The World's Best Book Summaries
Who’s in control of your electronic devices and notifications? Do they serve you, or do you let them waste your time? Email and social media can be a blessing or a curse. Manage Your Day-to-Day offers insights and advice to help you use these tools to enhance your work rather than distract you from it. Keep reading to get practical tips for managing distractions at work from Chris Bailey, Cal Newport, and others.
Do your employees regard you as approachable? What’s the best way to coach an underperforming team member? In his book When They Win, You Win, Russ Laraway contends that bad management is everywhere and that it’s causing enormous harm to employees and companies alike. He believes that managers should cultivate the skill of coaching to boost employee engagement and performance. Keep reading to learn how to coach employees with Laraway’s insights as an employee experience expert.
Do you know how many calories (and calories for each macro) you should take in each day? What factors should you consider when calculating calories and macros? In Bigger Leaner Stronger, Michael Matthews recommends flexible dieting. This simply means managing your calorie intake and eating a healthy balance of macronutrients (macros). To do this, you need to know how to calculate calories and macros according to your diet goals. Continue reading to learn Matthews’s advice for calculating calories and macros.
How do kids express vulnerability? Why do some children pretend to cry? Most parenting advice sees children’s behavior as a problem to be fixed through time-outs, rewards, and serious conversations. But, Dr. Becky Kennedy argues that these strategies jeopardize your connection with your children. That’s a high price to pay for band-aid strategies. Read more to learn how to handle an anxious child by addressing the real issue behind their anxieties, fears, and tears.
Do you tend to work in fits and starts? Do you let notifications, emails, and squirrels grab your attention? Manage Your Day-to-Day is a collection of essays by some of today’s best-known creative minds. They advise that, to improve your focus, you must be intentional, manage distractions, and stop multitasking. While the advice is directed at creative professionals, it applies to anyone intent on boosting their focus. Continue reading to learn how to improve your focus with tips from several highly-successful people.
Do you know what your employees’ career goals are? Are you helping them reach those goals? If you’re a manager, career development should be an ongoing process with each of your team members. Employee experience expert Russ Laraway recommends having three career conversations with employees, each conversation with a specific focus. Continue reading to learn how to conduct these conversations and measure their effectiveness.
Does your enthusiasm for nutrition and exercise tend to wane over time? How clear are you on your reasons for wanting to be healthy? Inconsistency equals zero. If you’re going to make any meaningful, lasting change, you have to stick with it. When it comes to your fitness journey, your mindset is half the battle. Enthusiasm and willpower will help you keep the commitments you make to yourself. Find motivation for getting fit with the following tips from personal trainer Michael Matthews.
Are you a creator and a perfectionist? Are you aware that perfectionism actually hinders creativity? One aspect of being an artist is cultivating a creative mindset. Such a mindset keeps you inspired and helps you work through challenges and creative blocks. Perfectionism isn’t part of a creative mindset; in fact, it gets in the way of the artistic process. Read more to understand why perfectionism in art is problematic.
Do you have a child who’s hesitant in social situations? What’s the best way to encourage them? In her book Good Inside, clinical psychologist and parent Dr. Becky Kennedy contends that hesitancy in a child isn’t about confidence. In fact, she argues, a shy child knows who they are and what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable. Keep reading to learn how social hesitancy is more about comfort than confidence and how this understanding can help you provide a shy child with the kind of support they need.
Are you an effective manager? What would the people on your team say? What score would they give you? Employee engagement in the workforce is at an all-time low. Russ Laraway says the solution is better management. He argues that managers must focus on goals, coaching, and career development, and he says that employees should rate the manager’s effectiveness in each of these areas. Read more to get Laraway’s ideas for a manager performance survey that will help you know how you’re doing where it really counts.