Renewals Virtual Library

Welcome to the Virtual Browsing Library from Renewals. Books on these virtual shelves cover various aspects of emotional or physical health, transformational leadership, workplace culture, well-being and more.

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Safe Enough to Soar: Accelerating Trust, Inclusion & Collaboration in the Workplace

Frederick A. Miller

Some organizations pay a great deal of attention to ensuring the physical safety of their team members, but do the team members feel safe enough to speak up and raise tough concerns or share bold and still-in-formation ideas? In this book, bestselling authors and inclusion experts Frederick A. Miller and Judith H. Katz introduce the concept of "interaction safety" and demonstrate how it can help create a work environment of trust, inclusion, and collaboration.

Interaction safety encourages reasonable risk-taking and inspires every individual to be brave enough to reach for higher goals and more ambitious possibilities. When interaction safety exists, people know they will not be penalized, ostracized, demoted, made small, discounted, or shunned because of their thoughts, contributions, and conversations. Individuals feel encouraged and empowered and can achieve more together than they would alone.

Miller and Katz provide a four-level model for assessing and increasing the interaction safety in organizations, illustrated by short scenarios taken from real-life situations. They offer concrete actions team members, leaders, and organizations can take to build and maintain a productive, collaborative, and innovative environment in which people do their best work individually and collectively.

When interaction safety is a way of life, the energy people used to spend walking on eggshells, trying to get their ideas heard, navigating minefields, or avoiding those they distrust can instead be put toward doing their best work and winning bigger for the organization. With a culture of openness and true collaboration, both the organization and individuals can soar!

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Why People Stay

Angela Spranger

Why People Stay is the result of a doctoral study that revealed participants’ sense of commitment (to the organization, to the team, to the mission, or to something else). This was in spite of numerous experiences of antisocial workplace behavior, or AWB, reported by each participant. The incidents reported included perceptions of disrespect and subtle discourtesy, appropriation of credit for work not performed, deliberate poor work performance, racial harassment, abusive language, abusive supervision, bullying and threats of violence, to other demeaning behaviors. Over 70 unique instances were reported, in all, by just 11 participants over the course of some 30 hours of interviews. Yet they all stayed in their workplace. Why? And what does this choice suggest about employee engagement, in toxic workplaces or work groups?

This book explores these questions, and more, and sounds an alarm to executives and culture monitors that the root cause of your human capital losses is that your people do not feel seen, safe, and valued and you can change that. It looks at organizational commitment and organizational engagement in an environment where it can be difficult to remain authentically committed in the presence of AWB. The participants in this study were queried as to just why they stayed under such conditions. The aim of this book is to share their surprising results.

This positive book about negative experiences is essential reading for executives, HR and organizational development professionals, as well as students at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

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The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection

Michael Harris

Soon enough, nobody will remember life before the Internet. What does this unavoidable fact mean? Those of us who have lived both with and without the crowded connectivity of online life have a rare opportunity. We can still recognize the difference between Before and After. We catch ourselves idly reaching for our phones at the bus stop. Or we notice how, midconversation, a fumbling friend dives into the perfect recall of Google. In this eloquent and thought-provoking book, Michael Harris argues that amid all the changes we're experiencing, the most interesting is the end of absence-the loss of lack. The daydreaming silences in our lives are filled; the burning solitudes are extinguished. There's no true "free time" when you carry a smartphone. Today's rarest commodity is the chance to be alone with your thoughts. Michael Harris lives in Vancouver, Canada.

