The Serving Leader by Kenneth R. Jennings and John Stahl-Wert showcases the powerful yet paradoxical method of achieving greatness by serving others. They intertwine tales of an estranged son and his dying father within the lessons to provide insight into the five actions anyone can take to transform his or her organization or community. Serving Leadership has power and value in many different types of environments, including industries, nonprofits, schools, homes, and churches. The best Serving Leaders turn everything the world knows about traditional leadership upside down and achieve amazing results by doing so.
Serving Leaders must follow five specific and powerful actions if they want to totally transform their businesses, communities, or teams. While these five actions seem paradoxical, they have been proven to yield extraordinary outcomes:
- Run to great purpose. Every person, team, organization, or community needs a purpose to help fuel their work. Serving Leaders are people in pursuit of a great purpose. They articulate this purpose in a way that is so compelling that people are willing to run toward it. The leaders set the pace, and this spirit gets transferred to the people they serve.
- Upend the pyramid. In a traditional leadership environment, the leader is at the top of the pyramid looking down on all his or her workers, team members, and community citizens. But in a Serving Leadership environment, the pyramid is flipped upside down. In this scenario, the leaders put other people first. They give credit to others before themselves. In doing this, the people they build up will do the same for those they work with. The cycle continues.
- Raise the bar. While on the surface Serving Leadership seems soft, it is the opposite. In Serving Leadership environments, standards are very high. No one can join the team unless they meet very rigid criteria. Once they are there, high expectations for performance are placed on them. Mistakes may happen and can be forgiven, but training and corrections are immediately put into place. Those who cannot perform even after extensive coaching are let go.
- Blaze the trail. There are often very tough barriers for people to get through on the road to success. Serving Leaders move those barriers and eliminate obstacles to make success easier for those they are leading.
- Build on strength. While it may be common for people to think they need to work on their weaknesses, in a Serving Leadership environment, people focus on their strengths. They know their weaknesses but instead of trying to fix them, they find other people who are strong in that area and bring them onto the team.
To learn more, please visit www.bizsum.com
Purpose is important to customers and employees alike. In today’s market, three reasons account for the rise of purpose as a defining aspect of marketing and sales: changing consumer values, technological innovations, and a shift in the value base of many developed economies. In On Purpose, Shaun Smith and Andy Milligan offer a guide for creating a brand experience that increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. Their step-by-step analysis illustrates how a business should define, design, and deliver brand identity and purpose across diverse platforms.
Successfully persuading others to take particular actions is an essential skill in both business and in daily life. In The Small BIG, Steve J. Martin, Noah J. Goldstein, and Robert B. Cialdini identify over 50 small ways to influence people in effective, yet ethical, ways.
In recent years, the financial industry has undergone a transformation. Changes, such as tighter regulations, have resulted in smaller financial payouts for young financiers, but many of the most talented and ambitious students continue to be drawn to careers in finance. In Young Money, Kevin Roose seeks to understand what attracts people to Wall Street, which people find the most success, and what the future of Wall Street holds in light of these changes. To achieve this, Roose shadowed eight college graduates as they embarked on careers as analysts at some of Wall Street’s top firms. He documented their journeys as they faced challenges, doubts, and questions about the value, morality, and fit of their work to their strengths. Ultimately, Roose discovered what it takes to succeed on Wall Street and the sacrifices that must be made to gain the long-term power and prestige that these types of firms offer.
In High-Profit Prospecting, Mark Hunter provides strategies for generating high-profit prospects and turning them into valuable customers. The book discusses the role of prospecting in today’s ever-changing world and provides advice for three different prospecting methods: Internet, email, and cold calls. Hunter dismantles common myths that keep salespeople from prospecting, offers an overall strategic prospecting plan, gives practical guidance for day-to-day prospecting, and outlines steps for landing leads who will ultimately turn into customers.
Games have always been a part of society, and smart companies are tapping into this inherent desire to have fun. Video games generate billions of dollars each year, but gamification, or adapting the elements of gaming, can also be used to engage customers and motivate employees. However, the answer is not as simple as merely setting up a company’s website to function as a gaming platform. In For the Win, Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter show companies how to combine gaming techniques with business strategies to develop a more successful organization.
Most people make decisions so quickly that they may not even know they are making them; therefore, logic seldom has anything to do with the process. Psychological and scientific studies have proven that the brain’s nonconscious, automatic system is responsible for quickly generating impressions that lead to making choices. In 7 Secrets of Persuasion, James C. Crimmins, PhD explains how people can appeal to the brain’s automatic system to impact the decisions of their family members, work associates, friends, or customers.
In The Social Project Manager, project management consultant Peter Taylor examines the shift from traditional, top-down project management toward a new socially oriented paradigm that encourages the free exchange of ideas at all levels. In keeping with the theme of being social and collaborative, Taylor invites industry experts to share their perspectives and offers his comments in response. Because projects are about people, not processes, and technology has changed the way people communicate in their everyday lives, social project management is set to become the new standard. As project managers’ responsibilities continue to grow, macromanaging by harnessing the abilities and contributions of their teams will become increasingly vital to delivering projects on time and on budget.
In What Great Trainers Do, Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton target the underlying need for trainers to energize and motivate individuals to enact relevant change in their workplaces. They present an approach to attaining well-run training programs that ultimately drive future business for clients. Using time-tested techniques, trainers can deliver dynamic workshops that ultimately help boost profits and positively generate personal growth. From PowerPoint presentations to the effective management of group dynamics, this book offers no-nonsense advice to trainers seeking to create lasting and valuable learning.
Business Book Summaries 