More than 15,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you December’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“Make It Matter. How Managers Can Motivate by Creating Meaning” by Scott Mautz (AMACOM, a division of American Management Association, 2015, 256 pages, ISBN: 9780814436172; $19.44)
Today, with smaller budgets and bigger workloads handled by fewer people, companies in the United States expect their employees to do more with less. That may be why some 70 percent of American employees feel disengaged from their work. They show up for paychecks but feel scant personal incentive to excel. Whether their companies meet their goals matters little to them. So how do you engage workers under these troubling circumstances? Procter & Gamble senior executive Scott Mautz urges employers to make work meaningful, and he believes that engagement will follow. He details how to create a job environment filled with meaning and how it can inspire employees. Mautz offers many good ideas, though some inevitably verge on platitudes. Still, getAbstract recommends his useful book to CEOs, HR executives, entrepreneurs, and managers.
Rating (out of 10): 7
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 7
Style: 7
“Serial Winner. 5 Actions to Create Your Cycle of Success” by Larry Weidel (Greenleaf Book Group, 2015, 256 pages, ISBN: 9781626342347; $16.76)
Motivational coach and financial services executive Larry Weidel’s manual on the “winning cycle” of success offers valuable ideas on career growth. The author now coaches more than 1,000 U.S. and Canadian leaders in weekly phone sessions, but at one point in his life, he needed government food stamps to feed his family. Having withstood dismal lows before he succeeded, he provides intriguing advice about five cycles of winning: Understand that your choices matter, make a big effort, adjust your plans, finish what you start, and don’t settle for losing. getAbstract recommends his companionable advice to entrepreneurs, the self-employed, and anyone who wants a pep talk.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 8
“I Know How She Does It. How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time” by Laura Vanderkam (Portfolio, 2015, 304 pages, ISBN: 9781591847328; $17.58)
Juggling the competing demands of motherhood, a personal life, and a career sometimes can seem impossible. But attention to detail, maximizing the time you do have, and conscious time management allows you to meet more of your goals. As part of her ongoing study, “The Mosaic Project,” Laura Vanderkam analyzed 1,001 daily time logs of mothers earning six-figure salaries. Her clear, compelling narrative breaks down misconceptions about how the most successful women use their time. She shows you how to put in a full workweek and still find time for your family and leisure activities. Vanderkam uses hard data to empower readers to take control of their time, their lives, and their health. getAbstract recommends her manual to working mothers, from new moms holding part-time jobs to successful CEOs wishing for more hours in the day.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 6
Style: 7
For five-page summaries of these and more than 15,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
