Workplace Motivation

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.

Most companies talk about excellence, but what does excellence really mean? What specific attitudes and practices lead to excellence? Drawing on years of study and decades of experience, authors Harry Paul, John Britt, and Ed Jent have zeroed in on five core qualities of excellence. In this entertaining and enlightening book, they tell how to give and be your best in each of these five critical dimensions and foster excellence in your organization and in your life.

You can own a beautiful home. You can own a vintage sports car. And a yacht. But none of these external things will ever change how you feel about life and yourself. The truth is we get frustrated and disappointed with life because we don’t focus on owning the right thing. Without knowing how to own and manage our inner world, there will always be something missing. You’ll still feel empty and unfulfilled.

Whether interviewing, selling, networking, or leading a team, brainstorming with the boss or delivering a presentation, success in business depends on connecting with other people. Nicholas Boothman, the best-selling author who consults with Fortune 500 companies, now brings his system of forging instant relationships to the world of business. Beginning with the simplest of tools (face, body, attitude, and voice) he shows how to make a dazzling first impression.

Change-Friendly Leadership: How to Transform Good Intentions into Great Performance is a simple affirmation that successful organizational change involves - requires, in fact - the active, willful participation of the people affected by the change. In the change approach prescribed here, the friendly factor is not just a play on words; it is the very foundation for effectively engaging people's heads, hearts, and hopes.

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.

Maverick marketing whiz Mike Veeck offers you his simple, no-fail formula for business success!

Drawing on his own experience and the success stories of clients and others who have benefited from his philosophy, Veeck shows how fun, creativity, and passion can bring out the best in an organization and an individual.

The "Fun Is Good" philosophy applies to everyone, whether you're the CEO or lower on the totem pole.

In the wake of economic downturn, foreign competition, spiking oil prices, and even war, American business throughout this decade has been thrust into crisis. To improve their performance, corporations everywhere have adopted a wide range of tools and techniques, yet many continue to struggle. Going Lean points to a better way.

The Big Moo is a simple audiobook in the tradition of Fish and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. Instead of lecturing you, it tells stories that stick to your ribs and light your fire. It will help you to create a culture that consistently delivers remarkable innovations.

After a career of navigating in the dark, Hang Thi Yen Black shares her story of breaking free from the confines of generic formulas to become a tenacious woman, mother, and Silicon Valley leader armed with skill, will, and tenacity. Hang's motivation is simple—pave the path with nearly three decades of experience developing resources and resilience so that other women, marginalized by cultural biases, may learn how to level the playing field and arrive at any destination they choose on their own merits, on their own terms, with dignity and authenticity.

Friendship expert Shasta Nelson unpacks the distinct ways we can make work relationships the healthiest they can be, both for the sake of the employee and the mission of the company. She inspires listeners to see why friendship is crucial to our health and our careers, and teaches us exactly how to develop the supportive and meaningful connections we need.

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?

Perhaps you find it difficult to address issues or excess workload with your manager, leading to working yourself to your limits before suffering burnout. Or maybe you have a member of your team or a friend that is struggling with burnout at work, and you want to learn how you can help them.

What if you didn’t have to change everything in your career to change your life at work? There’s a fresh answer to help you make better career decisions without resorting to the drastic measures of changing careers, finding a new job, starting a business, or bowing to an early and unwanted retirement - and without settling or sacrificing your health, family life, and well-being. Darcy Eikenberg shares simple, practical ways to reset how you think, revise what you say, and rescue your career without quitting, feeling stuck, or changing everything in your life.

Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley deliver a guidebook for leaders navigating the uncertainty of a post pandemic world in this sequel to The Adaptation Advantage. Leaders today must acknowledge and respond to the fundamental shifts that lay the foundation for effective leadership: From managing people to enabling success, from viewing peers as competitors to seeing them as collaborators, from applying extrinsic pressure on workers to unlocking intrinsic motivation, and from driving productivity with unquestioned authority to inspiring value creation by leading with empathy.

Despite our deep desire to feel a sense of belonging, many of us feel isolated. The rise of technology and modern workplace practices have led people to be even more disconnected, even as we remain constantly contactable. And as our human interactions have decreased, so too have our happiness levels. This is sparking a crisis in mental health that will have repercussions for years, leaving people lonelier and organizations less productive and profitable, too.

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.

We've decided by consensus that consensus is good. In In Defense of Troublemakers, psychologist Charlan Nemeth argues that this principle is completely wrong: left unchallenged, the majority opinion is often biased, unoriginal, or false. It leads planes and markets to crash, causes juries to convict innocent people, and can quite literally make people think blue is green. In the name of comity, we embrace stupidity. We can make better decisions by embracing dissent. Dissent forces us to question the status quo, consider more information, and engage in creative decision-making.

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.

“You don’t have to turn into a corporate drone to kick ass in the working world,” says inspirational speaker Tania Katan. After more than ten years of smuggling creativity into the business sector, Katan is here to tell you that any task or pursuit can be a creative one. You just need to be willing to defy conformity and be ready to conjure imagination anywhere, at any time. That’s where Creative Trespassing comes in.