Demand is exceeding our capacity. The ethic of "more, bigger, faster" exacts a series of silent but pernicious costs at work, undermining our energy, focus, creativity, and passion. Nearly 75 percent of employees around the world feel disengaged at work every day. Be Excellent at Anything offers a groundbreaking approach to reenergizing our lives so we’re both more satisfied and more productive—on the job and off.

By integrating multidisciplinary findings from the science of high performance, Tony Schwartz, coauthor of the #1 bestselling The Power of Full Engagement, makes a persuasive case that we’re neglecting the four core needs that energize great performance: sustainability (physical); security (emotional); self-expression (mental); and significance (spiritual). Rather than running like computers at high speeds for long periods, we’re at our best when we pulse rhythmically between expending and regularly renewing energy across each of our four needs.

Organizations undermine sustainable high performance by forever seeking to get more out of their people. Instead they should seek systematically to meet their four core needs so they’re freed, fueled, and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.

Drawing on extensive work with an extra-ordinary range of organizations, among them Google, Ford, Sony, Ernst & Young, Shell, IBM, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Cleveland Clinic, Schwartz creates a road map for a new way of working. At the individual level, he explains how we can build specific rituals into our daily schedules to balance intense effort with regular renewal; offset emotionally draining experiences with practices that fuel resilience; move between a narrow focus on urgent demands and more strategic, creative thinking; and balance a short-term focus on immediate results with a values-driven commitment to serving the greater good. At the organizational level, he outlines new policies, practices, and cultural messages that Schwartz’s client companies have adopted.

Be Excellent at Anything offers individuals, leaders, and organizations a highly practical, proven set of strategies to better manage the relentlessly rising demands we all face in an increasingly complex world.

Attract top talent and energize your workforce with a MAGNETIC CULTURE

“Sheridan outlines simple but powerful steps to take in creating and maintaining an organization that fosters an environment with similar attraction.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D., international bestselling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“A compelling case for and guide to the creation of a high engagement/high performance workforce.”
—Douglas R. Conant, retired president and CEO, Campbell Soup Company; New York Times bestselling author of TouchPoints

“It’s impossible for any company to have a monopoly on talent. But it is possible to have the best culture. Sheridan shares insights and best practices for creating an engaging culture where associates can grow and thrive.”
—Frits van Paassche n, president and CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

“A long time ago I discovered that when employees are passionate about their work, customers are passionate about the company. Kevin Sheridan knows that secret too. His insights on finding the right people and getting them engaged can change your culture forever.”
—Quint Studer, founder of Studer Group, 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

“This book is filled with practical ideas, illuminating case stories, and fresh perspectives to stir employee engagement in any organization.”
—Pamela Meyer, Ph.D., author of From Workplace to Playspace: Innovating, Learning and Changing through Dynamic Engagement

About the Book:

The perils of a disengaged workforce are well known—low productivity, high employee turnover, and failure to meet organization-wide goals. Less well known is what to do about it. How do you create a workforce that is always ready, able, and eager to take the organization to the next level?

You have to create a MAGNETIC CULTURE.

As CEO of leading employee survey and HR consulting firm HR Solutions, Inc., Kevin Sheridan knows how it’s done—and in Building a Magnetic Culture, he shares all his secrets.

Building a Magnetic Culture explains what engages and motivates employees and how to create an environment in which employees can thrive. Drawing on years of research and real-world examples from his consulting experience, Sheridan gives you the strategies and tactics you need to transform your company by creating and sustaining a Magnetic Culture.

Providing benchmarking and best practices, as well as interviews with executives and HR professionals at companies that boast the highest levels of employee engagement, Sheridan outlines an easy-to-follow plan that:

• Attracts the most talented people—and retains them
• Makes employees feel they are part of the value that their organization creates
• Increases Employee Engagement and drives productivity
• Boosts creativity and problem solving

According to HR Solutions’ own employee survey results, actively engaged employees show four times more satisfaction in their work and are four times less likely to leave than disengaged employees are. Is there a reason not to make building a Magnetic Culture your top priority?

Simply put, organizations that place a high value on actively cultivating a culture of engagement stand apart from their competition and enjoy superior business results.

The New York Times bestseller that changed the way millions communicate

“[Crucial Conversations] draws our attention to those defining moments that literally shape our lives, our relationships, and our world. . . . This book deserves to take its place as one of the key thought leadership contributions of our time.”
—from the Foreword by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

“The quality of your life comes out of the quality of your dialogues and conversations. Here’s how to instantly uplift your crucial conversations.”
—Mark Victor Hansen, cocreator of the #1 New York Times bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul®

The first edition of Crucial Conversations exploded onto the scene and revolutionized the way millions of people communicate when stakes are high. This new edition gives you the tools to:

• Prepare for high-stakes situations
• Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
• Make it safe to talk about almost anything
• Be persuasive, not abrasive

The revolutionary study of how the place where we grew up shapes the way we think, feel, and act-- with new dimensions and perspectives

Based on research conducted in more than seventy countries over a forty-year span, Cultures and Organizations examines what drives people apart—when cooperation is so clearly in everyone’s interest. With major new contributions from Michael Minkov’s analysis of data from the World Values Survey, as well as an account of the evolution of cultures by Gert Jan Hofstede, this revised and expanded edition:

• Reveals the “moral circles” from which national societies are built and the unexamined rules by which people think, feel, and act
• Explores how national cultures differ in the areas of inequality, assertiveness versus modesty, and tolerance for ambiguity
• Explains how organizational cultures differ from national cultures—and how they can be managed
• Analyzes stereotyping, differences in language, cultural roots of the 2008 economic crisis, and other intercultural dynamics