Your Job Survival Guide: A Manual for Thriving in Change - Softcover

Shea Phd, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0137127022 ISBN 13: 9780137127023

Publisher: FT Press, 2008

Synopsis

Selected by IBM Competitive Edge Book Club Selection. 

 

"The beauty of this book on top of its life-saving timeliness is its capacity to give the reader concrete steps to live the good life and enjoy it.  The book made me understand that work can be more fun than fun.”

–Warren Bennis, Ph.D., University Professor, University of Southern California, coauthor, Judgment: How Great Leaders Make Winning Calls and Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor

 

Change. It’s your job. It just won’t stop. It’s relentless. It keeps coming at you like never-ending rapids in a permanent whitewater river. Change will burn you out if you don’t learn how to handle it. This book is not, however, about mere survival.  It is about thriving amidst the challenges of your permanent whitewater world at work. 

 

·Protect your career, improve your resilience, and seize the opportunities in turbulent times

·Take charge, learn to pace yourself, set your own course, and lead others in ad-hoc teams

·Ride the rapids and rediscover play and adventure in today’s demanding work environment 

·Learn from research and the experiences of hundreds of professionals in industries from energy to telecommunications to financial services to health care

 

There’s nothing abstract or cute about the way this book talks about change: This is practical, grounded knowledge for managing your life in a business world that’s churning with change. Gregory Shea, Ph.D. and Robert Gunther show how to keep your working life on course instead of being pushed beyond your limits...find fun and fulfillment...regroup and rebound from failure...protect yourself from events you can’t predict...take charge of your life, an your future!

 

About this title

About the Author

Gregory Shea, Ph.D., consults, researches, writes, and teaches in the areas of organizational and individual change, leadership, group effectiveness, and conflict resolution. He is president of the consulting firm Shea & Associates, a principal in The Coxe Group international consultancy; Senior Consultant at the Center for Applied Research, Adjunct Professor of Management at The Wharton School, where he has taught for more than 25 years, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and a Faculty Associate of the Wharton School’s Center for Leadership and Change. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard, Shea holds an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. in Administrative Science from Yale. He is a member of the Academy of Management and the American Psychological Association.

 

Robert Gunther is coauthor or collaborator on more than 20 books, including The Wealthy 100 and The Truth About Making Smart Decisions. He has appeared on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and numerous local and national radio and television programs, and his projects have been featured in The New York Times, Time, USA Today, and Fortune. His columns or articles also have been published in Harvard Business Review, American Heritage, Investor’s Business Daily, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. As founder of Gunther Communications, he has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, universities, and major nonprofits. He is a graduate of Princeton University.

 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Praise for Your Job Survival Guide

Praise for Your Job Survival Guide

"Gregory Shea and Robert Gunther have written the book on how to navigate today's turbulent waters. Full of practical wisdom, research, insight, and humor, Your Job Survival Guide shows us how to navigate the whitewater of today's changing business environment while thoroughly enjoying the journey. A great read!"

—Annie McKee, Founder, the Teleos Leadership Institute and Coauthor of the best sellers Primal Leadership, Resonant Leadership, and most recently, a practical guide to developing and sustaining personal and professional effectiveness, Becoming a Resonant Leader

"If gentle currents carried careers in the past, whitewater is the medium today. For navigating the cauldrons of change, Gregory Shea and Robert Gunther draw upon wrenching work moments and rapid river kayaking to draw the map. Your Job Survival Guide is an indispensable companion for mastering the turbulence of our era."

—Michael Useem, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership at the Wharton School, author, The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide

"Your Job Survival Guide is a provocative book that goes beyond theory. This book is not about avoiding the potholes of organizational life, it's about learning how to step in them and take responsibility for yourself. Shea and Gunther force us to look in the mirror and, in a very practical way, challenge us to behave differently. Quite frankly, the lessons go beyond the perils of our work life; the lessons are useful for day to day living."

—Thomas Saporito, Ph.D., President, RHR International Company

"In today's world there is no such thing as steady state. Greg and Robert have put together a great owner's manual for thriving in a world where change is the constant."

—Michael Rechtiene, President Animas Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson Co.

"Today's world requires us to continuously reinvent our company by adapting it to the evolving world. At the core of that process lies one's ability to efficiently manage necessary changes. Gregory Shea and Robert Gunther beautifully describe this important challenge and offer simple and concrete solutions to meet them. As a company that lives its fundamentals—'people are our main asset'—I am recommending this book to all our executives and managers as a key tool to meet the future."

—Patrick Firmenich, CEO, Firmenich

"It is no secret that continual change dominates most business life today. Most thinkers and writers addressing managing, leading, or surviving change, however, tend to focus on examples of one change after another, often complex and multiyear strategic change, but still bounded by the one story. Shea and Gunther take head-on the reality that we actually need to manage and lead in an environment of continuous, ongoing, major change. They then address the role of the protagonist in many simultaneous and overlapping change processes, which is the reality today. They offer wonderfully accessible experiential and practical observations and advice for you, the actor is these many stories. This is sound, practical, and readily applied advice. And it's also in a form that allows you to 'dip into' the book in different sections and take a few valuable insights to put into practice immediately—a truly wonderful addition to the practitioner's literature on leading change."

—Thomas P. Gerrity, Joseph Aresty Professor of Management, and Dean Emeritus, the Wharton School

"Shea and Gunther's Your Job Survival Guide is an easy and important read, overflowing with pragmatic advice about your job in today's whitewater world. Using examples ranging from the routine to the spiritual, while sticking close to the metaphor of a memorable journey through turbulent waters, the authors engaged me from start to finish. This book is a great resource both for those individuals stuck in their daily routine as well as organizations who aspire to enhance their work groups."

—Elliot Sussman, MD, CEO, Lehigh Valley Health Network

"Your Job Survival Guide tackles head-on the realities of leadership in the 21st century through the playful lens of the whitewater navigator. The book provides both a comprehensive overview of the challenges that leaders face, but don't always acknowledge, and powerful solutions derived from real life experiences. Accessible and engaging!"

—Meg Jones, Executive VP & Chief Administrative Officer, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

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About this edition

• Publisher: FT Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0137127022
• ISBN 13: 9780137127023
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280