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Category: Book (Page 4 of 9)

10 Invaluable Books for Moving Hearts and Minds

30/09/2015 /

The Roman philosopher Epictetus once said, “Books are the training weights of the mind”.

Reading is an exercise that enriches the way we think, feel, and behave. Reading makes it possible to reach a new understanding about ourselves and the world and to expand our knowledge.

In this article, Paul Jun draws up a subjective list of the books he feels are timeless and helpful in both our personal and professional endeavors. Actually reading reflects a willingness to learn and change minds, to be open to new ideas and concepts that may indeed bolster both personal and professional endeavors.

 

Be a better leader, have a richer life

16/06/2015 /

Stewart Friedman, in his book Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life argues that leadership in business cannot be merely about business anymore: it has to be about life as a whole.

The purpose of Total Leadership is to improve performance at work, at home, in the community, and for the private self (mind, body, spirit) by creating mutual value among these four life domains, to produce what he calls “four-way wins”.

Friedman explains how three simple principles can help to become a better leader and have a richer life.

  • Be real: act with authenticity by clarifying what’s important
  • Be whole: act with integrity by respecting the whole person
  • Be innovative: act with creativity by experimenting with how things get done

3763861311_516b54efac_zImage source: Flickr – kevint3141 – (CC BY 2.0)

Reading in electronic times

28/05/2015 /

Andrew Piper, Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Cultures at McGill University, is an expert on the changes brought about by the e-books and has published a… paper book on the subject (you can see where this is going already).

In this article, published by the Slate magazine, he resumes his book, Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times, in which he examines the history and future of (e-)reading, the differences between reading on a tablet or an electronic device and reading a paper book, and how reading a paper books connects our bodies as well our minds to the topic.

 

Read the Printed Word!

The hard truth about soft skills

30/04/2015 /

54 lessons organized in 8 chapters, each of them covering an aspect where soft skills play an important role: career management, getting the job done, communication, handling critics, office politics, self-promotion, dealing with differences and leadership.

In her book “The hard truth about soft skills – workplace lessons smart people wish they’d learned sooner“, Peggy Klaus, tells us about the importance of soft skills on workplace, trying to understand why they are still so often ignored, although they are fundemental in our everyday work. The problem is semantic? What is soft cannot be considered serious? The matter is that most of us think that they are about touchy-feely people skills?

Among the 54 lessons pinted out by Klaus on the basis of her work experience:

hardtruthcover1. Knowing yourself is as important as knowing how to do your job
2. Learn when to stick and when to shift or the details will hang you
3. Know where to draw the line between self-improvement and self-destruction
4. When it comes to gossip, learn the art of deflection
5. Don’t take it personally
6. Your procrastination is trying to tell you something
7. Keep your visibility when you are not face-to-face

 

15 Best Leadership Books a Leader Should Read

26/03/2015 /

According to John Coleman, ‘broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders’. Actually reading has shown to lead many benefits in leadership development: it improves communication, emotional intelligence and organizational effectiveness and reduces stress.

Unfortunately, nowadays business people seems to be reading less, maybe because they are not sufficiently convinced of the importance of reading, they don’t know what they should read or because they think they don’t have the time.

In this article on Lifehack, Joe Vennare identifies some 15 best leadership books  especially would-be leaders need to read to define leadership and how applied it, communicate and motivate teamwork, and keep going on.

The Bus Metaphor

24/03/2015 /

The right people in the right seats on the bus: this is the metaphor from the first Jim Collins best-seller ‘Good to Great’. In that book – published in 2001 – the author identifies what leaders need to do, in order to see their teams and organizations excel. And he uses the power of an image to communicate the following concept.

According to Collins, leaders who are able to transform their organizations begin not by setting a direction, but by getting the right people on the bus – and the wrong people off the bus.

Actually great leaders understand the following three simple truths:

1. If you begin with “who,” rather than “what”, you can more easily adapt to a changing world.

2. If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away, because they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.

3. If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction; you still won’t have a great company.

Assembling the team is the first crucial point. Then a leader has to develop a vision (the direction of the bus), to remove obstacles to high performance (that is, maybe people are not exactly in the right seats and need to be assigned to the right role) and to help people with diverse talents and interests building trust in each other.

It is an hard work, but leaders need it to accomplish objectives with the right people.

Bus

Image source: http://bit.ly/16TU0QU

 

10 Rules to Communicate Effectively

11/12/2014 /

“It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”

In “Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear“, Frank Luntz breaks down the ten main lessons he’s learned from years of crafting political messages, lessons we can all learn from:

1) Simplicity: Use Small Words
2) Brevity: Use Short Sentences
3) Credibility Is As Important As Philosophy
4) Consistency Matters
5) Novelty: Offer Something New
6) Sound and Texture Matter
7) Speak Aspirationally
8) Visualize
9) Ask a Question
10) Provide Context and Explain Relevance

For the article: The 10 Rules You Need to Communicate Effectively

1459055735_8121219fb4_o

Image source: Flickr – Communication, Joan M. Mas

10 Amazing Intelligences

18/09/2014 /

We often refer to intelligence as a one single concept. The picture can be far more articulated than we think.

In one of his most acclaimed books, “Head First – 10 ways to tap into your natural genius“, Tony Buzan describes 10 different Intelligences that he divides into three major categories:

a) The creative and Emotional intelligences:

1. Creative intelligence (Create Yourself)
2. Personal Intelligence (You and You)
3. Social Intelligence (You and them)
4. Spiritual Intelligence (Heaven knows!)

b) The Bodily Intelligences

5. Physical Intelligence (Body Talk)
6. Sensual Intelligence (Making sense of your senses)
7. Sexual Intelligence (Intelligent sex)

c) The Traditional IQ Intelligences

8. Numerical Intelligence (Count on Yourself)
9. Spatial Intelligence (Mind the Gap)
10. Verbal Intelligence (The power of words)

If you want to know more about each one read the book!

headfirst

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