By Beth Wallace

The Unspoken Truths for Career Success: Navigating Pay, Promotions and Power at Work

By Tessa White (HarperCollins
Leadership), ebook and audiobook.
Run time: 8 hrs 8 mins

While it can be all too easy to blame an employer for our perceived problems at work – relating to salary, responsibilities, progression, or a long list of other factors – according to author and career coach Tessa White, companies aren’t wholly responsible for our woes. Her belief, reinforced throughout this book, is that employees must proactively pursue what they want at work. In order to do so successfully, you need to understand the rules of the game.

In The Unspoken Truths for Career Success, White (aka the Job Doctor) offers a lens through which to see and understand companies, managers and human resources departments more clearly, so you can decipher what they want from you and speak their language. This can lead to better discussions, help you move through conflict without putting your job at risk, get the pay you deserve and ultimately progress your career.

Each chapter introduces a ‘lie’ about work, in areas such as performance, pay, power and politics, paired with its counter-truth; this is followed by a series of case studies, tools, techniques and assignments to shift your mindset and adjust your work practices. (There are even scripts to rehearse for common scenarios that might arise at work – taking a lot of the heavy lifting out of those difficult conversations most of us dread.)

If you’re feeling stressed or disengaged at work, are considering jumping ship or simply want to take greater control of your career, the many valuable lessons imparted through this book can help you identify the relationship you have with your job, then use these insights to map out your next move.

All in on AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence

By Thomas H Davenport and Nitin Mittal (Harvard Business Review Press), audiobook.
Run time: 6 hrs 48 mins

Savvy organisations know they must jump aboard the artificial intelligence (AI) train or risk becoming obsolete in our increasingly tech-focused world.

Of course, it’s impressive when digital natives like Google dive into this space – creating driverless cars, or AI-powered chatbots – but when companies that existed before AI cultivate similar innovations, it’s something else altogether. All in on AI focuses on these legacy companies that are aggressively adopting AI not just to automate a few back-office tasks, but to transform and improve their business.

Featuring fascinating case studies from a broad range of sectors, including banking, health care, insurance, retail, manufacturing and government, this book showcases the organisations that are making intelligent bets on AI. These include Morgan Stanley, which has created automated investment tools; Shell, which uses drones and computer vision to make pipeline inspections more efficient; and DBS Bank, which, among its many forays into AI, has added machine learning to its transaction surveillance capabilities.

All in on AI is as much about people as it is technology; having the ‘right’ leaders to drive uptake, make the right hires, create the right culture and educate employees is often the hardest part of the battle.

With the authors pushing for more all-in companies to emerge, this book delivers motivation and ideas for any organisation looking to take the next step on its own AI journey.

Wise Decisions: A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices

By Dr Jim Loehr and Dr Sheila Ohlsson Walker (Wiley), ebook and audiobook.
Run time: 5 hrs 53 mins

We make an extraordinary number of decisions every day: whether to get up early or sleep in; to eat breakfast or make do with coffee; what to wear; what to watch on Netflix – and that’s before we factor in the countless interactions we have with family, friends and colleagues that demand our decision-making prowess.

Consequently, this book could be highly useful to everyone – whether you want to overcome decision fatigue at work, learn to make better life choices or, if you’re a parent, empower your children to develop their own decision-making abilities.

The premise of Wise Decisions is that everything is connected; that even seemingly insignificant decisions can change the trajectory of our lives. To ensure we choose wisely, the authors use science-backed evidence to highlight the importance of training ourselves to be in the best condition possible for decision-making success. This relies, in large part, on our holistic health – encompassing our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. We are in a much better position to make wise choices if we’re well rested, well fed and are generally in a positive and balanced state.

This how-to guide is about making better choices and explores values and core beliefs, so you can identify what is most important to you and shape your decisions accordingly.

Also recommended

The Handbook of Carbon Management: A Step-By-Step Guide to High-Impact Climate Solutions for Every Manager in Every Function

By Petra Molthan-Hill, Fiona Winfield, Richard Howarth and Muhammad Mazhar (Routledge), ebook.

Everyone from chief executive officer to employees can embed climate solutions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and this book provides strategies and plans to scale up climate solutions effectively.

The Lean CFO: Architect of the Lean Management Accounting System

By Nicolas S Katko (Routledge), ebook.

Nicolas S Katko reveals how a chief financial officer can adopt a lean management accounting system and align it with a company’s lean strategy, lean operations, and continuous improvement. He discusses how the integration of lean management practices will lead to improved decision-making and financial performance.

The Millionaires’ Factory: The Inside Story of How Macquarie Bank Became a Global Giant

By Joyce Moullakis and Chris Wright (Allen & Unwin), ebook.

This is the story of the Australian bank that became an international leader in infrastructure fund management and commodities. The authors examine Macquarie’s origins in 1969 to its presence today in 33 markets. Interviews with leaders past and present explain the strategies that have made it so successful.

Artificial Intelligence With Power BI: Take Your Data Analytics Skills to the Next Level by Leveraging the AI Capabilities in Power BI

By Mary-Jo Diepeveen (Packt Publishing), ebook.

The AI capabilities in Power BI (business intelligence) enable organisations to gain insights from unstructured and structured data. This ebook explains how to prepare your data, create AI models and integrate them with power BI reports, improve forecasting and more.

Listen

Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets From the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry

By Kelly Richmond Pope (Harvard Business Review Press), audiobook.
Run time: 7 hrs 29 mins

Each year trillions of dollars are lost to fraud, but what makes fraudsters tick? Fool Me Once looks into how they operate, why their victims are so gullible, whistleblowers, and the widespread effects of fraud.

Watch

Generative AI for Business Leaders

By Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn Learning), online video.
Run time: 1 hr

Whether you’re a senior executive or an aspiring leader, AI is currently disrupting all aspects of industry and is redefining how we work. This one-hour course by LinkedIn’s chief product officer Tomer Cohen looks at how AI works and how it will accelerate innovation to new levels.

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