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.

It's time to acknowledge that not all working women are interested in climbing the corporate ladder or securing the corner office. Most want and need flexible, less life-consuming work to accommodate their real lives, and it's not weak, lacking ambition or letting down the sisterhood to pursue professional fulfillment and financial security through less lofty, or headline-making ways. Eye-opening and practical, Ambition Redefined is a welcome alternative to 'women's business books'. Sollmann calls it like it is: everyday women want and need flexible work that allows them to unapologetically pursue their own brand of ambition and success. She shows them how without sacrificing themselves, their careers or their families. Armed with practical insights and tools, readers will be empowered to go after opportunities beyond traditional definitions of work, career and success. They will learn why they should never leave the workforce, how to make a case for flexibility in a current full-time job, how to find flexible employers, industries and job functions and how to return to work after time away raising children or caring for elderly parents.

Despotism on Demand draws attention to the impact of flexible scheduling on managerial power and workplace control. When we understand paid work as a power relationship, argues Alex J. Wood, we see how the spread of precarious scheduling constitutes flexible despotism; a novel regime of control within the workplace. Wood believes that flexible despotism represents a new domain of inequality, in which the postindustrial working class increasingly suffers a scheduling nightmare. By investigating two of the largest retailers in the world he uncovers how control in the contemporary "flexible firm" is achieved through the insidious combination of "flexible discipline" and "schedule gifts." Flexible discipline provides managers with an arbitrary means by which to punish workers, but flexible scheduling also requires workers to actively win favor with managers in order to receive "schedule gifts": more or better hours. Wood concludes that the centrality of precarious scheduling to control means that for those at the bottom of the postindustrial labor market the future of work will increasingly be one of flexible despotism.

CUT 50% OF YOUR MEETINGS AND IMPROVE THE ONES THAT REMAIN Meetings are essential to collaboration and decision making, but they are often irrelevant, time consuming and badly run. People spend an average of 2 days per week in meetings and 50% of it is wasted. This book will help you win back that wasted day a week by cutting out the half of face to face and virtual meetings that do not need to happen and radically improving the ones that remain. The two authors, one an experienced CEO and consultant to major multinationals, the other a millennial line manager working within one of the world's largest companies, find common ground, and occasional disagreements on creating new ways of meeting both face to face and through technology that are far more engaging and effective for everyone. The book focuses on three main areas: * Dealing with the business and corporate cultural challenges in changing the way we meet * Cutting out the unnecessary topics and participants that make up 50% of todays meetings * Designing and running faster and more focused face to face and online meetings with more relevant content; clearer decisions and actions, and much higher levels of participation Full of examples and practical tools that will improve everything from your regular team meetings to management meetings, online conferences, global meetings and big events. This book will lead you through practical actions and targets to kill the meetings that do not need to happen and radically improve the ones that remain.

Eliot Freidson has written a systematic account of professionalism as a method of organizing work. In ideal-typical professionalism, specialized workers control their own work, unlike the free market, where consumers are in command, and bureaucracy, where managers dominate. He shows how each method has its own logic, encouraging different kinds of knowledge, jobs, work careers, educational institutions and ideologies. Then he discusses the way historic and national variations in state policy and professional organization, as well as the demands of different kinds of work, influence the strength of professionalism. In appraising the embattled status of professionalism today, Freidson discusses the ideologically inspired charges of monopoly, credentialism and elitism made by both economists and populists. He concludes that professional institutions are too useful to capital and the state to be seriously weakened by such charges. What they do weaken is the ethical independence of professions, their ability to resist use of their specialized knowledge for maximizing profit and efficiency and to insist on providing its benefits to all in need.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BUSINESS BESTSELLER, January 2022 'An insightful guide, filled with actionable advice to empower leaders hoping to improve their professional abilities and make meaningful change in their lives' Richard Branson 'What I love about this book is that it gives us the tools to guide ourselves and know that change and our true value is within us all' Mary Portas Our careers are full of potential and possibilities, uncertainty and change. There is no such thing as a straight line to success and there are times when we get stuck, face obstacles, feel frustrated or want to explore new opportunities. In these moments the best place to start is by coaching yourself. No one can solve your problems better than you can, and learning to coach yourself will accelerate your self-awareness and help you take control of your career. In You Coach You, you'll learn the mindset, skillset and toolkit you need to coach yourself. You'll discover practical support on some of the most common coaching challenges including: - Exploring your progression possibilities and making them happen - Building your resilience reserves and turning adversity into action - Moving beyond busy to time well spent and finding the right work-life fit for you - Building the beliefs that help you succeed and overcoming setbacks - Creating the connections you need for your career and fixing friction in difficult relationships - Developing a sense of direction and a purpose that is motivating and meaningful for you Packed with ideas for action and insightful tools, this practical book will help you to get unstuck, and increase your confidence in and control over your career. If you enjoyed reading this, check out The Squiggly Career, Helen and Sarah's Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling guide to supercharging your confidence, playing to your strengths and setting yourself up for success.

