Management-Business – Page 12 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Show the Value of What You Do: Measuring & Achieving Success in Any Endeavor

By Scott J. Pearson | August 14, 2022August 14, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Job security is a desire common to many employees, yet full security remains an elusive goal in almost any endeavor. Patti and Jack Phillips, in this book, show how to calculate the value of your work so that you can communicate its value to decision-makers in a business setting. This value is called “Return on Investment” (or ROI, for short) and provides a business case for your labor. If you honestly contribute more than you…

Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team

By Scott J. Pearson | August 12, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

A Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a relatively new addition to a modern business’s C-suite. However, despite being recent, in an era of digital innovation, it’s become an essential one. Instead of offloading work onto employees, most companies try to offload some of the work onto the IT department. IT specialists, the builders of technology, usually cannot meld their products into business-ready deliverables. That’s where the CIO comes in, to lead tech efforts towards a…

Management-Business Software-Technology

Managing Humans: Biting & Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

By Scott J. Pearson | August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

Software engineers stereotypically have the personality type to stay behind their desks and not socialize too much. Their coding skills, so the story goes, facilitate their contribution to the company, not their finessing of humans. However, if they are ever promoted to a manager, they quickly have to pivot to understanding how to get their needs from subordinates who don’t always seek after managerial social approval. Not everyone is successful with this transition, but once…

Management-Business Mentoring

High-Impact Mentoring: A Practical Guide to Creating Value in Other People’s Lives

By Scott J. Pearson | July 24, 2022August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Business research repeatedly proves that the vital skill of mentoring enhances the odds of career success among mentees. Further, it provides a sense of fulfillment and purpose among mentors. It helps with imposter syndrome and makes both parties feel a sense of belonging. Further, it can help both sides of the relationship keep in touch with the latest trends and overcome new challenges. So why don’t more organizations take advantage of this type of relationship?…

Management-Business Program Management

The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up: Project Management Techniques from the Trenches

By Scott J. Pearson | July 11, 2022July 28, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

“Managing up” is a relatively new concept in the business world. It refers to taking care of your boss’ and senior management’s needs as a part of your duties. Managing down, presumably, refers to managing subordinates, but managing up, not just managing down, has a significant impact on one’s career trajectory. Brownlee seeks to explore this concept by describing what this looks like pragmatically as a newer employee. Most employees have encountered difficult bosses at…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

A Man Named Robert: Lessons from the Life of America’s First Great Emancipator

By Scott J. Pearson | June 26, 2022September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This book attempts to accomplish two feats at once. First, it attempts to provide leadership lessons, and second, it tries to highlight the life history of Robert Carter III. (Ironically, the author and the biographical subject share the same last name. In this review, the author will be referred to as Dr. Carter while the subject, as just Carter.) Carter was a 18th-century Virginian planter who amassed great wealth around the time of the Revolutionary…

Fiction-Stories Management-Business Mentoring

Starting Strong: A Mentoring Fable

By Scott J. Pearson | June 9, 2022July 24, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

A key way to develop careers is forming a mentoring relationship. To facilitate this, a mentor has to gain specific skills, and a mentee, likewise, has to possess certain skills. Although this relationship can make a healthy career, not a lot of conversation about this topic exists, even in education circles. In this work, Zachary and Fischler try to examine traits that make mentoring relationships work. They do so through a fable (or allegory) that…

Management-Business Program Management

Transforming Project Management

By Scott J. Pearson | May 29, 2022July 28, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The field of project management is receiving amplified attention in recent years. Companies simply need people with skills that can transform action items of strategic planning into reality. The Project Management Institute (PMI) has even begun as a way to provide consistent education and certification. The author holds a Project Management Professional Certification (PMP) and concisely relates how those principles should inform more businesses’ practices. Project management comes down to achieving agreed-upon results on time…

Management-Business

The #PACE Process for Early Career Success

By Scott J. Pearson | April 20, 2022April 20, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

An individual’s early career often sets the trajectory for future success, for better or for worse. Yet during this time, the path to success is almost universally less clear, and obstacles abound. Young professionals need mentoring and solid advice to advance, but hard-to-access options to get aid can conflict with each other. Now, a post-pandemic climate leaves remote and hybrid work environments where interpersonal interactions are less frequent. In this book, Zides tries to coach…