Meditation has become an essential skill in every business leader’s toolkit, helping leaders adapt to and better handle ever-increasing complexity in their day-to-day environments. The benefits of meditation are varied, and undeniable. Studies on meditation programmes in the workplace show a marked improvement in productivity, decision-making, problem-solving and listening skills.Meditation can bring balance, meaning and mindfulness into the workplace, raise EQ and executive function, and improve the quality of one’s work life. It also reduces stress and anxiety.

If you thought that meditation was too ‘woo-woo’, time-consuming or difficult to do, think again. Meditation for Business Leaders demystifies the practice by sharing examples of top global CEOs who meditate and includes plenty of solid research to back all the benefits. The book also provides simple, step-by-step guidelines for more than 60 different techniques – from beginner to adept – that you can practise and enjoy. Whether you have just five minutes to spare, or 50 – choose an exercise that fits your schedule and desired outcome.

This full colour, illustrated guide includes meditations, mindfulness and breathing exercises, mudras, and postures for you to experiment with to bring greater calm, balance, and wellbeing into your day. Background, benefits, and tips are provided for each technique. The author also guides you on how to introduce a meditation programme into your workplace.

Between Conflict and Collegiality explores how ethnonational-religious struggle between Jews and Palestinians affects relations in ethnically mixed work teams in Israel. Asaf Darr documents the tensions that permeate the workplace and reveals when such tensions threaten the cohesion of the work environment. Darr chronicles the grassroots coping strategies employed by both Jewish and Palestinian through field studies conducted with workers in various sectors in Israel, adopting a comparative method that identifies the differences in how ethnonational-religious tensions play out. Between Conflict and Collegiality asks how workers deal with external ethnonational and religious pressures and whether the broader ethnonational conflict is reflected in the career expectations and trajectories of minority group members. Darr examines whether minority group members' use of their own language at work become a point of contestation; how religion is manifested in the workplace; whether co-workers from different ethnonational groups form amicable relations that extend beyond the workplace; and whether positive experiences working in ethnically mixed workplaces have the potential to mitigate conflict in the wider society.

Remote working makes us happier, more productive and more profitable, but it can bring its own set of challenges. How do we manage our work-life balance; communicate and collaborate effectively as teams; and ensure our technology is efficient? In Work Remotely, Penguin Business Experts Anastasia Tohme and Martin Worner explain everything you need to know: - Set your own targets and monitor productivity - Establish boundaries between working hours and free time - Manage effective communication and decision-making at a distance Including case studies from the companies around the world who are innovating and revolutionizing the way we work, Work Remotely shares useful advice and practical tips to ensure you get the most out of working away from the office environment.

In Millennial Feminism at Work, volume editor Jane Juffer brings together recently graduated students from across the US to reflect on the relevance of their feminist studies programs in their chosen career paths. The result is a dynamic collection of voices, shaking up preconceived ideas and showing the positive influence of gender and sexuality studies on individuals at work. Encompassing five areas-corporate, education, nonprofit, medical, and media careers-these engaging essays use personal experiences to analyze the pressure on young adults to define themselves through creative work, even when that job may not sustain them financially. Obstacles to feminist work conditions notwithstanding, they urge readers to never downplay their feminist credentials and prove that gender and sexuality studies degrees can serve graduates well in the current marketplace and prepare them for life outside of their alma mater. Emphasizing the importance of individual stories situated within political and economic structures, Millennial Feminism at Work provides spirited collective advice and a unique window into the lives and careers of young feminists sharing the lessons they have learned. Contributors: Rose Al Abosy, Rachel Cromidas, Lauren Danzig, Sadaf Ferdowsi, Reina Gattuso, Jael Goldfine, Sassafras Lowrey, Alissa Medina, Samuel Naimi, Stephanie Newman, Justine Parkin, Lily Pierce, Kate Poor, Laura Ramos-Jaimes, Savannah Taylor, Addie Tsai, Hayley Zablotsky

