A valuable management playbook that reinforces sound practices.
A set of research-based rules for building trust in the workplace.
In this debut work, Lee, a senior leader at the Great Place to Work Institute business consultancy, shares his observations about how managers can use trust to create better work environments. This notion is nothing new, but Lee notes that his study of “feedback” from almost 2 million employees in 80 countries has given him a deeper perspective. He found similarities in the ways that employees trusted their bosses, distilled that data, and identified 16 “trust rules” that he says all great managers follow. Lee summarizes these in short, breezy chapters, providing an overview of each rule along with a few relevant examples and suggestions. Individually, the rules, such as “Be Approachable and Easy to Talk To,” “Make Your Expectations Clear,” and “Treat Everyone Fairly,” seem obvious, but taken together, they form a comprehensive checklist, and the author’s practical suggestions are particularly useful. For example, for the rule “Live with Integrity,” Lee enumerates five specific points, including “Be what you want your employees to be” and “Keep a positive and respectful attitude when challenging the status quo.” One chapter asks the important question, “So how can a high-trust manager reconcile the need to achieve results (the reason the organization exists in the first place) with the desire to help employees achieve a reasonable work-life balance?” The author then ably provides the answer by discussing four specific strategies that demonstrate an enlightened, humanistic approach to management. The style in which Lee delivers this material only heightens its usefulness, as he explains each rule in clear, illustrative text. Each rule is reinforced by “Key Points” at the end of each chapter, and each chapter builds upon the previous ones, so that the sum becomes greater than the discrete parts. In closing, Lee offers an engaging 10-step plan for implementing the changes necessary to put these rules into action.
A valuable management playbook that reinforces sound practices.Pub Date: April 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9957378-9-1
Page Count: 184
Publisher: The Trust Lab
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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