How to find guilt-free time for what you really want to do, and why it matters
- Do you feel like you’re always busy, even as your to-do list continues to grow?
- Do you think you can’t keep up as it is, let alone add another thing to your plate?
An award-winning journalist, avid reader and new mom, Karma Brown dreamed of writing her first novel. But between diapers and tight deadlines, how could she? Like so many of us, she felt stretched taut and hyper-scheduled, her time a commodity over which she had lost control. For Brown, the answer to this problem was to rise earlier every day and use that time to write. Although she experienced missteps along the way, after committing to her alarm clock and an online community of early risers, she completed a debut novel that became a national bestseller.
In The 4% Fix, Karma Brown reveals the latest research about time management and goal-setting and shares strategies that have worked for her as well as for others. Refreshingly, her jargon-free approach doesn’t include time-tracking spreadsheets, tips on how to squeeze in yoga exercises while cooking dinner, or methods that add bulk to those never-ending lists.
How will you use this one hour—only 4% of your day—to change your life?
This book tells the untold story of how JPMorgan became a universal bank in the 1980s-1990s and the events leading to it being acquired by Chase in 2000. It depicts the challenges Morgan's leaders, Lew Preston and Dennis Weatherstone, confronted when the firm's business model was disrupted by the developing country debt crisis, up to its current management with Jamie Dimon.
This first-hand account explores whether Morgan could have stayed independent had its leaders pursued the strategic plan that called for it to make targeted acquisitions in areas where it had well-established businesses. Instead, in the mid-1990s, it went from being the hunter to the hunted. Rival banks that had been burdened by bad loans to developing countries and commercial real estate capitalized on rising share prices during the tech boom to acquire other institutions. Meanwhile, Morgan's profits and share price lagged, which left it vulnerable.
During this time, all of the leading financial institutions struggled to change their business models. In the end, no US money center bank was able to become a universal bank on its own. What ensued was a growing concentration of financial assets in a handful of institutions that was the precursor to the 2008 financial crisis, which is explored further using Morgan as a lens, in this must-listen book.
Too many working parents focus solely on those around them, completely losing sight of what they need themselves. But neglecting your own needs and wants can prevent you from being healthy, productive, and happy. Taking Care of Yourself provides expert advice to help you identify what you value most out of your work and home life, make choices that align with those values, and manage the emotions that come with them.
You'll learn to: prioritize the areas of your life that are most important to you-and let go of what's not; cope with the sacrifices you're making both at work and at home; deal with the feelings that come with being a working parent, including guilt; carve out time for your mental health and your physical well-being; communicate your needs and expectations with your boss and your family; and feel more present both at work and at home.
The HBR Working Parents series supports listeners as they anticipate challenges, learn how to advocate for themselves more effectively, juggle their impossible schedules, and find fulfillment at home and at work.
Humans have a natural instinct to help others.
Imagine walking up to a stranger on the subway and asking them for their seat. What about asking a random person on the street if you could borrow their phone? If the idea makes you squeamish, you're not alone-social psychologists have found that doing these very things makes most of us almost unbearably uncomfortable.
But here's the funny thing: even though we hate to ask for help, most people are wired to be helpful. And that's a good thing, because every day in the modern, uber-collaborative workplace, we all need to know when and how to call in the cavalry.
However, asking people for help isn't intuitive; in fact, a lot of our instincts are wrong. As a result, we do a poor job of calling in the reinforcements we need, leaving confused or even offended colleagues in our wake.
This pragmatic book explains how to get it right. With humor, insight, and engaging storytelling, Heidi Grant, PhD, describes how to elicit helpful behavior from your friends, family, and colleagues-in a way that leaves them feeling genuinely happy to lend a hand.
Stop juggling; start managing everything you need to do at home and at work.
It used to be simple: Stay late, turn in flawless work, catch up on sleep later. You needed that mind-set to get where you are, but that's not going to cut it anymore. You need to make different choices to succeed at work, as a parent, and as a family member.
Getting It All Done can't teach you how to be in two places at once, but it provides you with expert advice as you manage the challenge of succeeding at work while making sure your family is housed, fed, healthy, safe, and educated.
You'll learn to: set up schedules and routines that work; spend your time and energy on the most valuable activities; set reasonable expectations and limits in the always-on culture; keep exercising your management skills once you've left the office; move on with resilience when you occasionally drop the ball; and embody the work and life values you believe in for your children.
Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It explores how technology has progressed humanity's most noble pursuits, while also grappling with the origins of the industry's destructive empathy deficit and the practical measures Big Tech can take to self-regulate and make it right again. Author Maëlle Gavet examines the tendency for many of Big Tech's stars to stray from their user-first ideals and make products that actually profoundly damage their customers and ultimately society.
Offering an account of the world of tech startups in the United States and Europe, Trampled by Unicorns argues that the causes and consequences of Big Tech's failures originate from four main sources: the Valley's cultural insularity, the hyper-growth business model, the sector's stunning lack of diversity, and a dangerous self-sustaining ecosystem. However, the book is not just an account of how an industry came off the rails, but also a passionate call to action on how to get it back on track.
Gavet formulates a clear call to action for industry leaders, board members, employees, and consumers/users to drive the change necessary to create better, more sustainable businesses-and the steps Western governments are likely to take should tech leaders fail to do so.