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Trust Rules

Bob Lee

What sets the world's best managers apart from everyone else, and how can you become one of them? ** Based on insights from the data that drives Fortune Magazine's *100 Best Companies to Work for, and similar lists in 45 countries on six continents, *Trust Rules will show you how to lead your team to achieve extraordinary business results. This manager's handbook ranked #1 Best Seller during its first week of launch on Amazon.co.uk. (Business .. > Reference & Education> International) and according to one reviewer is "set to become a business classic". Senior Great Place to Work leader and management expert Bob Lee has studied Trust Index© survey feedback from two million employees across eighty countries to reveal the manager actions and attitudes that have the greatest impact on how their people experience the work place. The result is a comprehensive, easy-to-use guide to developing committed and high-performing employees who are genuinely passionate about what they do. "I grew tired of buying management books that I could never find time to finish reading, so I wanted Trust Rules to be a book that a busy manager could read in ninety minutes max" Bob said recently. "When one reviewer wrote that '...there's not a single sentence too much ... it's ideal for the managers who don't usually read books', I knew I'd nailed it!" At just 27,000 words and 156 pages this may be one of the few management books you'll actually find the time to read from cover-to-cover! And why should you invest that time? Although every manager can be a great manager, most aren't. That's why great managers get noticed. If you want to rise above the ordinary and lead your team to achieve extraordinary results, Trust Rules will show you how. * * *| * **Robert Levering, cofounder of Great Place to Work says "Here's the book every manager should read. Bob Lee highlights sixteen rules managers should follow to build trust within their teams and organizations. In very clear and straightforward language, Lee encapsulates lessons based on research from Great Place to Work's huge database of employee surveys and best management practices and his more than fifteen years of interviewing managers." McKinsey's Michael Burchell ,- expert, organization solutions - writes that "Trust Rules provides succinct, smart, practical guidance on how to create a high-trust, high-performing workplace. Every manager should read this book and refer to it often." And Alex Edmans, professor of finance at London Business School and a leading authority on the superior financial performance of the world's best workplaces says "We all know that creating a great place to work is critical to a company's long-term success, but how do managers actually accomplish this? Bob Lee's book provides sixteen clear, concise principles and guidance for how to apply them to build employee trust in any...organization."

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Ego Is the Enemy

Ryan Holiday

**The instant Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and international bestseller

“While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’ve found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.” —from the prologue**   Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.   *Ego Is the Enemy *draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to his­tory. We meet fascinating figures such as George Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who all reached the highest levels of power and success by con­quering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.   In an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion, the battle against ego must be fought on many fronts. Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.”

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Rising Above a Toxic Workplace: Taking Care of Yourself in an Unhealthy Environment

Gary Chapman

Learn how to thrive in—or escape from—a toxic work environment.

Toxic organizations are rife with conflict, fear, and anger. The environment causes people to have physiological responses as if they’re in a fight-or-flight situation. Healthy people become ill. Colds, flu and stress-related illnesses such as heart attacks are more common. By contrast, in resonant organizations, people take fewer sick days and turnover is low. People smile, make jokes, talk openly and help one another." - Annie McKee (author, consultant) Many employees experience the reality of bullying bosses, poisonous people, and soul-crushing cultures on a daily basis. Rising Above a Toxic Workplace tells authentic stories from today's workers who share how they cope, change, or quit. Candidly they open up about what they learned, what they wish they had done, and how to gain resilience.

Insightfully illustrating from these accounts, authors Gary Chapman, Paul White, and Harold Myra blend their combined experiences in ministry and business to deliver hope and practical guidance to those who find themselves in an unhealthy work environment.

Includes a Survival Guide and Toolkit full of strategies and realistic insights

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The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace

Ron Friedman PhD

**For readers of Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, and Freakonomics, comes a captivating and surprising journey through the science of workplace excellence. **  Why do successful companies reward failure?  What can casinos teach us about building a happy workplace?  How do you design an office that enhances both attention to detail and creativity?   In ***The Best Place to Work***, award-winning psychologist Ron Friedman, Ph.D. uses the latest research from the fields of motivation, creativity, behavioral economics, neuroscience, and management to reveal what really makes us successful at work. Combining powerful stories with cutting edge findings, Friedman shows leaders at every level how they can use scientifically-proven techniques to promote smarter thinking, greater innovation, and stronger performance.   Among the many surprising insights, Friedman explains how learning to think like a hostage negotiator can help you diffuse a workplace argument, why placing a fish bowl near your desk can elevate your thinking, and how incorporating strategic distractions into your schedule can help you reach smarter decisions. Along the way, the book introduces the inventor who created the cubicle, the president who brought down the world’s most dangerous criminal, and the teenager who single-handedly transformed professional tennis—vivid stories that offer unexpected revelations on achieving workplace excellence.   Brimming with counterintuitive insights and actionable recommendations, ***The Best Place to Work**** *offers employees and executives alike game-changing advice for working smarter and turning any organization—regardless of its size, budgets, or ambitions—into an extraordinary workplace.  

