When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. McCord helped create the unique and high-performing culture at Netflix, where she was chief talent officer. In her new book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she shares what she learned there and elsewhere in Silicon Valley. McCord advocates practicing radical honesty in the workplace, saying good-bye to employees who don't fit the company's emerging needs, and motivating with challenging work, not promises, perks, and bonus plans. McCord argues that the old standbys of corporate HR - annual performance reviews, retention plans, employee empowerment and engagement programs - often end up being a colossal waste of time and resources. Her road-tested advice, offered with humour and irreverence, provides readers a different path for creating a culture of high performance and profitability. Powerful will change how you think about work and the way a business should be run.

Are you a good boss--or a great one? Get more of the management ideas you want, from the authors you trust, with HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People (Vol. 2). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you master the innumerable challenges of being a manager. With insights from leading experts including Marcus Buckingham, Michael D. Watkins, and Linda Hill, this book will inspire you to: Draw out your employees' signature strengths Support a culture of honesty and civility Cultivate better communication and deeper trust among global teams Give feedback that will help your people excel Hire, reward, and tolerate only fully formed adults Motivate your employees through small wins Foster collaboration and break down silos across your company This collection of articles includes "Are You a Good Boss--or a Great One?," by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback; "Let Your Workers Rebel," by Francesca Gino; "The Feedback Fallacy," by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall; "The Power of Small Wins," by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer; "The Price of Incivility," by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson; "What Most People Get Wrong About Men and Women," by Catherine H. Tinsley and Robin J. Ely; "How Netflix Reinvented HR," by Patty McCord; "Leading the Team You Inherit," by Michael D. Watkins; "The Overcommitted Organization," by Mark Mortensen and Heidi K. Gardner; "Global Teams That Work," by Tsedal Neeley; "Creating the Best Workplace on Earth," by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones.

Named by The Washington Post as one of the 11 Leadership Books to Read in 2018 When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. McCord helped create the unique and high-performing culture at Netflix, where she was chief talent officer. In her new book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she shares what she learned there and elsewhere in Silicon Valley. McCord advocates practicing radical honesty in the workplace, saying good-bye to employees who don't fit the company's emerging needs, and motivating with challenging work, not promises, perks, and bonus plans. McCord argues that the old standbys of corporate HR-annual performance reviews, retention plans, employee empowerment and engagement programs-often end up being a colossal waste of time and resources. Her road-tested advice, offered with humor and irreverence, provides readers a different path for creating a culture of high performance and profitability. Powerful will change how you think about work and the way a business should be run.

May Kennedy McCord, lovingly nicknamed "First Lady of the Ozarks" and "Queen of the Hillbillies," spent half a century sharing the history, songs, and stories of her native Ozarks through newspaper columns, radio programs, and music festivals. Though her work made her one of the twentieth century's preeminent folklorists, McCord was first and foremost an entertainer-at one time nearly as renowned as the hills she loved. Despite the encouragement of her contemporaries, McCord never published a collection of her work. In 1956, Vance Randolph wrote to her, "If you didn't have such a mental block against writing books, I could show you how to make a book out of extracts from your columns. It would be very little work, and sell like hotcakes. . . . I could write a solemn little introduction, telling the citizens what a fine gal you are! The hell of it is, most of the readers know all about you." In Queen of the Hillbillies, editors Patti McCord and Kristene Sutliff at last bring together the best of McCord's published and previously unpublished writings to share her knowledge, humor, and inimitable spirit with a new generation of readers.