooms and boardrooms to help leaders and project managers develop a partnering culture on their construction projects. While written for the construction industry, there are many leadership tenets that are at the core of Partnering, like empowering others, commitment and trust. Technology has changed the way people work, but partnering has proven that successful teams work well “together.”
This book cuts through Change Management theory and focuses on the actions executives must take to achieve the ROI of change. Executives ask: “What exactly is my role in leading a change, and where can I best apply my skills and influence to ensure our desired outcome?” This book answers those questions with clear and specific actions executives need to take to ensure successful change.
“Rooted in profound simplicity and clearly based on “ground level” experience. In a business world where the only thing constant is change, this is an easy read loaded with actionable insights and tools that help derisk organizational changes, large and small.”
Agostino Renna, President & CEO, GE Lighting, EMEA
The Architect of Change is more than the passive role of executive sponsor. This book will help you be a better sponsor of change, but it will also guide you so that you know what to expect, and inspect, as you lead your organization through transformation.
Don Kirkey, Ed.D. Director, Leadership Development Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
Endorsed by G.E., Lowe’s, Walgreens, Comfort Systems USA and others.
Why did Walt Disney build Disneyland? Because Walt Disney wanted one! Can success really be that simple? It can be when you know what you want and you are willing to do what Walt Disney did to build Disneyland.
Disneyland began as Walt Disney’s dream on a park bench one Saturday afternoon. Today, Disneyland and Walt Disney are symbols of success and an example of entrepreneurial leadership around the world. In Jeff Barnes’ The Wisdom of Walt Disney, discover how Walt Disney took action to transform his dream of Disneyland into the concrete reality we still benefit from sixty years later. Disneyland’s story is one every student of success should know. Like a great Disneyland attraction, The Wisdom of Walt Disney takes its readers on a storytelling ride with many twists, turns, drops, and surprise endings. Reading this book will change the way you see and experience Disneyland. Instead of Disneyland being a place of escape, Disneyland and Walt Disney will become for you a model of success. Learn how Walt Disney and Disneyland can challenge you to live your dream, inspire you to take action, and teach you how to create your own magic so that every day for you is as fun as a day at Disneyland.
Global business celebrity and prime-time Bloomberg Television host, Jeffrey W. Hayzlett empowers business leaders to tie their visions to actions, advancing themselves past competitors and closer to their business dream. Drawing upon his own business back stories including his time as CMO of Kodak and sharing examples from the many leaders featured on “The C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett,” Hayzlett imparts ten core lessons that dare readers to own who they are as a leader and/or company, define where they want to go, and fearlessly do what it takes to get there—caring less about conventional wisdom, re-framing limitations, and steamrolling obstacles as they go.
A leader is a professional who is responsible for a standard of care of the organization and its stakeholders (employees, customers, investors). The use of the typical appraisal process is a breach in that standard of care. Its use causes injury to employees, customers and investors in ways that often cannot be measured. The injuries are emotional and are manifested in the lower employee engagement, lower productivity, poor quality and poor attitude.
Most Human Resource professionals, CEOs and attorney attribute the failure of the typical performance appraisal to poor management skills and or poor training of those managers who must implement it. This is incorrect. The techniques used by managers who conduct the typical appraisal meetings are the cause of failure. The book makes a strong case that it’s the design and the premises which underlie that design which are flawed. The book explains how these flaws cannot be overcome by even the most skilled of managers. The flaws can only be fixed by leadership and any leader who ignores this responsibility is guilty of malpractice. It’s in the assumptions and decisions of the leadership that must change first to make way for a replacement which more closely aligns with natural law and with the requirements of our “new” knowledge economy.
Appraisals attempt to measure the performance of an individual in a complex system. With stories and case studies this book demonstrates how it’s impossible to accurately separate the performance of an individual part from the influence of a complex system. Any attempt to do so is guesswork, opinion, bias and malpractice.
The book makes a case for a replacement process which is consistent with systems thinking. This alternative, The Complete Performance Improvement Process (CPIP), enables leaders to build trust between the individuals and not damage it as the typical appraisal does. This alternative enables leaders and the employees to act as partners and colleagues to solve process issues instead of the judge and the judged.
The alternative (CPIP) heaps a greater sense of responsibility on both the employee and the leader. These responsibilities are of higher quality and create higher standards of behavior and performance. The alternative demands employees are treated like adults and not like children. It enables managers to behave like facilitators and not omniscient parents and/or arrogant biased judges.
CPIP provides a process for immediate feedback and that process enables anyone (not just managers) to deliver that feedback without fear of retribution and without bias. The feedback is delivered solely for the purpose of increasing trust and/or improving learning both of which will lead to improved performance. CPIP discourages (and can prevent) feedback for the purpose of manipulation and for personal gain at the expense of the system performance.
CPIP facilitates the creation of joy at work for all employees. It’s a tool that enable leaders to create an environment that fosters fun, trust, the love of learning, innovation, productivity, continuous improvement, and outstanding results. It unleashes employee engagement. It also puts positive pressure on every one to improve their leadership skills. CPIP does all of this and it has the potential to do even more. The book explains the foundational theory, suggestions on how to implement the new process and ideas on how to sustain it. It also contributes to a vision of the future which includes self-organizing teams and a self-organizing system.
In Grit to Great, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval tackle a topic that is close to their hearts, one that they feel is the real secret to their own success in their careers–and in the careers of so many people they know and have met. And that is the incredible power of grit, perseverance, perspiration, determination, and sheer stick-to-it-tiveness. We are all dazzled by the notion that there are some people who get ahead, who reach the corner office because they are simply gifted, or well-connected, or both. But research shows that we far overvalue talent and intellectual ability in our culture. The fact is, so many people get ahead–even the gifted ones–because they worked incredibly hard, put in the thousands of hours of practice and extra sweat equity, and made their own luck. And Linda and Robin should know–they are two girls from the Bronx who had no special advantages or privileges and rose up through their own hard work and relentless drive to succeed to the top of their highly competitive profession.
In a book illustrated with a cornucopia of stories and the latest research on success, the authors reveal the strategies that helped them, and countless others, succeed at the highest levels in their careers and professions, and in their personal lives. They talk about the guts–the courage–necessary to take on tough challenges and not give up at the first sign of difficulty. They discuss the essential quality of resiliency. Everyone suffers setbacks in their careers and in life. The key, however, is to pick yourself up and bounce back. Drawing on the latest research in positive psychology, they discuss why optimists do better in school, work, and on the playing field–and how to reset that optimistic set point. They talk about industriousness, the notion that Malcolm Gladwell popularized with the 10,000-hour rule in his book Outliers. Creativity theorist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi believes it takes a minimum of 10 years for one’s true creative potential to be realized. And the authors explore the concept of tenacity–the quality that allows us to remain focused and avoid distraction in order to get the job done–an increasingly difficult task in today’s fragmented, cluttered, high-tech, connected world.
Written in the same short, concise format as The Power of Nice and leavened with the natural humor that characterizes Linda’s and Robin’s lives–and books–Grit to Great is destined to be the book everyone in business needs.
Based on interviews with 33 career changers who became leaders after a transition, LEADERS IN TRANSITION answers the question, “How do you become a leader after a career change?” As people make work transitions in mid-career, some will decide to become a leader. Leaders in Transition explores the challenge of making a significant transition, and guides career changers to become successful in their new work. Career transitions are a substantial change from one career path to another, such as a career military officer who becomes a schoolteacher or principal. After talking to 33 leaders about their career change, five critical factors were identified. This book shows today’s career changer how to take the important next steps to launch an influential new career and find lasting satisfaction leading others.
Are you tired of working 50, 60, 70 or more hours a week? Do you come in early and stay late, just to get your own work done? Are you frustrated by what your team members don’t do or can’t figure out for themselves? Would you like to know why you’re always playing catch-up just to keep-up?
If you answered “yes” to just ONE of these questions, this is the book for you. Leadership expert, author, and management consultant Liz Weber (aka – The Dragon Lady of Leadership Accountability®) shares her model: The Five Stages of Focused Leadership Development™. This model will help you quickly identify why your team depends too heavily on you to solve every problem, causing you to work the long hours you do. Get your life back by leveraging your leadership!
Nonstop change is now the workplace norm. According to a 2013 global survey, 82% of companies had undergone significant reorganizations in the previous year, and only 21% say those efforts were a success. Companies with failed redesigns cited active employee resistance to the change as a challenge. Employees struggle to deal with the enormous amount of change they face and most feel out of control and stumped by the daily uncertainty.
The Institute for Corporate Productivity, a workforce research firm, found that companies surveyed considered their top two critical issues to be coping with change and managing organizational change. And yet, the study found that only 35% of the top performing organizations are effective at managing change. How much more would the other 65% be achieving if they managed change more effectively? What’s the solution?
In this book, you’ll experience practical, uplifting solutions that will allow you to master change, not just survive it. Learn why change is so difficult. Learn how to lessen the pain and stress nonstop change causes. Shift your perspective with inspiring personal stories, groundbreaking research, and proven behavior-change strategies.
