Work Leadership

Human connection affects much more than the bottom line. Organizations thrive when employees feel valued, the environment is energized, and high productivity and innovation are the norm. This requires a new kind of leader who fosters a culture of connection within the organization. An update to the popular first edition, Michael Stallard’s Connection Culture (Second Edition) provides a fresh way of thinking about leadership and offers recommendations for how to tap into the power of human connection.

Leadership Burnout and Recovery takes leaders on a voyage to recognize burnout, admit it, and discover a clear path to recovery. Don unleashes a plan to coach leaders to recapture their joy and never return to that dark, foggy place. Applying Don's proven principles also rejuvenates tired leaders who may be on the verge of burnout.

At the heart of John C. Maxwell's brilliant and inspiring program is a simple premise: To do well in life, we must first think well. But can we actually learn new mental habits? Thinking for a Change answers that with a resounding "yes" - and shows that your thinking can indeed change your life.

Every church and ministry goes through changes in leadership, and the issue is far bigger than the wave of pastors from the baby boomer generation who are moving toward retirement. When a pastor leaves a church, ministries are disrupted, and members drift away. If the church is already struggling, it can find itself suddenly in very dire straits indeed. But the outcome doesn't have to be that way. What if when a pastor moved on, the church knew exactly what to do to find a suitable replacement because a plan and a process had been in place for some time?

Conventional product development focuses on the solution. Empathy is a mindset that focuses on people, helping you to understand their thinking patterns and perspectives. Practical Empathy will show you how to gather and compare these patterns to make better decisions, improve your strategy, and collaborate successfully.

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.

Excellent communicating skills have always been crucial to success in leadership and management roles—and that's one of the reasons the first edition of this book has been an international bestseller taught at universities and referred to by leading CEOs. What's changed in the last ten years? Well, nothing—and everything. Mastering Communication at Work, Second Edition features an essential new chapter on remote team communication along with additional content on equitable leadership and updated case studies.

There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives listeners practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

This volume undertakes a study of the leadership substance and styles of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and Joseph—son of Jacob. Abraham leads from a position of the Father, while Isaac leads from a position of the Son at rest and at peace. Jacob transforms from the worldly and carnal into Israel, the spiritual and divine. He signifies how a believer can go from carnal to spiritual.

For innovation and leadership guru Hal Gregersen, the power of questions has always been clear - but it took some years for the follow-on question to hit him: If so much depends on fresh questions, shouldn’t we know more about how to arrive at them? That sent him on a research quest ultimately including more than 200 interviews with creative thinkers. Questions Are the Answer delivers the insights Gregersen gained about the conditions that give rise to catalytic questions - and breakthrough insights - and how anyone can create them.

Through powerful stories and proven principles, Step Up Your Teamwork teaches how to create momentum, prepare for success, prevent collapse, and turn a group of individuals into a high-functioning team. Frank Viscuso encourages each person to tap into individual talents, skills, and abilities and recognize how to use these skills to improve the team as a whole.

Should we even expect to be fulfilled and happy at work? Yes, we should, says Annie McKee, coauthor of the best-selling Primal Leadership. In her new transformative book, she makes the most compelling case yet that happiness - and the full engagement that comes with it - is more important than ever in today's workplace, and she sheds new light on the powerful relationship of happiness to individual, team, and organizational success.

You know you need to delegate some of your work so that you have time to focus on the things that require your expertise. But it's not easy to do.

You know the feeling: you can't focus; you feel increasingly overwhelmed by a mix of nonstop demands and technology that seems to be moving at the speed of light; and you're frustrated just trying to get everything done well--and on time. Not only is this taking a toll on performance, it's impacting your sense of well-being outside the office. It's time to reclaim control.

In lively prose that is as engaging as it is illuminating, Dattner tells a host of true stories of those he has worked with - from the woman who was so scapegoated by her colleagues that she decided to quit, to the clueless boss who was too quick to blame his staff. He shares a wealth of insight from the study of human evolution and psychology to reveal the underlying reasons why people are so prone to blaming and credit-grabbing; it's not only human nature, it's found throughout the animal kingdom.

"Middle manager." The term evokes a bygone industrial era in which managers functioned like cogs in a vast machine and bureaucracy ruled. In recent decades, midlevel managers became a favorite target for the chopping block—underappreciated, often considered a superfluous layer of the organization. Not only does this outdated perspective need to change, the future demands it. In Power to the Middle, McKinsey thought leaders Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock, and Emily Field call for a profound reimagining of what middle managers can and must be able to do.

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 world's leading safety experts share practical day-to-day solutions that combine the latest tools and technologies in healthcare today with the best safety practices from high-risk yet high-reliability industries, such as aviation, nuclear power, and the United States military. Using these field-tested methods, you can develop new leadership initiatives, educate workers on the universal skills that can save lives, organize and train safety action teams, implement reliability management systems, and create long-term, transformational change.

In this bold, enlightening book, social psychologist and professor Daniel M. Cable takes leaders into the minds of workers and reveals the surprising secret to restoring their zest for work. Disengagement isn't a motivational problem, it's a biological one. Humans aren't built for routine and repetition. We're designed to crave exploration, experimentation, and learning - in fact, there's a part of our brains, which scientists have coined "the seeking system", that rewards us for taking part in these activities. But the way organizations are run prevents many of us from following our innate impulses. As a result, we shut down.

Based on over 100 CEO interviews and a survey of nearly 14,000 employees, renowned leadership thought leader and futurist Jacob Morgan shares candid stories and original research that shows how leaders can tap into vulnerability to transform themselves, their teams, and their organizations. This book will show you why it's so crucial to lead with vulnerability and how to do it well.