Next book

THE MILLENNIAL WHISPERER

THE PRACTICAL, PROFIT-FOCUSED PLAYBOOK FOR WORKING WITH AND MOTIVATING THE WORLD'S LARGEST GENERATION

Perceptive, passionate, and actionable tips on managing millennials.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

An instructional guide focuses on the care and feeding of millennials in the workplace.

As an ad agency managing partner, Tuff found himself in charge of a team made up entirely of millennials. This appealing debut chronicles his challenges in this role while offering very specific, sensible tactics for how to lead those employees, who are now statistically the largest generation in the American labor force. The author begins by debunking some of the more negative, common myths about millennials, such as their supposed laziness and narcissism, citing research studies and his own firsthand observations. He also points out an important distinction between older millennials, who are less technologically savvy and more cynical, and younger ones, who are more connected and feedback-oriented. The heart of the well-executed book is Tuff’s philosophy of millennial management, which flows through eight short chapters that address company culture, recruitment and retention, rewards and recognition, motivation, and morale. Each chapter details ideas and on-the-job stories designed to assist any manager to become more adept at leading millennials appropriately. Perhaps most helpful are the “Make It Happen” sections that close each chapter with step-by-step tactics. For example, to create a millennial-friendly workplace, Tuff suggests such actions as “Hero your people,” “Permit your Millennial team members to help craft the culture,” and “Delete your negative attitude.” For those managers who scratch their heads about building relationships with millennials, he advises, “Follow your employees on social media and engage with their social channels” and “Provide Millennials with an opportunity to pursue their passions within their work.” Some of the author’s advice, such as encouraging millennials to be entrepreneurial, perhaps even by “starting a business incubator program” within a company, may give pause to traditionalists, but it reinforces Tuff’s premise that managing millennials requires a different mindset. Interestingly, the author has found that with millennials, public recognition of effort is as important as a reward and that small, regular, meaningful perks, such as concert tickets, may be perceived as more valuable than cash bonuses. Insights like these confirm Tuff’s self-proclaimed status as “The Millennial Whisperer.”

Perceptive, passionate, and actionable tips on managing millennials.

Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-64279-279-9

Page Count: 190

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019

Next book

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

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

Next book

THE CULTURE MAP

BREAKING THROUGH THE INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS

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

Categories:
Close Quickview