The Why! Company

   Now, Discover Your Strengths - Marcus Buckingham

Effectively managing personnel - as well as one's own behavior - is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success. That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the coauthors' popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated and explains how to build a "strengths-based organization" by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

   First, Break All the Rules - Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman expose the fallacies of standard management thinking in First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. In seven chapters, the two consultants for the Gallup Organization debunk some dearly held notions about management, such as "treat people as you like to be treated"; "people are capable of almost anything"; and "a manager's role is diminishing in today's economy." "Great managers are revolutionaries," the authors write. "This book will take you inside the minds of these managers to explain why they have toppled conventional wisdom and reveal the new truths they have forged in its place."

   Driving Fear Out of the Workplace - Kathleen Ryan

Much has changed since Driving Fear Out of the Workplace first made the undiscussable discussable back in 1991. Advances in technology, new employee/employer relations, and the corporate push to optimize intellectual capital have introduced a host of new workplace anxieties that, left unaddressed, can seriously inhibit individual performance and cripple a company's ability to compete. Which is why, in this revised edition, authors Ryan and Oestreich revisit their original, best-selling work to confront the fears that permeate today's organizations--so that they can become the high-trust, high-performance organizations of tomorrow. This insightful book digs deeply into the root causes of fear and the pervasive 'flu of mistrust' that weakens motivation and commitment.

   Managing at the Speed of Change - Daryl Conner

In this clinical study cum management guide, psychologist and business lecturer Conner discusses change as an inevitable, often disorienting element of the modern worker's business life. Citing the dysfunction likely to occur among employees facing corporate-merger upheavals or new high-tech equipment, he defines "resilience" as essential to viewing change as an "understandable and manageable process." Conner charts a system of "support patterns" for achieving transitions at "appropriate" speed. Also essential to successful navigation of change, he observes, is "interdependent synergy," exemplified by the cooperation of a foxhole gunner and his ammo-toting partner, at every corporate level.

   Punished by Rewards - Alfie Kohn

Kohn shows how rewards of all sorts undermine our efforts to teach students, manage workers, and raise children. Although aimed at a general audience, the book is based on extensive research and documented with almost 100 pages of notes and references. The first six review the behaviorist tradition and lay out in a clear and convincing manner Kohn's central argument that "pop behaviorism" is dangerously prevalent in our society. Here Kohn discusses why rewards, including praise, fail to promote lasting behavior change or enhance performance and frequently make things worse.

Contending that competition in all areas - school, family, sports and business - is destructive, and that success so achieved is at the expense of another's failure, Kohn advocates a restructuring of our institutions to replace competition with cooperation. He persuasively demonstrates how the ingrained American myth that competition is the only normal and desirable way of life - from Little Leagues to the presidency - is counterproductive, personally and for the national economy, and how psychologically it poisons relationships, fosters anxiety and takes the fun out of work and play. He charges that competition is a learned phenomenon and denies that it builds character and self-esteem. Kohn's measures to encourage cooperation in lieu of competition include promoting noncompetitive games, eliminating scholastic grades and substitution of mutual security for national security.

   The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 10 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas. His anecdotes are as frequently from family situations as from business challenges.

   First Things First - Stephen Covey

What are the most important things in your life? Do they get as much care, emphasis, and time as you'd like to give them? Far from the traditional "be-more-efficient" time-management book with shortcut techniques, First Things First shows you how to look at your use of time totally differently. Using this book will help you create balance between your personal and professional responsibilities by putting first things first and acting on them. Covey teaches an organizing process that helps you categorize tasks so you focus on what is important, not merely what is urgent.

   Zap the Gaps! - Ken Blanchard

Brief, reality-based business fables are all the rage these days, as consultants, strategists, and other savvy professionals seek interesting, reader-friendly ways to present their latest ideas. Zap the Gaps! continues in this genre by weaving a highly practical and easily adaptable program for improving workplace performance into a solidly informative tale--this time about the trials and tribulations at a large computer firm's troubled customer service center--that most corporate denizens will quickly identify with.