The Optimistic Workplace: Creating an Environment That Energizes Everyone

Murphy, Shawn/ Clark, Dorie (Get this book)

Eschewing the "m" word (manager) in favor of "coach," "mentor," "leader," "guide," and "steward," and setting aside the quasi-military concept of command and control, Murphy sets traditional motivational and management theory on its ear. A consultant with decades of experience, the author is solidly in the camp of practitioners emphasizing the human side of organizations as a reliable path to higher motivation and greater innovation; this emphasis, he says, also means bottom-line benefits in enhanced productivity and profits. VERDICT Including the appendix's 12-week actionable plan for transitioning to an optimistic workplace, progressive managers will find this fascinating book an insightful basis for reexamining heirloom beliefs and evolving toward enlightened practices.--Library Journal

by Ravi Batra     (Get the Book)
A novel publishing strategy stands behind this book. After holding an enthusiastic audience with then-speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Southern Methodist University professor with unique economy-busting ideas is then referred to (at the time) fed chairman Ben Bernanke. Nothing happens. So why not write a book? Batra, in an atypical academic fashion, details all the issues that led up to the U.S. wage gap, horrendous oil prices, and high interest rates—and, yes, a loomingly alarming high-unemployment rate. He does so in simple English (no economists’ jargon), plain charts and graphs, and a straightforward approach that compels without selling. Part 1 diagnoses all possible issues, from oligarchy (the concentration of wealth) to monopoly capitalism and wage gaps throughout the world, ending with an intriguing town-hall-style debate. Part 2 is the cure, with some startling yet commonsense recommendations, such as don’t allow mergers and acquisitions among large and profitable firms; reform the FDIC as a bridge bank and competitor to other financial institutions; raise the minimum wage; and offer five-year bonds for retirees at a fixed-interest rate of 3.5 percent, among others. Much food for thoughts; write your congresspeople now. --Booklist

The ABCs of Property Management: What You Need to Know to Maximize Your Money Now

THE ABC'S OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT by Ken Mcelroy tells readers:

• How to decide when to manage your property and when to hire someone to do it
• How to implement the right systems and structures for your investment
• How to manage and maximize cash flow
• What to expect: A month in the life of an owner-manager
• How to find the right property manager (and avoid the wrong ones)
• How to assemble a superior management team

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Data-Ism: The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else

by Steve Lohr    (Get the Book)
It is rare these days to read the news or browse a bookshelf without encountering the mention of "big data." In this book, New York Times journalist Lohr (Go To) uses his Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting skills to dig into and explain the power, pervasiveness, and potential downside of big data. Lohr begins with a short introduction to the concept and moves through examples from numerous industries that show how this type of data is generated and used. He goes on to describe the burgeoning role of "data scientist," and explains how much of the power of big data comes from its ability to show correlations that would not be evident through smaller-scale comparisons. He also showcases several big data projects that aim to model human behavior with a goal of providing personalized services. The final two chapters in the book address privacy concerns related to data mining and the future of big data. VERDICT A quick read that will appeal widely to readers looking to get up to speed on this popular topic. --Library Journal

Do the Kind Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately

by Daniel Lubetzky     (Get the Book)
Renowned social entrepreneur Lubetzky grew up in Mexico, the son of a Holocaust-survivor father. He was on the verge of a legal career when he set off for a project in the Middle East to reduce conflict by developing a common economic enterprise. The experience taught him the potential and value of doing good while doing business and is the driving philosophy behind KIND—­nutritional snacks that encourage consumers to be kind to their bodies and to others. At the heart of his philosophy is the notion of AND—that we do not have to accept the limitations of the false choices of either/or. Lubetzky declares that accepting AND opens up creative possibilities. He outlines nine themes to his philosophy, including purpose, grit, truth and discipline, and originality. He also shares examples of each from his business and professional life, including the hypercompetitiveness of the food market and lucrative offers to sell. Even as the food market has since become flooded with cause-marketing and healthy snacks, Lubetzky has maintained an anchor on health, taste, and social responsibility.  --Booklist

Marketing Above the Noise

Linda J. Popky    (Get the Book)
There have been many changes in marketing tools, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Popky, president of Leverage2Market Associates, writes: "By 2013, Facebook already had well over a billion users…. However, depending on your business, not all of these people (and perhaps just a small subgroup of them) are using their Facebook accounts in the context of your business." The author advocates getting above the "noise" of today's trending marketing tools and tactics and developing "long-term strategies that build customer loyalty and convince prospects to buy." She has created the Dynamic Marketing Leverage Model, which looks at key elements "critical to the success" of serious marketing initiatives and is comprised of eight areas of focus: strategy, products, customers, brand, communication, market analysis, operations, and sales channels. She examines the five momentum factors that move an organization forward: organizational commitment, resources, people, technology, and environment. --Library Journal

