Organizational Behavior Leadership

Your only job as a leader is to make sure that Monday morning doesn't suck. At least, that’s what Eric Harkins thinks. In his first book, Eric talks about his 25-year journey working in corporate America and the many lessons he learned about leadership. He was lucky enough to work for a company that made sure Monday morning didn’t suck, but even luckier to work for several that didn’t. And he learned a lot about what it takes to create a culture high performers want to be a part of.

Is it possible to create a positive workforce in negative times? Yes, it is, says speaker, strategist and consultant Liz Jazwiec, RN. But first, you have to get real about how tough a job in healthcare really is and also about the negative things you and your staff members do to make it even tougher. In her audiobook, Liz gets real about all that and more. In her darkly humorous, ever-so-slightly sarcastic style - after all she was an ER nurse - she builds a case for the powerful benefits of a positive workplace.

Trust is the basis for all that we do as leaders and as organizations. Employees who trust their employers are more productive and creative. Businesses that earn their customers' trust maintain better relationships and reap better results. Meanwhile, breaches of trust between companies and the public are becoming more frequent—and more costly. If you read (or listen to) nothing else on trust, listen to these ten articles.

This timely and practical book is for any employee, manager, or leader who wants to understand mental health at a deeper level, and learn how to talk about it really well in the workplace.

Scott Page, a leading thinker, writer, and speaker whose ideas and advice are sought after by corporations, nonprofits, universities, and governments around the world, makes a clear and compellingly pragmatic case for diversity and inclusion. He presents overwhelming evidence that teams that include different kinds of thinkers outperform homogenous groups on complex tasks, producing what he calls "diversity bonuses".

Detonate explains how organizations built up bad habits, identifies which ones masquerade as "best practices", and suggests alternatives that can contribute to winning in the marketplace. With a focus on optimism and empowerment, it focuses on an approach and mindset which are critical to successfully compete in an era characterized by profound technological advances and uncertainty.

In the hospitality space, Three and Jackie Carpenter know full well the importance of leading teams who are loyal, engaged, and happy. Working in an industry where customer expectations are at an extreme, Three and Jackie have applied a mindset of treating employees like customers. They've developed a five-step roadmap to creating positive employee experiences and company cultures where connection is the crux of the team's success.

The Soul of Capitalism examines how the greatest wealth-creation engine in the history of the world is failing most of us, why it must be changed, and how intrepid pioneers are beginning to transform it. Best-selling author William Greider analyzes how our relentless pursuit of unprecedented affluence has eroded family life, eaten away at our sense of personal and professional security, corroded our communities, impoverished our spiritual lives, and devastated our natural environment.

It's people who make organizations great, so how can leaders best help their people achieve that greatness? As Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert show in this new edition of their best seller, you can't just demand greatness - you have to inspire it. The most effective leaders don't just stand in front of their people, they stand behind them too. As one of the characters in the book notes, "You qualify to be first by putting other people first."

Companies spend billions of dollars annually on diversity efforts, with remarkably few results. Too often diversity efforts rest on the assumption that all that's needed is an earnest conversation about "privilege." That's not enough. To truly make progress with diversity, equity and inclusion, we must focus less on documenting the problem and more on just stopping the transmission of it.

In a global survey by the Katzenbach Center, 80 percent of respondents believed that their organization must evolve to succeed. But a full quarter of them reported that a change effort at their organization had resulted in no visible results. Why? The fate of any change effort depends on whether and how leaders engage their culture: the self-sustaining patterns of behaving, feeling, thinking, and believing that determine how things are done in an organization.

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.

Artificial intelligence, big data, modern science, and the internet are all revealing a fundamental truth: The world is vastly more complex and unpredictable than we've allowed ourselves to see. Now that technology is enabling us to take advantage of all the chaos it's revealing, our understanding of how things happen is changing - and with it our deepest strategies for predicting, preparing for, and managing our world. This affects everything, from how we approach our everyday lives to how we make moral decisions and how we run our businesses.

When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition, experience, and big data alone don't work. What does? Running disciplined business experiments. And what if companies roll out new products or introduce new customer experiences without running these experiments? They fly blind. That's what Harvard Business School professor Stefan Thomke shows in this rigorously researched and eye-opening book.

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....

The Purpose Effect is aimed at both leaders and employees who wish to achieve a purpose mind-set on a personal level, for the organization where they are employed, and in their role at work, too. A business leader who is committed to purpose will create purpose for the organization. An employee who feels his/her personal sense of purpose is being fulfilled at work will be an invaluable asset to productivity and success.

What really drives workplace equity and inclusion - beyond strategies and systems? The truth is, all historically excluded persons who have broken through to greater levels of professional belonging and achievement have succeeded not by policy and systems change alone, but because of leaders who chose to remove barriers, open doors, and guide them toward their goals. The bottom line? Someone made a way for them. Using case studies, data, and candid storytelling, Tara Jaye Frank outlines how leaders with power and position can clear the path to workplace equity.

Bring Joy Back to Leadership—And Watch Your Team Thrive. Burnout is rampant. Employee disengagement is at an all-time high. Leaders are stuck between driving productivity and maintaining well-being—but what if the missing ingredient is joy? In Joyosity, leadership expert Jenn Whitmer presents a groundbreaking approach to workplace culture that prioritizes joy as a strategic advantage.

Imagine walking up to a stranger on the subway and asking them for their seat. What about asking a random person on the street if you could borrow their phone? If the idea makes you squeamish, you're not alone - social psychologists have found that doing these very things makes most of us almost unbearably uncomfortable. But here's the funny thing: even though we hate to ask for help, most people are wired to be helpful. And that's a good thing, because every day in the modern, uber-collaborative workplace, we all need to know when and how to call in the cavalry.

Imagine a world where personal and professional growth are combined, where improving your relationships and owning your strengths at work translate directly into the rest of your life. Creating a company culture like that is not a dream. Through personal stories and real-life conversations, Jonathan Raymond takes you into the room with managers and employees where real culture change happens and shows you a new kind of employee mentoring where each person gets the real-time feedback, support, and clear boundaries we all need.