Put aside all the overhyped new frameworks, the listicles, the '10 best things you need to succeed as a leader today.' The critical leadership practices-the ones that will allow a leader to make the biggest impact over time-are well established. They're about how you create a vision and inspire others to follow it. How you make difficult strategic choices. How you lead innovation. How you get results.
In this comprehensive handbook, strategy and change experts Ron Ashkenas and Brook Manville distill proven ideas and frameworks about leadership from Harvard Business Review, interviews with senior executives, and their own experience in the field-all to help rising leaders stand out and have a big impact.
In The HBR Leader's Handbook you'll find: concise explanations of proven leadership frameworks from Harvard Business Review contributors such as Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Porter; in-depth case studies of senior leaders such as Jim Wolfensohn at the World Bank, Paula Kerger at PBS, Darren Walker at the Ford Foundation, and Jim Smith at Thomson Reuters; and step-by-step guidance to help you understand and start implementing six core leadership practices: building a unifying vision, developing a strategy, getting great people on board, focusing on results, innovating for the future, and leading yourself.
Hiidden Truths is abook about leeaderhip that everyone existing or future leader must read. It offers insights about C-suite jobs that few employees really understand?insights that can help them help their leaders perform better and prepare themselves to be leaders. When everyone from board members to junior executives are on same page as to leadership roles and responsibilities, the organization performs at a higher level. Hidden Truths is also an "inside baseball" book. There's an inherent fascination with the position of CEO and other high-level organizational jobs?especially leadership positions at the world's top companies?and this book will satisfy readers' curiosity about what goes on in the minds and offices of CEOs and other leaders at global companies like American Airlines, General Electric, Con Agra, DuPont, Lenovo, Suntory and many others. As a top consultant to leaders at these and other companies, I witnessed business history in the making. I'll share what I saw. Hidden Truths provides practical knowledge that will not only help leaders do their jobs better but assist boards, HR, consultants and others in working effectively with these executives. One of the book's themes is that appearance is not reality. By that Fubine means that much has been written and discussed about the apparent roles and responsibilities of CEOs and Managing Directors and other leaders. Courses are taught in MBA and executive development programs that provide a lot of information about the job. Direct reports and teams also observe leaders in action. But it's not until you assume a leadership job that the reality of the position hits home. The reality is that leaders operate in a crucible, one in which emotions run high and interpersonal relationships are at risk. Being in the spotlight, not having nearly enough hours in the day to address key issues, confronting right-versus-right decision?all of this ratchets up the degree of difficulty. The good news that Hidden Truths delivers, however, is that awareness of the critical capabilities and issues that come with the territory?capabilities and issues that often take leaders by surprise?goes a long way toward helping leaders perform at a high level. He argues nine essential skills can keep leaders deliver success--both professionally and within their organizations.
Despite forty years of laws, quotas, diversity training, and legal expenses aimed toward equalizing pay, opportunities, and working conditions between the sexes, the glass ceiling remains firmly intact. For too long, companies have played the 'numbers game'-attempting to tackle gender imbalance by forcing affirmative action policies and numeric standards on organizations to increase the representation of women in management. Yet, these efforts have rarely been sustained.
In this groundbreaking comprehensive analysis, based on more than twenty-five years of in-depth surveys involving 100,000 men and women across dozens of Fortune 500 companies, Barbara Annis and Keith Merron provide a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of forces that have combined to create and perpetuate gender inequality. Gender Intelligence exposes common false assumptions that prevent men and women from successfully performing together at work-myths exacerbated by worn-out theories of gender blindness and sameness thinking. It show how a small but growing number of courageous, leading-edge companies have broken through the barriers to successfully advance women, making the remarkable transformation from compliance to choice-from pressure to preference-and show how it can be done in any business.
In A Bias for Action, Sumantra Ghoshal and Heike Bruch reveal that only ten percent of managers act purposefully to get truly important work done. A Bias for Action shows that great managers produce results not by motivating others, but by engaging their own willpower through a powerful combination of energy and focus. Bruch and Ghoshal provide simple strategies for bolstering individual willpower and action-taking abilities, and explore ways to marshal the willpower of others to encourage collective action.
Project Management All-in-One For Dummies is the premier go-to for PMs looking for hands-on information and advice to take their organizational, planning, and execution skills to new heights. In this book you will find: Project Management For Dummies, Agile Project Management For Dummies, Project Management Checklists For Dummies, Managing Millennials For Dummies, SCRUM For Dummies, Microsoft Project 2019, Product Management For Dummies, and Enterprise Agility For Dummies.
A commitment to cultivating mindfulness practices in your business is no longer optional, it is an imperative.
Not only will mindful businesses survive in the 21st century, they will thrive as the world grows in its initiative to support integrity, creativity and diversity in the workplace. Integrating solid and definitive mindfulness practices into your business will create a greater sense of ease, innovation and well-being among your staff. Ultimately, they will feel safer and more self-assured, and in doing so will develop a loyalty to you and your business that will exponentially impact your bottom line. In this revolutionary new book, author Theresa Puskar will provide you with the tools you need to take your business to the next pillar of excellence. In it, you will be given techniques and develop the skills to:
- Build a sense of self-accountability, pride and ownership among your staff
- Apply proactive, positive communication practices to reduce conflict and encourage optimal results
- Integrate calm and joy into the workplace, to create greater productivity and prosperity
- Model, create and sustain authentic and heartfelt internal & external customer-care
- Cultivate loyalty and longevity, and in doing so, significantly decrease staff turnover . . . and much more!