For too long our lives have been dominated by the 'under one roof' Industrial Revolution model of work. That era is now over. As remote working is becoming increasingly more flexible, there is no longer a reason for the daily roll call, of the need to be seen with your butt on your seat in the office. The technology and necessity to work remotely and to avoid the daily grind of commuting and meetings has finally come of age. Bestselling authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are the masters of making it work at tech company 37signals. Remote: Office Not Required combines eye-opening ideas with entertaining narrative. With its almost prescient content, the book will convince you that working remotely increases productivity and innovation, and it will also teach you how to get it right - whether you are a manager, working solo or one of a team. Chapters include: 'Talent isn't bound by the hubs', 'It's the technology, stupid', 'When to type, when to talk', 'Stop managing the chairs' and 'The virtual water cooler'. Brilliantly simple and refreshingly illuminating this is a call to action to end the tyranny of being shackled to the office.

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.

Business is Personal. A statement on life as a business owner. Being the leader of your own life is the greatest lesson in business. Your business is personal as it is yours. We live in a fast paced, over-connected world. Relying on your own instincts and knowing the dreams you hold for your version of success, ambition and happiness will ensure you have the life you want and not the life you compare yourself with. Business is Personal shares the areas of business that are rarely discussed, but have been learned the hard way by Penny and others. The emotions we need to understand, the mind we can be in control of, and tools Penny learned, following years of hard work and many challenging moments. Penny has poured her heart into this book and it is incredibly revealing.

Are you over 50 and facing a crossroads in life? Feel you're too old to change or don't have time to start over? Think again. In this down-to-earth book, Cindy Galvin explains why it's never too late to launch your next career. With cheeky wit, Cindy takes you on a journey with clients who transformed their lives by developing careers filled with purpose. She explains why it's never been a better time to create the life you want. Cindy's book is a toolbox you can dip into for help with: * Leveraging decades of experience, skills and wisdom * Building a `success network' * Recognising the control and influence you have

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.

This book is for people in leadership positions who want to learn more about great leadership. Why use the word `love' in a book for business? Because it matters! When leaders consider love from a philosophical viewpoint, it gives way to the serious business of trust, respect, compassion, ethics and loyalty in getting business done. If you give a damn about people and you're courageous enough to contemplate `love', you get great business. This book takes the reader through knowledge, practice and techniques. It is for busy managers to easily arm themselves with skills needed to improve the everyday performance of their people. If you love to lead, you need to Love to Lead.

Grounded in research, DRIVERS provides an accessible and practical guide for leaders to understand and apply the science of intrinsic motivation and trust at work. The DRIVERS are the true performance currency.

Taking each of the Ten Commandments in turn, John Parmiter shows how we can trust in God in our workplaces. Far from presenting a set of rules, his central themes are love and the generous promises of God. With clarity, warmth and practical applications, he demonstrates how we can be more confident as Christians where we work. What do the ancient stone tablets Moses carried down the mountain have to do with our twenty-first-century high-pressure workplaces? Everything, says John Parmiter. In this honest and inspiring book, he explores how applying the Ten Commandments to our jobs brings us freedom and godly purpose. Focusing as they do on personal integrity and our key relationships (with God and with others), they are disarmingly relevant to the daily pressures we face at work. John's insights have been tested in the fire of a contemporary business environment, and pass muster in any boardroom, brickyard or baby-care situation. They provide, whatever your work, a compelling and fresh take on living wholeheartedly for Jesus.

