Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy … [ Read more ]

Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead

Regardless of from which side of the desk one has experienced the rite known as the performance appraisal, there are many who will welcome the authors’ provocative proposal. Coens is an attorney and organizational trainer; Jenkins is a former human resources director at a division of General Motors. They acknowledge the countless books about performance appraisals and note that most suggest ways to make appraisal … [ Read more ]

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents … [ Read more ]

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? No, New York Times best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni, argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are. In this book, … [ Read more ]

The Commitment Engine: Making Work Worth It

The small-business guru behind Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine teaches readers how to establish lasting commitment in their employees, customers, and businesses.

Why are some companies able to generate committed, long-term customers while others struggle to stay afloat? Why do the employees of some organizations fully dedicate themselves while others punch the clock without enthusiasm?

By studying the ins and outs of companies … [ Read more ]

Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It Is Off Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood)

We swim in an ocean of feedback. Bosses, colleagues, customers—but also family, friends, and in-laws—they all have “suggestions” for our performance, parenting, or appearance. We know that feedback is essential for healthy relationships and professional development—but we dread it and often dismiss it.

That’s because receiving feedback sits at the junction of two conflicting human desires. We do want to learn and grow. And we also … [ Read more ]

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, … [ Read more ]

The Moment You Can’t Ignore: When Big Trouble Leads to a Great Future

“Moments that cannot be ignored” are events, actions, and comments that stop people in their tracks and, in one fell swoop, make it blindingly clear that an organization is stuck and unable to move forward. And they have become regular occurrences in today’s corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions as new forms of work, communication, and technology expose the ways in which an organization’s culture—or “the … [ Read more ]

Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the (In)Formal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results

From the bestselling coauthor of the business classic The Wisdom of Teams comes an all-new exploration of the modern workplace, and how leaders and managers must embrace it for success. Katzenbach and Khan examine how two distinct factions together form the bigger picture for how organizations actually work: the more defined “formal” organization of a company-the management structure, performance metrics, and processes-and the “informal”-the culture, … [ Read more ]

Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our … [ Read more ]

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?

The primary obstacle is a conflict that’s built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. … [ Read more ]

Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder: Creating Value by Investing in Your Workforce

Most managers assume that surviving, especially in recessions, requires slashing wages, benefits, and other workforce expenses. And lowest-skilled workers are often viewed as the most expendable.

In Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder, Jody Heymann overturns these assumptions. Drawing from thousands of interviews with employees from front line to C-suite at companies around the world, Heymann shows how enterprises have profited more by improving working … [ Read more ]

Reflections on Leadership and Career Development

This book collects and updates articles written over the past three decades by one of the foremost proponents of what might be termed—though probably not by its practitioners—the psychoanalytic school of leadership. It’s the second in a trilogy whose not completely felicitous subtitle gives away the author’s bias: “On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries.” [s+b annotation]

Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance

It is taken for granted in the knowledge economy that companies must employ the most talented performers to compete and succeed. Many firms try to buy stars by luring them away from competitors. But Boris Groysberg shows what an uncertain and disastrous practice this can be.

After examining the careers of more than a thousand star analysts at Wall Street investment banks, and conducting more than … [ Read more ]

Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations

Every leader has to make sure that employees are aligned with the overall corporate strategy it’s fundamental to running a successful business. Until recently, though, the tools for doing so were blunt at best, laughable at worst. Now, corporate leaders’ toolboxes overflow with different gear that can enable them to engage with their employees, to communicate the firm’s strategy, and, equally critically, to listen as … [ Read more ]

Productive Workplaces: Dignity, Meaning, and Community in the 21st Century: 25th Anniversary Edition

This third edition of the classic resource, Productive Workplaces is smart, well-written and well-researched, thoughtful, somewhat provocative, and a one-of-a-kind review of the integration of economics, technology, and people. It covers such topics as: the work on self as integral to organizational change; the revision of Lewinian concepts for a new era; and the history behind “getting everybody improving whole systems” as a response to … [ Read more ]

Reading the Room: Group Dynamics for Coaches and Leaders

In Reading the Room, renowned systems psychologist and family therapist David Kantor applies his theory of structural dynamics to help leaders and coaches understand and improve communication within their teams. He helps readers understand how and why they and their teams communicate differently when faced with low-stakes or high-stakes situations, and he provides a framework to help improve leadership behavior in high-stakes situations.

Acknowledging that early … [ Read more ]

The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly

In a world facing increasing complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty, it is both good and necessary to be reminded of deeper truths and practical principles for creating lasting change. Winner of the Nautilus Award for Conscious Business and Leadership, this book is for leaders, groups, communities, and networks desiring to increase our human capacity for creativity, well being, and social change. The Power of Collective Wisdom … [ Read more ]

The Four Conversations: Daily Communication That Gets Results

Talk is powerful. And it isn’t just `difficult’ conversations that matter–the everyday dialogue we have with one another is critical to both personal and organizational success. Packed with sample dialogues and dozens of personal stories, and backed by solid research and the authors’ firsthand observations, The Four Conversations describes how to get maximum results from conversations that every one of us must use to get … [ Read more ]

Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor

In Transparency, the authors – a powerhouse trio in the field of leadership – look at what conspires against “a culture of candor” in organizations to create disastrous results, and suggest ways that leaders can achieve healthy and honest openness. They explore the lightning-rod concept of “transparency” – which has fast become the buzzword not only in business and corporate settings but in government and … [ Read more ]