Why Do I Work Here

A change is coming, a new way of creating workplace culture, a new way of thinking about your life and the people in it, a new mindset, a new paradigm, Its already happening. Do you want to get on board? In this book, author Mark W. Chamberlain shares his personal journey of transformation, and how over the past seventeen year he has brought that transformational change into his company. By empowering people, giving them a safe place to innovate and fail and innovate again, letting them see their impact, getting personal, and treating people the right way, Mark has created an environment at Lakeside Wealth in which people go above and beyond for the company, for the clients, and for themselves. Now Mark wants to share what he's learned with you. Are you ready to transform your thinking about business culture and relationships?

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

Imagine designing the best company on earth to work for . . . What would that company be like? How would you build and sustain it? As a leader, you need to know. In the past, businesses made people conform to the organization’s needs. But the old paradigm has shifted. Now leaders must transform their organizations so that they attract the right people, keep them, and inspire them to do their best work. How do you create a culture people want to belong to? In this powerful and necessary follow-up to the classic Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, leadership and organizational sages Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones identify and illuminate the six key organizational attributes to do just that. In separate chapters, they delve deeply into each one: 1. Let people be themselves 2. Practice radical honesty 3. Magnify people’s strengths 4. Stand for authenticity (more than shareholder value) 5. Make work meaningful 6. Make simple rules With vivid stories and examples from global companies, the authors illustrate the kind of strong, attractive workplace culture that leads to sustained high performance. They also provide ways of assessing how your company is doing and describe the tensions and trade-offs that leaders must manage as they transform their organizations. Why Should Anyone Work Here? is the question all contemporary organizational leaders must constantly ask themselves if they want to survive and thrive in the new world. This book will help them answer that question.

Work isn’t what it used to be. Leaders need a field guide that equips them with what to say and do as they face the new culture expectations of today’s employees. Many employees now show up for work not just to do their jobs but also to discover, debate, and digest important social issues. A growing number of workers want to have an impact in the world, and their preferences are a prompt for employers to be more mindful of the role of business in driving societal change, starting with what people experience at work. Felicia Joy and Elena Grotto, experts on behavioral science, business strategy, and organizational culture, share practical guidance to help organizations rise to these new standards by advancing seven behaviors, including the surprising—and perhaps most important—new business skill for high-performing cultures: forgiveness. Managers today are asked to operate as both business leaders and community leaders within the workplace—and the latter skillset is new to many. I Don’t Just Work Here helps managers leverage culture to bolster business results as they replace anxiety with confidence and lead with greater purpose in providing the expanded support employees need to develop and perform. Organizations that take heed, elevate people managers, invest in building a strategic culture, and lead with clear values and behaviors are more likely to have a decisive competitive advantage and greater business impact for years to come.

Make work suck less and improve the performance of your people with this practical, hands-on guide The COVID-19 pandemic and an ever-changing array of new ways of working seem to have all of us asking, “Does work really have to suck this bad?” It looks like a small taste of flexibility and freedom has made many of us rethink the nature of the work we do and how we do it. In Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace, Mercer’s North American Transformation Leader Melissa Swift delivers an eye-opening roadmap to better work that generates wins for companies and employees alike. In the book, you’ll explore different ways to improve the growth-impeding, borderline inhumane people management practices we’ve created and endured over time. You’ll also find: 50 strategies to create a powerhouse workplace at organizational level 50 strategies to create a powerhouse workplace at team level A simple framework to help you make people-centered decisions An incisive and practical take on managing and working with people that—for once—doesn’t rely on hackneyed idealism or management-by-algorithm, Work Here Now is the hands-on performance improvement tool that executives, managers, HR professionals, and other business leaders have been searching for.

Be the leader your team wants to follow You want to be the kind of leader that leaves a legacy of positive impact. You want to lead an exceptional team so you can power your organization's success and unleash the hidden potential in every team member – including yourself! So how do you realize these goals? In this expansive guide, expert Maura Thomas explores how to combat insidious problems that are costing your organization millions. You can change the status quo with her step-by-step guidance to energize your team, and provide greater focus, transparency, and accountability in the organization. Leaders and aspiring leaders like you will discover how to not only extinguish—but prevent—the dozens of "fires" that pop up all day. You can transform a stressful culture into an empowering one, or a great culture into one where top talent is lining up to be a part of your team. Imagine having consistently productive and satisfying work days, and contributing even more to the organization—but in a way that's inspiring and motivating instead of overwhelming and depleting. The techniques in this book will not only help you, your team and your organization, they'll boost your ability to contribute in a positive way to families, your community, and the world.

You have likely heard stories from friends, family members, and colleagues who quit a job because of a toxic person—an individual who belittles, shames, humiliates, shames, or bullies. You may not have realized that these individuals not only take their tolls on our emotional psyches, but the financial outcomes of their organizations as well. Through this book’s many case examples, as well as evidence-based practices and templates, each chapter singles out one main issue and how to resolve it with respect and clarity. Dr. Kusy presents concrete practices that will restore civility and respect into your organization as well as with increased financial performance. Some of these practices include: Calculating the real financial cost of toxic people in your organization. Providing direct and respectful feedback to a toxic peer, direct report, and even your boss. Replacing traditional exit interviews -- that often don’t work very well -- with a method for dealing with toxic chameleons who "knock down and kiss up." Hiring, engaging talent, and even firing people based on a new approach to values-based performance management. You will emerge with a newfound understanding that restores personal well-being and increased financial performance.

In today’s work environment, the lines between our professional and personal lives are blurred more than ever before. Whatever is happening to us outside of our workplace —whether stressful, painful, or joyful —follows us into work as well. We may think we have to keep these realities under wraps and act as if we “have it all together.” But as Mike Robbins explains, we can work better, lead better, and be more engaged and fulfilled if —instead of trying to hide who we are —we show up fully and authentically. Mike, a sought-after motivational speaker and business consultant, has spent more than 15 years researching, writing, and speaking about essential human experiences and high performance in the workplace. His clients have ranged from Google to Citibank, from the U.S. Department of Labor to the San Francisco Giants. From small start-ups in Silicon Valley to family-owned businesses in the Midwest. From what he’s seen and studied over the years, Mike believes that for us to thrive professionally, we must be willing to bring our whole selves to the work that we do. Bringing our whole selves to work means acknowledging that we’re all vulnerable, imperfect human beings doing the best we can. It means having the courage to take risks, speak up, have compassion, ask for help, connect with others in a genuine way, and allow ourselves to be truly seen. In this book, Mike outlines five principles we can use to approach our own work in this spirit of openness and humanity, and to help the people we work with feel safe enough to do the same, so that the teams and organizations we’re a part of can truly succeed. “This book will offer you insights, ideas, and tools to inspire you to bring all of who you are to the work that you do —regardless of where you work, what kind of work you do, and with whom you do it. And, if you’re an owner, leader, or just someone who wants to have influence on those around you —this book will also give you specific techniques for how to build or enhance your team’s culture in such a way that encourages others to bring all of who they are to work.”