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Missing Pieces: 7 Ways to Improve Employee Well-Being and Organizational Effectiveness

Jean- Pierre Brun

Why is it that more and more people like their work, but can no longer support the conditions under which they must practice it? What is impeding the improvement of occupational health and organizational effectiveness? The authors share their knowlegde of the missing pieces that are preventing these improvements to the workplace.

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Stereotype Threat: Theory, Process, and Application

Michael Inzlicht

The 21st century has brought with it unparalleled levels of diversity in the classroom and the workforce. It is now common to see in elementary school, high school, and university classrooms, not to mention boardrooms and factory floors, a mixture of ethnicities, races, genders, and religious affiliations. But these changes in academic and economic opportunities have not directly translated into an elimination of group disparities in academic performance, career opportunities, and levels of advancement. Standard explanations for these disparities, which are vehemently debated in the scientific community and popular press, range from the view that women and minorities are genetically endowed with inferior abilities to the view that members of these demographic groups are products of environments that frustrate the development of the skills needed for success. Although these explanations differ along a continuum of nature vs. nurture, they share in common a presumption that a large chunk of our population lacks the potential to achieve academic and career success.

In contrast to intractable factors like biology or upbringing, the research summarized in this book suggests that factors in one's immediate situation play a critical yet underappreciated role in temporarily suppressing the intellectual performance of women and minorities, creating an illusion of group differences in ability. Research conducted over the course of the last fifteen years suggests the mere existence of cultural stereotypes that assert the intellectual inferiority of these groups creates a threatening intellectual environment for stigmatized individuals - a climate where anything they say or do is interpreted through the lens of low expectations. This stereotype threat can ultimately interfere with intellectual functioning and academic engagement, setting the stage for later differences in educational attainment, career choice, and job advancement.

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The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling

Arlie Russell Hochschild

In private life, we try to induce or suppress love, envy, and anger through deep acting or "emotion work," just as we manage our outer expressions of feeling through surface acting. In trying to bridge a gap between what we feel and what we "ought" to feel, we take guidance from "feeling rules" about what is owing to others in a given situation. Based on our private mutual understandings of feeling rules, we make a "gift exchange" of acts of emotion management. We bow to each other not simply from the waist, but from the heart. But what occurs when emotion work, feeling rules, and the gift of exchange are introduced into the public world of work? In search of the answer, Arlie Russell Hochschild closely examines two groups of public-contact workers: flight attendants and bill collectors. The flight attendant’s job is to deliver a service and create further demand for it, to enhance the status of the customer and be "nicer than natural." The bill collector’s job is to collect on the service, and if necessary, to deflate the status of the customer by being "nastier than natural." Between these extremes, roughly one-third of American men and one-half of American women hold jobs that call for substantial emotional labor. In many of these jobs, they are trained to accept feeling rules and techniques of emotion management that serve the company’s commercial purpose. Just as we have seldom recognized or understood emotional labor, we have not appreciated its cost to those who do it for a living. Like a physical laborer who becomes estranged from what he or she makes, an emotional laborer, such as a flight attendant, can become estranged not only from her own expressions of feeling (her smile is not "her" smile), but also from what she actually feels (her managed friendliness). This estrangement, though a valuable defense against stress, is also an important occupational hazard, because it is through our feelings that we are connected with those around us. On the basis of this book, Hochschild was featured in Key Sociological Thinkers, edited by Rob Stones. This book was also the winner of the Charles Cooley Award in 1983, awarded by the American Sociological Association and received an honorable mention for the C. Wright Mills Award.

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The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

Daniel Coyle

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Talent Code unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides tomorrow’s leaders with the tools to build a cohesive, motivated culture.

**NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG *AND LIBRARY JOURNAL***

Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing?

In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world’s most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture. Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded.

Culture is not something you are—it’s something you do. *The Culture Code *puts the power in your hands. No matter the size of your group or your goal, this book can teach you the principles of cultural chemistry that transform individuals into teams that can accomplish amazing things together.

