With August here and summer winding down, it’s a great time to dive into a summer reading list. This collection blends relaxation with personal and professional growth, offering something for everyone. Covering topics like leadership, team building, personal success, and more, these upcoming titles offer a mix of enjoyment and learning. So, while you enjoy the last of summer and get into the ‘get-back-to-school’ vibes, let our reading list help you prepare for what’s ahead.

The Manager’s Handbook: Five Simple Steps to Build a Team, Stay Focused, Make Better Decisions, and Crush Your Competition

by David Dodson (ISBN: 9781394174072)
Published July 2023 by Wiley in hardcover and eBook, priced £22.99

Why do certain leaders excel in accomplishing tasks more effectively than others? Also, how can you become one of them?

The first book of our summer reading list is the The Manager’s Handbook. The author David Dodson delivers a practical and hands-on discussion of the five skills every great leader needs to drive extraordinary results. These five skills are: building teams, managing your time, using advisors, sticking to your priorities, and obsessing over quality.

As a CEO himself, Dodson understands that there is a powerful need for a one-stop resource with practical advice on the key components of organizational leadership. Based on his years of research and practical experience, he explains how to get better at running virtually any kind of organization. He does so by breaking down each critical skill into digestible, bite-sized sub-skills that readers can learn quickly and easily.

Building A Pro-Black World: Moving Beyond DE&I Work and Creating Spaces for Black People to Thrive

by Cyndi Suarez, and the staff at Nonprofit Quarterly (ISBN: 9781394196906)
Due to be published July 2023 by Wiley in hardcover and ebook, priced £26.99

In Building A Pro-Black World, teams of experienced nonprofit leaders deliver incisive and fresh perspectives on race and racial justice. Editor Cyndi Suarez pushes the conversations around racial justice beyond the typical confines of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement.

The book examines the urgent need to build a world in which Black people can thrive. It also mentions the need to design nonprofit organizations, programmes, services, and philanthropy for people who are most marginalized by systems of power. It advances the argument that creating a better world for the marginalized will improve the lives of everyone.

Capturing the ongoing shift in nonprofit theory and practice from critiquing white supremacist culture and calling out anti-Blackness to actively designing for pro-Blackness, Building a Pro-Black World presents a collection of brand-new articles and substantial revisions to previously published content. This content tackles a broad range of subjects within the category of racial justice and pro-Blackness. These topics include restorative leadership techniques to promote staff well-being, new language for pro-Black social change, racial equity in healthcare and health communications, anti-racist succession planning, training strategies for board governance, Black politics and policymaking, and the redefinition of nonprofit leadership in a pro-Black context.

Abundance Leaders: Creating Energy, Joy, and Productivity in an Unsettled World

by Laura Freebairn-Smith (ISBN: 9781394178490)
Due to be published July 2023 by Wiley in hardcover and ebook, priced £21.99

Joining our summer reading list, Abundance Leaders delivers a rigorous and practical discussion of energetic, joyful, and productive leadership. In the book, readers will learn what sets leaders with an “abundance mindset” apart from those with a “scarcity mindset”. Also, it shows why the former creates work environments that generate superior performance compared to those created by the latter.

The author comprehensively explains the Abundance Leadership Model and convincingly demonstrates how it leads to immediate and tangible improvements. It analyzes the improvements both in productivity and employee wellbeing.

Also, containing a list of 26 distinct behaviors that signal a manager or executive is working in an abundance leadership mindset; strategies for leading bravely, making big, impactful promises, and aligning your organization around its purpose; and ways to shape the culture at your organization in ways that drive dramatic improvements to the bottom line and worker satisfaction this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with leadership or organizational culture.

Who Is the New How: Strategies to Find, Recruit, and Create the Best Teams

by Justin Palmer, Jessica Schertz (ISBN: 9781119898986)
Due to be published July 2023 by Wiley in hardcover and ebook, priced £21.99

Business leaders in all sectors consistently report that finding the perfect people to fill critical roles in their organisations remains one of the most difficult parts of their work. Identifying, attracting, and retaining top performers is a daunting challenge for anyone. But, especially for those working in markets and industries where talent is at a premium and companies compete to hire the best people.

In Who Is the New How, a team of accomplished talent acquisition and retention experts delivers an eye-opening and practical discussion of how the world’s best tech companies are able to regularly and quickly find the right people for the right roles. The authors also demonstrate how to reduce turnover by identifying candidates aligned with the company’s mission and culture, assemble a high-performing team, and create meaningful experiences for their employees from onboarding until retirement.

The book includes real-world case studies grounded in stories of human achievement, many of which offer an inside look into some of the most famous brands coming out of Silicon Valley.

