Right Career

Agile, say its enthusiasts, can transform your company, catapulting you to the head of the pack. Not so fast. In this clear-eyed and indispensable audiobook, Sarah Elk and Steve Berez provide a much-needed reality check. They dispel the myths and misconceptions that have accompanied agile's growth - the idea that it can reshape your organization all at once, for instance, or that it should be used in every function and for all types of work.

Your inbox is overflowing. You're paralyzed because you have too much to do but don't know where to start. Your to-do list never seems to get any shorter. You leave work exhausted but have little to show for it. It's time to learn how to get the right work done. In the HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done, you'll discover how to focus your time and energy where they will yield the greatest reward. Not only will you end each day knowing you made progress—your improved productivity will also set you apart from the pack.

The 2-Hour Job Search rejects laundry lists of conventional wisdom in favor of a streamlined job search approach that produces results quickly and efficiently. In three steps, creator Steve Dalton shows you how to select, prioritize, and make contact with potential employers so you can land that critical first interview. In this revised second edition, you'll find updated advice on how to efficiently surf online job postings, how to reach out to contacts at your dream workplace and when to follow up, and advice on using LinkedIn, Indeed, and Google to your best advantage.

We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely.

What will separate you from the rest early in your career? The ability to take ownership, manage expectations, navigate people dynamics, and communicate professionally - skills that school doesn't teach.

If you listen to nothing else on performing at your highest level, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you focus on what matters, manage your energy and attention, and achieve remarkable results. This book will inspire you to improve on your weaknesses, not just your strengths; rise above the pack; take care of your physical health for sustained mental performance; understand what motivates you; use short-term goals to achieve long-term aspirations; and inspire others.

The Oz Principle has sold more than a million copies since it debuted in 1994, establishing it as the go-to reference on workplace accountability throughout the world. By embracing its practical and invaluable advice, tens of thousands of companies have improved their organizational accountability - the key to achieving and sustaining exceptional results.

The 2-Hour Job Search shows job seekers how to work smarter (and faster) to secure first interviews. Through a prescriptive approach, Steve Dalton explains how to wade through the Internet's sea of information and create a job search system that relies on mainstream technology such as Excel, Google, LinkedIn, and alumni databases to create a list of target employers, contact them, and then secure an interview - with only two hours of effort.

Meet Steve and Annette Economides. They've been called cheapskates, thriftaholics, and tightwads, but in these tough economic times, Steve and Annette have managed to feed their family of seven on just $350 per month, pay off their first house in nine years and purchase a second, larger home, buy cars with cash, take wonderful vacations, and put money in savings. Without degrees in finance or six-figure salaries, Steve and Annette have created a comfortable, debt-free life for themselves and their children.

Acting on values—doing good for the benefit of all—can substantially benefit the bottom line, but many business leaders mistakenly believe that doing the right thing lowers profits. This belief is the greatest barrier holding businesses back from being more financially and competitively successful—and delivering more good for the world. Not only can it be a winning business strategy to act on values, as Daniel Aronson suggests in The Value of Values, but it is also a savvy choice, increasing a company’s power, profit, and competitive advantage.

Thoroughly revised and updated, Leading with Questions will help you encourage participation and teamwork, foster outside-the-box thinking, empower others, build relationships with customers, solve problems, and more. Michael Marquardt reveals how to determine which questions will lead to solutions to even the most challenging issues. He outlines specific techniques of active listening and follow-up, and helps you understand how questions can improve the way you work with individuals, teams, and organizations.

This is a book about work choices and life choices, and the critical points, or defining moments, at which the two become one. A refreshing antidote to traditional feel-good, inspirational business ethics, it examines the right-versus-right conflicts that every business manager faces and presents an unorthodox yet practical way for you to think about and resolve them.

Hopper shares 50 lessons to help you overcome your mental blocks, find your work-life balance, and achieve the career of your dreams. No matter where you are on your freelance journey, the five sections on getting started, pitching, doing the work, caring for clients, and finding work-life balance have something for everyone. With short chapters and practical advice, What Gives You the Right to Freelance? is sure to help creative folks make more money and love their work.

Even amid the seeming chaos of the matrix organization - where you are constantly being asked to do things by people who aren't your boss - there is always that special person who seems indispensable, who seems to thrive on complexity, and who is able to stay focused and positive and get the right things done: This is the go-to person. In this game-changing book, Bruce Tulgan reveals the secrets of the go-to person in our new world of work. Tulgan shows how go-to people not only behave differently, but also think differently.

Small business owners possess a unique advantage, one that Scott Grates has honed to perfection. Forget trying to emulate corporate giants in your small business endeavors. Their conventional marketing tactics won't deliver the consistent results you crave. Instead, leverage your strength-the power of genuine relationships. By fostering authentic connections that yield a continuous flow of referrals, you'll unlock your Infinite Referral Advantage®.

The law of market failure: Most new products will fail in the market, even if competently executed.

One of a manager's toughest - and most important - responsibilities is to evaluate an employee's performance, providing honest feedback and clarifying what they've done well and where they need to improve. In How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals, Dick Grote provides a hands-on guide to succeeding at every step of the performance appraisal process - no matter what performance management system your organization uses.

New York Times bestselling author and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk shares hard-won advice on how to connect with customers and beat the competition. A mash-up of the best elements of "Crush It!" and "The Thank You Economy" with a fresh spin, "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" is a blueprint to social media marketing strategies that really works. When managers and marketers outline their social media strategies, they plan for the "right hook"—their next sale or campaign that's going to knock out the competition.

Sportswriter Sally Jenkins has spent her entire adult life observing and writing about great coaches and athletes. With her engaging and expert prose, she has helped shape the way we view these talented sports icons. But somewhere along the line, she realized, they had begun to shape her. Now, she presents the astonishing inner qualities in these same people that pushed them to overcome pressure, elevate their performances, and discover champion identities.

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies - neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist.