Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More

 Shirley J.        Adult Non-Fiction  Management & Leadership               How to be your best in business       Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More by Morten T. Hansen    320 pages  

Mortenson and his team researched the answers of 5,000 people over nine years that led them to the seven principles of why some people just perform better in office situations and how they bring that about.  They developed seven principles that will lead to highly effective achievements on the job.   He also gives a nod to Stephen Covey and his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.   He talks about how to achieve that happy place of balance between being successful.   You can't stop learning, you can't stop reading combine your passion with purpose and learning.   Be selective in who you choose to work with.   Don't just accept who you are thrown in with.  Just like you pick your battles, pick your optimum work team.  Work to establish good work relationships with those who have a work ethic and vision as strong as yours and when you meet - go for the fight and unite approach.  Success does not equal working overtime and risking burnout.  Notice your colleagues that leave on time and do better than you do knocking yourself out and giving up the important things in life.  Don't believe the overachiever sterotype.   You can achieve the work-life balance.  Be selective.  Don't just prioritize carefully select what is worth your time, goals, ideas and collaborations.  DO LESS THEN OBSESS!  Choose your project the commit to producing high quality work on it.  Apply intense targeted effort.  Never stop learning.   Just because you love something doesn't mean you are good at it - YET.  You need value, satisfaction and well being.  Rethink your work to create the most value.  Regularly ask for feedback then fine tune what you do.  10,000 hours trying to learn something might not work for you.  Explore new ways of doing what you do even if it is the same thing everyday.  Keep improving your skills.  Are meetings really necessary?   Is it providing the highest value of everyone's time?  Think before organizing meetings.  People must feel allowed to speak their minds.   These are just some of the things you will learn from this book.   I recommend this to anyone interested in going into business, headed toward that first job, those burnout and those still working 60-90 hours a week and getting nowhere.  There is much knowledge and inspiration to be found here.