Thirteeners: Why only 13% of companies successfully execute their strategy

by Daniel F. Prosser     (Get the Book)
Prosser, former CEO of Telman Technology Partners, has a theory about why 87% of companies each year fail to carry out the strategy they had previously decided on. According to him, their problem is not a lack of foresight or smarts, but that they don’t know how to talk amongst themselves. Moreover, he writes, it’s not enough that employees just agree with a company’s mission; they need to feel love both for and from their leadership. If this suggestion seems extreme, consider Prosser’s lengthy business experience, paired with his interests: for instance, he is a devotee of research professor Brené Brown and her studies on “the power of vulnerability” (to borrow the title of her TED talk). In chatty, engaging prose, Prosser urges readers to better understand why employees aren’t executing strategies and how an “execution virus” can infect a workplace. Most important, in his opinion, is that business leaders always, always keep open the lines of communication. Though some readers may find the proliferation of buzzwords and trademarks off-putting, Prosser’s can-do attitude, paired with the book’s wealth of worksheets and easy-to-use exercises, make this an appealing and encouraging guide to success through improved communication. --Publishers Weekly

Bold: How to Go Big, Achieve Success, and Impact the World

by Peter H. Diamandis     (Get the Book)
Through their work with the Abundance 360 community, Flow Genome Project, Singularity University, XPRIZE Foundation, and AbundanceHub.com, the authors offer entrepreneurs access to exponential tools and technologies to realize wealth and abundance. The Exponential Framework is described as following the “6Ds,” which include Deception and Disruption but lead to Democratization. As an example of the shift from the linear growth of the past to the exponential growth happening now, in 2012 Kodak, a hundred-year-old giant with 140,000 employees and a 1996 valuation of $28 billion, filed for bankruptcy, while the same year the photo-sharing service Instagram, with 13 employees, was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion. The authors describe technologies that are following this course, like 3D printing and robotics, and tools that make exponential growth possible, such as cloud computing and crowd funding. They profile four of the prime movers who have harnessed this power to build multibillion-dollar companies that changed the world: Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Larry Page. --Booklist

The Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

by Guy kawasaki     (Get the Book)
Kawasaki (Haas Executive Fellow, Univ. of California Berkley's Haas Sch. of Business; chief evangelist, online design service Canva; coauthor, The Art of Social Media) here fully revises and expands 2004's The Art of the Start. His goal is to "make entrepreneurship easier for you," and he does so by arranging this book within categories: Conception (the art of starting up); Activation (launching, leading, bootstrapping, fundraising, pitching); Proliferation (building a team, evangelizing, socializing, rainmaking—generating larger quantities of sales); and Obligation (how to become someone ethical, graceful, and admirable). This very practical guide takes readers through the steps needed to launch a successful business. Nitty-gritty topics covered include: regulatory compliance, how to raise seed capital, how to present a good demo to an audience of venture capitalists, selecting a name for the company, hiring employees and building the team, pitching the start-up and product, and effective use of social media. Each chapter includes a further-reading list and exercises (e.g., "go to websites of your favorite companies and try to find information about how to apply for grants and volunteer for the company"). Kawasaki also includes FAQs related to the start-up process and microchapters on subtopics, for example, "The Art of Leading" offers the minichapter "How To Manage your Board." VERDICT An excellent guide packed with valuable information for students, would-be entrepreneurs, and practicing entrepreneurs. --Library Journal

The Power Formula for Linkedin Success: Kick-Start Your Business, Brand, and Job Search

by Wayne Breitbarth     (Get the Book)
Those who dismiss the power of LinkedIn as a job-search tool in the new information era, take heed. LinkedIn is not a fad. The website relies on social media to allow users to connect and exponentially broaden their professional networks. Breitbarth argues that users have nothing to fear but everything to gain from taking full advantage of the new frontier of online networking. Geared toward professionals looking for a change or out-of-work jobseekers, the author sets out to transform anxiety into action. Leading the reader through his own journey from skeptic to LinkedIn enthusiast and trainer, Breitbarth extols the benefits of creating a well-crafted LinkedIn account. In 20 short chapters, the author provides step-by-step instructions for creating a meaty, effective LinkedIn account. The book's well-documented catalogue of contents will allow readers to conveniently flip to areas of interest, and the author's easy-to-follow instructions will shepherd newbies through a variety of topics. Among them: how to build your professional network, how to make new connections and, most importantly, how to find a job. --Kirkus

