book reviews
OFF THE SHELF
MILLENNIALS &
MANAGEMENT: THE
ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO
MAKING IT WORK AT
WORK
Lee Caraher
Bibliomotion, 2014
Caraher delivers a practical
and hopeful book on how to
manage across generations.
This book is one of the few to
tackle millennials without bit-terness,
but instead offers a
compilation of practices that
can be used to make the most
of a generationally diverse
workforce. Companies that
can figure out how to leverage
the best from all generations
will have a significant strategic
advantage.
Talking point
Caraher’s research reveals that
it is Gen X employees who are
the most demanding age group
in the global workplace. They
are more likely than either mil-lennials
or Baby Boomers to
ask for higher job titles, pro-motions,
off-cycle bonuses or
salary increases, flexible or re-duced
hours and flexible work
locations.
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRP
INTERNATIONAL
HANDBOOK
ON DIVERSITY
MANAGEMENT AT
WORK: COUNTRY
PERSPECTIVES ON
DIVERSITY AND EQUAL
TREATMENT
Eds. Alain Klarsfeld et al.
Edward Elgar, 2014
Noted for publications featur-ing
collective research among
various nations, this handbook
delivers an updated review
of how equity and diversi-ty
is currently being handled
in countries such as Russia,
Japan, Italy, New Zealand,
Canada, Nigeria and the UK.
This second edition examines
the effects of globalization
on diversity management ex-panding
into a much more
interdependent and wide-ranging
concept.
Talking point
In the Canadian chapter, the
authors contend that the EEA
is an effective tool in promot-ing
the hiring of minority
candidates and that CEOs of
EEA firms are more commit-ted
to employment equity and
put in place a greater number
of diversity practices in their
organizations.
WHO GETS PROMOTED,
WHO DOESN’T AND
WHY: 12 THINGS YOU
BETTER DO IF YOU
WANT TO GET AHEAD
Donald Asher
Ten Speed Press, 2014
Asher has been providing ca-reer
advice for over two decades
and has assembled an updat-ed
version of the best strategies
and techniques of fast-track ca-reerists
that he has studied
during that time. Skills, he says,
do not separate the very success-ful
from the merely successful;
strategy does. Sharing examples
of successful and unsuccess-ful
strategies, Asher delivers a
humourous and enlightening
handbook that destroys the false
paths to getting ahead.
He also draws from HR pro-fessionals
sharing their number
one rule: never go over your boss’s
head without their permission.
Talking point
Asher declares that a promo-tion
is not a reward for past
performance; it is an invest-ment
in future contributions.
Promotions aren’t earned at
all. You need to prove that you
are the optimum choice to de-liver
future performance.
LEADING WITH
INTENTION: EVERY
MOMENT IS A CHOICE
Mindy Hall
Copper Bay Press, 2014
Hall writes that we must see
ourselves as the primary tool
for achieving high-level re-sults
and not look to external
factors such as business mod-els,
organizational structure
or other people. Regardless
of our position within the or-ganizational
chart, our ability
to shape culture and how oth-ers
perceive us is a direct result
of our level of intention, to
consciously decide to lead by
design rather than by default.
Self-awareness, intention and
adaptability must move be-yond
“nice to have” skills and
be woven into every element
of a development program.
Talking point
Hall writes: “Great leaders take
seriously their privilege and
their obligation to affect others’
lives. Great leaders realize that
they can trigger so much sim-ply
by how they behave. Great
leaders operate intentionally. It
is a choice and a decision.” ■
46 ❚ NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL