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booktag: c-suite book club

Jeffrey Hayzlett

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.

Wally Hauck, PhD, CSP

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.

Mitchell Rigie & Keith Harmeyer

“If the creators of brainstorming were alive today, they would be astounded at how far the concept has evolved. Rigie and Harmeyer have created the ultimate idea-creating machine. It’s going to be the textbook for the concept for decades to come.”
~ Al Ries, bestselling author of Positioning and Marketing Warfare

In today’s fast-paced, innovation-driven economy, chaos and disruptive change are the new “business as usual.” Organizations, business owners, entrepreneurs, and even individuals have no choice but to reinvent themselves and their product or service offerings on an ongoing basis.

They must innovate–or risk slipping into irrelevance.

Innovation is fueled by a constant stream of new ideas; and group brainstorming is the most widely utilized process for generating that fresh, original thinking. However, brainstorming as typically practiced is a fundamentally flawed process–loosely structured, poorly facilitated, lacking in effective techniques–and it often produces too few, truly innovative ideas.

It’s no wonder. Over 90% of those leading brainstorming sessions, in any industry, have had no formal training in how to do so effectively.

SmartStorming: The Game-Changing Process for Generating Bigger, Better Ideas is one of the most comprehensive how-to manuals and idea generation toolkits ever published on the subject of brainstorming. It can help anyone learn how to consistently plan and lead highly effective brainstorms, and unleash the creative problem-solving genius of any group!

Readers are introduced to a totally new approach to group ideation. Not just another creative-thinking technique, SmartStorming is a powerful brainstorming system, combining the essential structure, leadership skills, tools, and techniques necessary for success.

Linda Kaplan Thaler

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.

Doug Devitre

It’s not always possible for you or your team to meet with a client face to face. Screen to Screen Selling reveals how meeting screen to screen with the latest technology can be a better alternative, saving both time and budgets.  Readers learn to effectively guide meeting participants with new computer skill sets, digital assets, and productivity shortcuts.  This book is jammed packed with checklists, tools, and processes to pinpoint opportunities and improve the performance of your organization. Lean how to:

• Make critical decisions faster with more accuracy and less expense
• Coach and train your team more effectively
• Decrease the sales cycle and cost to acquisition
• Decrease the service response while increasing customer satisfaction
• Increase engagement and collaboration with customers and team
• Minimize mistakes when communicating with technology

Richard Tyler

Everyone searches for success. While our ideas of success differ, a typical entrepreneur will define success in terms of accomplishing worthy goals—often accompanied by an improvement in their financial and social position. It is recognized in the business community that success is a direct result of passionate commitment, organized planning, constructive action and perseverance. However, by definition, the word BOOM suggests the creation of something BIG, immediate and successful! In addition, BOOM may also mean “increase” in economic terms, another typical measure of success. So what are your plans?

If you wish to mimic the actions that successful people like the CelebrityExperts® in this book take to make progress towards their goals, and also take advantage of their experiences, here is a good opportunity to understand their mindset – which often covers the “what to do” as well as the “what not to do.”
As you know, at times the latter is more important than the former. If you wish to create something BIG, immediate and successful, as well as to enjoy the “increase” you can create, you will find many pointers in this book. These CelebrityExperts® share their experiences and teachings thoughtfully. They can guide you “to the finish line” much faster than if you have to start your journey to success on your own.

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
~ John F. Kennedy

Steve Broe

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.

Sara Canaday

Learn the secrets of accelerating your journey toward success by better understanding yourself and how others perceive you. In You — According to Them: Uncovering the blind spots that impact your reputation and your career, Sara offers practical steps to help you leverage the perceptions of a great reputation into bottom-line success.

If you’ve ever worked in an organization of any size, you’ve probably seen it: the talented geniuses with all the right credentials who don’t really seem to be going anywhere in their chosen careers. Sometimes that “talented genius” is us, and we are hard-pressed to understand what’s blocking our ability to advance.

In her powerful book, You — According to Them, Sara Canaday draws on her years of corporate experience and research to not only explain WHY smart people can end up with stalled careers, but also HOW they can fix the problems (or avoid them in the future). The timing for this insight couldn’t be better, given today’s increasingly competitive work environment.

Ron A. Carucci

It’s been known for decades that failure rates among transitioning executives are too high, leaving exorbitant costs, damaged organizations and careers behind. But little has changed in the way organizations prepare leaders to assume executive positions.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Our ground-breaking ten-year longitudinal study and approach offer a comprehensive look at how successful executives transition to the highest altitudes of their organization, and thrive once there.
Organizations are making strategic bets to drive growth.
Part of the bet includes the executives entrusted with leading the way to success.
Accepting our 50-50 odds as “the best it gets” is no longer an option. Pushing for something better isn’t just possible….it’s necessary.

Halelly Azulay

It has been estimated that 70 percent of employee development takes place through informal learning, rather than through formal learning events. Employee Development on a Shoestring offers insights and lessons for leveraging non-training activities for on-the-job employee development. This hands-on resource delivers specific implementation techniques for developing motivated, engaged employees in today’s “do more with less” business environment. A handy tool kit for any employee developer, this book provides templates and detailed guidelines to help busy managers develop their workforce in a way that is tailored to each employee’s strengths, development needs, and constraints without breaking the bank.