Researchers have found that the accelerated pace of modern office life is taking its toll on productivity, employee engagement, creativity and well-being. Faced with a relentless flood of information and distractions, our brains try to process everything at once increasing our stress, decreasing our effectiveness and negatively impacting our performance. Ironically, we have become too overworked, unfocused, and busy to stop and ask ourselves the most important question: What can we do to break the cycle of being constantly under pressure, always-on, overloaded with information and in environments filled with distractions? Do we need to accept this as the new workplace reality and continue to survive rather than thrive in modern day work environments? Thankfully, the answer is no. In their new book, ONE SECOND AHEAD: Enhance Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness (Palgrave Macmillan; November 2015), Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter, and Gillian Coutts demonstrate that it is possible to train the brain to respond differently to today's constant pressures and distraction. All it takes is one second. They propose that we need to learn to work differently so we are more focused, calm and have less clutter in our mind so we can better manage our time and attention. What if we could hit the 'pause' button on our day, step back, and meet challenges with a sense of clarity and purpose? And what if there was a way not just of 'getting things done,' but ensuring that what does get done are the right things to do? Based on a program in corporate mindfulness designed by Hougaard and the partners of The Potential Project, One Second Ahead provides practical tools and techniques as well as real-world examples and lessons from organizations that have implemented mindfulness on a large scale. Thoroughly tested in a diverse range of industries, this program has resulted in measurable increases in productivity, effectiveness, and job satisfaction. With the new mindset proposed in One Second Ahead, readers will be able to put an end to ineffective multitasking, unproductive meetings, poor communication, and other unhealthy workplace behaviors by applying mindfulness to every day work life. All too often, we think that being mindful requires engaging in a special activity like meditation or yoga. Sure, these activities are beneficial and important to train the mind, but there are many simple things we can do to be mindful all day long. One Second Ahead is a handbook for more mindful work that offers: Practical, easy to apply, tools and techniques to enhance performance and effectiveness in day to day work activities such as meetings, emails, communication, planning, creativity and more Real-world stories of how mindfulness changed the workdays of leaders and front line employees Tips for cultivating mental strategies and routines that can reduce clutter, increase focus, and rewire your brain to enhance presence, patience, kindness and other valuable mind states Simple yet detailed step-by-step instructions for a more systematic approach to mindfulness training to enhance focus and awareness Guidelines for a 10-minute-per-day mindfulness program that can reshape your life both at work and at home; A reproducible planning worksheet and further resources in the Appendix. One Second Ahead can transform daily work life by helping individuals and teams realize more of their potential through greater focus and awareness. The tools and techniques in this book can transform individual and organizational performance one mind at a time.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) remains one of the best examples of a labor union that traces its origins to radical anti-racist principles. Today, very few mainstream unions remain that were founded on militant, radical, and "anti-racist" principles. The ILWU remains the strongest port union in the United States, and its members are among the highest paid blue-collar union workers in the world. Drawing on in-depth interviews, archival oral histories research, and ethnographic observation, Solidarity Forever? highlights the struggle of a key group of Black and women leaders who fought for racial and gender equality in the ports of Southern California. The book argues that institutional and cultural forms of racial and gender inequality are embedded within US trade union locals leading to the following deleterious consequences for unions: (1) a proliferation of internal discrimination lawsuits within unions, which can cost the union International, or union local, potentially millions of dollars in legal fees and financial settlements thereby redistributing precious financial resources that could be spent on key activities related to making unions stronger from outside attacks; (2) an erosion of trust and solidarity among workers, the key values of any successful union, which ultimately undermines the radical democratic potential of unions and rank-and-file participation in union politics; and (3) the undermining of workers of color and women workers as full and equal participants in the labor movement. The future of organized labor in the United States could very well be determined by the ability of the labor movement, and labor unions in particular, to listen to those workers who have been relegated to the margins of the global economy-workers of color, immigrant workers, women workers, and all workers in the Global South.

Award-winning Hira Ali examines the myriad of challenges women face on their road to professional success. Informed by her 13 years of coaching experience and survey responses from 300 working women, she reveals the universal internal and external roadblocks that can impede a woman's climb to the top, regardless of her culture or geography. This go-to guide for working women explores FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out), Imposter Syndrome, perfectionism and sexual harassment, among other issues. She moves beyond problems and empowers her readers with real solutions to help them break the glass ceiling. Written by a successful career woman for the benefit of career women around the world, Her Way to the Top demonstrates that women are all in this together, and together they can make a difference for each other.

