🔒Essential daily exercises to become more successful

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“The Entrepreneur's Book of Actions — Essential Daily Exercises and Habits for Becoming Wealthier, Smarter and More Successful” by Rhett Power (McGraw-Hill, $26).

With weekly to-do advice broken down by days, Power creates an easy-to-follow 2017 (and beyond) guide for running your business without ruining your life. Here's the agenda for the first few weeks:

Weeks 1 and 2: “Passion and Purpose” and “Stepping stones” deal with self-awareness and motivation. Start with “Why do you do what you do?” Your answer should define the purpose for your business and personal lives. It should address what makes you happy, what you're good at and what you should be better at.

With purpose defined, think about what you need to do more of and less of to add value to the lives of those around you, and your community. Prioritize a one-step-at-a-time plan. Make a checklist and review it daily to maintain focus. If you didn't achieve what you wanted, write down what stopped you. (Power firmly believes that many “stops” are self-inflicted by mood, which affects attitude.) In the short term, expect your “stop” list to grow because you'll be more aware of what's holding you back. Long term it will shrink as your awareness results in actions, which minimizes their impact on progress.

Motivation also involves looking at the company you keep. How many of your friends are uppers? Downers? Work your world around the uppers and put the downers on the “to-don't” list. An added benefit of surrounding yourself with uppers — you'll see change as opportunity, not as a problem.

Power suggests a way to hold yourself accountable for your actions: Each day, give a friend or coworker some money to hold. If you complete your to-do list, you get the money back. If you don't, the friend keeps the money.

Find ways to reward your achievements, too. Include those who helped you earn the reward.

Key takeaway: “What will you be remembered for if you never push yourself to be anything more than you are today?”

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“The Great Management Reset: 27 Ways To Be A Better Manager” by Leslie Kaminoff (Morgan James Publishing, $16.95).

The chapter on “Change Management” stands out because change disrupts the status quo, which affects a manager's plan to handle many other management tasks. To put that disruption in context, make a list of the what, how and who are affected by each of these internal change events: budget adjustments (up or down), rapid organizational growth or decline, staff turnover (not only in your department but in those involved in your projects), deadline and priority shifts, scope creep and new procedures.

Your lists point to the need to have viable and flexible plans in place to deal with the “people” issues of change (e.g. shock, rejection, resetting expectations, acceptance, etc.). The four Cs to managing the people-side of change are:

1. Communication — Tell people what's happening, “how it's going to affect them and what life is going to look like on the other side.” As the change unfolds, keep people updated.

2. Community — Change often results in taking the eye off the ultimate goal. Emphasize that the change presents an opportunity to explore new ways to achieve the goal. People's acceptance increases when they see that the manager has created a support system (e.g. resources, revised processes, assignments/projects, timelines, etc.) for execution.

3. Camaraderie — By adopting a “we're in this together” approach to exploring those new ways, staff will continue connecting with each other and the tasks at hand. Encourage communication among the staff and feedback, which can be used to feed-forward.

4. Coaching — You need to recognize where individuals are on the change buy-in scale and let them express their views and concerns. You're responsible for helping them deal with “what's happening” and their roles.

The bottom line: It's up to managers to help staff “turn the page.”n

Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.