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JobDig Recommended Reading
These books are written by our career experts, and we consider to be important readings
within their fields.
If you have suggestions on new books that we should add, or have feedback after reading one of these books, please let us know at reading@jobdig.com.
10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College: The Know-How You Need to Succeed
By Bill DueeaseA college diploma can open many doors, but it's just an expensive piece of paper if you don't have what employers seek. Long-time professor and student adviser Bill Coplin surveyed the nation's top companies and identified the essential skills recent grads need to survive and succeed in the job market. In 10 THINGS EMPLOYERS WANT YOU TO LEARN IN COLLEGE, Coplin teaches you to solve complex problems, influence people, and detect BS - real-world know-how your textbooks don't teach you.
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101 Tips For Graduates: A Code Of Conduct For Success And Happiness In Your Professional Life
By Susan MoremAccording to her introduction, the author seeks to put down in writing the implied code of conduct by which people are all expected to live. Her purpose in doing so is to give recent high school or college graduates a concrete list of criteria to which they can refer so that they may meet or exceed the usually unspoken expectations of adulthood. This is an admirable goal, and one that the author meets well with tips on every subject from proofreading every document to following one's heart.
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51 Ways To Find A Job Fast -- Guaranteed!
By Kevin DonlinAre you looking for a new and better job?
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Cool Careers For Dummies
By Marty NemkoLooking for a job? Thinking about a career change? Dreading it? Well, Cool Careers for Dummies promises not only to help you find jobs you never knew existed, but to make it fun! From enologist (that's winemaker, dummy) to attorney specializing in outer-space issues, career specialists Marty Nemko and Paul and Sarah Edwards have compiled over 500 interesting, offbeat, and just plain cool jobs. But that's just the first step.
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Designing a Cover Letter to 'Wow' Hiring Personnel
By Teena RoseJob searching is a game. Yes, you read right. Once you hit submit on your computer, or the mailman takes your envelope, your destiny has been set. Jobseekers oftentimes underestimate the value a well-written and unique cover letter brings to their career package.
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How to Design, Write, and Compile a Quality Brag Book
By Teena RoseIt's all about marketing yourself. I can't stress that enough. You're marketing a product: you. Market "it" properly, and you'll have one of the most successful job-search campaigns you've ever experienced.
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How to Get Your Dream Job
By Joan LloydHave you suddenly found that you are looking for a job? Write a great resume, become a skilled interviewee and network like a pro with a little help from Joan Lloyd.
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I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This : A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work
By Julie JansenA must-read for anyone who is working and feeling dissatisfied, unfulfilled or unhappy with their current work situation.
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Internet Your Way To a New Job
By Alison DoyleJust a few years ago, you could upload your resume to one of the top jobs sites, click a few times to apply for some jobs, and consider your job search well underway. Today, that isn't enough. The job market is becoming increasingly competitive. Hiring managers are overwhelmed with applications and are looking at new and different ways to recruit online. Hiring has changed and so has job searching. It's more complicated than it used to be and job seekers need to be prepared to use all the online job search tools to their advantage. Online job searching often seems like it can be a complicated endeavor. It doesn't have to be - there are tips and tricks you can use to make the process run smoothly and simply. Alison Doyle will provide you with everything you need to know on how to build your career and find a new job.
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Interview Fitness Training: A Workout with Carole Martin, the Interview Coach
By Carole MartinIt would be nice if your heart didn't palpitate, and your hands didn't sweat, and your mouth didn't go dry, but most people, even executives,...
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Odd Jobs: Portraits of Unusual Occupations
By Nancy Rica SchiffOdd Jobs Portraits of Unusual Occupations by Nancy Rica Schiff Who blows the bugle at the Kentucky Derby? Who dusts the dinosaur bones at the Smithsonian? Who sniffs dog breath for a living? Who measures the breasts of real models? ODD JOBS introduces you to the real people who perform these truly peculiar jobs. In 65 intimate portraits, photo essayist Nancy Rica Schiff captures the personalities and occupations of these oddball professionals, providing a short profile of each.
