Martha Finney is the creator of the Career Landscapes teambuilding workshop, and a management consultant specializing in helping companies identify and build passion-driven workplace cultures. She is also the author or coauthor of 18 books, including HR from the Heart: Inspiring Stories and Strategies for Building the People Side of Great Business, with Libby Sartain, former CHRO of Yahoo! and Southwest Airlines. Her clients and interviewees include executives from Intuit, the Central Intelligence Agency, Avery Dennison, The Gap, Inc., Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Caterpillar, Kenexa, and H-P. Martha's work has been featured in major newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and San Jose Mercury News, as well as in Time magazine and on CNN and NPR's Morning Edition. She is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Introduction xi PART I The Truth About Employee Engagement Truth 1 You don't need the carrot or the stick 1 Truth 2 You have direct infl uence over your employees' passion quotient 4 Truth 3 You get the best by giving the best 8 Truth 4 It's not money that motivates 11 Truth 5 Employment engagement isn't for sissies 15 Truth 6 Real engagement gains happen after survey scores come in 19 PART II The Truth About Yourself Truth 7 Your behaviors are your brand 23 Truth 8 You can't give what you don't have 26 Truth 9 "Best" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone 30 Truth 10 Think you're a great leader? Think again 34 Truth 11 You could be your own worst employee 38 Truth 12 Visionary or beat cop? Your choice 41 Truth 13 Your health may be compromising your leadership eff ectiveness 44 Truth 14 You don't have to be perfect 48 Truth 15 Your career can recover from an engagement hit 52 PART III The Truth About Engaged Cultures Truth 16 Employee happiness is serious business 55 Truth 17 Great leaders make their people cry 58 Truth 18 Better questions lead to better answers 61 Truth 19 Individual passion builds a passion-fueled customer service culture 65 Truth 20 Authentic is better than clever 69 Truth 21 Retention begins with hello 72 Truth 22 The bad will do you good 75 Truth 23 Your biggest complainer may be your best supporter 78 Truth 24 You can sell an unpopular decision 82 Truth 25 Flex is best 85 Truth 26 Nobody cares if you don't mean to be mean 89 Truth 27 Controlling your temper is a labor-saving device 93 Truth 28 There is no "but" in "I'm sorry" 97 PART IV The Truth About Motivation Truth 29 Engagement happens one person at a time 101 Truth 30 If you're a manager, you're a career coach 104 Truth 31 The candidates you're seeking may not be the ones you need 107 Truth 32 Ask for cheese-you might get the moon 111 Truth 33 You lead better when you get off your pedestal 114 Truth 34 Trust is your strongest persuasion tool 118 Truth 35 If they aren't buying it, they aren't doing it 121 Truth 36 Overselling an opportunity can cost you precious talent 124 Truth 37 Focusing on what's right can help solve what's wrong 128 Truth 38 High performers are motivated by a piece of the action 131 Truth 39 All the generations want the same thing 135 PART V The Truth About Performance Truth 40 Compassion promotes performance 139 Truth 41 A hot star can brighten your whole team 142 Truth 42 B players are your A team 146 Truth 43 High performers have enough coff ee mugs 149 Truth 44 Discipline deepens engagement 152 Truth 45 You don't have to inherit the problem employees 155 Truth 46 Performance appraisals are really about you 159 Truth 47 New hires can inspire current employees 162 Truth 48 Terminations are an engagement tool 165 PART VI The Truth About Creativity Truth 49 Innovation begins with y-e-s 169 Truth 50 Everyone can be creative 172 Truth 51 You stand between inspiration and implementation 176 Truth 52 Failures promote progress 179 Truth 53 People don't quit their bosses, they quit their colleagues 182 Truth 54 Extreme pressure kills inspired performance 186 Truth 55 Creativity is a balancing act 189 PART VII The Truth About Communication Truth 56 Open questions ignite inspiring answers 193 Truth 57 Serving your employees means managing your boss 196 Truth 58 Bad news is good news 200 Truth 59 Trivial conversations are essential 203 Truth 60 The way you listen speaks volumes 206 Truth 61 Crap happens 210 Truth 62 Engaged employees need to know more 213 PART VIII The Truth About Teams Truth 63 Absence makes the employee happier 217 Truth 64 Your team has untapped talent 221 Truth 65 People need to fi ght their own battles 224 Truth 66 Games don't build teams 228 Truth 67 Answers build teams 231 Truth 68 Your team can lead you to greatness 234 Truth 69 You're still the boss 237 References 240 About the Author 242

Each book in the bestselling Truth About series offers the author's practical and distilled knowledge on a particular business topic, showing readers how to apply these principles in their daily work lives. With an 'aha' on every page, information is presented in a clear and accessible style that the reader can easily reference. Written in short chapters, each book covers an entire field of knowledge that applies practical experience to business theory, cuts to the gist of each subject in an entertaining way, and deconstructs commonly held assumptions to reveal the real truth behind challenges and their appropriate solutions. In the Second Edition of the successful book, The Truth About Getting the Best From People, Martha Finney shares over 60 proven principles for achieving employee engagement one-hundred percent of the time. This new edition features more than 15 new truths including: managing virtual teams, building persuasive skills, tuning into your own unconscious biases, managing multiple generations, and identifying and cultivating individual high performers.