Coined : the rich life of money and how its history has shaped us

by Kabir Sehgal     (Find the Book)
Sehgal worked for Lehman Brothers and had a front-row seat when it failed. Now a vice president with J.P. Morgan, the author has a self-professed obsession to understand money. This book was written not to be a definitive work but to spark the reader's curiosity about the subject. Divided into three sections, it covers the mind (why—biology, psychology, and anthropology), the body (what—hard, soft, and future), and the soul (how—values and creativity) of money. From the history of currency as a storage of surplus value to the future of it as digital legal tender, Sehgal investigates it all with best- and worst-case scenarios. Using a bit of a scattergun approach, he takes the reader from the Galápagos Islands, the vaults under New York City, and excavations in Bangladesh as he shows that money is a symbol of what man values. While the study of money can be a never-ending pursuit, the author acknowledges that just as humankind has shaped and created money, so money has shaped and created civilization. VERDICT While not an exhaustive discussion of money's history and future, Sehgal's book is a worthwhile treatment for the curious. --Library Journal

Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities

by Chad Broughton   (Get the Book)
As with many abstract concepts, globalization is best appreciated—or not—in terms of its effects. Other writers have used the products of globalization (jeans, T-shirts, etc.) to illustrate their points. Here, Broughton (senior lecturer, public policy studies, Univ. of Chicago) demonstrates the outcomes with his tale of two cities. Galesburg, IL, in America's Rust Belt, was the site of a massive Maytag plant that cranked out refrigerators in the 1990s and early 2000s. When the company hit hard times in 2004, it transferred manufacturing to its spanking-new maquila (a production operation in a free-trade zone) in Reynosa, a Mexican border city on the Rio Grande. Broughton introduces readers to workers on both sides of the border. As their daily lives, families, aspirations, and struggles come into focus, globalization puts on a very human face. Mexican workers migrate from the agrarian economy of Veracruz to the northern border maquiladoras (factory towns) in hopes of a better life—many to find they've merely escaped the shadows of feudalism for the equally dark side of capitalism. Displaced Maytag workers in Galesburg struggle to support their families in lower-wage work, prepare for other careers, or move out of town. VERDICT As the economic watchword of the millennium, globalization is a cliché. But this story reveals the truly local results of this phenomenon. Though there aren't a lot of winners on the front lines, as in any good Dickens narrative, this tale shows that the human spirit rises above would-be captors. --Library Journal

The opposite of spoiled : raising kids who are grounded, generous, and smart about money

by Ron Lieber     (Get the Book)
Next to discussions about sex and drugs, talk about money is probably the hardest for parents to have with their children. Lieber, “Your Money” columnist with the New York Times, answers sticky questions about matters ranging from allowances to student loan debt to deeper concerns about how to know when one’s children are too obsessed with money and material things. Delving into behavioral economics, Lieber advises parents to take into account the emotional aspects of money, including the role of social media in churning desires to spend. He also tackles worries about downward mobility and how to prepare children for future prospects that may not be as secure as their parents’. Through stories of families from varied geographical locales and economic classes, Lieber focuses on values and virtues to encourage in children to ensure they will not be spoiled, including generosity, patience, and perseverance. Using those virtues, Lieber guides parents in conveying the value and significance of money and how to use it wisely, how to spend and save, how to give and invest. Parents will appreciate the sound advice and broad perspective Lieber offers on this important subject. --Booklist

The hidden leader : discover and develop greatness within your company

by Scott K. Edinger      (Get the Book)Consultants Edinger and Sain explore the idea of hidden leaders: those who act like leaders regardless of their position or job description. These employees, the authors argue, are key assets, essential to the success of any company to which they belong but typically lacking the "positional power" of upper-management jobs. The book identifies four facets of this leadership style: integrity, interpersonal skills, being results oriented, and being customer focused. Edinger and Sain spend considerable ink detailing how managers can find hidden leaders and create new ones by helping their employees develop new skills. Throughout, they provide numerous worksheets and assessment tools, both in the book itself and on a number of online platforms created by the authors, closing with a checklist of traits common to hidden leaders. Debunking the myth that leadership is all about status and power, this book suggests that employees at any level can motivate those around them, drive performance, and improve an organization's bottom line. --Publisher's Weekly

Landscapes of change : innovative designs and reinvented sites

by Roxi Thoren                (Get the Book)
The nature of landscape architecture has changed, owing in part to the changes in nature, both Mother and human. As the effects of climate change are being felt and anticipated, the consequences of decades of narrowly focused economic, social, and political policies are reconfiguring how our cities, suburbs, and open spaces need to function in order to achieve maximum impact with minimum disruption. With so much at stake, today's urban planners need to rely on landscape architects as integral members of their team from the outset rather than end-stage consultants called in to add aesthetic interest to their engineered creations. By showcasing more than two dozen visually, socially, ecologically, and technically stunning sites, Thoren identifies innovative landscape interpretations that are being applied to today's most challenging infrastructure problems. She also celebrates visionary landscape architects who are creating a paradigm shift within their profession. Five types of sites are profiled, from the resurgence of ecological urbanism that incorporates and highlights natural systems within a city environment to edible landscapes that develop agricultural oases in the heart of urban food deserts. Taking readers on an intriguing international journey, Thoren eloquently profiles the vanguard of imaginative, artistic, and inspired designers who are creating an invaluable legacy for their profession and the land itself.