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Odder Jobs
By Nancy Rica SchiffFrom canine massage practitioner to competitive eater, there are real people who perform real jobs that most nine-to-fivers have never dreamed existed. In this satisfying follow-up to ODD JOBS, Nancy Rica Schiff brings these and many more peculiar professions to light, giving us a glimpse into a whole other world of work. Nancy's photographs perfectly capture the personalities of these working people who love their jobs, despite their oddities.
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The 20-Minute Cover Letter Fixer
By Teena RoseJob searching is a game. Once you hit submit on your computer, or the mailman takes your envelope, your destiny has been set. Jobseekers oftentimes underestimate the value a cover letter brings to their career package.
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The ABC's of College Life
By Vicki SalemiPicture it. The typical high school graduate, varsity letter winner and student government guru, is finally going off to college. She will soon explore unchartered territory, a land where loads of homework and a happening social scene rule her world. It is exciting and indeed overwhelming, but this teen can handle it. Her anxiety is now history because she has read and thoroughly digested the inside scoop, the quintessential survival guide, The ABC’s of College Life.
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The About.com Guide to Job Searching
By Alison DoyleFrom writing a good resume and locating the best search engines to what to do when you get an interview, this resource gives you all you need to land the career of your dreams.
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Top Secret Executive Resumes
By Steven ProvenzanoThis practical and helpful guide takes you step by step through the process of writing and formatting a job-winning resume. Steven Provenzano starts off with advice on identifying and expressing one's special talents and abilities. Worksheets are included throughout to help readers get organized and motivated.
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Voyage To Success: Your College Adventure Guide
By Terry ArndtVoyage To Success was developed to provide you with the tools you need to become a successful college student. The most comprehensive college adventure guide available, Voyage To Success addresses all aspects of a student’s life in college, including academic, personal, social, financial and career planning.
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What Color Is Your Parachute 2006
By Richard BollesIn the last five years, the United States has lost 2.6 million jobs - the most in any five-year period since the Great Depression. In the 2006 edition of his legendary job-hunting book, WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE? Richard Nelson Bolles offers hope and presents an inspiring and detailed plan for finding your place in this uncertain job market.
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86 Creative Ideas for Having More Fun and Less Stress at Work
By Joan LloydBooklet packed with fun ideas, some build a family-friendly atmosphere, some are stress busters, others have a business purpose. Each will spark creative ideas of your own.
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How To Feel Great At Work Every Day
By Deborah Brown-VolkmanHow To Feel Great At Work Every Day guides you through creating a practical plan to finding more energy to fuel your career. Instead of complicated suggestions and ideas, this book offers easy-to-understand steps you can implement in your career today.
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How To Gain The Professional Edge: Achieve The Personal And Professional Image You Want
By Susan MoremProvides the tools, skills and techniques to help people achieve their career, income and professional goals. Perfect for people looking for a job, new to the work place, or wanting to move ahead in their current career. Explains the business casual phenomenon. Gives expert advice on work place dress, image and behavior.
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How to Work Smart! And Enjoy Your Job
By Melinda Howard EricksonMs. Erickson's short but highly insightful 25 ways will improve your bottom-line when your employees take new interest in their job & demonstrate greater productivity as a result of what they learn from Ms. Erickson's gem of a book. Simply to read, comprehend & use -best investment you'll make this year for employee training.
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How You Can Help: An Easy Guide to Incorporating Good Deeds into Your Everyday Life
By Bill CoplinThis book is a guide to "Transforming your life by giving something back." Coplin (the Maxwell Sch. of Citizenship, Syracuse Univ.) thoughtfully discusses how to become a volunteer in various sectors, and describes the lives of both well-known and unsung activists. Resource lists in this book are useful; game-plans and self-evaluation quizzes less so. Public librarians may want to toss a coin in deciding whether to purchase this book or The Cathedral Within (LJ 6/15/99), a remarkably similar volume by Share Our Strength founder Bill Shore. Shore's book covers much the same ground, is the more readable of the two, and is in hardcover. Heads or tails?
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Innovation at the Speed of Laughter : 8 Secrets to World Class Idea Generation
By John SweeneyThe path to innovation is a long, patient, inward journey. This book gets us moving at the speed of laughter.