From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations - a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring the best and brightest succeed.

"We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge. This insight is the heart of Work Rules!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto with the potential to change how we work and live.

Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and with a profound grasp of human psychology, Bock also provides teaching examples from a range of industries - including companies that are household names but hideous places to work, and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into delightfully counterintuitive principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands.

Shedding light on class division, this book offers solutions to class bias in the workplace by analyzing real experiences, social norms, education, wealth, and more. The renewed focus on class, race and equality in the workplace and beyond is making an indelible mark on society. This clarion call for change is sweeping inequality from every corner of the nation, including law enforcement, schools, and businesses. And within the past five years, diversity and inclusion, as well as unconscious bias, have been the main drivers of organizational training, politics, and community engagement. What's Your Zip Code Story helps clarify the intersection of class bias and racial disparity in the workplace and arms organizations with the knowledge to not only have productive discussions, but also adopt effective solutions. Gross instructs class-migrants--whether college students, recent graduates, or overlooked employees--on how to climb the career lattice and transform themselves from undervalued employees to respected leaders. The book tackles challenges that class-migrants encounter when navigating the workplace and provides operative practices that can be utilized to hone new professional skills and drive positive change in workplace culture. It is a powerful tool that will inspire marginalized employees who are hungry for personal and professional growth, as well as give insight to business leaders seeking a new way to engage their teams. Through the lived experiences of the author and research-based strategies, readers will find insights on how to increase workplace engagement and business performance.

The bestselling author of Team of Teams dismantles the Great Man theory of leadership, by profiling leaders whose real stories defy their legends. In Leaders, retired four-star general Stan McChrystal explores what leadership really means, debunking the many myths that have surrounded the concept. He focuses on thirteen great leaders, showing that the lessons we commonly draw from their lives are seldom the correct ones. Leaders featured in the book include: Founders: Walt Disney and Coco Chanel Zealots: Maximilien Robespierre and Abu Musab Zarkawi Powerbrokers: Margaret Thatcher and Boss Tweed And other leaders profiled include geniuses Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein, reformers Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., and heroes Harriet Tubman and Zheng He. Ultimately, McChrystal posits that different environments will require different leaders, and that followers will choose the leader they need. Aspiring leaders will be best served not by cultivating a standard set of textbook leadership qualities, but by learning to discern what is required in each situation. 'Leaders rexamines old notions of leadership - especially the outdated view that history is shaped by great men going it alone' - SHERYL SANDBERG, COO of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.Org 'Leaders takes us deeper than most other leadership books into the true and often messy mechanics of leadership. Anyone who considers themselves a student of leadership must read this book' - SIMON SINEK, optimist and author of Start With Why and Leader Eat Last

'An engaging, timely exploration of how to bring more wisdom into our work lives' Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals 'This is exactly what we need right now!' Brene Brown Do you want to reinvent the second half of your career? ------------------------------------------------------------ Chip Conley ignites a bold, urgent conversation about age and ageism in the workplace, He liberates the term 'elder' from the stigma of 'elderly', and reveals the value of wisdom that can only be accrued through years on the planet. Wisdom at Work will teach you how to be indispensable in the second half of your working life. 'Anyone feeling jaded, jejune or just plain past it at work can read this book in a morning and feel revived' The Financial Times

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.

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.

This text describes how government and industry have failed working families and what we can do to get beyond this critical impasse. It draws on systematic national research on how the need to meet family obligations is affecting working Americans of all social classes and ethnic groups. What happens when kids get sick? When an elderly parent is hospitalized? How do poor families - who have been studied in less depth than their middle-class peers - cope with work-family demands? Jody Heymann's documented research points to a widening gap between working families and the health and development of children. She demonstrates how lack of essential services and support lead to increased school failure, chronic illness, and diminished chance of success for adults and children. Outdated labour policy and practice must be brought into the 21st-century argues Heymann.