Hands-on Advice
We all want to get better at something – be it managing our time, leading a team, building healthy habits or staying more focused on our goals. Here a list of some of getAbstract’s most actionable summaries for tackling a specific challenge:
How to Stick to Your Self-Improvement Goals
We all know how it is. We have the best intentions to work out more, read more or eat more healthfully – and then get discouraged for failing to follow through. Turns out, sheer willpower and iron self-discipline often won’t get us to where we want to go. A better strategy is to tap into the subconscious brain’s ability to automate repeated behaviors without us having to make a conscious effort. In Mini Habits, Stephen Guise introduces you to a step-by-step program to build positive habits – one mini-step at a time.
How to Be Productive in a Distracted World
The push to network, tweet, respond quickly and multitask prevents us from focusing on those work tasks that will produce the most value. In Deep Work, Cal Newport shows us how to build periods of intense, focused work into our daily schedules so we can be more productive and reach better results.
How to Optimize Your Brain
The market demands that you become a knowledge worker, and rewards you most for staying focused and creative. Understanding how your brain works helps you make it perform better. Leadership development expert David Rock applies cognitive science to life in the workplace with surprisingly practical results. He explains and applies numerous studies on memory, focus, attention and consciousness that will help improve your focus.
How to Make Your Perfect Day Come to Life
For most of us, there is a gap between the way we want our days to unfold and the actual way we spend our time. Executive coach Jason W. Womack offers practical advice on how to get more out of your day and achieve results by working smarter; maintaining self-efficacy – the belief that your actions will succeed; and creating a continuous cycle of improvement.
How to Become the Best Version of Yourself
In what has been named the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the 20th Century, the late Stephen R. Covey describes seven habits that will allow you to live a life of great and enduring purpose. Start with the first habit: Be proactive. By taking responsibility and acting, you will expand the realm of the possible. You will get stronger as time passes, and become able to do more and more. Start by committing to change something interior and you may eventually change the world around you.
How to Improve Your People Skills
Soft skills, including high levels of emotional intelligence, regularly rank among the most in-demand future job skills. In his groundbreaking work, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman introduces you to the psychological skills and traits that are crucial for life success.
How to Increase Your Influence
You may not be in a formal leadership position – but that does not mean you cannot have influence over others. Leadership is a mind-set and revealed in your behavior and actions, Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford explain in Influence without Authority. The authors outline five leadership practices you can follow to make a difference in any role or situation.
How To Offer Feedback Without Poisoning the Relationship
We all need feedback in order to improve. As a manager, you won’t be effective by only giving positive feedback for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. If your criticism comes across as a personal attack, however, it’s unlikely the person will take your advice to heart. The best guidance occurs through “radical candor” – the ability to offer frank criticism without creating an adversarial relationship, management consultant Kim Scott explains in her powerful video talk.
How to Coach Effectively
Coaching is a skill like any other, yet few managers receive proper training on how to coach effectively. In this hands-on guide, Michael Bungay Stanier shows how to use coaching techniques not just to support your employees but also to improve your relationships with superiors, customers, colleagues and family.
How to Create a Vision That Inspires
What sets successful leaders and companies apart? It’s their ability to identify and formulate a compelling purpose, cause or vision. In Start with Why, Simon Sinek introduces you to his “Golden Circle” process of finding your passion starting with the question of “why.”
How to Stay Competitive in a Rapidly Changing World
Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones make a strong case for why curiosity is the most important skill for individuals and organizations to nurture if they want to stay competitive. In The Curious Advantage, the authors offer actionable strategies for how you to ignite and nurture this inborn human skill in yourself and others .
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