Stack of Employee Engagement BooksOne of the ways in which I stay current on employee engagement topics is through reading employee engagement-related books. In 2016, I completed 29 such books.  While I’ve highlighted my 8 favorite books below, here is a link to the entire 2016 Agent In Engagement Reading List.

 

As I do each year, let me tout the benefits of using your local public library. This free and accessible public service is paid for, in part, by your tax dollars and offers a wealth of interesting and informative selections. If, by chance, the book you wish to read is not available through the library, please be environmentally responsible and purchase a used or digital version.

 

Rather than try to rank these selections, I’ll discuss them in the order in which they were read.

 

 

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World – Adam Grant  

(Completion date: 2/21/2016)

 

 

 

Each of us can influence and change our world in a way that positively impacts the present and the future.1 “Becoming original is not the easiest path in the pursuit of happiness, but it leaves us perfectly poised for the happiness of pursuit.”2

 

 

 

 

Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent – Sydney Finkelstein

(Completion date: 3/9/2016)

 

In Superbosses3, Sydney Finkelstein “explores the characteristic behaviors of the world’s most effective bosses, upending conventional best practices and presenting a new, comprehensive paradigm for talent development.”4

You can read some of my key takeaways in, What Can You Learn From the Superboss Playbook?

 

 

 

 

Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose – Rajendra Sisodia, David Wolfe,& Jagdish N. Sheth

(Completion date: 4/14/2016)

Firms of endearment (FoEs)5 strive through their actions to meaningfully engage all stakeholder groups — customers, employees, partners, communities and shareholders. No group is greater than or less than another its importance to achieving company goals and objectives. “[Firms of Endearment] leaders think in unitive fashion, approaching their tasks with holistic vision in which all players in the game of commerce are interconnected and significant.”6

 

 

 

 

Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family – Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia

(Completion date: 5/4/2016)

“Our responsibility as leaders, be it in business, the military, in government, or in education, is to create an environment where people can discover their gifts, develop their gifts,share their gifts, and be recognized and appreciated for doing so – which creates an opportunity for them to have a more meaningful life, a life of purpose in which they feel valued and get a chance to be what they were brought onto this earth to be.”7

 

 

 

 

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance – Angela Duckworth 

(Completion date: 5/12/2016)

 

 

To develop grit, you must be deliberate in creating a daily habit of connecting what you are doing to your purpose.8 “It was this combination of passion and perseverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit.”9

 

 

 

 

To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History – Lawrence Levy  

(Completion date: 11/14/2016)  

 

Lawrence Levy, a former Silicon Valley attorney, recounts Pixar’s journey from the making of Toy Story through the acquisition by The Walt Disney Company.  This is a fascinating look behind the scenes at the making of a company.10 If you’ve read Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration11 by Ed Catmill with Amy Wallace, you’ll enjoy this ride.

 

 

 

 

Making Work Work: The Positivity Solution for Any Work Environment – Shola Richards

(Completion date: 12/3/2016)

 

Shola Richards is on a mission to create a meaningful and long-lasting positive change in the working world. He has founded a workplace positivity movement to end generations of unchecked toxicity, bullying, and professional suffering. His work focuses on the three pillars of respect: Respectful communication, Respect for the individual, and Respect for the team.12

 

 

 

 

Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT – Paul L. Marciano

(Completion date: 12/30/2016)

 

Paul L. Marciano takes us on a journey of employee motivation. In that journey, he discovers that tradition recognition and rewards programs weren’t motivating employees. His focus turned to employee engagement and he developed the RESPECT Model. This model identifies seven engagement drivers that form the acronym RESPECT.13

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on these selections? What were your favorite books of 2016? Which books would you recommend?

 

 

1 Grant, Adam M. Originals: how non-conformists move the world. NY, NY: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016. Print.
2 Ibid., Pg.243.
3 Finkelstein, Sydney. Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2016. Print.
4 Ibid. Pg. 9.
5 Sisodia, Rajendra, David B. Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth. Firms of endearment: how world-class companies profit from passion and purpose. Upper Saddle River: Wharton School Pub., 2007. Print.
6 Ibid., p. xxx.
7 Chapman, Bob, and Rajendra Sisodia. Everybody matters: the extraordinary power of caring for your people like family. NY, NY: Portfolio/Penguin, 2015. Print. Pg. 68.
8 Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. N.p.: Vermilion, 2016. Print.
9 Ibid., Pg. 8.
10 Levy, Lawrence. To Pixar and beyond: my unlikely journey with Steve Jobs to make entertainment history. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. Print.
11 Catmull, Ed, and Amy Wallace. Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. N.p.: Random House Publishing Group, 2014. Print.
12 Richards, Shola. Making work work: the positivity solution for any work environment. New York: Sterling Ethos, 2016. Print.
13 Marciano, Paul L. Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT . N.p.: McGraw-Hill Education, 2010. Print.

 

 

Let’s Engage! 

I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.

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P.S.  First contact? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement community. Explore and join fellow employee engagement operatives in targeting a known thief – alias: Disengagement. Together we can bring this thief to justice and make the world a better place for all companies and their employees.

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