Becoming the Boss

By Harvard Business Review

"For over a decade, the author has studied how star performers transition into management. As firms become leaner and more dynamic, this transition has only grown more challenging. But acknowledging and rectifying certain prevalent misconceptions around what management roles actually require can give these potential managers a far greater chance of success. Many new managers are reluctant to ask for help from their bosses, but when they do ask, they are often relieved to find their superiors more tolerant of both their questions and their outright mistakes than they had expected. Ultimately, senior managers must step up and support younger managers — both for the sake of their individual growth and the success of the entire organization."

The First-Time Manager

By Loren B. Belker

"What's a rookie manager to do? Faced with new responsibilities, and in need of quick, dependable guidance, novice managers can't afford to learn by trial and error. The First-Time Manager is the answer, dispensing the bottom-line wisdom they need to succeed. A true management classic, the book covers essential topics such as hiring and firing, leadership, motivation, managing time, dealing with superiors, and much more. Written in an inviting and accessible style, the revised sixth edition includes new material on increasing employee engagement, encouraging innovation and initiative, helping team members optimize their talents, improving outcomes, and distinguishing oneself as a leader. Packed with immediately usable insight on everything from building a team environment to conducting performance appraisals, The First-Time Manager remains the ultimate guide for anyone starting his or her career in management."

Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For: A Guide for New Leaders

By William A. Gentry



"You’ve been promoted to leadership—congratulations! But it’s nothing like your old job, is it? William Gentry says it’s time to flip your script.

We all have mental scripts that tell us how the world works. Your old script was all about “me”: standing out as an individual. But as a new leader, you need to flip your script from “me” to “we” and help the group you lead succeed. In this book, Gentry supports and coaches you to flip your script in six key areas. He offers actionable, practical, evidence-based advice and examples drawn from his research, his work with leaders, and his own failures and triumphs of becoming a new leader. Get started flipping your script and become the kind of boss everyone wants to work for."

Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition

By Harvard Business Review

"A lot of leaders believe that the formula for attracting and keeping talent is simple: Just ask people what they want and give it to them. The problem is, that approach tends to address only the material aspects of jobs that are top of employees’ minds at the moment, like pay or flexibility. And those offerings are easy for rivals to imitate and have the least enduring impact on retention. Companies instead should focus on what workers need to thrive over the long term, balancing material offerings with opportunities to grow, connection and community, and meaning and purpose."

LEADING WITH NOBLE PURPOSE

By Lisa Earle McLeod

HOW TO CREATE A TRIBE OF TRUE BELIEVERS:

"We’ve all heard the adage: “No one on their deathbed wishes they’d spent more time at the office.” That adage, though, is misunderstood. It belittles the critical role that meaningful work plays in our lives.

Human beings are hardwired for meaning. We want our lives to count for something. Unfortunately, many people see their work as devoid of higher purpose. Instead, they experience work as an endless grind.

But it’s not the work itself that kills our spirit. It’s doing work without meaning. Leading with Noble Purpose provides a roadmap for creating a meaningful and profitable workplace. Building on her bestseller, Selling with Noble Purpose, leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod reveals how leaders from organizations large and small have grown morale, productivity, and profits by unleashing their Noble Purpose.

It’s time to liberate your organization from a spreadsheet mentality, so you can create a tribe of true believers who rally around a cause called “the customer.”

Freedom's Dominion

by Jefferson Cowie

In recognition of MLK Day, I recommend Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, the new book by Jefferson Cowie, a historian at Vanderbilt University. The author focuses on the history of one small county in Alabama, and in doing so, helps us understand what “freedom” means in America.

200 years ago, Barbour County in southeast Alabama was part of the Creek Indian Nation, and much later, the home of George Wallace and at least six other governors. The book describes four episodes during this time when white Alabamians conflicted with the federal government. The first was when settlers seized lands belonging to the Creek Nation and Andrew Jackson sent troops to enforce the treaty he had signed. The second period was during Reconstruction when Black voters were massacred, then the Jim Crow era when a Barbour plantation used convict labor to enslave poor Blacks, and finally when Wallace challenged civil rights reforms. In each instance there were cries of “freedom from an oppressive federal government” but what was really meant was the “freedom to dominate others”.

Freedom’s Dominion helps us understand the long history linking racism and resistance to federal authority, which echoes today.

Selling with Noble Purpose

by Lisa Earle McLeod, Best-Selling Author

The words selling and noble are rarely seen together. Most people believe that money is the primary motivator for top salespeople and that doing good by the world runs a distant second. That belief is wrong.

"When author Lisa McLeod wrote those words in 2013, she had no way of knowing she was launching a movement that would turn sales on its head. McLeod’s research reveals that sales teams with a Noble Purpose – whose primary driver is to improve customers’ lives – outsell traditional sales teams focused on internal targets and quotas.

In this 2nd edition of Selling with Noble Purpose – which includes 50% new material – you’ll learn firsthand how over two dozen firms used a Noble Sales Purpose (NSP) to increase revenue, drive engagement and differentiate in times of uncertainty.

Selling with Noble Purpose is both a philosophy and a system for moving beyond transactional sales. From customer interactions to internal sales meetings and pipeline reports, McLeod provides easy-to-use frameworks for elevating every sales conversation.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to choose between making money and making meaning. Purpose and profit are connected. You can have both. You deserve both. We all do."