Leadership Culture

Do you feel out of your depth when setting objectives for your team? Ah, the annual ritual of objective-setting! Loved by so few, undertaken by so many. Do you get a slight knot in the pit of your stomach, just thinking about it? Most managers dread it because they're not 100 percent sure of what they're supposed to do. Promoted with little training, they're just supposed to know how to design objectives. Know how to develop soft skills. Sure it's easy, right? On top of that, there’s the niggling feeling that the process doesn’t make much of a difference.

As a savvy and motivated professional, you’re constantly on the lookout for high-impact leadership strategies to take your business to the next level and beyond—without bogging you down in abstract theories or exhaustive case studies. You need foolproof ways to lead your people to achieve outstanding results, even in challenging times. As legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said, it’s time to get “brilliant on the basics.”

The Civil War was the first "modern war." Because of the rapid changes in American society, Abraham Lincoln became president of a divided United States during a period of technological and social revolution. Among the many modern marvels that gave the North an advantage was the telegraph, which Lincoln used to stay connected to the forces in the field in almost real time. No leader in history had ever possessed such a powerful tool to gain control over a fractious situation. An eager student of technology, Lincoln had to learn to use the power of electronic messages.

We are living in an epidemic of disengagement and despair that calls us to action. Awakening Compassion at Work answers the call, showing us new ways to enliven the humanity of work and in so doing address the suffering of the world and create an innovative, optimistic, and engaged workforce.

Is your workplace riddled with gossip, power struggles, and confusion? Do you seek clarity in your management and cohesiveness in your team? Do you have a personal obstacle affecting your professional success? If so, there is good news-help is on the way. Stop Workplace Drama offers down-to-earth, practical methods to help business owners, entrepreneurs, and private practice professionals maximize success, increase productivity, and improve teamwork and personal performance.

The Center for Talent Innovation's new study, Mission Critical: Unlocking the Value of Veterans in the Workforce, reveals how companies can ensure their veteran talent thrives in the corporate world.

Virtue is more than a word: it's a way for us all to live, a way to flourish as human beings. And when applied to organizational life, virtue serves to enhance engagement, strengthen relationships, and foster success in business. Picking up where the acclaimed Exception to the Rule left off, Better Humans, Better Performance connects the classical Greek virtues—Trust, Compassion, Courage, Justice, Temperance, Wisdom, and Hope—with authoritative science that can help you achieve the highest performance.

Veteran DEI leader Mita Mallick debunks thirteen myths that hold us back from transforming our workplaces. She delivers powerful storytelling combined with practical and hands-on ways for us to be more inclusive leaders. She teaches us that when we show up as more inclusive leaders, we have the power to change our organizations, ultimately creating a ripple effect across our ecosystem.

People are the problem. They're always the problem. If a business person goes home frustrated, if they talk with their significant other about it, if they lay awake at night stewing about it, inevitably the problem is some person at work - a colleague, subordinate, or boss. Handling people issues is every leader's major headache. It's what takes up the majority of their time and - more important - the bulk of their head space. Every leader can and must develop this most important of all management skills.

The founder of Menlo Innovations and author of the business culture cult classic Joy, Inc. offers an inspirational guide to leaders seeking joy in the challenge of leading others. Filled with colorful anecdotes from Sheridan's personal journey and wisdom from many leadership mentors, Chief Joy Officer offers an approachable, down-to-earth philosophy and practice that will help even the most disillusioned of middle managers bring a renewed sense of purpose to their work building others.

Driven to Delight offers an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at CEO Steve Cannon and his leadership team's ambitious, multi-pronged strategy to elevate the company's customer experience to best-in-class across all brands and industries.

Can you be in HR for more than 30 years and still be geeked out about it? The answer is yes, you can! HR leader and popular Everyday People blogger Steve Browne takes a fresh look at HR through an engaging assortment of real-life examples, insights, and epiphanies and encourages practitioners to drop the preconceptions of what HR should be and instead look to what HR could be. Listen to this book to rekindle your passion for a field that is vibrant and vital and touch the lives of everyone you encounter with HR on Purpose!

Patagonia, named by Fortune in 2007 as the coolest company on the planet, has earned a reputation as much for its ground-breaking environmental and social practices as for the quality of its clothes. In this exceptionally frank account, Chouinard and Stanley recount how the company and its culture gained the confidence, by step and misstep, to make its work progressively more responsible, and to ultimately share its discoveries with companies as large as Wal-Mart or as small as the corner bakery.

With nearly four decades of experience with the good, bad, and ugly of the board universe, Brian Hayward hones in on practical ways to develop the thinking and behaviour necessary for anyone taking this seat. Through real-life examples, and stories featuring Paul McCartney, Kalahari bushmen, Robert Maxwell, camels, Buddhist parables, and the Boeing 737 Max, listeners will see how chairing a board requires leadership competency of its own (distinct from being a director).

Step into the story of Ethan, a consultant brought in to rescue a fractured organization teetering on the brink of failure. Faced with misaligned visions, resistance to change, and a team that’s lost its way, Ethan embarks on a journey to uncover the root of the chaos. Along the way, he develops the CREATOR Model—a powerful blueprint for building trust, accountability, and commitment while driving exceptional results - organized around seven game-changing principles—Clarity, Roles, Empathy, Accountability, Tenacity, Ownership, and Results—this book delivers:

Scott Page, a leading thinker, writer, and speaker whose ideas and advice are sought after by corporations, nonprofits, universities, and governments around the world, makes a clear and compellingly pragmatic case for diversity and inclusion. He presents overwhelming evidence that teams that include different kinds of thinkers outperform homogenous groups on complex tasks, producing what he calls "diversity bonuses".

We've all been taught that we must suppress or avoid emotions at work, but this inevitably leads to a loss in productivity, diminished creativity, and crushing job dissatisfaction. Research shows 85 percent of us avoid communicating crucial workplace problems upward, and many of us who are employed are actively looking for a different job. What's going on?

In this timely and essential guide, McKinsey alumni Gaurav Bhatnagar and Mark Minukas present a proven approach to workplace anxiety that reduces stress, boosts well-being, and overcomes blocks that get in the way of success. It begins with changing our relationship with fear and then developing strategies that improve outlook and performance, leading to greater profits, sustainable growth, and personal rewards. It’s only possible with a culture of unfear.

The fact is, over 90 percent of all new start-ups fail. Every entrepreneur must face this harsh reality and learn to master it if they hope to survive and wind up on top. In Surviving a Startup, Hoffman brings listeners on a wild ride, sharing with them the tumultuous journey of launching a venture-funded start-up and revealing what it takes to make it.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an awakening that shocked the world—a structural change in how and where people work and live. One thing we now know for certain: Nothing is going back to normal. How organizations adapt to this culture shock will determine whether they thrive or even survive and whether U.S. and global productivity will go up or down.