[.ca] Achieving Excellence (ISBN 0751307688)

From Amazon.com:
If you're in search of career or managerial excellence in 72 short 'n' sweet pages or less, you'll love this visually snappy, pintsize guide to doing just that, from setting goals to developing the determination, energy, and skills required to achieve them. Here, you'll learn not only how to network effectively and make the most of your time, but how to master practical techniques for improving your memory, sharpening your mental agility, thinking creatively, and reducing stress. Lots of fun checklists and flow charts help you get a grip on such key building blocks to excellence as guided risk-taking, staying in top physical and mental shape, writing and speaking more fluently, prioritizing, and influencing others. Granted, if you're looking for very specific or in-depth guidance, you may find this book too cursory and general in its approach. But if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basics, it'll do you just fine. It's worth mentioning that the book is also part of reference publisher Dorling Kindersley's Essential Managers series--20 itty-bitty li'l books on business and career topics ranging from communication, leadership, and decision making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the For Dummies book series's talent for breaking down a lot of information into bite-size bits and sidebars with Dorling Kindersley's signature design style of crisp, classy graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, they don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking and they don't necessarily reflect any unique individual perspective. Instead, it's as though someone collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand on the last few pages of each volume. Again, they're not for anyone looking for more in-depth or focused help on any of the subjects they cover, but they're perfect as a quickie general-interest reference... and let's face it, they're so damned cute and look so smart in a neat little stack or row that you'll probably want to buy a whole bunch to give as gifts to your entire staff or department. --Timothy Murphy

Realistic Ambitions:
Since excellence in today's highly competitive workplace demands more than knowledge of your field, people skills are essential. If you want to develop your management skills and achieve your objectives, take a peek at this tiny resource book. While it isn't an all encompassing management book like the Essential Manager's Manual, it is easy to read and you can deal with one specific issue at a time. There are many books in the Essential Managers Series. Robert Heller will show you how to build key attributes, develop confidence, master risk taking, lead effectively, stay in shape, increase learning, think more effectively, write and speak more fluently, boost your creativity, choose priorities, understand money, reduce stress, reassess your goals, find a mentor, take the lead and plan ahead. I especially enjoyed the little hints placed in yellow boxes throughout the book. Here are some of my favorites: Hint 97: Avoid changing your opinions to match those of the majority. Hint 42: Do not confuse wild, far-out, impractical ideas with creativity. So, how will you know if you have achieved success in a particular area of your personal management qualities portfolio? Page 66-69 is a self-assessment which you can take to evaluate your achievement. As you work towards excellence, realize this is a lifelong challenge.