More than 15,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you April’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“Lead the Work. Navigating a World Beyond Employment” by John W. Boudreau, Ravin Jesuthasan, and David Creelman (Wiley, 2015, 304 pages, ISBN: 9781119040040; $35)
New work arrangements are transforming how organizations do business and threatening the model of full-time employment. Leaders must focus on the work their company needs done and how to distribute it. An array of available international talent allows firms to assign work through global relationships with freelancers and suppliers at different levels of permanence, skill, and flexibility. The world beyond employment can provide free agents with satisfying work and allows firms to grow and shrink as needed. Professor John W. Boudreau and consultants Ravin Jesuthasan and David Creelman explain why and how companies should be “leading work—not managing employees.” They combine their international expertise in HR management to help leaders navigate changes in work allocation. Their descriptions of models outside full-time employment underline the best practices for each set-up, including freelancers, offshore suppliers, and more. The authors suggest modular frameworks to suit particular kinds of businesses. Case studies illuminate the possibilities. Overall, the direct text is designed for use as a recurring reference. The book’s length encourages selective reading; the extensive index helps. getAbstract recommends this comprehensive manual to HR professionals, executives, and those in governance roles who see the tide turning and need to swim.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 8
Style: 7
“Mastering Coaching. Practical Insights for Developing High Performance” by Max Landsberg (Profile Books, 2015, 256 pages, ISBN: 9781781254073; $15.37)
This classic by Max Landsberg, author of bestseller “The Tao of Coaching,” shows his deep understanding of how coaches can help their clients or employees achieve their goals. Landsberg shares his mastery of standard coaching tools and suggests numerous techniques and approaches that coaches can adopt and modify from other fields. His manual’s case histories bring its lessons alive for readers who lead others. getAbstract recommends this short but in-depth guidebook to coaches and other professionals who are working to get better at their jobs.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 7
“Modern Mentoring” by Randy Emelo (ATD, 2015, 206 pages, ISBN: 9781562869335; $32.95)
Conventional mentoring has a laudable goal: match a junior employee with someone senior who can show him or her the ropes and lend a hand with career development. Unfortunately, since most organizations have too few traditional mentors, only a small number of junior employees benefit from a typical mentoring program. “Modern mentoring” replaces conventional one-on-one mentoring with learning groups, in which everyone can be a mentor or adviser—and everybody is a learner. Author Randy Emelo, pioneer of “e-mentoring technology,” could have gone into more detail about how to implement such programs—after all, “sharing experience for the sake of mutual benefit” isn’t all that novel an idea—but getAbstract likes his approach and recommends it to corporate trainers, HR managers, and executives involved in professional development.
Rating (out of 10): 6
Applicability: 6
Innovation: 7
Style: 6
For five-page summaries of these and more than 15,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