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Love It, Don't Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work
By Bev KayeLove It, Don't Leave It encourages employees to assume responsibility for the way their work lives work. This is not difficult, say authors Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, who take a witty and practical approach to finding job satisfaction. Presented in an appealing, accessible A to Z format, the book includes strategies for communication, career growth, balancing work with family, and more. Chapters include "Ask: And You May Receive," "Jerk: Work with One?" "Passion: It's Not Just a Fruit," and "Zenith: Are We There Yet?" The same breezy, results-minded style that made the authors' Love 'Em or Lose 'Em a bestseller makes this follow-up a fun and inspiring read.
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Negotiating Your Salary: How To Make $1,000 A Minute
By Jack ChapmanThe fourth edition of Jack Chapman’s salary negotiation classic includes updated Internet research sources with passwords to useful sites; new lingo for earnings conversations; thorough coverage of stock options and grants; and the final word on when to get a lawyer involved. NEGOTIATING YOUR SALARY focuses completely on the job candidate’s side while demonstrating how to develop a comp package that will satisfy the employer, too.
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Soaring on Your Strengths: Discover, Use, and Brand Your Best Self for Career Success
By Robin RyanRobin Ryan’s groundbreaking new book is designed to help readers take advantage of a paradigm shift in the workplace. Instead of hiring or promoting generally qualified people and improving their weaknesses, companies are now looking for workers who have the strengths that match particular jobs. Ryan shows readers how to identify those strengths and use that knowledge to advance their careers and better promote themselves to prospective employers. She shows how to establish an appealing career identity using self- branding tools like résumés, Mind Maps, and on-the-job success stories, and outlines fresh approaches to networking with colleagues and negotiating with bosses. Savvy and entertaining, Soaring on Your Strengths will be the job and promotion seekers guide for the twenty-first century.
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Thrive: Standing on Your Own Two Feet in a Borderless World
By Mike CookThrive is a paradigm-breaking, down-to-earth look at the deeper meaning of work, mentoring, relationships and interdependence in the new global workplace. An indispensable guide to developing vital inner skills necessary to succeed in today's shifting economic realities and tomorrow's international marketplace.
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You Want Me to Work with Who? : Eleven Keys to a Stress-Free, Satisfying, and Successful Work Life...No Matter Who You Work With
By Julie JansenIn I Don't Know What I Want . . . But I Know It's Not This, career consultant Julie Jansen won over readers with the same comforting, clear headed approach that she brings to her many Fortune 500 clients. Now she tackles a problem that affects every working person, regardless of occupation: difficult people. Whether the problem is an "abusive" boss, "toxic" coworker, or "difficult" assistant, Jansen shows how to master the eleven keys to getting along with even the most dysfunctional colleagues. Featuring self-assessment exercises designed to identify the root causes of problem behavior and smart, viable solutions and tips for managing different kinds of difficult people - from subordinates to superiors - this invaluable resource is a savvy, humane guide to reducing stress, establishing workplace harmony, and making sure that no one stands in the way of your career goals.
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125 Tips for Retaining Talented Employees
By Joan LloydBooklet packed with ideas for keeping employees in a tight market.
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Coaching for Leadership : The Practice of Leadership Coaching from the World's Greatest Coaches
By Marshall GoldsmithWhen it was published in 2000, Coaching for Leadership became an instant classic in the field of executive coaching. This second edition updates and expands on the original book and brings together the best executive coaches who offer a basic understanding of how coaching works, why it works, and how leaders can make the best use of the coaching process.
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Fast Feedback, Second Edition
By Bruce TulganFAST stands for Frequent, Accurate, Specific and Timely, and FAST Feedback is a new approach to performance evaluation in sync with today's fast-paced, rapidly changing workplace. FAST can be used in conjunction with or as an alternative to six and twelve month reviews. FAST links training directly with ongoing performance evaluation by keeping employees in a constant feedback loop. There are many ways to implement FAST Feedback in your organization, including the customizable forms included in this pocket guide.
