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About Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Renowned psychologist Angela Duckworth shows through her own personal history and stories of others that success doesn’t just come from natural talent or people who can help you get where you want to go in your career. Instead, she says, the secret to success is a blend of passion and persistence that she refers to as “grit.”
Duckworth developed this hypothesis through years of teaching and business consulting. She saw that people who found their passion and kept trying were ultimately more successful than those who had a natural talent but lacked the perseverance to follow through.
Why Cydcor Recommends This Book
Duckworth offers a concrete path to developing grit. It starts with identifying a burning interest, practicing it a lot, developing a sense of higher purpose, and finally, overcoming pessimism by developing what psychologist and author Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset. She tells us that any effort you make counts twice toward your goal.
Some of us come into adulthood already having learned grit through dealing with difficult times and getting through them. But, Duckworth says, grit can be learned regardless of IQ or circumstances, and shows you how you can do it. Anyone can become gritty. By learning grit and making effort to grow your passion, you too can achieve more than you might have thought possible.
Our Favorite Part
In Grit, Duckworth shares specific examples of people who exhibited grit in their own lives—whether those people are West Point cadets going through grueling initiation rituals, a young national spelling bee champion, or teachers working in some of the toughest schools in the country. By sharing these real-life examples, Duckworth shows us how her formula of passion, practice, and persistence can lead to success.
Check out this book and let us know what you think. Share with us on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
About Strength Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow
Nearly a decade ago, researchers at Gallup concluded a 30-year study of leadership strengths. Over the course of the project, researchers examined over 1 million work teams, supervised over 20,000 interviews with leaders, and spoke with over 10,000 followers about who the most important leaders in their lives were.
Strength Based Leadership is the interpretation of that information by best-selling author Tom Rath and prominent leadership consultant Barry Conchie. In the book, Rath and Conchie identify strategies that will allow you to find and develop the strengths to improve your ability to lead.
Why Cydcor Recommends This Book
The authors thoughtfully interpret the data Gallup assembled over decades, using their insights to craft a guide that teaches readers to discover and develop leadership abilities.
Some experts might suggest imitating the leadership style of someone famous, but Gallup’s research proves that approach simply doesn’t work for long. Instead, readers are encouraged to be themselves and engage these three key findings from Gallup’s research in a personal and authentic way:
1. The most effective leaders are always investing in strengths.
2. The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team.
3. The most effective leaders understand their followers’ needs.
Cydcor recommends this book because it helps guide readers toward becoming a successful leader in a way that builds on their own unique strengths.
Our Favorite Part
Our favorite part of Strength-Based Leadership is that it provides a practical approach to building leadership skills. The Gallup researchers identified 34 leadership strengths. For each one of those strengths they suggest two or three ways to use them at work and in your personal life.
The authors connect the results of the Gallup study with strategies used by real-world leaders. They provide real-world examples to teach readers to continually develop their strength-based leadership skills. These lessons also improve organization and management skills.
Interviews with Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach for America; Simon Cooper, President of the Ritz-Carlton; and Brad Anderson, Chief Executive Office of Best Buy, provide practical insights into the leadership process that readers can apply to their professional development.
So, check out this book and let us know what you think. Share with us on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
About Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy
Author Amy Cuddy came to the world’s attention in 2012, when her TED Talk on body language garnered over 27 million views online. Cuddy is a social psychologist and teaches business administration at Harvard Business School. In her new book, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges, Cuddy explains that presence “is the state of feeling connected with our own thoughts, values, abilities, and emotions, so that we can better connect with the thoughts, values, abilities, and emotions of others.”
Presence is a powerful guide that teaches us how to identify and work in harmony with our true selves in order to make a bigger impact on the world.
Why Cydcor Recommends This Book
We recommend this book because Cuddy encourages us to embrace our personal qualities and abilities and let them manifest in the world around us. Presence empowers the reader to become an authentic, yet commanding, force in the world. You will learn how to command respect from your colleagues and inspire them to do and be more. You will also discover how to release any anxiety when facing challenges, and gain clarity and poise.
