Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/796533
March, 2017 l Working World l WorkingWorld.com 5 WORK PAUSE THRIVE How to Pause for Parenthood without Killing Your Career by Lisen Stromberg BenBella This book is a must- read for every woman who values her career, wants to be available to raise children, and is ready to take on the world—by taking a pause. Those who read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013) or Anne-Marie Slaughter's popular 2012 Atlantic article, "Why Women Still Can't Have it All," will find this to be a welcome middle ground. With this breakthrough book, Stromberg demonstrates that she's a strong, detail- orientedjournalist who weaves an engaging story. Readers will be hooked by the second page of the intro. In addition to sharing her personal experience, Stromberg shares the results of numerous interviews and close to 1,500 survey responses that focus on parents who re-enter a career after taking a pause, not just plowing through or opting out. She also provides useful strategies and examples for making the pause count, e.g., "Strategy #1: Don't Skimp on Your Maternity Leave." "Work PauseThrive is what I wish I had when I was embarking on my journey as a woman, a professional, and a mother," writes the author. Readers around the country will want it, too. Highly recommended for public-library collections. MANAGEMENT DISEASES AND DISORDERS How to Identify and Treat Dysfunctional Managerial Behavior by Steven A. Danley and Peter Hughes Lulu This book is recommended by BlueInk Review, a fee-based review service devoted exclusively to self-published books. Booklist is happy to partner with BlueInk to bring you the best self-published titles for adults and youth. Stars reflect the decisions of BlueInk reviewers and editors. In this well-produced handbook, the authors contend that organizations suffer from diseases and disorders just as people do. Sometimes, an individual causes sickness within a company. Other times, company culture is to blame. The authors break organizational diseases down into specific disorders, giving personality-based disorders labels such as "The Egomaniac" and "The Abuser." Culture- or system-based disorders are dubbed "Toxic Environment" or "Management Malpractice." The authors examine the disorders' signs, symptoms, causes, risks, and more. A brief treatment plan is shared, along with a relevant case study. Danley has extensive experience in human resources and performance auditing; Hughes has worked in executive auditing and finance; both are award winning in their fields. Their book is well written, insightful, clear, and concise. The only criticism is that the short-treatment sections are insufficient to guide troubled organizations beyond step one. The authors can be forgiven, as it could take an entire second volume to add sufficient depth. Such a volume would provide a useful addition to this fine book. SPARK How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success by Angie Morgan, Courtney Lynch and Sean Lynch HMH Many monikers exist for those high- potential employees found in every organization. But what doesn't exist in these very coveted individuals is a sense of leadership and what they can do, by themselves and in groups, to realize who they are and what they can contribute. Indeed, these three consultants (Morgan and Courtney Lynch collaborated previously on Leading from the Front, 2006) weave personal stories and recommend exercises about learning to be a Spark, a catalyst for personal and organizational change. It's all ethereal stuff that's made real; a chapter on "be of service" recounts the time when Lynch's feared U.S. Marine Corps leader arranged her trip home for her grandmother's funeral—completely, without questions and with much reassurance. The other authors follow suit on their own experiences, illustrating every chapter, from act with intent to build a sense of consistency, to create an engaging and instructional read that, for sure, reveals little that's new about leadership—but serves any reader well. WORKING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE Handling the Ten Types of Problem People without Losing Your Mind by Amy Cooper Hakim and Muriel Solomon TarcherPerigee After 25 years, this updated and revised book is still as good as gold: Hakim has added a few terms and concepts to her late grandmother Solomon's original psychological arsenal, an important reference for anyone who works with other people. The format remains the same; 10 typologies, subdivided by different cohorts (bosses, colleagues, subordinates), are first overviewed for a glimpse inside their minds (and yours). Then, depending on the label— and each cohort owns at least three—there will be a number of strategies, along with a sample of real conversation. Updates include a focus on modern issues, including technology, generational differences and styles, and language difficulties. THE SCIENCE OF SELLING by Hoffeld, David TarcherPerigee Behavioral economics is a science much in use these days, most visibly during the Obama presidential campaign, where the science of voting was honed. A logical next step—to apply this relatively new approach to sales—is the province of consultant Hoffeld, who takes advantage of tomes of research and his own experience to give a detailed (and often narratively dense) process for influencing buyers. After refuting traditional myths (e.g., extroverts are the best salespeople) and explaining the rules of influence, he lays out his philosophy and the necessary skills, from detailing the six "whys" and the ins and outs of decision-based and emotional selling to spins on traditional competencies such as questioning, listening, and creating value. Examples of conversations and stories help by lightening the tone and give a powerful sense of credibility to his "science of selling" assertions. Not just for the Willy Lomans of the world.