High Performance Management

Unstoppable Teams show managers at every level, at both large and small organizations, including private, public, and nonprofit, how to inspire, motivate, and lead the people around them.

For decades, alarms have sounded about declining engagement. Yet companies continue to struggle with toxic cultures, and the low productivity and unhappiness that go with them. Why is "culture" so difficult to improve? What makes so many good employees check out? Neuroscientist Paul Zak shows that innate brain functions hold the answers. It all boils down to trust. When someone shows you trust, a feel-good jolt of oxytocin surges through your brain and triggers you to reciprocate.

Over six years, long-time Sports Illustrated editor Don Yaeger was invited by some of the greatest companies in the world to speak about the habits of high-performing individuals. From Microsoft and Starbucks to the New England Patriots and San Antonio Spurs, what do some organizations do seemingly better than most of their opponents? Don identified 16 habits that drive high-performing teams. Building on stories, examples, and first-hand accounts, each chapter in Great Teams comes with applicable examples on how to apply these characteristics in any organization.

How many audiobooks have you listened to on project management? On leadership? Too many, right? But no other book combines the practice of project management and leadership into one balanced approach with practical examples—except this book. You don’t even need Project Manager in your title to employ these lessons. You can be any person on any team who has stepped up to take a leadership role on a critical initiative. You’ll learn what it takes to become the binding agent—the glue—that creates cohesive, engaged, high-performing project teams.

The job of a Chief Technical Officer is broad, ever-changing, and hard to define. Is the CTO an engineer, an architect, a people manager, or an executive? Turns out, in most cases, it’s all of the above—and even the most experienced “techies” often find themselves feeling underprepared for the human and logistical sides of this pivotal role.

Being a great leader - one who drives massive passion, commitment and engagement - is within your reach. Follow the step-by-step plan in Employee Engagement 2.0 and prepare to be a great place to work.

Employees that don't take ownership of their work. Friction between departments. Inconsistent results. These are the top challenges that face most businesses today. These common issues create high turnover and force managers into crisis mode where they're consumed putting out daily fires. Over time, the very nature of the business changes and a new culture emerges; one shaped by the lowest level of acceptable behavior.

As an aviation pioneer, Carey D. Lohrenz learned what fearless leadership means in some of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Here, her teams had to perform at their peak - or lives were on the line. Faltering leadership was simply unacceptable. Through these experiences, Lohrenz identified a fundamental truth: high-performing teams require fearless leaders.

No single factor - not sales, marketing, finance, strategy, or operations - has more influence over the ultimate success of an organization than its culture. In the game-changing first edition of Culture by Design, David Friedman cut through the fog and provided a simple, clear, and practical road map that thousands of organizations have now used to build high-performing cultures. In this new updated edition, you'll learn how to take the strategies he originally taught and adapt them to meet the unique challenges presented by today's remote work environment.

Written for real estate agents, teams, brokerages, and franchise owners, The High-Performing Real Estate Team is an indispensable resource that will guide you toward growth while providing you with the resources to reach your goals faster.

Managing a sales team is one of the most important and challenging positions in a company, and it requires a unique set of skills. Unfortunately, many sales managers spend much of their day putting out fires, and moving from problem to problem. Their days consist of an overwhelming number of activities, including responding to urgent requests from their bosses, resolving customer issues and complaints, and dealing with disgruntled employees.

During his 35-year career in the Army, Rick Lynch led 25,000 of our country’s best to victory in “The Surge” in Iraq. He came home to take command of Fort Hood, Texas, the largest Army Installation in America. He rose up to take charge of every Army Installation on Earth, leading 120,000 mostly civilian employees through the restructuring of a $20-billion budget, under unimaginable pressure from the Pentagon.

Why were the American POWs imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton so resilient in captivity and so successful in their subsequent careers? This book presents six principles practiced within the POW organizational culture that can be used to develop high-performance teams everywhere. The authors offer examples from both the POWs’ time in captivity and their later professional lives that identify, in real-life situations, the characteristics necessary for sustainable, high-performance teamwork.

Our industry has always dealt with change. But the environment we re navigating now requires change at a whole different level. We ve moved from experiencing episodic change to continuous change and as John Kotter has famously noted, that requires a whole different set of skills and a whole different level of urgency. In his new book, thought leader Quint Studer explains how to leverage the powerful values that have always defined healthcare people passion, fortitude, willingness to learn to meet the challenges of our disruptive external environment.

Do you feel stressed and anxious when despite your best efforts, your leadership skills don't seem to make the impact you desire? Do you feel overwhelmed and confused why your team isn't performing at its best, even though you’ve tried everything you know? For most people, mastering leadership remains a challenge for a lifetime, because they look for solutions in the wrong places. They base their leadership success solely on traditional strategies or mimic the styles of others. They think effective leaders are born, not made, or that their leadership skills depend on certain conditions. ...

In this book, Mike Robbins dives deep into the ways great businesses build trust, collaborate, and operate at their peak level. As an expert in teamwork, leadership, and emotional intelligence, Mike draws on more than 20 years of experience working with top companies like Google and Microsoft, as well as his baseball career with the Kansas City Royals. And, while each team and organization have their own unique challenges, goals, and dynamics, there are some universal qualities that allow teams to truly come together and thrive.

Going well beyond the recycled, superficial tactics in most leadership books, Thrive by Design introduces you to the triggers of exemplary workplace behavior at a neurological level. Tapping into these triggers leads to increased productivity, well-being, accountability, and retention. As you apply the practical approaches and tools outlined in the book, you will see less absenteeism, corrosive gossip, employee drama, accidents, and quality shortfalls.

The Leadership Contract provides the manual that leaders around the world need. With only seven percent of employees feeling confident in senior leadership, the problem is evident: disappointing, and often disgraceful leaders. Employees deserve better than that; organizations need better than that - and this book provides a robust framework for stepping up and making the decision to lead. If you're not exceptional, step up or step aside - this book helps you toughen up and put your commitment to great leadership in writing for yourself as much as everyone else.

In today's fast-paced world, data is everywhere—but only actionable insights can drive real success. The Insight-Driven Leader offers a practical guide to transforming raw data into powerful workforce insights that solve critical business challenges. Through clear frameworks, compelling case studies, and proven strategies, Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider reveal how high-performing organizations combine business and workforce data to innovate, engage employees, delight customers, and exceed financial goals.

The new female manager’s encyclopedia - how to lead like a pro and spin teamwork into value, even with little experience! If you’ve been newly appointed to a managerial position with a few years of experience under your belt…you may struggle to get used to your peers calling you “boss”. However, it would help if you weren’t afraid to embrace leadership roles - you earned every right to excel, and your boss must have noticed something exceptional in you, so don’t downplay yourself.