Reviews (7)

Jim' latest book
Jim's book has helped me look at things so differently. He is a wonderful author, presentor and this is his best book so far.

Marti Smye

Getting It Right the First Time!
I read Where Have I Gone Right? this weekend. It is simple, direct, positive and easy to read. Frankly, after
spending time working through Bolles's What Colour is Your Parachute?, I wish I had met this book first. Where Have I Gone Right? asks the essential question and demands the critical work be done first - determining who am I? Without actually having done the "gone right" process (I intend to do so)this work gets to point more effectively and adds important dimensions and communication strategies such as reference points and personalallegories -that separate and enhance what Bolles and others have done for job and life seekers. In a very few hours this book gave me the understanding and the positive tools to get accomplishments, skills, values, relationships into synch-- and to help tell my story in a more distinctive and powerful way.

If word of mouth can be a tipping point for a new career and
life change manual-- Where Have I Gone Right? has my word and I will spread it to anyone who needs or wants to hear.

Isbn: 0811835960
Sales Rank: 427526
Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Career development    3. Careers - General    4. Careers - Job Hunting    5. Careers / Job Opportunities    6. Diaries    7. Personal Growth - General    8. Personal Growth - Success    9. Self-Help   

Editorial Review

Unhappy with your job? Before you vote with your feet, consider the advice of career specialists Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans and learn to love your job. In this practical sequel to their bestseller Love 'Em or Lose 'Em, the authors focus on employee satisfaction as a responsibility you must share with your employer. Although the format of Love It, Don't Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work is gimmicky--the suggestions follow the 26 letters of the alphabet--the advice is smart and specific.

Based on research with 15,000 people who have job longevity, Kaye and Jordan-Evans identified five top "stay factors" such as opportunity for growth and pay equity. Using these factors, they map several dozen CPR ("Career Path Resuscitation") including taming the boss from hell,finding multiple mentors, protecting family time, bringing fun to work, breaking out of your cubicle and solving your Rodney "no respect" Dangerfield problem.

Reviews (15)

WOW! Buckle your Seat Belts.
What I like about this biz book:

1) Its fun and challenging "If your boss doesn't get it, and has a high likelihood of never getting it... time to say "goodbye". Pretty simple right?

2) Attitude of "You don't have to be a victim of corporate crap"... reminds me of a refrain I have heard from my husband when he talks about his day job "They can't even run their own life, I will be damned it they run mine"

3) Respect yourself more.Your time is valuable.Push back.

4) The complexity starts from within. From within my own company, within myself.

The How To Section(s)
Email
Scan incoming subject and author, if not relevant hit "delete"
Scan email for 1) action to take2) deadline date.

In sending messages use the 3"x5" space constaint.

If it is simplier it is more likely to be done.Make it easy.

Remember the key:what do you want them to know, feel and do!

Presentations:
Turn the one point you want people to know into a question. Provoke conversations.Give everyone handouts.Use of Stories is a good thing.
1 hour presentation = 20 slides MAX!

Meetings Big Idea!! When you agree to chair a meeting approachit as if you have just been handed a portion of someones life.Because you have.Run a meeting like one that you wish you had been invited for.

Helpful hints 1) get only the important people 2) get the right people 3) define what success looks like4) Mentally see the successful meeting5) Put the objective of the meeting up front
6) Be passionate about the people and reason of the meeting.

Fix my job......please!
With a title like this, Jensen's book should be flying off the shelf. I know it caught my eye when I first saw it. We all want to "do" less and "accomplish" more and there are some excellent ideas in this book to help you do just that.

Nothing in this book is easy, though. Someone as inclined to follow the rules like myself will find it difficult, if not impossible, to implement the more demanding recommendations. This is a shame, as these people are those who would probably benefit the most.

Even if you don't think of yourself as a rabble-rouser, you should still read this book and take heart that there are some possible methods of extracting yourself from business situations that leave you feeling busy, but not very productive. There are ways of escaping the bureaucracy and yet keep your job.

The cutest, yet still effective, idea in the book is the "Less-O-Meter" associated with each chapter. These graphical gauges give you an "at a glance" reading on how much Courage you will need to put this tip in place, how difficult it can be and the possible yield to your productivity and happiness.

You may be ready to take on your whole company and engage in full-scale "pushback", but implementing even one idea from this book could do a world of good for you, your job and your career, while helping your company, as well.

Excellent Book
I think this book is the best book ever written for dealing with the business world today.I feel like it was written for me.I wish I had access to this book 5 years ago, I could have used it.

Reviews (49)

must read if you are serious about your career
I wish I had read it five years ago - I found this book more powerful than any course I have taken in career management at business school 5 years ago.Hard to belive it took so long for me to figure out the tricks, but at least it is not too late yet. I read in average 1-2 books on business/management every month, and this one is definitely on my top 5 favorite list

Nice guys can finish first--if they play their cards right!
This is the most hopeful career book I have ever read.Mr. Citrin and Mr. Smith are recuiters for Spencer Stuart, and when I first started reading I thought the book might turn into a printed infomercial like many management books.Not so!This book presents the facts about how virtuous women and men move up in the world.