The Pocket MBA: A Woman’s Playbook for Succeeding in Business

by Jodi Cottle (ISBN: 9781394194575)
Due to be published August 2023 by Wiley in paperback and ebook, priced £13.95

The Pocket MBA: A Woman’s Playbook for Succeeding in Business contains a collection of proven models and frameworks to help readers take charge with confidence and successfully advance their career and business.

In four accessible parts, packed with research, stories and practical tools, readers will discover the key components of building a rock-solid team and a sustainable business, whether they are going it alone or operating a franchise. Author Jodi Cottle explains effective ways to manage yourself and lead your team, resulting in a happy, motivated and high-performing work culture.

She also explains how to increase clients, and structure the business soundly as it grows into a thriving—and profitable—enterprise.

A practical, no-nonsense roadmap to extraordinary professional success, The Pocket MBA belongs in the libraries of busy female professionals, leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and founders everywhere.

Leadership Matters: Stories and Insights for Leaders, Achievers and Visionaries

by Peter Baines (ISBN: 9781394176977)
Due to be published August 2023 by Wiley in paperback and ebook, priced £17.95

Great leaders have something in common, a purpose and vision that inspires people with direction and hope. But how do leaders find their purpose and conceptualize their vision? In Leadership Matters celebrated humanitarian Peter Baines unfolds the lessons that have stayed with him through his decades in international counterterrorism and disaster response. In particular, the book reveals how the devastating aftermath of Thailand’s Boxing Day Tsunami has shaped Peter’s understanding of what it means to be a true leader. Furthermore, it shows how it led him to start a charity that has helped thousands.

Inside, Peter shares remarkable stories and unique insights about what it takes to stand up as a leader in challenging times. Readers will discover how to use courage, compassion, and integrity to accomplish the seemingly impossible, and show others how to do the same.

All Pride, No Ego: A Queer Executive’s Journey to Living and Reading Authentically

by Jim Fielding (ISBN: 9781394165285)
Due to be published August 2023 by Wiley in hardcover and ebook, priced £21.99

Joining our summer reading list, All Pride, No Ego, delivers an inspirational leadership story told from the vantage point of an LGBTQ+ person.

The book contains a call-to-action for authentic, servant leadership that encourages people to own their truth and bring out the best in themselves and their teams. The books uses Fielding’s personal story to illustrate key decisions and inflection points, and to highlight the style, learnings, successes, and failures that characterize his journey to the heights of the American corporate arena.

The book walks readers through the steps of defining personal happiness and success. It then guides them in achieving those goals. Explaining the significance of remaining a lifelong learner, staying curious, and managing controllable aspects, while leaving room for possibilities.

Great People Make People Feel Great: How Leaders Elevate Teams with Cloud Nine Thinking

by Stuart Holah, Adrian Webster (ISBN: 9780857089533)
Due to be published August 2023 by Capstone, A Wiley Brand, in paperback and ebook, priced £14.99

Great People Make People Feel Great is an indispensable guide for managers looking to step up their leadership effectiveness.

In it, the authors set out an inspiring and practical collection of insights into how readers can unlock the full potential of themselves, but not only. It shows how to unlock the potential of colleagues, team members and collaborators, including how to:

• Find clarity of meaning by simplifying goals and strategies to focus on what’s most important
• Build effective teams and foster collaboration by understanding how to motivate people with diverse skills and strengths
• Celebrate failure for its rich learning opportunities, as well as building on the lessons of success
• Recognise the power of incremental small changes that add up to powerful transformations

For anyone looking to inspire their team to next levels, the Cloud Nine Thinking challenge readers to embrace new perspectives. If you want to be bold, this book explains the possible culture shift when people bring their undiluted selves to work.

Great Change: The WAY to Get Big Strategy Done

by Adam Bennett (ISBN: 9781394203727)
Due to be published August 2023 by Wiley in paperback and ebook, priced £18.50

In Great Change author Adam Bennett shares a unique and engaging approach to organizational transformation. This approach will rekindle motivation and ignite actions.

In today’s world of rapid change, uncertainty and ambiguity, organizations need to adapt quickly and effectively to stay competitive. Leaders need to sense what’s happening in the world to grasp how to strategize effectively. But that’s not enough. They need to know how to actually get that strategy done.

Great Change combines the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching and Japanese martial arts with real-world stories. The book delivers a practical, 5-step process for success. Throughout the end, the readers discover the mindset and the actions that will ensure their strategy creates real, measurable results.

Customers can purchase all titles of our summer reading list through online platforms and traditional stores, which sell both physical books and eBooks.

Further Reading

ADHD-friendly workplaces
‘Loud quitting’: The new resignation trend
Promoting Psychological Safety in the Workplace

The post Discover Fresh Reads: A Summer Reading List of New and Upcoming Books appeared first on Employee Experience Magazine.