LMA Recommends...
February, 2012
Learning to Laugh When You Feel Like Crying: Embracing Life After Loss
Elaine Boltz recommends this book written by Allen Klein, the author of many books related to the healing power of humor.
Lessons learned by Allen while dealing with the loss of his wife and other close relatives, guides us through five simple steps: Losing, Learning, Letting Go, Living and Laughing as a means to help us deal with loss in our lives. This book is a quick, easy read full of insightful suggestions to help in the transition from grieving the loss of a loved one, loss of a job or other losses we may encounter to getting back on the path to living..
January, 2012
The Oz Principle
Accountability through the Wizard of Oz
Dave Wauls recommends The Oz Principle by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman.
Organizations are constantly pushed to do more with less. You have probably used the phrase "lean & mean." You realize that to be productive and efficient, you need to have employees performing their responsibilities. And you want employees to have accountability for their roles and responsibilities. Connors, Smith and Hickman use the characters from "The Wizard of Oz" to demonstrate the idea of "assuming full accountability for thoughts, feelings, actions, and results that direct your destiny; otherwise someone else will." The authors describe the steps to accountability, which they call "Above the Line Thinking." They also describe the "Blame Game" which is "Below the Line Thinking."
If you want employees to assume personal responsibility, you may want to relate your discussions to the characters in the Wizard of Oz - Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. In the end, they had found the answers within themselves but it took the Wizard to help them see their own accountabilities. You may have to help your employees see that they too have accountability within their current positions. The definition used in The Oz Principle is "A personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results - To See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It."
September, 2011
LMA Associate, David L. Wauls, has been writing book reviews on developing Followership. This month Dave reviews Followership: How Followers are Creating Change & Changing Leaders by Barbara Kellerman. Kellerman shows ”how people with no apparent power, authority, or influence have an impact on those far better positioned than they.”
Kellerman describes followers in terms of their engagement with the organization and its leader. They include:
As we look to have our people engaged in organizations, we must not only look to educate and train our leaders; we must also invest in our followers. Organizations know that without their followers they will not succeed. But sometimes, organizations forget to invest in the followers.
This book gives you insight into follower-leader relationship and it provides specific examples of how followers can help organizations succeed. It also reflects on how followers can impact organizations in a negative way.
Organizations looking to the economic recovery should look within their organizations and develop “followers” so that they can make a positive impact within the organization now and in the future.
August, 2011
This month, Dave Wauls recommends The Art of Followership by Ronald E. Riggio, Ira Chaleff & Jean Lipman-Blumen. The Art of Followership provides you with the most recent thoughts on followership and how "followers impact setting of standards and formulating the culture and policies of a group." Also outlining ideas on the future of leader-follower relationships, this book contains insight from various experts who have ideas and concepts about how followers impact leaders and others within the organization. As a leader you must concern yourself with the future of your organization while looking at whether or not your employees are following you to achieve success. This book will provide you with insight on developing followers who will actually be leaders within your organization.
May, 2011
The Courageous Follower by Ira Chaleff. We all look to leaders within our organization, focusing training and education efforts on them. It's important to remember that it's the followers who are accountable for 80% of the work. Ira Chaleff takes a different view of the leader-follower relationships within an organization. In the past leaders have been the ones taking control of everything within the organization. A new view brings into focus the parity between leaders and followers to remind us that without followers, there would be no leaders. Today with "lean organizations" we must begin to empower our employees to take responsibility and to hold them accountable for success. Both leaders and followers should focus on the Vision, Mission and Core Values of the organization. Followers want to work with an organization that has definite purpose and must have the courage to do the following: Courage to Assume Responsibility, Courage to Serve and to Challenge, Courage to Participate in Transformation, and if need be, the Courage to Leave.
Our second recommendation comes from Barry Davis - "Authentic Happiness" by Martin Seligman. A follow-up to "Learned Optimism," this book is designed to enhance the application of "Positive Psychology" to improving one's lot in life. As with the earlier resource, there is an Optimism Test" to provide a perspective on the reader's natural explanatory style, as well as a measure of "Signature Strengths", personal resources to enhance personal happiness and satisfaction. A number of additional informal assessments are included for areas including Happiness, Satisfaction and Gratitude among others. The latter portion of the book provides practical application to work, love (a very poignant chapter) and raising children, including a "Children's Strength Story." All of these measures are available online (after a free registration) at www.authentichappiness.org. Seligman writes with a very disarming and humorous tone, providing useful examples from his own family and experiences to aid in understanding, as when his 5 year old Nikki told him how hard it was for her to stop whining, so he should be able to stop being such a grouch (my favorite of his stories!). The end of the book includes a quick reprise and summary, along with an extraordinary chapter on meaning and purpose. Seligman's closing paragraph says, "The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living... A life that does that is pregnant with meaning."
