The World's Best Book Summaries
Why is it important to have an effective team in your organization? How can you create a productive team? Many factors make a successful business, but the most essential part of your business is a team. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to create a team that upholds your company’s values and gets the job done. Read below to learn how to create a team in just six steps.
Do you tend to put off important yet tedious work until the last minute? What are some ways you can make tedious tasks more bearable? One of the main reasons we struggle to get tedious tasks done consistently is that we dread doing them and thus put them off for as long as possible. In his book Effortless, Greg McKeown suggests several ways we can make our most tedious activities more enjoyable or, at the very least, more tolerable. Here’s how to turn tedium into fun.
What is productive disagreement? How do you disagree with someone in a respectful and non-combative way? Disagreeing productively means that you and the other person have a natural give and take and maintain an openness to working together. When you think of disagreement in this way, you can approach it as a fluid exchange of ideas—a generative and creative interaction rather than a combative argument. Here’s how to have a productive disagreement, according to Adam Grant.
Do you find it difficult to relax? Do you often sacrifice rest to get more done in a day? Society teaches us that we need to be purposeful and productive at all times, so taking time for rest feels unimportant and can even cause guilt and anxiety. As a result, many people don’t know how to take a break at all, working themselves to the point of burnout. Here’s how to avoid burnout and still stay productive, according to Greg McKeown.
Would you say that your organization has a safe working environment? Why is it important to ensure psychological safety in the workplace? Safe work cultures prioritize learning and critical thinking over profit and end results. Creating psychological safety in the workplace starts with fostering an environment where employees feel like they can take risks when interacting with others without fearing negative consequences. With this in mind, here’s how to cultivate a sense of psychological safety in the workplace.
Do you have difficulty staying focused? How can you resist the pull of distractions and get your mind to focus? With so many things vying for our attention these days, it’s hard to stay focused on one thing at a time. Distractions are literally at our fingertips, only a click away. Fortunately, it’s in your power to shut off anything that interferes with your ability to stay focused and get work done. Here are a few tips for staying focused and keeping distractions at bay.
What are some challenges of returning to work after the pandemic? How is the workforce changing post-pandemic? Returning to work after the pandemic is proving difficult, not just for employees, but also for employers impacted by the labor shortage. Businesses looking to bring workers back to the office face two challenges: a worker shortage, and changed expectations and priorities among the workers they currently employ. Keep reading to learn how companies are dealing with the challenges of returning to work post-pandemic.
How are jobs after the pandemic different? How has the workforce changed? What can companies do to accommodate these changes? Acknowledging how the pandemic has fundamentally changed the workforce will lead to both happier workers and a more adaptable team. To retain current workers or hire new ones, companies should allow for more autonomy, acknowledging that less supervision doesn’t mean less productivity. Keep reading to learn more about how jobs, hiring, and the entire workforce are changing post-pandemic.
How often do people from different teams in your company work together? Do they communicate effectively? When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he discovered why the company had fallen behind the pack in terms of innovation. One of the barriers he identified was the lack of collaboration and communication among the various teams in the company. Continue reading to find out how Nadella cultivated cross-team collaboration at Microsoft and to learn seven tips for better cross-team communication.
Are you a workaholic? Do you often work yourself to the point of burnout? In today’s hustle culture, many people think the only way to live a productive and rewarding life is to work as hard as possible. This idea is so ingrained in our culture that many work to the point of overexertion, sacrificing their mental and physical health. Here’s how to avoid overexertion and burnout in a culture that never sleeps.