Work Leadership

Companies have no idea if collaboration benefits corporate performance, individual productivity, or employee well-being. Collaboration, that seemingly Good Thing all companies encourage, is creating an epidemic of overload and burnout. It crushes our vitality and well-being, prevents us from being innovative, and blocks our companies from being the most successful organizations they could be.

Are you looking to build a high performing team? Are you struggling to get the right people in the right places? Do you feel like every time you try to build a team; you end up with a bunch of people who just do not want to work together? “How to Build Teams” is a great guide to help you make a move from simply putting people together to creating a collaborative group. As you go through these 7 easy steps, you will find that those you help see you as someone they can admire and respect.

In the knowledge economy, your team’s brainpower—their intellect, creativity, learning capacity, and decision-making ability—is the key factor in their success at work. And their scattered focus dilutes that brainpower, hindering your organization’s ability to succeed. Today's "always-on" work culture too often prevents your staff from producing what matters most: ideas, innovation, and meaningful results. How can you and your team be successful when exhaustion and frustration from 24/7 communications, changing priorities, and constant distractions are the norm? Executives must protect their teams (and themselves!) from the high cost of chronic stress and burn-out. To achieve this and improve your company’s results, you must invest in how well you and your teams manage attention. When employees master attention management, they are more successful, engaged, and productive.

Creativity is the key driver of innovation, but too many teams and projects are organized in ways that stifle new ideas. It's your job as a manager to create the right conditions for creativity to thrive—and to be part of the process yourself.

Every so often, an audiobook comes along that captures the attention of the hard working entrepreneur (for more than ten minutes) and literally changes the paradigm of how they view their business. Through a quick listen you will experience Scott Fritz's entrepreneurial journey first hand, as he shares with you the business tools, action focused exercises and mindset philosophy that allowed him to achieve The 40 Hour Work YEAR.

Dr. Liker's book, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels: A Practical Guide was a 2016 winner of the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award. We have taken the time to extract the individual seminars and lectures of Dr. Liker used to create this world-renowned publication and offer them in a series of byte-sized, topic specific learning modules. Follow along as we see and hear Dr. Liker at those actual presentations delivered first hand to the students of Lean and Lean Practitioners. Follow along as Dr. Liker explains the Lean Leadership Development Model (LLDM), and how it aligns with the accepted principles of operational excellence. Learn about the behaviors required to sustain it long-term. Understand how leadership must walk the talk of True North. Find out how to actively engage in developing lean leader skills.

While many churches talk about discerning calling and engaging in mission, very few are structured to make this their ministry focus. Underground Church is a new vision for the church rooted in its biblical mission to share the love of God and serve the poor. Sanders explores how to make structural changes, how to think about leadership, how to fund ministries, and how to truly engage people in God's mission. Filled with creative insights, he explains what it means to center the mission of the church around the callings of individuals to outward ministry.

Need a role model for effective leadership? Try Santa Claus! Imagine the endless challenges that running his operation poses. There's juggling employees, equipment, facilities, resources, production, letter reading, scheduling, the big delivery, keeping everyone jolly - and the list goes on. It's mind boggling! How does he do it all? What are his secrets to success?

Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Florida, isn’t average in any way. When Tom D’Eri and his father John bought the location in 2013, it was struggling. Now it’s one of the highest-volume washes in Florida. Its employee retention rate is five times that of its competitors. It has spun off into two additional locations that have been immediately successful, and the business is absurdly profitable.

The world of business has completely transformed in recent years. But one thing remains the same: Quality leadership is the hinge on which the fate of every organization swings. The Leadership Mind Switch provides the critical lessons you need to lead your company in a fully globalized business world where radical technologies reign supreme. Debra Benton and Kylie Wright-Ford have helped some of today's most top executives successfully position themselves and their companies for the future. Now, in this groundbreaking leadership guide, they share their insight with you.

Workers want good jobs, and many leaders want to provide them. But they don't think they can offer higher pay and more motivating work without hurting the bottom line. Most business leaders want to win with customers, but their companies are hobbled by a host of service and operational problems largely driven by high employee turnover—turnover that's partly driven by low pay. It is indeed a vicious cycle, and Zeynep Ton is here to show you the way out: why good jobs combined with strong operations lead to higher productivity and increased competitiveness for the business.

The Loudest Duck is a book for managers and executives faced with the productivity and leadership challenges of a heterogeneous, multicultural workplace. It's a book for anyone working his or her way up the ladder in this new corporate world order. It's a book for anyone who belongs to a non-dominant group, be it women, people of color, short people, or employees who don't play golf but whose bosses do.

An iconic teacher. A warm friend. A generous mentor. For more than 40 years, Howard Stevenson has been a towering figure at Harvard Business School: the man who literally defined entrepreneurship and taught thousands of the world’s most successful professionals. Now - spurred by Stevenson’s heart-stopping brush with death - his student, colleague, and dear friend Eric Sinoway shares the man’s wisdom and inspiration.

It can be easy to become task-oriented, focusing on the goals ahead of us and checking off our to-do lists rather than focusing on the people in our lives. Entrepreneur and business coach Brian Dixon set out to discover the secret to living a life that matters and finding work you love. In Start with Your People, Brian shares principles, tips, and personal stories to help you maximize the most important resource to succeed in both life and calling: relationships. Join Brian on a journey to discover the people-first mindset that changes everything.

What does it mean to lead with vision? In the first book devoted entirely to vision as a key leadership principle, the authors delve deeply into the notion that a compelling vision that motivates and inspires is a true differentiator for organizations that want to hire and retain talent, be more competitive, and thrive in uncertain times. But a compelling vision on its own is not enough, which is why the authors provide listeners with detailed analysis of the essential things leaders must do to effectively engage the workforce around that vision.

Does the voice in your head fill you with doubt? Are you working harder but accomplishing less? Does the life you’ve always hoped to live still elude you? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, it’s time to unleash the beast. In The Business Beast, Brian Dyer leads you down a fulfilling—but sometimes dark and lonely—path. Entering the wild is dangerous, but it offers rewards you can only begin to imagine, and you’ll be in good hands as Brian guides you through the four primal instincts of The Business Beast.

We are in a period of change. We need to think and act differently. The new world of work is significantly more digitized and decentralized than before—a transformation accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis. We need to orient ourselves differently to be successful, shifting from transactional to human-centric management, mindsets, and methods to deal with the faster pace of business developments, continuing uncertainties, more complex issues, and an increase in multidimensional projects.

Negotiating with a Bully will teach you how to skillfully deal with bullies in different forms and environments. You'll explore the mindset of a bully and understand the motivations and behavior so you can gain an advantage over him or her.

As a former Super Bowl-winning coach, Tony Dungy is an expert at building and bringing out the best in a team. Drawing on his experiences from years of coaching and working with other leaders, this football fable lays out four essential principles practiced by truly effective teams. Whether you aspire to be a better leader or a stronger team player, The Soul of a Team will show you how to contribute to a stronger, healthier, more productive team destined for success.

Short on time? Maybe you’ve already read the book, but need a refresh on the most important takeaways. In a quick, easy listen, you can take the main principles from E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It!