Praise for The Culture Code

“I’ve been waiting years for someone to write this book—I’ve built it up in my mind into something extraordinary. But it is even better than I imagined. Daniel Coyle has produced a truly brilliant, mesmerizing read that demystifies the magic of great groups. It blows all other books on culture right out of the water.”**—Adam Grant, New York Times *bestselling author of *Option B, Originals, *and Give and Take***

“If you want to understand how successful groups work—the signals they transmit, the language they speak, the cues that foster creativity—you won’t find a more essential guide than The Culture Code.”**—Charles Duhigg, New York Times *bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better***

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How to Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit for Creativity and Radical Self-Care

Marlee Grace

This book is a quiet revolution, a guide filled with practical advice to help you curb your obsessions and build boundaries between your work, your job, and your life. From business anecdotes about fulfilling orders to more personal stories about Marlee Grace’s recovery from divorce and addiction, this book is full of wisdom and resilience, with plenty of discussion about ritual and routine as ways to create effective and positive creative life change.

In her workshops on healing and creative process, Grace helps people acknowledge their blocks and address them by setting distinct parameters that change their behavior. Now, she brings her methods and ideas to the wider world, offering all of us concrete ways to break free from our devices and focus on what’s really important—our own aliveness.

Part workbook, part advice manual, part love letter, How to Not Always Be Working ventures into the space where phone meets life, helping readers to define their work—what they do out of sense of purpose; their job—what they do to make money; and their breaks—what they do to recharge, and to feel connected to themselves and the people who matter to them. Grace addresses complex issues such as what to do if your work and your job are connected, provides insights to help you figure out how much is too much, and offers suggestions for making the best use of your time.

Essential for everyone who feels overwhelmed and anxious about our hyper-connected world—whether you’re a corporate lawyer, a student, a sales person, or a yoga instructor—How to Not Always Be Working includes practical suggestions and thoughtful musings that prompt you to honestly examine your behavior—how you burn yourself out and why you’re doing it. A creative manifesto for living better, it shows you how to carve sacred space in your life.

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Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Surefire Ways to Design a Workplace That Is Good for People, Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World

Erica Keswin

WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

The secret to business success? Get REAL and be HUMAN!

As human beings, we are built to connect and form relationships. So, it should be no surprise that relationships must also translate into the workplace, where we spend most of our time! Companies that recognize this will retain the most productive, creative, and loyal employees, and invariably seize the competitive edge. 

The most successful leaders are those who actively form quality relationships with their employees, who honor fundamental human qualities―authenticity, openness, and basic politeness―and apply them day in and day out. Paying attention and genuinely caring about the effects people have on one another other is key to developing a winning culture where people perform at the top of their game and want to work.

As a workplace strategist and business coach, Erica Keswin has spent over 20 years working with top business leaders and executives to build successful organizations that honor relationships.  Featuring case studies from top brands such as, Lyft, Starbucks, Mogul,  and SoulCycle, to name a few, Bring Your Human to Work distills the key practices of the most human companies into applicable advice that any business leader can use to build a “human workplace.” These building blocks include: 

•Understanding your company’s role in the world, beyond financial profit 

•Encouraging employees to be healthy in body and spirit 

•Running your meetings with clear purpose

•Making space for face-to-face interaction

•Building professional development into company culture

•Inspiring your workforce to give back to the community

•Simply saying “thank you”

A human company is real, genuine, aligned, and true to itself. A real company flaunts its humanity, instead of hiding it. It’s what the most successful, sustainable companies are doing today, and there’s no reason yours can’t be the same.

Keswin’s leadership lessons foster fairness, devotion, and joy in the workplace―all critical elements of a successful business. By bringing your human to work, you can design a workplace that is good for people, great for business, and just might change the world. 

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Kindness in Leadership

Michael Thomas

In a global climate of increasing complexity and uncertainty, there have been calls for a more responsible form of leadership in business and society. The relationship between kindness and leadership is therefore a topic of fundamental importance for our well-being as individuals, for the success of our organisations, and for the future of our global community.