The book takes a very upbeat tone about your potential for success.If there is any infomercial quality about it, it is the obvious interest the authors have of working with great talent like you--but I think they really are looking for good people.They are anxious to encourage the nice guys and nice gals to aspire to greatness.

The best chapter in my opinion is about practicing benevolent leadership.With me they are preaching to the choir as I have drawn the same conclusions about promoting other people's best interests in a leadership role.They point out practical examples of those who succeed by this rule as well as the sad fate of those who violate it.

The other principles are excellent too, and they have a good combination of research and anecdotal evidence to back them up.I would not consider this to be a theory or opinion book, but more of a case study book.The authors have long experience observing executives first-hand, and in this book they distill their knowledge of how a large number of outstanding people moved up in the world.And the great thing is--all their advice is positive and edifying!

This is the one book that I have given to other people to help them in their careers.You ought to order a case and hand one out to everyone in your organization.

Reviews (18)

Simplistic, but enough of an overview to be valuable
The premise and content of this book is what to do in the critical first 90 days in a new assignment or a new position.While the book covers a wide variety of concepts, there are few which go into great detail.However, those that are covered are done so in manner that still is a valuable read for anyone changing jobs or roles.

In my opinion one of the richest subjects to address, is also the one covered in the least detail here - culture.One of the most challenging and difficult issues to understand and respond to are the unstated, yet very powerful, forces at work which enable or hinder a new employee's organizational success.Any manager in a new role needs to quickly understand the do's and don'ts so they can be more effective.I wish the book had gone into far more detail on this subject.

That said, the sections on how to ask the right questions, assess your new team, and negotiate success with your boss are all great.The author depicts a STaRS model for determining the situation a new leader may face.The four types of business situations are "Sustaining Success", "Turnaround", "Realignment" and "Start-Up". The book goes into each situation and the different approaches required in each setting. (Page 63)

I found the section on "Build Your Team" to be quite insightful.Several tips are included that will be very useful for anyone in the position of assessing their new team. In particular are several questions that can be asked, and some great insights into non-verbal behaviors and other clues that will provide much needed information to lead and coach through the transition.(Page 167).

I recommend this book for anyone looking to put together a quick on-boarding program for new managers, or who is going through a transition themselves.Many good ideas and a great overview of the areas a new leader needs to be aware of to make a successful transition.

Slightly second to Neff & Citrin, worth reading both
This is a fine book with a lot of substance, and I place it slightly second to Thomas Neff and James Citrin's "You're in Charge--NOW WHAT?."

From my point of view as the reader, Neff & Citrin actually catalyzed me and inspired me into preparing a 100 day plan broken into 10 ten-day blocks, while Watkins is more of a manual with lots of useful checklists and suggested questions and so on, but between the two, Neff & Citrin actually drove me to the needed outcome: my own 100 day plan.

Both are good.If you buy only one, buy Neff & Citrin, but I do recommend that you buy both, read Neff & Citrin first, and then cherry pick from Watkins--the cost of these books is trivial in comparison to the return on investment.

Reviews (24)

I was disappointed.Most of the ideas were impractical.
I was disappointed with this book.Yes, it does have lots of reward ideas (I tried counting them but only got to around half of the advertised 1001 ideas).What really disappointed me, however, was that most of them required a fairly large expenditure.I work for a small company (under 100 employees) and in a tight economic environment, we just don't have the funds to be sending people to Hawaii or some of the other *big* rewards in this book.I needed something that recommended inexpensive reward options.This book was not it.(I did find another one listed on Amazon that advertises it has "101 ways to reward team members for $20 or less" -- I think that might suit me better.I'm going to buy that one next and see if it suits my situation any better.)

This is a book for morons
very sad book attempting to manipulate employees with the most pathetic ploys.

Useful guide for rewards of every type
Heard the taped version of 1001 WAYS TO REWARD EMPLOYEES,
written and read by Bob Nelson . . . the author says that what most
motivates people who work is recognition--and not just money! . . . he
then presents a most useful guide to rewards of every conceivable type
for virtually any situation . . . the ideas include the spontaneous gesture
of praise to formal company-wide programs and just about everything
in-between.

These ideas, in particular, made a great deal of sense to me:

Works who must stay late at TIME INC. get cab fare home.

Marion Laboratories annually takes all employees and guests to see
a Kansas City Royals game.

Chevron keeps a Treasure Chest brimming with gifts so supervisors
can reward employees on the spot.

Every Christmas, the Walt Disney Company opens Disneyland for
employees and families only--with executives running the park.

Editorial Review

Seattle, the corporate coffeehouse capitol of the world, is the setting for Beans, a smart fable about a real ten foot coffee counter with long lines in rain or shine. Using the plot device of a business crisis at the "El Espresso," Authors Yerkes and Decker spend time with owner Jack Hartman. They help him define success in terms of "the eye of intention."

Being successful in bad times means remembering how you got the business the first time. As the very insightful Jack reflects, the authors organize his approach with four P’s: Passion (experience and sustain passion about work), People (create enduring staff relationships), Personal (building a community of regulars), and Product (sustaining product excellence). These "Ps" are prosaic in name only. They are used to illustrate nuanced connections. For example, the link between employee loyalty and customer loyalty and the synergy between an employee’s pride in their product and their devotion to it.