Cy Wakeman: Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace - Blog Business Success Radio

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Keynote speaker, executive coach, entrepreneur, leadership thought leader, and author of the empowering and career transformational book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier, Cy Wakeman describes how you have the power to be happy and a top performer in the workplace. Cy Wakeman provides the five reality-based rules as an alternative approach to success and happiness in any work environment. Cy Wakeman offers an accountability based road map to taking control of your own career and life. Cy Wakeman offers her formula for demonstrating your value to the organization. Cy shares her research and interview based concepts of why people are disengaged in today's workplace, and empowers them to make real changes in their mindset. With this mindset change, peak performance is the result. Learn how to be both happy and a top performer in your job, and valued by the entire organization.

Cy Wakeman is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, October 1, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Keynote speaker, executive coach, entrepreneur, leadership thought leader, and author of the empowering and career transformational book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier, Cy Wakeman describes how you have the power to be happy and a top performer in the workplace.You will learn:

* Why so many employees feel unappreciated and disengaged at work

* How to evaluate your value to the organization

* What are the five reality-based rules of the workplace

* How to empower yourself with the five rules to achieve success

Cy Wakeman (photo left) s a dynamic national keynote speaker, business consultant, New York Times bestselling author, and trainer who has spent over 20 years cultivating a revolutionary approach to leadership. Grounded in reality, Cy Wakeman’s philosophy teaches people how to turn excuses into results and transform unhappy employees into accountable, successful members of the workforce. Through her prolific work with companies such as Bayer, New York Presbyterian, National Institutes of Health, Hallmark, Verizon Wireless, TD Ameritrade, and Wells Fargo, Cy Wakeman has helped eliminate tired, impersonal management techniques in favor of a reality-based revolution.

Cy Wakeman’s professional journey began when she was promoted to her first management position in the late 1980’s. Rather than forcing ineffective, traditional management practices into her workplace, Cy Wakeman began developing and teaching her employees a reality-based mindset. What she found was inspiring – her employees were not only motivated to succeed, but they were also driven to deliver results, adapt to change, and emanate happiness on the job. Inspired to help others transform their company and their work, Cy Wakeman began consulting and training. Today, she visits more than 200 companies each year, empowering employees and executives alike to take control of and invest in their work.

Cy Wakeman’s acclaimed new book, The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier, shows employees how to calculate their true value to their organization. With an original formula for measuring current performance, future potential, and “emotional expensiveness” – the toll an individual’s actions and attitudes take on the people around them, Cy Wakeman shows employees how to become invaluable team members and learn to love their jobs again.

Named one of the “Top 100 Leadership Experts to Follow” on twitter, Cy Wakeman’s influence continues to build. Her programs are consistently ranked by participants as the single most impactful training they have ever received.

An expert blogger on FastCompany.com and Forbes.com, Cy Wakeman’s ideas have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Post, and on SHRM.com. She has written two books, Reality-Based Leadership: Ditch the Drama, Restore Sanity to the Workplace, & Turn Excuses into Results (Jossey-Bass; 2010) and The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier (Jossey-Bass; 2013).

Cy Wakeman is a highly sought-after conference headliner and holds a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speaker’s Association, placing her within the top 3%of speakers worldwide. In 2012, she received the “Outstanding Leadership Award” from the World HRD Congress in Mumbai.

My book review of The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier by Cy Wakeman.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with keynote speaker, executive coach, entrepreneur, leadership thought leader, and author of the empowering and career transformational book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier, Cy Wakeman, as she describes how you have the power to be happy and a top performer in the workplace. Cy Wakeman provides the five reality-based rules as an alternative approach to success and happiness in any work environment. Cy Wakeman offers an accountability based road map to taking control of your own career and life. Cy Wakeman offers her formula for demonstrating your value to the organization. Cy shares her research and interview based concepts of why people are disengaged in today's workplace, and empowers them to make real changes in their mindset. With this mindset change, peak performance is the result. Learn how to be both happy and a top performer in your job, and valued by the entire organization on Blog Business Success Radio.

The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace by Cy Wakeman - Book review

The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace

Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier

By: Cy Wakeman

Published: April 30, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
ISBN-10: 1118413687
ISBN-13: 978-1118413685
Publisher: Jossey-Bass










"Happiness is at your fingertips, yours for the taking. All jobs can be great jobs. All bosses can be exactly what you need. You can have success any time, anywhere", writes keynote speaker, executive coach, entrepreneur and leadership thought leader, Cy Wakeman, in her empowering and career transformational book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier. The author describes how employees hold the key to their workplace engagement and happiness in their own hands, and provides the rules for making the work environment a great experience.

Cy Wakeman recognizes that more workers than ever are feeling unappreciated and disengaged at work. The author presents a compelling case that work doesn't have to be an unpleasant place by offering an empowering alternative mindset for employees. Cy Wakeman points out that internally generated fears and disenchantment create a more adverse workplace that doesn't really exist. Instead of helping the employee achieve peak performance and a successful career, the false fears and disengagement hold them back. Cy Wakeman shares the good news that top performance and career advancement are possible through an understanding of the true workplace reality.