Kindness in Leadership is one of the first books to explore both the concept and practice of kindness in leadership and consider them in different societal and organisational settings. Its uniqueness lies in combining an innovative mix of personal views from leaders with explorations of organisational philosophies and practices. It opens with a definition of kindness and its contours and underpinnings. It then explores the importance of kindness within different organisations, parts of the world, economic strata, age groups and genders, drawing on research on organisational compassion and neuroscience. In order to support learning, each chapter is supported by a series of questions for consideration and discussion.

This will be a stimulating and thought-provoking read for a wide audience of practicing managers and leaders in organisations of all shapes and sizes, for academics involved in educating for leadership, and for students aspiring to develop their own kind and compassionate leadership style.

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Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude

Raymond M. Kethledge

A guide to the role of solitude in good leadership, including profiles of historical and contemporary figures who have used solitude to lead with courage, creativity, and strength.

Throughout history, leaders have used solitude as a matter of course. Eisenhower wrote memoranda to himself during World War II as a way to think through complex problems. Martin Luther King found moral courage while sitting alone at his kitchen table one night during the Montgomery bus boycott. Jane Goodall used her intuition in the jungles of Central Africa while learning how to approach chimps. Solitude is a state of mind, a space where you can focus on your own thoughts without distraction, with a power to bring mind and soul together in clear-eyed conviction. Like a great wave that saturates everything in its path, however, handheld devices and other media now leave us awash with the thoughts of others. We are losing solitude without even realizing it.

To find solitude today, a leader must make a conscious effort. This book explains why the effort is worthwhile and how to make it. Through gripping historical accounts and firsthand interviews with a wide range of contemporary leaders, Raymond Kethledge (a federal court of appeals judge) and Michael Erwin (a West Pointer and three-tour combat veteran) show how solitude can enhance clarity, spur creativity, sustain emotional balance, and generate the moral courage necessary to overcome adversity and criticism. Anyone who leads anyone-including oneself-can benefit from solitude. With a foreword by Jim Collins (author of the bestseller Good to Great), *Lead Yourself First *is a rallying cry to reclaim solitude-and all the benefits, both practical and sublime, that come with it.

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Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace

Sharon Salzberg

Real Happiness at Work brings the profound benefits of meditation to an area where people could use it most―the workplace. And it’s written by one of the world’s leading meditation teachers.A follow-up to Real Happiness, the New York Times bestseller, Sharon Salzberg’s Real Happiness at Work is a practical guide to improving work life through mindfulness, compassion, and ingenuity. It’s about being committed without being consumed, competitive without being cruel, managing time and emotions to counterbalance stress and frustration. It shows readers how to be more creative, organized, and accomplished in order to do better, more productive work.Dividing the idea of workplace satisfaction into eight pillars, Real Happiness at Work is filled with secular wisdom; core meditations on broad themes like motivation, awareness, and seeing the good in others; and more than a dozen exercises, including Moving From Me to We and When Things Go Wrong. Sprinkled throughout the book are short “stealth” meditations, the kind that are quick, private, and doable anywhere―“Let the phone ring three times, follow your breath, then pick it up” and “For an upcoming one-on-one conversation, resolve to listen more and speak less.”Even the best jobs are filled with stress, tough deadlines, impatient bosses, seemingly endless meetings―all the ills of harried life. But as science increasingly shows, meditation is the antidote.

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Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

From the locker room to the living room to the boardroom—how winners become winners . . . and stay that way.

Is success simply a matter of money and talent? Or is there another reason why some people and organizations always land on their feet, while others, equally talented, stumble again and again?

There’s a fundamental principle at work–confidence–that makes the difference between winning and losing in any competition, be it a high school basketball game or a high-stakes business situation. In Confidence, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter shows why organizations of all types may be brimming with talent but not be winners. Based on her extraordinary investigation of success and failure in companies such as Continental Airlines and Verizon and sports teams such as the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, as well as the arenas of education, health care, and politics, Kanter explores a new theory and practice of success and provides people in leadership positions with a prescriptive program for maintaining a winning streak or turning around a downward spiral.

Packed with brilliant, practical ideas, Confidence provides fresh thinking about success in all facets of life—from the factors that can make or break corporations and governments to the keys for successful relationships in the workplace or at home.