Workplace Motivation

Jonathan Smart, business agility practitioner, thought leader, and coach, reveals the patterns and antipatterns that will help organizations from every industry deliver better value sooner, safer, and happier through high levels of engagement, inclusion, and empowerment. Through his decades of experience in the technology world, Smart provides business leaders with a blueprint for creating a world-class organization of the future.

The Fieldbook is an intensely pragmatic guide. It shows how to create an organization of learners where memories are brought to life, where collaboration is the lifeblood of every endeavor, and where the tough questions are fearlessly asked. The stories here show that companies, businesses, schools, agencies, and even communities can undo their “learning issues” and achieve superior performance. If ever a work gave meaning to the phrase hands-on, this is it.

Our individualistic society has created an environment of fear, division, and domination, which has crushed our ability to relate meaningfully to each other and diminished our capacity to innovate and collaborate. Jean Oelwang, president and founding CEO of Virgin Unite, has been on a decade-long exploration to find out how to nurture relationships with depth and purpose. Deep connections shape who we are and have a profound ripple effect on everything we do, supporting us to achieve more, withstand anything, and amplify impact.

The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership unpacks the fresh strategies and new mindset required today from a next-generation leader. Author Dr. Tim Elmore helps leaders of all kinds navigate increasingly complex, rapidly changing environments, as well as manage teams who bring a range of new demands and expectations to the workplace that haven’t been seen even one generation prior.

From the author of The Myth of Multitasking comes Invaluable, a business fable that empowers the frustrated and overworked to understand the value of their time. At the fictitious company GreenGarb, 20-something Jason is discontented with his entry-level position, feeling his skills and knowledge are being underutilized. Mid-level manager Tracy is overwhelmed by her workload and her needy direct reports. And CEO Helen needs them to sort it out productively.

What should our post-COVID work world look like? In Connected Capitalism, David Weitzner shows us how to draw from the classic teachings of Judaism in order to positively transform our workplaces and our working lives. He outlines a philosophy that will empower the disenchanted to build a stable future in a world of crony capitalism, global pandemics, racial injustice, and social disconnect. Weitzner, a professor of management who chooses to look beyond management and mindfulness, envisions a workplace based on the ancient Jewish practices of mitzvah.

This book will inspire you to: better understand the path women must take to leadership; learn the root causes of the barriers that exist for women in the workplace; check your own gender biases and distinguish between confidence and competence in your colleagues; manage a more effective gender-diversity program; recognize the issues women face when speaking up about bias or harassment; and help women reenter the workforce after taking time off-and create opportunities for them to reach their ambitions.

Kotter and co-author Dan S. Cohen delve deeper into the subject of change to get to the heart of how change actually happens. Through compelling, real-life stories from people in the trenches, in all kinds of organizations, the authors attack the fundamental problem that underlies every major transformation: How do you go beyond simply getting your message across to truly changing people's behavior?

What if you knew the science behind the magic - a science so predictive and powerful that you could transform your organization? What if you could use cutting-edge psychology to unlock people's innate desires to innovate, experiment, and adapt? In Primed to Perform, Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor show you how to do just that. The result: higher sales, more loyal customers, and more passionate employees.

A powerful story about the African philosophy of teamwork and collaboration that has the power to reshape our workplaces, our relationships with our coworkers, and our personal lives, written by the bestselling coauthor of Fish! and the bestselling author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.

Is success simply a matter of money and talent? Or is there another reason why some people and organizations always land on their feet, while others, equally talented, stumble again and again? There’s a fundamental principle at work—the vital but previously unexamined factor called confidence—that permits unexpected people to achieve high levels of performance through routines that activate talent. Confidence is the new theory and practice of success, explaining why success and failure are not mere episodes but self-perpetuating trajectories

When you care enough to champion others, the workplace becomes happily infectious and the organization benefits in more ways than one.

This transformative new era requires a radically different approach to leadership. The tactics put in place to reduce risk, drive success, and make us feel safe in the past are now the very things creating vulnerability today. In Leadering, Nancy Giordano provides clarity and urgency around what 21st century stewardship demands as exponential technologies and changing societal expectations converge to shape a better next. This audiobook challenges us to shift our outdated thinking and adopt the mindset we need to build the future we all want.

In this book, Mike Robbins dives deep into the ways great businesses build trust, collaborate, and operate at their peak level. As an expert in teamwork, leadership, and emotional intelligence, Mike draws on more than 20 years of experience working with top companies like Google and Microsoft, as well as his baseball career with the Kansas City Royals. And, while each team and organization have their own unique challenges, goals, and dynamics, there are some universal qualities that allow teams to truly come together and thrive.

The scenario is all too familiar: a qualified, motivated professional woman does everything she can think of to secure a coveted promotion. After years of investing her time and energy in the company, she is ready to advance. Later, she is shocked and dismayed to find that not only was she passed over, but the successful candidate had fewer qualifications and little to no familiarity with the practical side of the business. What happened?

In nearly every industry, smart machines are replacing human labor. It's not just factory jobs - automated technologies are handling people's investments, diagnosing illnesses, and analyzing written documents. If we humans are going to endure, Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig say we're going to need a dose of humility. We need to be humble enough to let go of the idea that "smart" means knowing the most, using that information quickest, and making the fewest mistakes. Smart machines will always be better than we are at those things.

While climbing the corporate ladder, Carla Harris sought career advice from her mentors and superiors but found some of the counsel too nonspecific. As Carla's career advanced, she discovered the key survival tools to business success and vowed that when she reached senior management and people came to her for advice she would provide them with specific, play-by-play answers about what they needed to do to fulfill their career potential.

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.

Face it, whether your company has 10 employees or 10,000, you must grapple with people you can't stand in the office. Luckily Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon have written I Hate People!, a smart, counter-intuitive, and irreverent turn on the classic workplace self-help book that will show you how to identify the Ten Least Wanted - the people you hate - while revealing the strategies to neutralize them.

This 10th anniversary edition of the beloved classic features 10 new stories written by Dr. Robbins that help listeners gain deeper insight into the role our brains play in shaping our thoughts and actions, and what we can do to be more curious and open-minded in our diverse world. Based on his study of the fields of behavioral science and cognitive neuroscience, Robbins explores unconscious bias in many of its forms, including availability bias, confirmation bias, anchoring bias, and others.