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Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
By Stephen LundinDo you work in a "toxic energy dump"? Do you or your employees seem stuck in the doldrums all the time? Well then, FISH! is for you. Mallory Kasdan enthusiastically and energetically reads this tale of a manager of a department in which everyone has lost ambition, energy, and helpfulness. Through Kasdan's passionate narration, we learn how the Pike Place Fish Market--with their secrets for success and improved attitude--helps the manager encourage her staff to be involved and conscientious about what they do.
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Get Weird! 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work
By John PutzierThis book is a funhouse of creative, inexpensive, offbeat ideas for getting the best from employees!
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Global Leadership: The Next Generation
By Marshall GoldsmithDrawing on the results of an extraordinary 2-year Accenture study of emerging business leaders, this book shows why the skills of today's global leaders won't be enough--and why tomorrow's leaders won't resemble today's. Goldsmith and his co-authors first identify five new "factors of leadership" and their implications: global thinking, appreciation of diversity, technological savvy, a willingness to partner and an openness to sharing leadership. They explain what it will mean to lead in an era where intellectual capital is the dominant source of value; how to lead people whose backgrounds and values may be radically dissimilar from yours; and why achieving personal self-mastery is now a fundamental prerequisite for leading others.
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H.O.T. Management: Hands-On Transactional
By Bruce TulganWhat can managers do every day to get more and better work from people while giving them the flexibility they need?
The answer lies in HOT Management - the breakthrough set of management techniques, skills, best practices and habits of the most effective supervisory managers in today's extremely demanding workplace.
This pocket guide clearly and concisely spells out what you need to do to become a HOT manager. The author's message is simple, yet powerful: Make high performance the only option. Be a hands-on manager. And spend lots of time with employees spelling out expectations and clarifying standards.
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How-To Handbook for Help Wanted
By GL HoffmanWritten in easily understandable language and loaded with examples of effective classified ads. The How-To Handbook thoroughly explaines key topics, such as the basics of writing a great ad, what makes an effective headline, and when to use (and not use) a headhunter.
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Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience
By Gordy CurphyLeadership: The Art of Experience, Fifth Edition, is written for the general student to serve as a stand-alone introduction to the subject of leadership. The text consists of 13 chapters and a final section on Basic and Advanced Leadership Skills. Authors Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy have drawn upon three different types of literature: empirical studies; interesting anecdotes, stories and findings; and leadership skills to create a text that is personally relevant, interesting and scholarly. The authors' unique quest for a careful balancing act of leadership materials help students apply theory and research to their real-life experiences.
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Living Toad Free: Overcoming Resistance to Motivation
By Dan BobinskiLiving Toad Free starts with a collection of true stories. You'll read how Toads (obstacles) hold people back, plus stories where Toads are "eliminated." Then the authors provide over a dozen proven methods for creating Toad Free conditions. There's no sense in artificially pumping up your motivation - you already have it. You just need to remove the obstacles. This engaging and enlightening read is sure to improve your approach to getting the results you want. After all, everyone has a right to be Living Toad Free!
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Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay
By Bev KayeBecause finding the ideal person for every workplace position has become an increasingly difficult task, the retention of top employees has become every manager's concern. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em, by organizational-development specialists Beverly L. Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, proposes that this "race for talent" can be effectively run only by those who adopt programs and policies that truly support their personnel. It then shows how to do so, even in organizations reluctant to participate actively.
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Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works
By Cindy VentriceText explores why employee recognition efforts miss the mark; what employers and employees each expect from recognition; and how to give morale and productivity a genuine, lasting boost. Cites dozens of real-life examples from successful companies such as FedEx, Wells Fargo, and The Container Store.
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Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent
By Bruce TulganThis bestseller stresses a practical approach to managing Gen Xers in the workplace, including giving them the freedom to succeed.
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Managing the Generation Mix: From Collision to Collaboration
By Bruce TulganNo doubt about it: The newest diversity issue in the workplace is age diversity. Many organizations have finally figured out how to recruit young talent only to watch them drive down a collision course with seasoned employees over issues like work ethic, respect for authority, dress code and every work arrangement imaginable. And they're not sure what to do about it. The fact is, generational conflicts are not merely a matter of young versus old.
