Even chick lit can help you tackle issues in the workplace, writes Donna McIntyre
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What a pick-and-mix assortment careers books are. Which is just as well, as we're all at different stages and have different needs in our working lives.
Take The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio, which is also rather good at telling you how to kick arse - your own and others round you.
It's a bit of a chick-lit-cum-careers-guide but you've got to love some of its advice. Take these words of wisdom on sales pitches from a clothing sales rep.
"I walk into these appointments with potential clients; knowing if they don't use me, then they're missing an opportunity and it's their loss. It's a lot like a first date: if a guy sees that you're nervous and desperate, he's not going to be interested."
There's plenty of homework, too, as the authors get you to take a long hard look at yourself, your job, why you're in it, whether it challenges you.
If you prefer homegrown straight-talking, try Courage At the Top by Andrea Needham.
The management consultant also wrote Workplace Bullying - The Costly Business Secret, which many New Zealanders on the receiving end of harassment refer to as their Bible.
In Courage at the Top Needham talks us through what makes a good leader, identifying courage as the essential quality to set and stand up for acceptable standards of leadership and management.
She and fellow New Zealand author Hadyn Olsen (Oh No You Don't: A Tale of Managing Workplace Bullies) are on the same page with their ideas on acceptable practice in the workplace.
Needham has said a lot of workplace problems come about because our managers are not taught how to handle conflict, and tend towards the path of least resistance, allowing unacceptable practices such as bullying to continue rather than confronting them and working through solutions.
In her latest book she takes this further, demonstrating the damaging effects of incompetent managers such as bullies, cowards, jerks and technocrats.
Olsen specialises in the field of workplace bullying and harassment.
He, too, feels managers aren't taught how to identify and define unacceptable behaviour or how to set clear boundaries.
His book talks about lifting the "shadow of collusion" which allows the bullies to get away with their behaviour and again that change needs to be backed by management.
Another New Zealand offering is The Naked Career by Stephen Conway and Paul Meyer, the title's naked referring to stripping away barriers to career fulfilment.
Like Americans Friedman and Yorio, Conway and Meyer get the reader working, asking themselves lots of questions. What are your barriers? Are you happy in your work? And they give advice on how to future-proof yourself and your career(s) in a world where change is the norm.
Rounding off the selection, from across the Tasman, is The Yellow Book Road To Your Financial Security by Mark Bouris, which, as the title suggests, isn't about careers but more about financial security.
His chapters work through the road to financial security: getting started, property, super, shares, the "unsexy stuff" (protecting your assets) and the ultimate assets (yourself and your family). Again, he offers no magic solutions, saying if you want to be well off later in life, you have to put in the hard yards first.
REVIEWS
The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear
by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio (A&C Black, $29.99)
Sick of the crumbs and want the whole career cake? This book, with its chick-lit type cover, is packed with tips to turn that wish into reality.
But it's not going to happen overnight and it's going to happen only if you are motivated. Friedman and Yorio encourage readers to write down their aims and create a list of objectives they want to achieve in the next three to five years.
It's good fun, too, with lots of anecdotes and breakout panels. One drawback is that it is pitched at the US market, and not always appropriate for ours.
Courage at the Top
by Andrea Needham (Penguin, $40)
Andrea Needham's book is about igniting the leadership fire in this country.
She says leadership of a productive organisation is not for the faint-hearted; it's hard work and takes courage. And company boards need to be aware that the board can only be as effective as its agent, the chief executive.
She outlines leadership courage as: providing a trusting environment to allow creativity and productivity; doing the right thing for the organisation and balancing it with the taking-care-of-people factor; and requiring bad behaviour to stop and getting rid of toxic, dysfunctional managers.
Oh No You Don't
by Hadyn Olsen (WAVE, $35)
Hadyn Olsen helps readers to understand the dynamics that bullies work by, as well as offering "practical and powerful solutions".
He says there is no quick fix to bullies, especially if a "shadow of collusion" has allowed the bullying for a long time.
The author acknowledges that the book's storyline is simplistic and allows a positive outcome.
There could have been other outcomes - a personal grievance taken, or the bully choosing to stay on in his position - but Olsen says that although these scenarios would have made the situation different, the processes he prescribes would remain the same.
He says managers get the behaviour they allow and, to manage bullying in the workplace, they have to work with new beliefs.
The Naked Career
by Stephen Conway and Paul Meyer (www.publishme.co.nz $45)
Careers "navigators" Stephen Conway and Paul Meyer have produced this handbook - published to help people map their way through life and career choices and challenges.
They say a career can be our "financial vehicle" to take us through the life we choose to lead. Tips and tools are offered to initiate changes, confront fears and identify aspirations.
Once objectives and goals are clear, readers are in a better position to decide whether to enrich their present career or move on to something new.
Keep it handy and use when needed. For instance, Conway and Meyer suggest picking it up when you are not coping with change.
The Yellow Book Road to Your Financial Security
by Mark Bouris (Allen & Unwin, $32.99)
New Zealanders, too, can benefit from the advice Mark Bouris gives to Australians in this book, on how to build financial security so you can enjoy retirement without money worries.
While people are good at buying their own homes, they're not so good at saving for retirement. We tend to stick our heads in the sand and hope she'll be right, mate.
But we should make the most of the elasticity our working years provide, get a good education, work hard, do overtime, take a second job, and expand our businesses.
Bouris made his money as the founder and chairman of Wizard Home Loans, Australia's largest non-bank mortgage lender. He learned that three things are needed to retire with anything approaching enough money and assets to enjoy a comfortable, enjoyable lifestyle: superannuation, property and your own portfolio of shares. And then there is the all-important investment - your health. The trick is in balancing these assets as you make your way along your lifelong journey.
