At IANR, we’re committed to providing the right resources to help you succeed in your job. If you’re looking to strengthen your skills as a leader or manager, we recommend the books below.
- Good to Great
- Drive
- Collaborative Leadership
- Crucial Conversations
- First, Break All the Rules
- Now, Discover Your Strengths
- Go Put Your Strengths to Work
- A New Paradigm of Leadership
- The Communication Kit
- Leader to Leader
- The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
- Leadership Land Mines
- Lean but Agile
- The Carrot Principle
- The Leader's Edge
- The One Minute Manager
- What Your Employer Meant to Tell You When They Made You a Manager
- TouchPoints
To check out any of these books, simply email ianrhr@unl.edu and we’ll get you a copy. Keep it until you’re finished reading, then return to us so someone else can enjoy!
Good to Great
By Jim Collins, 2001
Find out ‘why some companies make the leap, and others don’t.’ This bestselling book by Jim Collins will take you on a journey to discover why and how 11 companies made the leap from good performance to great performance. You can learn about the seven characteristics of the companies who reached financial greatness and think about how to apply these characteristics in your own team and work environment.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Team Building, Employee Management
Drive
By Daniel Pink, 2009
Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money; that's a mistake. The secret to high performance and satisfaction - at work, at school, and at home - is the deep human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. In Drive, Daniel Pink examines the three elements of true motivation - autonomy, mastery, and purpose - and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting those into action.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Team Building
Collaborative Leadership
By David D Chrislip, Carl E. Larson, 1994
Working together successfully today requires a profound shift in our conception of how change is created, and how leadership works. This book will show you how to deal with complex issues, engage frustrated and angry citizens, and generate the civic will to break through legislative gridlock. Also how to sustain a constructive collaborative process.
Themes
Team Building, Employee Management
Crucial Conversations
By Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler, 2012
Crucial Conversations will help the way you communicate when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. This book will help you prepare for high-stakes conversations, make it safe to talk about almost anything, transform unpleasant emotions into powerful dialogue, and be persuasive and not abrasive.
Themes
Employee Management, Communication, Problem Solving
First, Break All the Rules
By Buckingham, Coffman, 1999
StrengthsFinder Information
The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one trait: they are not afraid to break every leadership rule. Based on StrengthsFinder, this book explains how focusing on an employee’s strengths is the way to create engagement, job satisfaction, and a productive workplace.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Team Building, Effective Management, Self-Improvement
Now Discover Your Strengths
By Buckingham, Clifton, 2001
StrengthsFinder Information
Crucial Conversations will help the way you communicate when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. This book will help you prepare for high-stakes conversations, make it safe to talk about almost anything, transform unpleasant emotions into powerful dialogue, and be persuasive and not abrasive.
Themes
Employee Management, Communication, Problem Solving
Go Put Your Strengths to Work
By Marcus Buckingham, 2007
StrengthsFinder Information
Research shows that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work (only 17% of the workforce believe they use all of their strengths on the job). This book shows you: what your strengths are, how to use the four telltale signs to identify your strengths, how to push yourself toward these strengths, and how to effectively use them and get noticed in the workplace.
Themes
Self Improvement, Employee Recognition, Employee Motivation
A New Paradigm of Leadership
By Ken Shelton, 1997
This book will provide you with new insights and directions crucial to empowering others and effectively leading organizations. We each have an unprecedented opportunity to make a profound contribution as we launch a new era of leadership.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Team Building, Employee Appreciation
The Communication Kit
By Kit Welchin, 2014
Ready for a laugh? This book provides a toolkit for effective communication, leadership, customer service, intergenerational communication, change management, team building, and stress management – a quick read of practical tips with a humorous twist.
Themes
Communication, Employee Motivation, Employee Management
Leader to Leader
By Hesselbeing, Cohen, 1999
This collection of articles from the widely acclaimed journal Leader to Leader brings together the timely but classic wisdom of world-renowned leader, best-selling writers, legendary thinkers, and esteemed business philosophers. In these articles the common theme is a deep belief in the humanity of institutions, with emphasis on the leader's role in fulfilling the common purpose of all organizations "to make the strengths of people effective and their weaknesses irrelevant."
Themes
Employee Motivation, Employee Management
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
By Gary Chapman, 2011
If you express appreciation in ways that aren't meaningful to your coworkers, they may not feel valued at all. The problem is you're speaking different languages. In this book you will learn how to: express genuine appreciation to coworkers and staff, increase loyalty with the employees and volunteers in your organization, reduce cynicism and create a more positive work environment, improve your ability to show appreciation for difficult colleagues, and individualize your expressions of appreciation by speaking the right language.
Themes
Employee Appreciation, Team Building
Leadership Land Mines
By Marty Clarke, 2005
This book identifies, examines, and then lays waste the eight specific behaviors that cripple your ability to emerge as a true leader: It's All About Me, Managing to the Exception, The Super Doer, The Blame Addiction, The Popularity Priority, Cloudy Expectations, Confrontation Phobia, and Managing By Committee.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Employee Management
Lean But Agile
By Rothwell, Graber, McCormick, 2012
This book shows you and your organization how to optimize efficient and effective ways to achieve work results in keeping with customer expectations while minimizing the costly expenses involved in the workplace. You will also learn how to build organizational commitment for a comprehensive system for assessing present and future staffing needs.
Themes
Employee Appreciation, Management Techniques
The Carrot Principle
By Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton, 2007
This book reveals the groundbreaking results of one of the most in-depth management studies ever undertaken, showing that the central characteristic of the most successful managers is that they provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. But it's not the recognition some of us have been using for years. It is recognition done right, combined with four other core traits of effective leadership.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Employee Recognition, Team Building
The Leader's Edge
By Burt Nanus, 1989
Burt Nanus has shows why traditional management skills are insufficient. This book defines the seven "megaskills" that leaders need in order to provide a clear sense of direction, restore a sense of purpose, catalyze people to act enthusiastically, and align their energies toward a common goal.
Themes
Employee Management, Employee Motivation, Team Building
The One Minute Manager
By Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson, 1982
The One Minute Manager's symbol - a one minute readout from the face of a modern digital watch - is intended to remind each of us to take a minute out of our day to look into the faces of the people we manage. And to realize that they are our most important resources.
Themes
Employee Motivation, Employee Recognition, Employee Management
What Your Employer Meant to Tell You When They Made You a Manager
By Fred Rogan, 2011
This is a must read for anyone who manages people-from first line supervisors to the CEO. Example: You are promoted to a position as a manager because you have expertise in the area in which you work. Then, managing people soon becomes the most time and energy consuming part of your new job. To make matters worse, your employer usually does not have the resources to give you the education and training needed to manage people successfully.
Themes
Employee Management, Team Building
TouchPoints
By Douglas Conant, Mette Norgaard, 2011
Conant and Norgaard show in this book that by delving into three essential assets – your head, your heart, and your hands, leaders can tap into their craft by promoting a rational, authentic, active, and wise approach. One of the greatest investments you can make is constant attention to your mental model, your emotional maturity, and your bias for action.
Themes
Effective Leadership, Communication, Self-Improvement, Employee Management