Be the best manager you can be
First up, It’s the Manager, written by Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton and co-authored with Gallup Chief Workplace Scientist Jim Harter.
The book details 52 discoveries from Gallup’s study on the future of work, and shows leaders how to adapt their organisations to rapid change, ranging from new workplace demands to managing remote employees, a diverse workforce, the rise of artificial intelligence, gig workers, and attracting as well as keeping the best employees. T the most important people in your organisation to lead your teams through these changes are your managers.
When you have great managers who can maximise the potential of each team member, you will see organic revenue and profit growth, and give every one of your employees what they most want today: a great job and a great life. “If you give every team member in your company a great manager -a great coach- one who cares about their development and growth, you have successfully engineered an organisation with unlimited potential.”
The way we work now
My next recommendation is by bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall and is a provocative, inspiring book, Nine Lies About Work.
With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors show the essential truths that good leaders will recognise immediately: that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company’s culture, that matter most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people’s goals we should strive to align people’s sense of purpose and meaning; that people don’t want constant feedback, they want helpful attention.
This is the real world of work, as it is and as it should be. The authors present an almost step-by-step roadmap for successful leadership, and do so in an easily readable and fun book.
Show your appreciation
Paul White and Gary Chapman’s The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People will help you to improve workplace relationships simply by learning your co-workers’ language of appreciation.
This book gives you the tools to improve staff morale, create a more positive workplace, and increase employee engagement by teaching you to communicate effectively your authentic appreciation and encouragement to employees, co-workers, and leaders. Most relational problems in organisations flow from this question: do people feel appreciated? This book will help you answer “Yes!”
Rituals and bonding
Finally, something a little different, Rituals for Work, by Kursat Ozenc and Margaret Hagan, shows how creative rituals can make our personal and business lives more meaningful and rewarding. Rituals are powerful tools: they reinforce good habits, motivate personal and professional achievement, create a common bond between co-workers and build shared values; they can transform an organisation’s culture and provide a foundation to achieve common goals. The book takes a practical approach and is insightful guide to 50 creative rituals, with specific case studies highlight the use of rituals and their positive impact to real-world organisations, while vivid visuals allow us to feel their energy and emotion.
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