‘Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters’, by Jan-Emmanuel de Neve and George Ward
The growth and extent of workplace interventions claiming to improve employee health — from mindfulness to yoga — is enough to cause any manager a headache. But while the costs and the uptake of programmes have surged, the evidence for their effectiveness has not.
The authors, two Oxford-based academics, guide readers through confusion over definitions, data, causes and outcomes in a field that remains poorly researched, and overcrowded with assertions that are far from rigorous.
They have done some of the best analysis in the field seeking to understand the drivers of wellbeing, and its links to productivity. Pay and flexibility in employee location are important, according to this book. But the writers also suggest a sense of belonging, the ability to achieve goals, and genuine trust between colleagues, are even more effective in keeping us happy at work.
There are few simple fixes. Structural factors are pivotal — that question of earnings, of course, and salaries being perceived as fair, as well as well-functioning systems to address grievances, for example. These require the engagement of top managers. As the authors argue: “It is often not the worker who needs to change, but rather the workplace and the work itself.” Andrew Jack
‘Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge’, by Melody Wilding
Can you get ahead at work without sucking up?
Yes you can, says Melody Wilding, a professor of human behaviour at New York’s Hunter College. The trick is knowing how to manage up.
By this she means learning how to navigate relationships with the people who have more positional power than you do at work, such as your boss. Wilding arrived at this conclusion after her research and executive coaching revealed that countless smart, successful people felt overlooked despite their hard work. Many were frustrated by lack of change, or boxed in by office politics. In other words, she says, they knew they had to manage up, but they did not know how to do it well.
Wilding offers a series of lessons for learning the skill, starting with the adoption of “a strategic, investigative mindset” to figure out the main pressures, fears, worries and demands that drive your all-too-human boss. Once that is done, she thinks it is easier to know how best to communicate with them and push for what you want, be it a promotion, a raise or the green light for an idea.
Wilding also recommends networking strategies to become more noticeable, such as joining internal book groups, taking the elevator instead of the stairs, or getting coffee from a different spot, “if it means you’re more likely to bump into someone new or influential”.
Crafty? Perhaps. But also, like much of the book’s advice, also potentially useful. Pilita Clark
‘You’re the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be (And Others Need)’, by Sabina Nawaz
The first pages of Sabina Nawaz’s thoughtful take on management are a lesson in humility. After joining Microsoft from university, the engineer quickly works her way into leadership, developing a reputation as a considerate manager. But when she is promoted to a vastly more senior role — while juggling new parenthood — things start to go awry. She snaps at more junior staff, and micromanages her team. The wake-up call comes when she makes a colleague cry.
It is refreshing to come across an account of leadership that doesn’t sugarcoat the failings it can expose. Nawaz’s book considers how the set-up of organisations — from the immense pressure to deliver, to a lack of accountability — set traps. It argues there are rarely “bad” bosses, but people with good intentions who “unwittingly” cross to bad behaviours.
Now an executive coach, Nawaz has made it her mission to stop leaders succumbing to “pressure pitfalls” and “power gaps”. Her advice, pithily summarised, is that “we must mindfully navigate the combined forces of greater pressure and power”. It encompasses low-key hints and tips for better communication, to advice on how to understand the profound shifts moving up in a hierarchy can trigger.
This is not a call for systems change, but a useful guide for individuals, that could make life better for everyone in an organisation. It is also enjoyable: Nawaz narrates her experience with enthusiasm and pace, making both reading the book, and taking on some of the advice, an easy task. Bethan Staton
‘How to Stop Trying: An Overachiever’s Guide to Self-Acceptance, Letting Go and Other Impossible Things’, by Kate Williams
For a book designed to motivate, Kate Williams’ first work of non-fiction is surprisingly dark.
Through 15 chapters, the author lays out why “it doesn’t get easier but it does get scarier” and encourages the reader to embrace negativity and aim for a life more ordinary — ideas that would typically be abhorrent to most enterprising minds. Nevertheless, it is these hard, albeit subjective, truths that make How to Stop Trying such a compelling read.
Written for those of us who do too much, the book proffers a critical analysis of the cultural, societal, and personal pressures that drive people — particularly women — towards endless ambition, often to the detriment of their wellbeing. Williams’ examination of the concept of “grind culture” and the effect of patriarchal expectations on modern women is well-paced and humorous, providing enough light relief to counter the heavier discussions around fertility, depression and the damaging illusion of control coupled with the idea that enjoyment is a thing to be earned rather than had.
In true overachiever fashion, How to Stop Trying does three things very well: first, it functions as an easy-to-follow road map for pernicious perfectionists, offering a guide to self-acceptance, individual freedom and success. Second, it serves as an intimate memoir of the author’s personal struggles, told through tales of motherhood, heartbreak and the pursuit of purpose. Finally, at its heart, How to Stop Trying acts as a love letter to Gen X and millennial women, an affectionately motivating opus on the pointlessness of “trying to make ‘fetch’ happen” and why we could all be happier if we made more room for “enough”. Cordu Krubally-N’Diaye
‘The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women — And How They Can Succeed in Spite of It’, by Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and María del Mar Martínez
The Broken Rung, written by McKinsey senior partners with backgrounds in diversity, seems strangely old-fashioned in an environment that is increasingly hostile to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Its central thesis is that for women, “every rung of the corporate ladder is broken” which is why despite gender initiatives there has only been “modest gains” with the largest improvement in the C-suite. This is not due to lack of ambition but because “women are not building the same levels of experience capital as men. In other words, they are not amassing the specific skills and experiences on the job that they need to be promoted at equal rates and to maximise their earning potential.”
While the authors are not blaming women, they do offer strategies to “counter the broken rung effect in the face of these structural barriers” which occasionally seems reminiscent of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, which has been clouded somewhat by recent allegations by a Facebook whistleblower. These include putting yourself forward, make sure your achievements are recognised, encouraging women to make big moves rather than incremental ones.
They also include ideas for companies to fix these problems: making sure the promotion process is clear with objective criterion rather than given to whims of managers. Yet the section on biases and anti-bias training feels like it comes from another era. Nonetheless, there are worthwhile strategies for employers and female employees wanting to fix the ladder. Whether anyone will be listening is another question. Emma Jacobs
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