Leadership

Why do only a few people get to say “I love my job”? It seems unfair that finding fulfillment at work is like winning a lottery; that only a few lucky ones get to feel valued by their organizations, to feel like they belong. Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders are creating environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.  In his travels around the world since the publication of his bestseller Start with Why, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams were able to trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives were offered, were doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?

Leaders struggle every day to have influence, battle stress, and create the future. Each day seems to spawn three problems for every one that gets solved. New initiatives fail, senior managers and investors grow impatient, and direct reports can chafe at feedback. Steven Snyder has a message for junior leaders and CEO's alike - this is all perfectly normal and part of the job. The myth of the perfectly confident, unflappable, and poised leader is just that - a myth. Snyder builds on more than 30 years as an executive, CEO, and academic to provide a blueprint for growing through adversity. He has studied nearly 100 senior executives to distill what really matters most in becoming a great leader. His main takeaway is that the struggle never goes away, and real growth only becomes possible when leaders become willing to learn.

In The Type B Manager, Victor Lipman offers a unique lens through which to view the challenging problems of management. While management has long been considered the realm of Type A individuals - hard-driving, competitive high achievers - all too often these high-intensity traits aren't effective when it comes to motivating your employees. Many characteristics of Type B individuals - being more relaxed, less competitive, more reflective, slower to anger - can be considered 'people skills' that better influence motivation and productivity.

"Bob Chapman, CEO of the $1.7 billion manufacturing company Barry-Wehmiller, is on a mission to change the way businesses treat their employees." - Inc. Magazine Starting in 1997, Bob Chapman and Barry-Wehmiller have pioneered a dramatically different approach to leadership that creates off-the-charts morale, loyalty, creativity, and business performance. The company utterly rejects the idea that employees are simply functions, to be moved around, "managed" with carrots and sticks, or discarded at will. Instead, Barry-Wehmiller manifests the reality that every single person matters, just like in a family. That's not a cliché on a mission statement; it's the bedrock of the company's success. During tough times a family pulls together, makes sacrifices together, and endures short-term pain together. If a parent loses his or her job, a family doesn't lay off one of the kids. That's the approach Barry-Wehmiller took when the Great Recession caused revenue to plunge for more than a year. Instead of mass layoffs, they found creative and caring ways to cut costs, such as asking team members to take a month of unpaid leave. As a result, Barry-Wehmiller emerged from the downturn with higher employee morale than ever before.."

When it comes to negotiation, there is an ugly double standard. As women, if we make concessions to further a deal, we're viewed as weak. But if we play hardball, we can be seen as overly aggressive-and the strategy backfires. No wonder most women hate negotiating. In Your Own Terms, negotiation expert Yasmin Davidds helps women strike a balance, merging our natural strengths (collaboration, relationship building, listening) with a firm grasp of established tactics. Guidelines, stories, and exercises illuminate the psychology of negotiation and reveal how women can: Control how they are perceived - Eliminate self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors - Discover their personal negotiation style - Envision the ideal outcome and map backwards -Build leverage - Understand an opponent's approach and adjust theirs in response - Deploy persuasion and redirection tactics - And much more Set the bar high and negotiate to get there. With this empowering book, women learn the skills to win on their own terms-and open doors they never knew were shut. "