Our Favorite Part
In this book, Cuddy teaches us to activate our presence and consciously inhabit our bodies through power posing. She cites tests between two different groups, and talks about the results of enacting two sets of poses. She mentions how after only two minutes, the group of posers assigned with physically expanding themselves showed elevated levels of testosterone. They also showed decreased levels of cortisol, which has been linked to increased levels of stress.
We particularly liked Cuddy’s reminder to pay attention to our presence and her warning not to take anything for granted:
“Taking control of your body language is not just about posing in a powerful way. It’s also about the fact that we pose in a powerless way much more often than we think—and we need to change that.”
Have you used power-posing to improve your presence at work? We want to know the power poses that worked for you. Share your experience on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
About Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
What makes high achievers different from you or me? Malcolm Gladwell answers that question with his book, Outliers. Many overachievers believe in one of the core concepts in the book: the “10,000-hour rule.” Gladwell suggests that to be the best at something, you need to study it for 10,000 hours. In this book, he finds the outliers—men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary.
Outliers is a good read because of Gladwell’s fascination with psychology, law, statistics, and sociology. His colorful writing provides a powerful and personal analysis of why some people become outliers and some don’t. Despite its quirky characters and lofty critiques, you’ll find echoes of your life in his writing.
Like Gladwell, at Cydcor, we encourage our employees and sales associates to set challenging goals that inspire achievement. We provide determined individuals opportunities to excel, work hard, and build successful careers.
Why Cydcor Reviews Recommends This Book:
Gladwell worked as a journalist at the Washington Post and as a writer for the New Yorker magazine. Instead of writing simple biographies of successful people, he investigates the communities where these exceptional people developed. He also examines the cultures that influenced them during their formative years and up to today.
Gladwell is passionate about social sciences and statistics. This interest led him to figure out why Canada’s star hockey players are consistently born in January, February, and March. But Gladwell isn’t just revealing cold facts and figures. He uses the book to examine his own life as an outlier.
Cydcor recommends this book because the author provides profoundly inspirational insights into how ordinary men and women achieve greatness. Gladwell suggests that everyone who is exceptional at something—like sales—has practiced for about 10,000 hours. Gladwell’s theory endorses Cydcor’s belief that professional achievement, recognition, and advancement is available for anyone who works hard and pursues each opportunity they find.
Our Favorite Part
Our favorite part of Outliers is Gladwell’s talent for revealing the unique twists and turns that influence someone’s life. For example, when Bill Gates was in the eighth grade, the mothers’ group at his school used the proceeds of their annual bake sale to purchase a personal computer for the students.
No software was available for the computer, so Gates learned how to program it by punching holes into computer cards—a very outdated practice today. After many hours of hard work, he got the computer to work. By the time he was a sophomore in high school, Gates had exhausted his school’s computer resources and sought further instruction at the University of Washington, where he met his future business partner, Paul Allen. Gates certainly had a gift for computing, but ultimately his achievements were powered by his 10,000 hours of hard work.
If we follow Gates’ example, if we pay attention and begin to see obstacles as opportunities, we will improve our chances for success.
As you read this book, you may remember the lessons you learned from teachers and mentors who taught you how to overcome obstacles. This book reminds us that the opportunity to succeed is always present; you just need to have a positive outlook and the determination to meet each challenge. You may not become a billionaire after reading Outliers, but your personal and professional life will become rich with possibility.
Who are the outliers that influenced your career path? Let us know about the men and women who inspire you to succeed. Share your ideas on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
About The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo is a cleaning consultant from Japan. Her best-selling guide to organizing, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is the result of years of study and experimentation. Kondo discovered her passion for tidying up when she was a child. Her book describes an early fascination with finding ways to create order out of chaos. Like Kondo, Cydcor believes that a well-organized workplace inspires creativity and increases productivity—and Kondo is a great teacher of these values.
