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The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance (2010)

by Tony Schwartz(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1439127662 (ISBN13: 9781439127667)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Free Press

review 1: No career automatically provides a purpose, but no job precludes our finding a purpose in it either. It isn't the role we fill that prompts a sense of purpose but how we choose to approach whatever work we do.The bigger the reservoir of value of value and well-being, the less emotionally vulnerable we are to everyday challenges. Our core mental need is self-expression, the freedom to put our unique skills and talents to effective use in the world.Selflessness can be as, if not more costly than selfishness. Compassion fatigue occurs if one does not renew themselves regularly.Is the life you're leading worth the price you're paying to live it?Seeing more depends on excluding less. Be comfortable with contradictions.Commitment to the status quo: Inertia to change, and fear of... more success.It's difficult and counter-intuitive to push ourselves to the very limits of our capacity, invoking primitive survival fears. But its also the most efficient way to build strength.From an energy perspective the key to nutrition is a stable, steady level of blood sugar.Focusing on not eating eventually pushes us to eat more. Feeling deprived only increases the reward of food, eventually giving way to indulgence then abandon.Be the kind of leader that inspires yourself. Do the people you interact with walk away feeling better?Bad is a stronger trigger than good. No one has a difficult time remembering a recent trigger.Most can be traced to the feeling of having been devalued or diminished by someone else's words.Greed can show up in everything from unwilling to delegate, or the hoarding of information. Envy is greed directed at what others have that we want. "We all have strength enough to endure the troubles of others.A story is something we create to make sense of (not necessarily connected) facts. It is not necessarily true, so don't behave like it is. (Agreement 3: Don't make assumptions. Test them.)Try not to avoid conflict, simmering tensions are worst than open, honest communication.Information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates of poverty of attention. - Herbert SimonLeft brain does text, right brain does context.Multitasking doesn't work as well because of limited working memory.Only those that will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.Regularly asking yourself what you stand for and how you want to behave as a result - resisting the default into denial and self-deception - is the key to growing, learning and evolving.
review 2: I'm generally not a big fan of self-help books that pull in little bits of research here and there to document whatever point they want to make, but this book is well-argued and sensible and was consoling to read when I was struggling with an unpleasant work situation. I forget exactly what the "four keys" are, but there are some insights here that are worth remembering: high performers both work harder and rest longer, we are biologically programmed to remember negative experiences much better than positive ones, all parties to a conflict tend to view themselves as victims, etc. The author gives a lot of examples of how to improve workplace morale, based on his experience working with major corporations. less

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