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Managing The Professional Service Firm
By David MaisterDavid Maister's name is synonymous with the latest thinking in professional service firm management. This book suggests why.
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Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors
By Patrick LencioniMarketing won't speak to engineering. Sales thinks production hogs the budget. Front desk believes back room's lazy. These sorts of turf wars, which turn outwardly unified companies into groupings of uncommunicative "silos," are the stuff of management lore. According to bestselling author Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), "they waste resources, kill productivity and jeopardize the achievement of goals"—they also drive workers into tizzies of frustration. Like his previous books, Lencioni's latest addresses the management problem through a fictional story; this one revolves around a self-employed consultant named Jude, who has to dismantle silos at an upscale hotel, a technology company and a hospital. Split into two sections, Lencioni's book first shows Jude discovering a solution to silos, then summarizes Jude's lessons into a strategy that readers can apply to any business.
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Staffing Industry Law
By A. Bernard FrechtmanThe sixth book by the most widely read legal writer in the staffing industry calling upon his decades of active nationwide practice as an attorney in every possible legal situation confronting the staffing industry.
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Stress-Free Performance Appraisals: Turn Your Most Painful Management Duty into a Powerful Motivational Tool
By Sharon ArmstrongPerformance appraisal is one of the most important, continuous responsibilities of a supervisor. This book takes you through the process of conducting a performance appraisal, where you determine the quality of an employee's performance compared to set objectives, clarify present expectations, and learn the importance of providing employees with positive feedback. The authors break the process down into several steps starting with the planning, the preparation, and the writing of the performance appraisal form. The next step is to discuss the performance evaluation. You will learn how the supervisor should start the meeting, what needs to be included, how to close the meeting, and the follow-up responsibilities.
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Talk To Me: Communication Moves To Get Along With Anyone
By Dennis O'GradyDr. O'Grady shares his insightful approach to improving communication, and consequently relationships, in Talk To Me. The Talk to Me system has taught me how to have a better relationship with my self as well as with those around me. Destructive and ineffective communication habits once caused me to ruin many opportunities for happiness. Now, I produce good results for myself.
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The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave
By Leigh BranhamMore than 85% of managers believe employees leave because they have been pulled away by "more pay"
or "“better opportunity." Yet, more than 80 percent of employees say it was "push" factors related to poor management practices or toxic cultures that drove them out. This gaping disparity between belief and reality
keeps organizations from addressing the costly problems of employee disengagement and regrettable turnover
with on-target solutions.
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The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching : 50 Top Executive Coaches Reveal Their Secrets
By Marshall GoldsmithLeadership coaching has become vitally important to todays most successful businesses. The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching is a landmark resource that presents a variety of perspectives and best practices from todays top executive coaches. It provides valuable guidance on exactly what the best coaches are now doing to get the most out of leaders, for now and into the future. Revealing core philosophies, critical capabilities, and the secrets of coaching success, this one-of-a-kind guide includes essays from fifty top coaches, including Ken Blanchard and Frances Hesselbein. Packed with cutting-edge ideas and proven best practices, this is the definitive source of information for anyone dealing with coaching.
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Up Is Not the Only Way : A Guide to Developing Workforce Talent
By Bev KayeThis book opens new vistas for people who feel trapped in a career they see as unfulfilling or limited.
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Weirdos in the Workplace : The New Normal--Thriving in the Age of the Individual
By John PutzierConsultant Putzier begins his foray into the work world of high performers with "There is always a talent shortage." His point? That corporations today must accept the so-called weirdos for their contributions, after distinguishing whether they're truly adding value or simply are annoying and irritating. The tools he uses to measure his contention include behavioral and organizational change maps and step-by-step Venn diagrams with a path led by answers to specific questions. Before explaining the techniques, though, he spends good space describing and analyzing 32 different kinds of weirdos, from Circadian Charlie to System Tester Sam. He also delves into the emotional and mental composition of high performers, from their need for workplace flexibility and new technology to their responses to out-of-the-ordinary incentives and to risk and bureaucracy. The bottom line is his fervent belief that, without a good understanding and toleration of the weirdos (aka Albert Einstein, among others), this planet will be a much less productive and innovative place in which to work and live.
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