Which mindset do you think existing Boards and CEOs are in when it comes to HRDs being able to make the move to CEO? Have you ever asked the question why HR Directors don't make the move to CEO? Why Boards and CEOs ignore "HRness"? Is HR really dead? Where is HR's guiding North Star? Could you imagine an HR Director being your CEO? In Human Resources Changes the World, Glenn G Jones examines the available research and sets out the reasons why HR is not progressing to its full potential; it will surprise you. If you've never thought of becoming a CEO and you are in HR, then think again. After over thirty years in HR and six years in freelance HR consulting, the above questions have become something that Glenn needed to tackle. In this book, Glenn sets out the actions and mindset that must be adopted to enable HR to really change the world in the 21st century.

The rapid growth of our digital world has brought huge advantages - access to information anywhere, at any time, and the ability to communicate with colleagues, family and friends around the globe in real-time. But in other ways, the same technology has also disconnected us. Computers risk becoming less of a productivity tool and more like information firehoses, drowning us in a deluge of data that can keep us from doing meaningful, real work. The devices in our hands connect us like never before, but they vie for our attention to the point where they are beginning to disconnect us from the real world. In this book, Dave Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer at Microsoft UK, argues that right now it feels like the machines are taking over but if we stop thinking about the digital deluge as a problem and instead see it as an incredible opportunity we will be able to redress the balance. Technology offers our society so much but it is up to us, the humans, to rise to that potential.

Being laid off can be a traumatic event. The unemployed worry about how they will pay their bills and find a new job. In the American economy's boom-and-bust business cycle since the 1980s, repeated layoffs have become part of working life. In A Company of One, Carrie M. Lane finds that the new culture of corporate employment, changes to the job search process, and dual-income marriage have reshaped how today's skilled workers view unemployment. Through interviews with seventy-five unemployed and underemployed high-tech white-collar workers in the Dallas area over the course of the 2000s, Lane shows that they have embraced a new definition of employment in which all jobs are temporary and all workers are, or should be, independent "companies of one."

Following the experiences of individual jobseekers over time, Lane explores the central role that organized networking events, working spouses, and neoliberal ideology play in forging and reinforcing a new individualist, pro-market response to the increasingly insecure nature of contemporary employment. She also explores how this new perspective is transforming traditional ideas about masculinity and the role of men as breadwinners. Sympathetic to the benefits that this "company of one" ideology can hold for its adherents, Lane also details how it hides the true costs of an insecure workforce and makes collective and political responses to job loss and downward mobility unlikely.

The Organization of Employment explores the diversity in the organization of employment among advanced industrial societies. In particular, it focuses on the implications of distinctive employment systems for international competitiveness, organizational performance, and social divisions and considers the impact of globalization on the sustainability of such diversity.

Escape the cube. Ditch the commute. It's not just a dream anymore.
Many people already spend 12 hours a day getting to work, working, getting home from work. Here's some good news: thanks to advances in technology, acceptance of outsourcing, the trend towards corporate flextime, and other factors, working from home is easier than ever.
"Good Morning America"'s Workplace Contributor Tory Johnson and consumer advocate Robyn Freedman Spizman tell readers exactly how to turn today's cultural change to their advantage without giving up an income. Specific business plans will teach them how to:
? Take their current position home
? Find a new company whose policies will allow them to work from home
? Reseach a product they believe in, and sell it from home
? Start their own business, doing something they love, for a minimal initial investment
With real-life stories, a step-by-step plan, resource guides, and lists of scams to avoid, this is the book that will help readers finally make the leap and show them that they don't have to give up their family, creativity, or peace of mind to earn a decent salary.

There is a general consensus that deep-seated changes are reshaping the way production and work are organized, the way employees, employers and their representatives deal with each other, and the way governments seek to shape society. In this work a group of leading scholars take stock of the evidence and implications of the new workplace. Drawing on examples from a variety of national contexts, they seek to characterize the nature of contemporary workplace change, and assess its implications for the organization of work for workers, for employment relations and for public policy.