More than 11,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you September’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“Hello Stay Interviews, Goodbye Talent Loss. A Manager’s Playbook” by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans (Berrett-Koehler, 2015, 168 pages, ISBN: 9781626563476; $ 17.95)
Companies invest in their employees, but that investment goes out the door when a staff member leaves. The employee’s expertise and institutional knowledge leave, as well. To prevent unnecessary departures, Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans suggest holding “stay interviews”—one-on-one sessions in which managers tell employees how valuable they are to the company and ask what would keep them on the payroll. The authors, both career experts, explain what stay interviews accomplish, how to prepare for them and how they function in different cultures. getAbstract recommends this handy playbook to all managers, HR personnel, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone seeking a new tool to keep employees happy at work.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 8
Style: 7
“Thirteeners. Why Only 13 Percent of Companies Successfully Execute Their Strategy—and How Yours Can Be One of Them” by Daniel F. Prosser (Greenleaf Book Group, 2015, 272 pages, ISBN: 9781626341593; $ 19.58)
Only 13 percent of companies successfully execute their strategies. Lack of commitment to a shared mission and lack of “connectedness”—open communication among executives and employees—are significant factors when companies fall short. Disconnected employees don’t engage with each other, with their executives, or with their companies’ strategies, plans, and goals. Connectedness dominates in firms that win Best Place to Work competitions. Their executives promote regular, positive conversations as a foundation of their organizational culture. Such exchanges can help your firm become a “Thirteener” company—one of the 13 percent of organizations that actually implements its strategies. CEO mentor Daniel F. Prosser offers many good ideas as he examines how firms can build connectedness to support their strategies. getAbstract recommends his execution lessons to CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, senior executives, sales managers, and nonprofit executive directors.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 8
“Building a Better Teacher. How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone) by Elizabeth Green (W.W. Norton, 2014, 384 pages, ISBN: 9780393081596; $ 18.98)
Great teachers are made and not born, according to former journalist Elizabeth Green, co-founder of the Chalkbeat news organization. She debunks the myth of the naturally capable teacher, shows how people can learn to teach well, and explores why teaching matters. Green cites examples of great teachers in action as they strive to connect with their students and to inspire them to feel excited about learning. She relates vivid stories to show how leading researchers affect educational practice. Each student and each class is unique, so teachers seeking a formal how-to text should look elsewhere, though Green offers great ideas to consider. getAbstract recommends her insights, research, and conclusions to educators, parents, policymakers, training officers, educational industry participants, and anyone interested in how practitioners, researchers, and policymakers are shaping education today to make it better tomorrow.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 7
Style: 8
For five-page summaries of these and more than 15,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
