New Business Book Summary Available for The Genius of Opposites

In The Genius of Opposites, Jennifer B. Kahnweiler explores the importance of building relationships in the workplace. Using interviews from over 40 introvert/extrovert partners across varying professional fields, genders, ages, nationalities, and organizations, Kahnweiler embarks on a massive study to determine how to help introverts and extroverts acknowledge differences, embrace them, and ultimately achieve the most optimal working relationships.

New Summary Available for The 10X Rule

People have long sought a definitive answer to why some people succeed in life and in business and why others do not. While there are no shortcuts or magic bullets to achieving success, author Grant Cardone believes he can point to a discipline and mind-set that transforms average people into high achievers. In The 10X Rule, Cardone explains that those who attain great success have bold goals and high levels of activity. They set targets that are 10 times higher than they think necessary and put forth 10 times the effort that others do. This a principle can be used to become a high achiever in any aspect of life—spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, career, or financial—and outlines how both individuals and organizations should manage the formation and realization of all their goals. The 10X Rule establishes why success is important, why realistic goals are useless, and why massive levels of action are imperative.

New summary Available for Resolving Conflicts at Work

In Resolving Conflicts at Work, Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith help readers understand the underlying causes of conflict and how to approach it in new ways. Conflicts at work arise because companies are made up of diverse group of people with different communication styles and differing expectations. Few people have been trained to resolve conflict in a healthy manner, which is why conflict is common in every workplace. Transformation does not occur until people first resolve how they became stuck in conflict and take time to develop new strategies. When an organization operates with a culture where conflicts are avoided, honesty and creativity is lost in the process. People need to take time to look inward and understand what conflict means to them and how their perceptions impact the way they respond to these situations.

New summary available for Humanize

Humanize is a guide to restructuring organizations based on the principles of social media. Authors Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant provide recommendations for overcoming hierarchical structures, disengaged employees, best practices, monoculture, risk, and formal processes to become more human. They advocate open internal and external communication, including uncensored use of social media. Organizations need to build open, honest relationships. Human organizations must learn how to become open, trustworthy, generative, and courageous.

Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers

Project managers require more than knowledge to succeed at their tasks. Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to recognize emotional cues are now essential tools for team leadership. In Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers, Anthony Mersino explains how emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and understand emotions as well as employ them in the decision-making process, is a crucial asset in successful project management. Effective project managers (PMs) can use emotional intelligence to communicate clearly, set the tone and goals for their projects, engage and motivate team members, foster collaboration, and counter stress and discord. Without these interpersonal competencies PMs risk seeing even the best organized projects fail.

UNDERSTANDING DIVERSIFIED MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: DEFINITIONS, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

Diversified mentoring relationships describe mentor and protégé relationships with members who vary by "race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, disability or other group memberships associated with power in organizations." Diversified mentoring relationships face many challenges.

Researchers need to consider the shared group associations of mentors and mentees. Importantly, different branches of diversity should not be gathered under the title of minority.

Each shared group faces different challenges depending on their specific experiences and the context of the mentoring relationship. Every organization has different "micro-climates" that non-visible, stigmatized groups must navigate.

Having a mentor who can better understand these micro-climates can greatly benefit the protégé. Diversity in a mentoring relationship can change over its lifespan.

While group membership differences may initially create barriers, these differences may become less of an obstacle over time. In fact diversified mentoring relationships can lead to members relating on more individualized and deeper levels.

These individualized similarities are what cement a strong and meaningful mentoring relationship. Members of a diversified mentoring relationship must accept the role of privilege in their organization.

Privilege refers to the benefits that certain shared group members enjoy. On the other hand the numerical minority group members experience higher expectations and greater visibility.

Whereas pretending that these differences in privilege do not exist may increase comfort in a diversified mentoring relationship, ignoring differences in privilege means that members cannot learn from one another as effectively. Discussing diversity differences in great depths does allow members of the mentoring relationship to learn from one another and better understand diversity, but over discussing diversity does not allow members to appreciate one another on an individual and deep level.

Ideally, diversified mentoring relationships address diversity but do not allow it to dominate their conversations and mentoring relationship. In order to encourage diversified mentoring relationships, the environment in which they exist must accept and encourage diversity.

Therefore change from inside an organization is the optimal tool for encouraging diverse and meaningful mentoring relationships. In order to achieve this, leaders of the organization need to appreciate the importance of diversity in the workplace and the challenges workers face as a result of discrimination.

Similarly, the organization needs rid itself of the glass ceiling that prevents diversity from being represented on a senior level. Formal mentoring may be an essential tool in the future for advancing the careers of numerical minority groups in the workplace.

Currently, formal mentoring programs are not any more effective than having no mentor at all. Employees with informal mentors are more likely to advance in their careers than those with formal mentors.

In order for formal mentoring programs to create a supportive environment around diversity, it is important that employees have access to both formal and informal mentors. However, the quality of a mentor is more important than a mentoring relationship being formal or informal.

Mentoring programs not only provide numerical minorities with access to mentors, but they also increase the number of future, diverse mentors. A mentoring program that encourages diversity can create a more positive work environment with an inclusive culture.

This article is based on the book "Mentoring and Diversity." The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.