Workplace Leadership

The greatest threat we face is not robots replacing us, but our reluctance to reinvent ourselves. We live in an age of wonder: cars that drive themselves, devices that anticipate our needs, and robots capable of everything from advanced manufacturing to complex surgery. Automation, algorithms, and AI will transform every facet of daily life, but are we prepared for what that means for the future of work, leadership, and creativity?

We all know that IQ, education, knowledge, and technical skills are essential for professionals, but they alone are insufficient for effective leadership. Who you are as a person - your personality and character - drives leadership performance and determines who thrives and who fails. In Personality at Work, psychologist Ron Warren lays out the key personality traits that drive high performance - and the common traits that derail it.

You want maximum business performance? Look under the hood, and you'll find your employee culture: It is the power that drives the enterprise engine. To harness that rumbling power, you've got to solve the mystery of what an employee culture actually is, how it operates, and how to move it forward. These are the keys that this audiobook will put right in your hands.

"Empowerment" can be a mind-numbing topic, but in The 3 Keys to Empowerment, Ken Blanchard and his coauthors use concrete examples, a Q&A format, case histories, and entertaining comments to keep the discussion lively. The authors show that empowerment is not about giving people power, it's about releasing the power they already have.

Remote and hybrid workplaces are here to stay, and they pose formidable obstacles that complicate managing projects and launching new products. Against this backdrop arrives Project Management in the Hybrid Workplace. In his inimitable style, Simon adeptly fuses critical research and concepts from a slew of diverse and seemingly unrelated fields, including Agile software development, human resources, supply-chain management, organizational behavior, cognitive psychology, and labor economics. Brimming with case studies, insights, and practical advice, the book is a tour de force.

Being empathetic at work means seeing the situation from another’s perspective, and using that vantage point to shape your leadership style, workplace culture, and branding strategy. Pairing her knowledge as a branding expert with proven research and fascinating stories from executives, change makers, and community leaders, Maria Ross reveals exactly how empathy makes brands and organizations stronger and more successful.

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.

Look behind-the-scenes at the firm behind WordPress.com and the unique work culture that contributes to its phenomenal success, The Year Without Pants shares what every organization can learn from the world-changing ideas for the future of work at the heart of Automattic's success....

You don't have to do a dangerous job to endure a health-destroying, possibly life-threatening workplace. Just ask the manager in a senior finance role whose immense workload required frequent all-nighters, leading to alcohol and drug addiction. Or the dedicated news media producer whose commitment to getting the story resulted in a 60-pound weight gain thanks to having no down time to eat properly or exercise. These individuals are not exceptions. Every industry is filled with them, and the costs, to both employees and their companies, is enormous.

In Mastering Civility, Christine Porath shows how people can enhance their influence and effectiveness with civility. Combining scientific research with fascinating evidence from popular culture and fields such as neuroscience, medicine, and psychology, this audiobook provides managers and employers with a much-needed wake-up call, while also reminding them of what they can do right now to improve the quality of their workplaces.

Culture has become the hottest word in today's organizational lexicon. From boardrooms to locker rooms, everyone's talking about the critical link between culture and extraordinary team performance. Yet, as clear as that link may be, understanding what culture is, and what to do about it, has always been so murky. Until now. In this game-changing audiobook, David Friedman cuts through the fog and provides a simple, clear, and practical roadmap for building a high-performing culture - in any organization.

Cynthia Shapiro is a former human resources executive who's pulling back the curtain on the way that companies really work. In Corporate Confidential, she unmasks startling truths and what you can do about them. Shapiro pulls no punches, giving listeners an inside look at a secret world of hidden agendas they would never normally see: a world of insider information and insights that can save a career.

Black Faces in High Places is the essential guide for Black professionals who are moving up through their organizations or industries but need a roadmap for how to get to the top and stay there. Based on the authors' considerable experiences in business, in the public eye, and as a minority, the book shows how African-American professionals can (and must) think and act both entrepreneurially and "intrapreneurially".

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?

Workplace finger-pointing stifles creativity, reduces productivity, and limits psychological safety. Although no one sets out to be judgmental, learning new habits is hard. Two experienced leadership and agilists coaches share a road-tested leadership model that continuously embraces humility and failure as part of the growth process to deliver results. By facilitating blame-free retrospective meetings, leaders chart a productive path forward. They amplify three essential motivators of purpose, autonomy, and co-intelligence within their team, layered on with four resilience factors.

For decades there have been two iconic Japanese auto companies. One has been endlessly studied and written about. The other has been generally underappreciated and misunderstood. Until now. Since its birth as a motorcycle company in 1949, Honda has steadily grown into the world’s fifth largest automaker and top engine manufacturer, as well as one of the most beloved, most profitable, and most consistently innovative multinational corporations.

Hierarchy in organizations is obsolete. There is a better way: one that increases the engagement of employees and managers alike, reduces micromanaging and other limiting approaches, and promotes organizational and individual success. In this book, self-management expert Samantha Slade presents seven concrete practices to help your organization flatten its existing hierarchy and develop a horizontal organization. The result will be enhanced creativity, greater growth, and an increased employee retention and productivity - and a better bottom line.

Leaders today must navigate their teams and organizations through unprecedented levels of uncertainty. It feels like every year there is some-game changing technology or catastrophe that gives rise to a “new normal” and sends businesses scrambling for how to rethink themselves to operate under these new conditions. K. Scott Griffith, a former airline pilot, socio-technical physicist, and author of the first independently audited high reliability and just culture model, offers practical and proven methods to build processes that will withstand the winds of uncertainty while driving success.

Get more of the communication ideas you want, from the authors you trust. With insights from leading experts, this book will inspire you to: rethink how you give feedback to employees; ask questions to encourage learning and the exchange of ideas; invest in the right virtual communication tools for your team or business; establish a language strategy for your company; negotiate effectively with anyone - including liars; and present data more powerfully using visualization.

Developing a successful workforce requires more than a gut check. Data can help guide your decisions on everything from where to seat a team to optimizing production processes to engaging with your employees in ways that ring true to them. People analytics is the study of your number one business asset - your people - and this book shows you how to collect data, analyze that data, and then apply your findings to create a happier and more engaged workforce.