Uncategorized Posts
-
Blog / Editor's Choice
Silicon City: San Francisco in the Long Shadow of the Valley
Book Review by Porchlight
Cary McClelland follows in the great oral tradition of Studs Terkel to bring us up to date on what's happening on the ground in America's most impactful city and region.
Categories: editors-choice, narrative-biography
-
Blog / ChangeThis
The Forgotten Diversity Group: Ambitious Women Who Want to Lean "In-Between"
By Kathryn Sollmann
"Diversity and inclusion is a hot topic on corporate agendas these days, but despite the best efforts of employers, a large group of women are feeling left out. When it comes to leadership training, employers are still pressuring women to conform to one profile of an ambitious and successful woman. In the last decade, I've coached thousands of women who feel like they're letting down the power sisterhood if they don't do their part to break the glass ceiling. These women in the everyday sisterhood are smart, capable and ambitious—but they want alternate routes to 'grow in place' while family pressures are high. When I speak to women's groups, my message is that 'Up is Not the Only Way Forward.' To prevent women from taking costly caregiving breaks, and to retain great talent, employers need to make room for many brands of ambition and success."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
The Secret to an Engaged Workforce (That Shouldn't Be So Secret)
By Aron Ain
"Do you want your employees to absolutely love coming to work. Employees who love their work put in their best effort and perform better. They work better in teams. They feel more loyalty toward the company. They stay in their jobs longer. They help you recruit top talent. They come to you with new ideas. And, they make your company stronger. You know all this, which is why you're already working hard to pump up that all-important employee engagement metric. You're paying competitive salaries and benefits. You're offering attractive career paths. You're providing a whole array of attractive perks—social outings, free food, yoga classes, a swank office, flexible hours, the latest technology, maybe even a masseuse on premises. With all this, you think, why would talented employees possibly wish to go anywhere else. There is a reason, one that you might have overlooked. . . . You see, employees might join companies because of the money, the perks, or the company's brand, but they leave companies because of their managers.
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Leadership On Day One
By Drew Dudley
"I've studied leadership my entire adult life, and I firmly believe there is no shortage of leadership on this planet. However, we are systematically ignoring a huge percentage of the leadership that surrounds us each day because we have chosen to define it too narrowly. To change that we need to teach a more accessible form of leadership: one that acknowledges that while not everyone can or should be a CEO or senior executive, there is a form of leadership to which we all can and should aspire. My goal is to make living that form of leadership more accessible and appealing (and as such, spread it throughout our organizations and communities) by providing a clear place to start: Day One."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Don't Stress: When Doing and Spending Less Can Help Your Business Get Ahead
By Stephen Wunker, Jennifer Luo Law
"As a result of our fascination with the latest and the greatest, the word 'innovation' is often used as a synonym for technological advancement, bringing with it imagination-capturing glory—as well as its less savory reputation for being expensive and fickle. But that's just one dimension of innovation. In our combined decades of experience working in this field, we've seen that there are many ways to innovate that don't take as much time, or require as much money and investment, as a moonshot initiative. And they're less overwhelming to get started with, to boot. Innovation doesn't always have to be more—more flavors, more horsepower, more memory space, more bells and whistles. In some cases, customers don't want more. They just want us to do the job they've hired us to do, and for us to do it very, very well. New solutions can excel in their simplicity, earning customer love and saving money along the way—and, yes, that is just as deserving of being called 'innovative' as a new blockchain game or genetic therapy.
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Daring Conversations: How to Communicate with Candor, Clarity, Compassion, and Ease
By Alexia Vernon
"There is no shortage of theories about why there are not more women leading companies, boards, and local, state, and national governments. Explanations range from the persistence of the glass ceiling, inflexible work-life policies, male-dominated networks, and unconscious gender bias. As a result, solutions for correcting the lack of gender parity typically include remedying workplace policies and practices that privilege men and penalize women—or sponsoring women to attend women's leadership conferences, professional development training, and mentorship programs. And while all of these solutions have merit, what remains lacking is a complementary intervention that addresses a behavior most women struggle with—a behavior that leaders irrespective of gender need to possess. For the last decade, I've supported women to step into their moxie—what I define as possessing the mindset and skillset to be able to walk into any room, or onto any stage, and speak up for yourself and the ideas and issues that matter most to you (and to your company).
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / Excerpts
Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment
By Porchlight
Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas have written a book "premised upon the conviction that we are entering a new epoch demanding a very different formula for success."
Categories: excerpts
-
Blog / Book Giveaways
Iterate: Run a Fast, Flexible, Focused Management Team
By Porchlight
Ed Muzio's new book is about "the importance of management acting as the feedback system of the organization," and provides five management practices to help build it.
Categories: giveaways
-
Blog / New Releases
Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World
By Porchlight
The leadership philosophy of John Chambers helped transform Cisco from an industry player into an international technology juggernaut, and he has become one of the world's most influential business leaders along the way.
Categories: new-releases
-
Blog / Editor's Choice
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work
Book Review by Porchlight
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson know that it doesn't have to be crazy at work, because they've created a company of calm in the midst of the industry that brought the culture of crazy upon us all.
Categories: editors-choice, narrative-biography