Cy Wakeman (photo left) understands that employees want to be happy and successful at work. Faced with challenging bosses, difficult coworkers, and a shortage of resources to complete their projects, many employees face frustration at work. Cy Wakeman provides real help for these employees through a revealing formula that evaluates the worker's value to the organization. With the resulting score in hand, the individual has a baseline from which to improve the overall score, becoming a more valued member of the team. With stronger performance, an employee finds work more enjoyable and a truly positive experience.

Cy Wakeman offers an alternative worldview in the form of her reality-based rules of the workplace. The key is that the rules consider the reality of the workplace insred of its imagined problems, impossible to work for and unappreciative bosses, and difficult coworkers. Cy Wakeman replaces imagined challenges with real world based solutions. The five reality-based rules are as follows:

* Your level of accountability determines your level of happiness
* Suffering is optional
* Buy-in is not optional
* Say yes to what's next
* You will always have extenuating circumstances

For me, the power of the book is how Cy Wakeman combines an overall framework for improving your career prospects, your engagement level, and your personal happiness with the practical rules for making them a reality. The author bolsters her premise with extensive research interviews that illustrate the concepts as they happen in the real world. Cy Wakeman takes an empowering and personal responsibility based approach to career success. By taking the position that the individual is accountable and able to create their own happiness, the author demonstrates that a person's career rests in their own hands.

Cy Wakeman doesn't gloss over the fact that today's workplace and economy present real and very tangible challenges. She takes the bold step that this upheaval and change also presents real opportunity for employee initiative and advancement. The author offers the personal choice to take ownership of your own career, and your personal success and happiness.In a time of constant change, both within and outside the workplace, and with so many coworkers disengaged from their employment, opportunity for providing peak performance, innovation, and leadership has never been greater than at present.

I highly recommend the career building and personal accountability based book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier by Cy Wakeman, to any employees, executives, new graduates, and potential leaders who are seeking an alternative approach to success based on personal empowerment. This book offers a road map to finding opportunity and achieving top performance in any work environment.

The Necessity of Strangers by Alan Gregerman - Book review

The Necessity of Strangers

The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success

By: Alan Gregerman

Published: September 10, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1118461304
ISBN-13: 978-1118461303
Publisher: Jossey-Bass










"In an important way,practically all of my best ideas are built on the ideas and insights of others who were at one time strangers", writes consultant, keynote speaker, and President and Chief Innovation Officer of VENTURE WORKS Inc., Alan Gregerman in his refreshing and insightful book The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success. The author describes how the impact of strangers on people's life is essential for success, are even more important than friends, and how to find and engage those necessary strangers.

Alan Gregerman recognizes that concept of strangers being necessary for creative thinking, innovation, and new perspectives is counter to the conventional wisdom of companies. Considering strangers as essential also goes against what people are taught and to think for their entire lives. In organizations strangers are people who bring different ideas, and what is considered possibly dangerous change to the culture.

As a result, strangers are thought to be a problem to be avoided or prevented from entry to the company. Instead of thinking in this standard mode, Alan Gregerman demonstrates that rather than being a problem, strangers are in fact a powerful solution.

Alan Gregerman (photo left) recognizes the fears and anxiety that surrounds the concept of seeking out and engaging strangers. The author presents a compelling case that strangers are in fact more crucial to success than friends. Alan Gregerman recommends taking the bold step of reexamining one's preconceived ideas about strangers, and embracing them for the objectivity and honesty. To underline the importance of strangers, the author offers the following shorthand as explore, connect, innovate, grow.

Alan Gregerman provides a complete reconsideration of the entire concepts of strangers in our personal and working lives. The author points out how people are passing up a tremendous and transformational opportunity by not seeking out, engaging, and embracing the potential of strangers. Indeed, Alan Gregerman considers strangers are so important to success that we can't achieve our fullest potential without them. The author examines the following aspects f strangers and their necessity:

* Necessity
* Aversion
* Mindset
* Innovation
* People
* Collaboration
* Customers
* Leadership
* Taking the first step

For me, the power of the book is how Alan Gregerman combines a comprehensive framework for understanding the importance of strangers, with the practical steps to meeting, engaging, and embracing the necessity of strangers. The author goes beyond the usual discussion about strangers beyond friends, widening the conversation to include people of other cultures, backgrounds, and worldviews. At a time when company leaders are searching desperately for creativity and innovation, to solve their most confounding problems, the concept of seeking out and engaging strangers is a powerful solution.

Along with the importance of strangers for innovation, Alan Gregerman makes a strong case for adding diversity to the workplace. The value of different perspectives, provided by diverse strangers, brings creativity and innovation to the organization. At the same time, strangers can transform a moribund company culture into one of engaged employees. Seeking out the right strangers, and developing a connection with them, leads to success for all.

I highly recommend the transformational and success building book The Necessity of Strangers: The Intriguing Truth About Insight, Innovation, and Success by Alan Gregerman, to any business leaders at any level, nonprofit executives, community leaders, and anyone seeking fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to their personal and workplace challenges and obstacles. This book will change the way you think about strangers, and consider them truly necessary for your success,