One of the ways in which I stay current on employee engagement topics is through reading employee engagement-related books. In 2017, I completed 20 such books. While I’ve highlighted my 8 favorite books below, here is a link to the entire 2017 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.
Re-Engage: How America’s Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times – Leigh Branham and Mark Hirschfeld
Completion date: 1/2/2017
Utilizing information from the “Best Places to Work” surveys, Leigh Branham and Mark Hirschfeld reveal how top companies attract, engage, and retain employees by discussing the 6 “universal drivers” of employee engagement1:
- Caring, Competent, and Engaging Senior Leaders
- Effective Managers Who Keep Employees Aligned and Engaged
- Effective Teamwork at All Levels
- Job Enrichment and Professional Growth
- Valuing Employee Contributions
- Concern for Employee Well-Being
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever – Michael Bungay Stanier
Completion date: 4/6/2017
“Everyone knows that managers and leaders need to coach their people.2” “You’re probably not getting very effective coaching, and you’re probably not delivering very effective coaching.3” The book discusses the science of how to change behavior and the expands on the Seven Essential Questions. Each of these questions should be asked one at a time with ample time given to listen to the answer4:
“The Kickstarter Question
The AWE Question
The Focus Question
The Foundation Question
The Lazy Question
The Strategic Question
The Learning Question5”
The Future Workplace Experience: 10 Rules For Mastering Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees – Jeanne C Meister and Kevin Mulcahy
Completion date: 5/14/2017
This book details 10 rules business must understand and address if they are going to be successful in the future. These rules fall into three categories: What workers expect from work, how technology transforms the workplace, and the changing composition of the workplace.6
The Employee Experience Advantage: How to Win the War for Talent by Giving Employees the Workspaces they Want, the Tools they Need, and a Culture They Can Celebrate – Jacob Morgan
Completion date: 6/1/2017
Jacob Morgan’s book is divided into four parts. In Part I, he discusses the evolution of employee experience based on research and identifies the drivers of employee experience. In Part II, he focuses on the reason for being and the three employee experience drivers. Part II tackles why you should invest in employee experience, and he concludes with Part IV which talks about how to build an experiential organization.7
The Employee Experience: How to Attract Talent, Retain Top Performers, and Drive Results – Tracy Maylett, EdD. and Matthew Wride, JD
Completion date: 7/20/2017
“The Employee Experience will teach you to:
- Make the employee experience a core part of your strategy
- Understand employee expectations and bridge the “Expectation Gap”
- Establish rock-solid Brand, Transactional, and Psychological Contracts that breed trust and confidence
- Build an employee-employer partnership in creating something extraordinary
- Turn employee engagement into fuel for customer satisfaction, profit, and growth8”
Good Authority: How to Become the Leader Your Team Is Waiting For – Jonathan Raymond
Completion date: 9/17/2017
“In our personal and professional lives, the challenge of leading people while empowering them instead of disempowering them is more important than ever. And authenticity is the key to unlocking good leadership — or as Jonathan calls it in his new book, Good Authority.9”
No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Workplace Drama, End Entitlement, and Drive Big Results – Cy Wakeman
Completion date: 11/11/2017
“For years now, leaders in almost every industry have accepted two completely false assumptions–that change is hard, and that engagement drives results. Those beliefs have inspired expensive attempts to shield employees from change, involve them in high-level decision-making, and keep them happy with endless “satisfaction surveys” and workplace perks. But what these engagement programs actually do, Cy Wakeman says, is inflate expectations and sow unhappiness, leaving employees unprepared to adapt to even minor changes necessary to the organization’s survival. Rather than driving performance and creating efficiencies, these programs fuel entitlement and drama, costing millions in time and profit.
It is high time to reinvent leadership thinking. Stop worrying about your employees’ happiness, and start worrying about their accountability. Cy Wakeman teaches you how to hire “emotionally inexpensive” people, solicit only the opinions you need, and promote self-awareness in your whole team. No Ego disposes with unproven HR maxims, and instead offers a complete plan to turn your office from a den of discontent to a happy, productive place.10”
Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work – Michael Lee Stallard, Jason Pankau, and Katherine P Stallard
Completion date: 12/31/17
“Organizations thrive when employees feel valued, the environment is energized, and high productivity and innovation are the norm. This requires a new kind of leader who fosters a culture of connection within the organization. Michael Lee Stallard’s Connection Culture provides a fresh way of thinking about leadership and offers recommendations for how to tap into the power of human connection.11”
What are your thoughts on these selections? What were your favorite books of 2016? Which books would you recommend?
Disclosure of Material Connection: The links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only reference products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
1 Branham, Leigh, and Mark Hirschfeld. Re-Engage: how Americas best places to work inspire extra effort in extraordinary times. McGraw-Hill, 2010.
2 Stanier, Michael Bungay. The coaching habit. Box of Crayons Press, 2016, p. 2
3 Ibid., p. 5
4 Stanier, Michael Bungay. The coaching habit. Box of Crayons Press, 2016.
5 Ibid., p. 35
6 Meister, Jeanne C., and Kevin J. Mulcahy. The future workplace experience: 10 rules for mastering disruption in recruiting and engaging employees. McGraw-Hill Education, 2017.
7 Morgan, Jacob, and Marshall Goldsmith. The employee experience advantage how to win the war for talent by giving employees the workspaces they want, the tools they need, and a culture they can celebrate. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
8 Maylett, Tracy, and Matthew Wride. The employee experience: how to attract talent, retain top performers, and drive results. Wiley, 2017.
9 Coe, Laura. “Jonathan Raymond: Good Authority.” Laura Coe, 27 Sept. 2016, lauracoe.com/jonathan-raymond/.
10 Wakeman, Cy. No ego: how leaders can cut the cost of workplace drama, end entitlement, and drive big results. St. Martins Press, 2017.
11 Connection Culture The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work. Amer Society for Training &, 2017.
Let’s Engage!
I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.
Employee engagement is a critical mission. I hope I can count on your help! Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest intelligence/insights and/or register to make entries in the comments log.
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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.
Other recent Agent in Engagement data/reports by Agent Gregory F Simpson:
- Employee Engagement Intelligence Briefing: 2018.01.08 – 2018.01.12
- Veteran Operative Employee Engagement Insights: 2018.01.08 – 2018.01.12
- Top 5 Most-Viewed Agent In Engagement Blog Posts of 2017
- Top Employee Engagement-Related Spotlight Articles of 2017
- Top Employee Engagement-Related Articles of December 2017
- Top Employee Engagement-Related Articles of November 2017
- Top Employee Engagement-Related Articles of October 2017