April, 2011
Don't Bring It to Work by Sylvia Lafair. Subtitled Breaking the Family Patterns that Limit Success, this extraordinary book is written by an accomplished family therapist who has become an internally recognized expert on leadership, workplace behavior and relationships. She begins the book by making the case that our styles of relating with others have, of course, been developed through the roles we play in our families. Lafair identifies what she describes as the 13 key destructive patterns, providing a brief questionnaire to help the readers in identifying their key styles. Using a detailed genogram called the Sankofka Map (so named for the Ghana word meaning to "heal the past to free the present"), the author shows how to identify key patterns that inevitably show up on our working relationships.
March, 2011
This month, we have two recommendations for you. Dave Wauls recommends "The Ultimate Board Member's Book." Highlighting the responsibilities of a not-for-profit board members and professional staff, Dave recently used this book at PAI while facilitating discussions on Board Member/Staff Responsibilities. High performing boards require understanding boundaries, supporting the overall vision, mission & care values, and respect for each other and staff. Are you a board or staff member of a not-for-profit organization? This will be an excellent resource for you.
Our second recommendation comes from Barry Davis - "Leading Through Conflict." Subtitled "How Successful Leaders Transform Differences Into Opportunities", this is a fascinating, in-depth, yet practical book on leadership and conflict. Describing three types of leaders, Demagogues (lead through fear, scapegoating and overwhelming others), Managers (use a limited definition of "we," typically protecting their home turf) and Mediators (seek to act on behalf of all to innovate and transform conflict), this is an extraordinary book, with significant insights on leadership and the impact of and opportunity in conflict.
February, 2011
This month, Glenn Ebersole recommends the book, "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell, the #1 bestselling author of "The Tipping Point." This book is great, will make you think and give you a glimpse into someone else's head. I hope you will read this and perhaps say something like, "I never thought about that subject in that way before."
January, 2011
This month Barry Davis recommends "Carerrealism" by J.T. O'Donnell. Subtitled "The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career," the author is the founder of the website www.careerealism.com. This book chronicles the author's personal career journey in the creation of what she calls the "G.L.O.W." method of career development. 1. Gain Perspective; 2. Luminate Your Career; 3. Own Your Actions; 4. Work It Daily. This is an excellent and highly practical manual on establishing and fostering a successful career.
December, 2010
This month Barry Davis recommends "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em" by Beverly Kay and Sharon Jordan-Evans. Subtitled "Getting Good People to Stay, 26 Engagement Strategies that Work," this book is designed to push you into engaged interaction with your talented employees with an eye toward retention. This extraordinary book is full of gems and insights, with "to do" lists for each of the 26 strategies.
November, 2010
This month Jeff Klunk recommends "The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything" by Steven M.R. Covey.
In times of radical change and turbulence, it is hard to know who or what to trust. It's easy to feel that we are out of control. Most of us feel that a situation or person is either trustworthy or not, and we have to accept whatever level of trust others operate with. In this book, Covey demonstrates how we can reach out and take the initiative to build trust. There is also a helpful self-evaluation tool to help readers get some valuable insight into how they may be sabotaging their own level of perceived trustworthiness without realizing it. If you are looking to build trusting relationships with your customers, suppliers, or employees, you are likely to find this book insightful and helpful.
October, 2010
This month Barry David recommends "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty" by Harvey Mackay.
Subtitled "The Only Networking Book You'll Never Need," this book is full of stories, anecdotes, "Mackay's Maxims " like "Getting through the fence to the dog is easy, if you know the gatekeeper." Mackay combines solid advice and insights on what and what not to do, what information is critical to capture and whom to network with (just about everyone). Near the end of the book, Mackay provides a networking quiz (including multiple choice scenarios) to test your networking savvy and closes with a touching tribute to the best networker he ever knew: his dad, Jack Mackay, as delivered by his rabbi at the memorial service, simply titled, "Ask Jack." Well worth reading (and studying), the book closes with this postscript from Harvey - "I hope your network can help you find a job or earn a promotion or close a sale or make a buck. But even if it never does, if your network can do what Jack Mackay's did - if it can help you help someone who needs it - then you have the best network of all."
September, 2010
This month Barry Frey recommends "How to Become an Employer of Choice" by Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia.
This book is filled with many practical tips, examples and success stories taken from companies that have embarked on the journey to becoming an Employer of Choice. It's full of practical ideas that any size organization in any type of industry can adapt and tailor to their own use. Written in an easy to read style, this book is recommended for business owners, executives and HR professionals who are looking for ways to increase employee satisfaction and engagement.
August, 2010
This month Dave Wauls recommends "The Carrot Principle" by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.
The Carrot Principle revolves around the notion of recognizing your employees and demonstrates the success of leaders who provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. The theory behind The Carrot Principle is that if you relate recognition with other necessary leadership traits (like communication, trust and accountability) you will achieve greater productivity and end results. Are you a leader who recognizes and affirms your employees? This is a great book that will help you with your efforts to retain your excellent employees.
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