Category Archives: Retention Books

Don’t Fire Them, Fire Them Up

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Don’t Fire Them, Fire Them UpDon’t Fire Them, Fire Them Up: Motivate Yourself and Your Team
by Frank Pacetta

This is a maverick’s guide to motivating yourself and your team by the man who turned around sales teams at Xerox. Learn how to build a better business team: how to develop trust, create loyalty, and generate enthusiasm and excitement. This book explains how to build or rebuild an organization, lead and energize it, and put it on top and keep it there, year after year.

The author includes his top ten tips, which were featured in The Wall Street Journal and have been copied and posted on office bulletin boards everywhere. He also adds ten more top tips in this book.

This is a real-world story of winning in business by motivating employees in the most positive way possible—nurturing them, showing that you value accomplishment, and giving them the skills and the responsibility to become winners.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 5.)

301 Ways to Have Fun at Work

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301 Ways to Have Fun at Work301 Ways to Have Fun at Work
by Dave Hemsath and Leslie Yerkes

It’s quite obvious that any employee would like to have more fun at work. However, it’s a little more of a challenge to convince management that creating a fun atmosphere in the workplace can increase productivity and morale while having a positive effect on the bottom line. In this fun-filled book, the authors will tell you how to do just that.

It’s one thing to have someone offer you their suggestions for improvement. In this book, however, the authors share examples from hundreds of companies that have found a wide variety of methods for focusing on fun within the work environment. They’ve developed Fun Icons which lead you through the book by identifying fun facts, fun resources, and fun quotes. They have included their twelve-step method to fun which they suggest you follow by implementing one step a month for a year.

They also offer a list of suggested readings—books they highly recommend for your reading pleasure and to aid you in your pursuit of fun at work.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 5.)

Love ’em or Lose ’em:

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Love 'Em or Lose 'EmLove ’em or Lose ’em: Getting Good People to Stay
by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

The retention of talent has been identified by numerous resources as the #1 business issue of the 21st Century. There is no issue with greater urgency, or with more far-reaching consequences, than the issue of retention. The authors have done Corporate America a great favor by focusing a laser beam on the subject. They have skillfully blended wit, humor, charm, research and common sense to grab the reader’s attention and inspire action. This book provides easy to implement answers for everything you always wanted to know about retention but were afraid to ask.

So how do you keep talented people? How do you get them to stay while others try to entice them away? Read the 26 strategies in this book, and you will know what to do!

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 3.)

Fish!

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Fish!Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D., Harry Paul, and John Christensen

Here’s another management parable in the spirit of Raving Fans, Gung Ho!, and Who Moved My Cheese? Fish! draws its lesson from an unlikely source—the fun-loving fishmongers at Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

The authors have done a masterful job of capturing the essence of how to infuse any workplace with high energy, positive attitudes, and a passion for performance. This book is destined to become the authority on how to change the workplace into a powerhouse of productivity, personal satisfaction, and bottom-line performance. Fish! offers wisdom that is easy to grasp, instantly applicable, and profound—the hallmarks of a true business classic!

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 3.)

1001 Ways to Take Initiative at Work

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1001 Ways to Take Initiative at Work1001 Ways to Take Initiative at Work
by Bob Nelson

Here is the third in Nelson’s 1001 Ways Series. Whether you’re an entry-level assistant or a VP working with the CEO, there’s only one person responsible for your career—you.

This unique motivational manual will help you realize your potential for success. This book brings together hundreds of real-life examples, advice from business leaders, and the author’s own techniques and exercises to show readers how to draw on inner creativity, develop self-leadership, set goals, take risks, and sell ideas. Learn how to take action, question authority, think outside the box and trust your intuition in this practical, timely book that will make an excellent addition to any business library.

(This book review was originally published in 2000 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 3.)

Gung Ho!

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Gung Ho!Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization
by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles

The co-authors of the business bestseller Raving Fans are back with Gung Ho! Here is an invaluable management tool that outlines foolproof ways to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. It’s a must-read for everyone who wants to stay on top in today’s ultra-competitive business world.

Raving Fans taught managers how to turn customers into full-fledged fans. Now, Gung Ho! brings the same magic to employees. Through the inspirational story of fictional business leaders, the authors reveal the secret of Gung Ho!—a revolutionary technique to boost enthusiasm and performance and usher in astonishing results. The three principles of Gung Ho! are:

  • The Spirit of the Squirrel
  • The Way of the Beaver
  • The Gift of the Goose

These three cornerstones are surprisingly simple and yet amazingly powerful. Whether your organization consists of one or is listed in the Fortune 500, this book ensures Gung Ho employees committed to success. It also includes a clear game plan with a step-by-step outline for instituting these groundbreaking ideas.

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 2.)

1001 Ways to Energize Employees

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1001-ways-to-energize-employees1001 Ways to Energize Employees
by Bob Nelson

Take the brakes off your business. From management specialist and author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees comes a practical handbook full of ideas for increasing employee involvement and enthusiasm—the key to an organization’s success. Weaving together case studies, examples, suggestions, and quotes from hundreds of American’s most energized businesses and business leaders, this book is a how-to for getting not just the most—but the best—from everyone in the organization.

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 1.)

1001 Ways to Reward Employees

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1001-ways-to-reward-employees1001 Ways to Reward Employees
by Bob Nelson

Whether you manage a department, oversee a division, lead a company or run a family business with just only one employee, there’s an essential principle to follow that’s often overlooked: What most motivates the people who work for you is recognition.

A chock-full guide to rewards of every conceivable type for every conceivable situation, this book polls the whole of the American business community, finding innovative ideas in every corner; and from the spontaneous gesture of praise to formal company-wide programs, it presents hundreds of ways to say thank you to the people who truly deserve it.

This book is fantastic for every well-intentioned manager or frustrated employee. It makes a compelling case that recognition, rewards and positive reinforcement all do work and that they can work for you.

(This book review was originally published in 1999 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 1.)