Katie Doll, Author at Shortform Books

Bringing Out the Best in People: Book Overview & Takeaways

Do you want to unlock your employees’ full potential? What is the most effective management strategy? In Bringing Out the Best in People, Aubrey C. Daniels challenges traditional management methods, which often fail to improve performance, and instead proposes an approach grounded in science. Using behavior analysis, Daniels examines how managers can create a work environment that encourages employees to give their all. Read below for a brief overview of Bringing Out the Best in People.

How to Spot Good Management vs. Bad Management

Two people representing good management vs bad management

What makes someone a good manager or a bad manager? What are ineffective strategies that some managers use? According to Aubrey C. Daniels, when employee performance is subpar, the problem usually lies within the work environment, not the employee. Most mainstream management styles don’t account for this, so they tend to work inconsistently (if they work at all). Below, we’ll look at the difference between good management vs. bad management.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Be Useful: Book Overview

What’s Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book Be Useful about? How can you make an impact on your own life and others? To live up to your potential, you need a direction to strive for while honing your abilities and pushing yourself to your limits. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Be Useful, he lays out his principles for achieving success and making an impact, first by defining your ambitions and then using your achievements to better the lives of others. Read below is an overview and takeaways from Be Useful.

Unbound by Tarana Burke: Book Overview and Takeaways

A woman reading a book on a park bench under lemon trees

What’s Unbound by Tarana Burke about? Why did Burke start the phrase “Me Too?” In Unbound, award-winning activist Tarana Burke explores the pivotal role she played in founding the #MeToo movement. Burke coined the phrase “me too” as a tool for healing from sexual violence based on her own journey of recovery via community connection, and she continues to work toward healing sexual violence in the Black community. Read below for a brief overview of Unbound.

Why Behavioral Analysis Is a Good Management Example

A female manager wearing a superhero cape in an office as a good management example

What’s an example of good management? What’s the behavioral analysis approach? Aubrey C. Daniels provides an alternative to ineffective management strategies that we’ll call the behavioral analysis approach. He describes this approach as a five-step process. We’ll give an overview of Daniels’s good management example below.

How to Define Your Goals: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Steps

A person demonstrating how to define your goals by writing in a notebook with the word "GOAL" on the page

Do you know what you want out of life? How can you lay out the steps to your future? It’s hard to get anywhere in life if you don’t know where you want to go. Arnold Schwarzenegger argues that clearly defining your major aspirations is key to aligning your decisions and your goals. Keep reading to learn how to define your goals and see your future clearly.

Who Is Tarana Burke? The Activist’s Childhood, Explained

Activist Tarana Burke giving a speech in front of a black background

Who is Tarana Burke? What was Burke’s childhood like? Burke’s involvement in anti-sexual violence activism is rooted in her own experience of childhood sexual abuse. In her book Unbound, she briefly describes how her victimization and other experiences inspired a deep-seated sense of shame. Let’s look at the experiences that encouraged her to start the “me too” movement.

What Is Organizational Behavior Management? The 5 Steps

A manager performing organizational behavior management by observing an employee in an office

What is organizational behavior management? What are the five steps of this management approach? Using the organizational behavior management approach, managers systematically analyze the factors that influence employee behavior, rather than relying on intuition or trial-and-error methods. Then, they carefully optimize both antecedents and consequences to maximize what Aubrey C. Daniels calls “discretionary effort.” Let’s explore the five steps and examine Daniels’s tips for success at every stage.

How to Make Your Dreams Come True: From Small to Big Goals

A woman glad she knows how to make her dreams come true, looking up and smiling with the word "DREAMS" in glowing letters above her

Do you want your dreams to become a reality? How did Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dreams evolve over time? In Be Useful, Arnold Schwarzenegger uses his life story to show how your dreams can guide you, though your aspirations will change over time. He suggests that just because your dreams change, doesn’t mean you’ll be set back in life. Continue reading to learn how to make your dreams come true.

Tarana Burke’s Traumatic Sources of Childhood Shame

A young girl with shame feeling childhood shame

What caused Tarana Burke to feel shame in her childhood? How can people’s comments on a child’s appearance affect their self-esteem? Burke explains that in addition to the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, two other major forces influenced her strong sense of shame. Strangers’ comments on her appearance and her mother’s humiliating punishments severely impacted how Burke thought of herself when she was young. Continue reading to learn more about these causes of childhood shame in Burke’s life.