Accel5’s Business Book Summaries of the Month: March 2023

Add these summarized business books from Accel5 to your reading list.

This month’s collection covers a variety of essentials, including diversity, communicating effectively, networking and relationship building and more, all briefed to be enjoyed in minutes.

Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)

Amy Gallo

Summary: Having a colleague who’s difficult to get along with can drain your psyche and reduce your productivity. The good news is, if you work with a difficult person, you don’t have to just put up with it. In Getting Along, workplace expert Amy Gallo offers strategies for dealing with a wide variety of difficult people so you can improve your relationships and be better at your job.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Communicating Effectively
• Conflict Resolution
• Networking & Relationship Building
• Management Essentials

Smarter Collaboration

Heidi K. Gardner and Ivan A. Matviak

Summary: “Collaboration” has become a buzzword in business, with many leaders painting it to be a magic cure-all. The problem is that often the people taking part lack the training, skills, and technologies to do it right, and many organizations lack the fundamental practices that help them work through the who, why, and how of bringing people together and deploying their talents for impact. In Smarter Collaboration, Heidi Gardner and Ivan Matviak share new strategies you can execute to improve your collaboration and promote an inclusive, engaging mindset to drive real, measurable outcomes.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Collaboration & Teamwork
• Leadership Essentials

The Authenticity Code

Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman

Summary: Whether you’re having an informal conversation, being interviewed for a job, or presenting to hundreds of people, you’re making an impression on others. However, is it the impression you want to make and is it getting you what you want in life? In The Authenticity Code, Dr. Sharon Lamm-Hartman shares a parable based on the teachings from her Authentic Presence and Presentation Skills (APPS) course with the intent of empowering and inspiring individuals to be their authentic selves, become more effective communicators, and achieve their life ambitions.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Communicating Effectively
• Presentation Skills

Aspire Higher

Ken Lindner 

Summary: You have the power to change and improve your life. All you need is love. In Aspire Higher, Ken Lindner explains how filling your heart with affirming self-love and love for others leads to the best life choices. Drawing from his Positive Life Choice Psychology Philosophy, Lindner provides clear action steps for creating a happier life and a better world.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Emotional Intelligence
• Positive Outlook
• Goals & Priorities

Disability Friendly: How to Move from Clueless to Inclusive

John D. Kemp

Summary: Corporations continue to overlook the disability community when defining target consumer markets and attracting untapped pools of qualified workers. In Disability Friendly, John D. Kemp shares his personal and professional experiences and offers a blueprint for corporations to embrace and integrate corporate culture, disability culture, and the DEI movement. By incorporating this significant world population and viewing disability in a new way, economic output increases, more individuals achieve dignity, and everyone in society is better served.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Diversity
• Corporate Culture Development

Please Sit Over There: How to Manage Power, Overcome Exclusion, and Succeed as a Black Woman at Work

Francine Parham

Summary: Black women are ready to lead and succeed, but they’re underrepresented in leadership. One reason is that Black women haven’t been taught the necessary techniques to employ their power to advance their careers. In Please Sit Over There, Francine Parham examines the issue and presents techniques to learn about power exchanges, strategize for success, and fight exclusionary practices. 

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Diversity

Prep, Push, Pivot: Essential Career Strategies for Underrepresented Women

Octavia Goredema

Summary: In Prep Push Pivot, Octavia Goredema shares strategies to help high-potential performers advance in their careers and recognize their worth. She explores the preparation, push, and pivot involved to help underrepresented women identify their career values, align their career goals, plan for career changes, and pay it forward. 

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Diversity

Show Your Worth: 8 Intentional Strategies for Women to Emerge as Leaders at Work

Shelmina Babai Abji

Summary: In today’s work world, women are often perceived differently than men, and in many cases, negative biases lead women to lose their confidence and derail their career success. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. In Show Your Worth, Shelmina Babai Abji shares the power of strategic intention. She identifies eight intentional strategies and a corresponding set of intentional exercises that form a blueprint for women to emerge as leaders in the workplace.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Diversity
• Goals & Priorities
• Continuous Learning
• Networking & Relationship Building

Rethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business

Andi Simon, PhD

Summary: We’re on the cusp of a new industrial age where focus, creativity, and collaboration are taking the place of muscle and might. With this change, new leadership styles require us to reexamine old stereotypes that have historically held women back. In Rethink, Andi Simon, PhD, delves into various social and cultural myths about businesswomen through a fresh anthropological lens. She shares tools and strategies on ways to activate your own story and achieve the life you were meant to have. By examining the real-life experiences of 11 successful women, you’ll see how to reshape your own story and create desirable and achievable new cultural standards for everyone.

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Diversity
• Goals & Priorities
• Corporate Culture Development
• Communicating Effectively

Give and Take

Adam Grant

Summary: In work and life, we meet takers and givers. When takers interact with us, they look for ways to claim as much value as possible and offer little in return when it doesn’t benefit them to do so. Givers contribute value freely, without regard for what they’ll receive in return. Too many givers find themselves at the bottom of the success ladder, sacrificing their own ambitions, happiness, or well-being to help others. In Give and Take, Wharton School professor and best-selling author Adam Grant explains that some of an organization’s best performers are often givers who learn to leverage their giving nature and find inroads to success. He shares how we can reverse the common strategy of “succeeding first and giving back later,” and explains that a giving-first strategy may be the best route we can take for achieving our most important goals. 

For those looking to improve upon these competencies:

• Collaboration & Teamwork
• Networking & Relationship Building
• Goals & Priorities