Kondo’s descriptions of her struggles and successes have an emotional punch. Her writing reveals a universal truth: most of us have a clutter problem at work and at home. And it can’t be solved with a conventional cleaning strategy. Why should you read this book? It’s simple—Kondo’s solution to your clutter problem is permanent.
Why Cydcor Reviews Recommends This Book:
Kondo provides a simple solution to improve the quality of your work life and home life. If you carefully follow her instructions, you have a chance of finally getting your life in order. Kondo is determined to get you to try her life-changing magic. Her process is simple, and the detailed instructions she provides are easy to understand. The author writes with conviction, and just like Cydcor, she provides solutions that work.
Our Favorite Part:
Kondo insists that you tidy by category. Start with your papers and move on to supplies and then your files until you’ve gone through everything. Our favorite part of Kondo’s technique is that it requires no special tools. There is only one simple rule to follow: once you start tidying up, don’t stop until you’ve gone through all of your possessions. Unwanted items go into trash bags to be donated, recycled, or discarded. In just under 200 pages, Kondo shares her simple secret; the life-changing magic of tidying up allows us to find joy at work and at home, pure and simple.
Do you need to get control of the clutter that’s getting in your way? Let us know your favorite tips for staying organized. Share your ideas on Twitter and follow us @Cydcor.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
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About Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip and Dan Heath
The Heath brothers’ latest book is focused on better decision-making, introduced through a four-step process to ensure we make the right call. Written in an approachable and readable style, Decisive explores how people make decisions, from including a rock star’s decision making system that works to a CEO’s disastrous decision and what they learned from it. Research has revealed that most decisions are made through a variety of biases and irrationalities. From being too confident, to finding information to justify our rationale, our brains are constantly working against us to make the best decision possible. Simply understanding these flaws isn’t the solution; there needs to be a different way to go about it.
Decisive is the Heath brothers’ most powerful and meaningful book yet, offering new strategies and practical tools to make better choices. It’s key to be aware that making the right decision, at the right moment, can make all the difference.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
Decisive is a valuable tool to making objective decisions that will lead to success. The Heaths do an excellent job of presenting a process that works for making decisions, while proving their system with a wide variety of examples. They begin by discussing how the normal decision-making process proceeds in 4 steps, each of which has a "villain" that can negatively impact it. Along the way, readers learn the answers to critical questions, such as: How can we stop the cycle of agonizing over our decisions? How can we ensure that we don’t overlook precious opportunities to change our course? The Heath brothers explain how to navigate the land mines laid by our irrational brains and improve our chances of good outcomes.
Be sure to check out Cydcor's latest videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Cydcor
Our favorite part:
The first part of this book discusses obstacles to good decision-making, and the second part of the book is focused on overcoming them. The book is easy to pick-up, and to understand their system to making better decisions. This is the perfect read for any business professional struggling to make decisions, or knows an important decision is going to be made in the future. The Heaths spend the conclusion of the book detailing a process to make better decisions, which they call the WRAP process: widen your options, reality test your assumptions, attain some distance, and prepare to be wrong. This simple system could be the key to avoiding disastrous decision-making.
About Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal
General Stanley McChrystal ran into a dilemma when he took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in 2004. McChrystal and his colleagues wanted to go against conventional ideas and remake the Task Force into something new: a network that combined transparent communication with decision-making authority that wasn’t just coming from one place. This book is not just focused on the military, but is instead a collection of insightful ideas told through entertaining stories ranging from the business industry to the emergency room. The challenges that McChrystal and his force task faced in Iraq are relevant to countless businesses, nonprofits, and organizations. The world is changing faster than ever, and the smartest response for those in charge is to give smaller groups the freedom to experiment while driving everyone to share what they learn across the entire organization.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
The principles of traditional leadership struggle to deal with today’s pace of change, free-flow of information, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the digital age. Team of Teams utilizes the new way of leading a team: providing a leadership framework to produce and adapt, such as a fast-moving start-up, for organizations of any size. The book provides a blueprint for how to cope with increasing complexity in the world of running a team.
Our favorite part:
This book is recommended for leaders and associates from any type of organization that need to break down the effects of the information flow to make better decisions. Today, many ways of leading are ineffective in an increasingly complex environment. But this is not just a book about the latest way to become a great leader, the book hits its stride when it focuses on becoming the kind of leader that can develop and run an entire workforce of other great leaders. McChrystal challenges leaders to create organizations that are agile, transparent, and united rather than hierarchical, and which empower their people to work together for a better solution. A team needs to be trained well, and allowed to trust their gut. They need to be able to use their best judgment based on their training and knowledge.
Cydcor encourages ongoing education and professional development. It’s one of our core values.
Once we’re out of school we often abandon it altogether. And that’s too bad. Because if you want to get noticed at work you need to keep cracking the books—or tablet, smartphone, or headphones—whichever device works for you.
We’ve made personal developmental whole lot easier for you this fall by providing a reading business-focused reading list. There are lots of interesting ideas here that will improve your approach to work and your experiences in life. We’re looking at the big picture and that includes the whole person.
If you don’t like to read alone consider creating a book club at work for those eager to work on their skills too. Invite your coworkers, team members, mentors, bosses, supervisor, manager, and assistants to join the club. Try to arrange a meeting in person before work for coffee and conversation—when everyone is bright eyed.
Now it’s time to start studying. Check out this list:
To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink
Pink teaches skills that will improve your sales technique and empower you to get others to take action. Develop a better understanding of negotiation, persuasion, and how to pitch.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
Duhigg is a New York Times business reporter who investigates scientific research revealing why we have habits and how we can change them. He brings a deep understanding to the study of human nature and personal transformation. Read Cydcor's review of this title here.
The 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling by Jeffery Gitomer
Selling is easy but it takes hard work to be good at it. Gitomer values optimism in his approach to sales. He’ll teach you to craft a positive attitude that wins people over.
Life is What You Make It by Peter Buffet
Warren Buffett’s son, Peter, is an Emmy-winning songwriter and musician. He may have grown up around great wealth but it was never promised to him. He writes about his life journey and the core beliefs about choosing to do good in your work life and in your personal life.
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier
The authors have some great insight in new strategies for approaching work with a better, faster, easier way to succeed: doing the work and avoid the distractions. It’s a great read for people with an entrepreneurial spirit who want to accomplish great things in their organizations, but also have dreamt of being able to do it on their own.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
You need a social media expert like Vaynerchuk to learn how to connect with today’s customers. Your social media message has to be engaging and correctly prepared for specific social media platforms. This book will teach you how tell a good story that wins customers.
Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan
Explore the positive power of meditation and learn how to train your attention, develop self-awareness, and form new paths that lead toward wisdom and success. Chade-Meng Tan was one of Google’s first engineers. Not your typical meditation advocate.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker
Drucker teaches us that an executive has the ability to get the right things done. Learn the importance of innovation, entrepreneurship, and management for the thoughtful executive. It may have been written in the 1960s but its message still rings true.
Cydcor also has a website dedicated to the latest business book reviews. Check out cydcorreviews.com for more recommendations on business books for personal development.
About Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values by Fred Kofman
Consciousness plays a large role in organizational business. Building a conscious business means finding your passion and expressing your essential values through work, according to author Fred Kofman. A conscious business also continually builds a viable way to pursue happiness for many of its employees. It calls for solid performances through its community and the dignity of each shareholder. Conscious Business is the definitive resource for achieving what really matters in the workplace and beyond.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
The most difficult parts about starting or running a business is the amount of overtime work needed, the stressful deadlines, and the thought of being overworked without a secure future. The real challenges that make or break an entrepreneur’s success require dealing with their own integrity, priorities, and conflicts with others people. Conscious Business analyzes those challenges and offers many different tools and strategies of how we can manage them and come out ahead having built a stronger foundation and a stronger company. This book is grounded in the harsh challenges of reality in business, such as understanding that failure is never an option and success is not always achieved. It’s a great starting point for business professionals to realize it takes a lot to make it on top, but it’s definitely not impossible.
Our favorite part:
Conscious Business contains many techniques to improve organizational greatness. The book’s chapters present techniques on building unconditional responsibility, succeeding with integrity, improving communication and speaking the truth, be accountable with commitments, and how to be the ultimate source of leadership. This book creates a tool set for organizational learning that can be applied to any day-to-day business culture. It’s a quick read with worthwhile knowledge to take away.
About The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
The power to change is always in the hands of the beholder. The Compound Effect is based on the fact that decisions can shape a person’s destiny. Even the smallest decisions can have an effect on the future. Written by Darren Hardy, publisher of Success Magazine, The Compound Effect analyzes the how to earn achievements in business, relationships, and more through decision-making. This easy-to-use, step-by-step guide can show readers how to increase successes, keep track of progress, and achieve their biggest goals.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
Only the biggest decisions we’ve ever made come to mind when we look back at the choices that have shaped our lives. However, it’s not only big decisions but also small ones, even ones that we tend to not notice, that we make on a daily basis. This is the basis of The Compound Effect. It's very similar to making small financial decisions that ultimately add up to a large sum. If you’re serious about wanting to change for the better, smaller decisions need to be kept on track. The frustrating part is that many of these small, unnoticeable decisions may affect us negatively. The Compound Effect aims to help readers realize where their blinders are.
Our favorite part:
Consistency, hard work, and patience are all of utmost importance when it comes to decision-making. Making simple improvements every single day, even if it feels insignificant, can make a drastic impact. Hardy does an excellent job of pointing out how the reason WHY we do something is important. He describes the things that undermine our ability to change. Readers will be able to pick up this book and instantly begin implementing things that can have lasting and positive impacts on their life. This is a book has the potential to be re-read regularly—you’ll still find new tips to compound your success.
About StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
Most people like to focus on fixing their weaknesses instead of making the most out of their strengths. To help people uncover their talents, the research-based management-consulting group Gallup introduced the first version of its StrengthsFinder online assessment in 2001. StrengthsFinder helped millions find out where they truly stood out. Its sequel, StrengthsFinder 2.0, unveils a new and improved version of the popular assessment. Although it can be read once to learn a few new things, it’s a great guidebook to continually refer to for career growth. The book is full of strategies for applying a person’s strengths professionally and personally. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is an approach by scientists to provide readers with a tool to identify their strengths--or more precisely, their talents. Author Tom Rath leads readers into their journey of becoming the best they can be.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
If StrengthsFinder 2.0 will do anything for a reader, it’s pinpointing the things that a person does well and the skills they can continue to grow. The combination of dissecting these talents and the development of a plan of action works relatively well. An interesting point that Rath makes is that talent multiplied by investment will equal more strength. This means that investing in the things that we do well will make us better professionals. But finding out these strengths is not the end of the journey. It’s up to the reader to further develop other areas that may need improvement. This is an easy recommendation for any future leader who wants to use the things they know about themselves to discover what other qualities lie beneath.
Our favorite part:
When it comes to books that require you to take a test to determine the best way to read it, the test always needs to be worthwhile to take. The online test that StrengthsFinder 2.0 provides can open readers’ eyes and helps them start their improvement. The book will help you find your strengths and the best way you can apply them. Although the test is essential to reading the book, which may not appeal to some readers, it can still open up doors to understanding the way you work and give you ideas on ways to apply your strengths. It can help managers, business professionals, and future leaders tenfold.