New Summaries of the Week

The Blame Game

The Blame Game

In The Blame Game, Ben Dattner examines the detrimental effects of focusing on the assignment of blame and credit. There is general acceptance that people should receive praise for good deeds, and they should not be blamed undeservedly. However, an overemphasis on culpability can create a negative work environment that hinders creativity, honesty, and teamwork. Dattner traces the origins of this obsession, explores the role of personality, and offers suggestions for creating an environment that focuses on future success instead of past mistakes.

 Dattner, Ben
Landing in the Executive Chair

Landing in the Executive Chair

While there are a host of factors that contribute to a stellar organization, the primary driver of its success consists of the people at the top. Many of the skills necessary to be successful at the helm are distinct from those that allow a person to attain an executive level position. If the mantra, “Show up. Keep up. Shut up,” brought a person through the leadership pipeline, they cannot rely on that same advice to propel their future success. In fact, “Shut up,” is the very last thing an executive must seek to do.

 Henman, Linda
Mobilize

Mobilize

Mobile application software has become an integrated component of the way many people socialize, run businesses, schedule appointments, and entertain themselves. The term app is now commonly understood to mean any portable software application that runs on mobile phones. When Apple’s App Store opened in 2008, it revolutionized the software industry. Since then, however, the amount of mobile content available has increased rapidly, and building a great product is no longer enough to achieve success. To compete in the app world, an app must be skillfully designed, marketed, and promoted.

 Sobhany, Rana June
Executive Presence

Executive Presence

In Executive Presence, Harrison Monarth, an expert in coaching high-level leaders in the art of perception management, reveals the critical difference between CEOs and those who want to be CEOs. What sets CEOs apart is not a matter of intelligence, connections, or luck; it can be summed up as executive presence. While many business leaders toil in obscurity and expect great things to follow, those on the path to corporate leadership spend their time perfecting the types of leadership communication skills that generate respect and get others to share their vision.

 Monarth, Harrison
The Sales Manager's Success Manual

The Sales Manager's Success Manual

The Sales Manager’s Success Manual seeks to demonstrate to sales managers and Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) how to develop, assess, lead, and coach their sales teams. Dr. Wayne Thomas, an award-winning consultant and the CEO of Thomas & Company, presents sales managers and CSOs with a coherent and systematic rationale for fact-based assessments of sales force effectiveness at multiple levels. Today’s managers can no longer rely on their experiences alone as successful sale professionals when managing a new generation of sales teams.

 Thomas, Wayne M.
Managing the Generation Mix

Managing the Generation Mix

Generational diversity in the workplace can help companies capitalize on employees’ unique abilities and experiences, but it also creates challenges for managers charged with leading this generational mix. Conflict arises as new generations bring values and expectations that vastly differ from those of longtime workers. Older generations are beginning to see the logic behind the demands of younger workers and in doing so have learned that company loyalty may no longer make sense.

 Martin, Carolyn A.