Great at Work: How Top Performers Work Less and Achieve More

Morten Hansen’s educational and compelling new book, “Great at Work,” provides readers with a new perspective on “great performance” in the workplace. The attractiveness of this book is that it presented an evidence-based, comprehensive understanding. In creating the survey discussed in this book, Morten considered the findings of over 200 published academic studies relating to working smarter. Throughout the book, Morten provides results from a regression analysis performance study of 5,000 people. The 5,000 people represented 15 industry sectors and 22 job functions with a balanced ratio of gender, age and education level. The results are presented within three main parts – mastering your own work, mastering working with others and mastering work-life balance. Morten had a sophisticated literature review; he not only talked about his own books in the field, but also the works of other authors. Within the book, he referenced The War for Talent, On the Mend, Drive, Peak, Contagious, Power, and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to name a few. Even Oprah Winfrey made the cut, when Morten talked about her commencement address to Stanford’s graduating class of 2008. In what could have been a dry, instructional, lecture style novel, Morten Hansen has created a composition of tips to help employees work smarter (not harder) and achieve more. By enhancing the reading with scenarios in multiple work settings, he has allowed any individual the ability to relate to these different situations and develop ways to use the strategies in their own daily work lives. Morten presented strategies for measuring and maximizing value, the art of deliberate practice, and matching purpose and passion. Morten mentioned that more activities does not equal more value and provided an equation for measuring value. This equation states that the value of a person’s work equals the benefits to others multiplied by the quality of the work multiplied by the efficiency. Another idea he presented was deliberate practice which involves doing a new skill, getting feedback, and making the necessary changes based on the feedback provided. Morten challenged the accepted idea to “follow your passion”. Morten tested the idea and concluded that one had to match his or her passion with purpose to be truly effective at work. While a majority of the tips given in this book are easily applicable, one that is not is refusing your boss. Although, Morten does mention the difficulty of this task and how it should be exercised with caution, there are many factors to consider before applying this tip. Firstly, the employee must fully understand the goals of the team and his or her role. If the employee does not have this understanding, he or she will not be able to give proper reasoning for refusing his or her manager. Secondly, he or she must understand the culture of the company that he or she is working for. If the culture in the company encourages employee involvement with changing processes, then refusing to take on a new project would not be frowned upon. Conversely, if the culture of the company does not encourage employee involvement then the refusal might not be accepted. Morten defies convention by providing a new perspective profound beliefs from the learnings within the chapter. A person doesn’t have to change his or her life by any modern standard, but this appreciably readable book is not in the business of following the status quo. Not only does this book elucidate the keys for top work performance, it provides a new perspective which could change one’s approach in all fields of life and maintain a positive work life balance.

I'm not much of a reader but I was having trouble with my career thinking and being too busy all the time without getting much done. I was recommended many of the typical consulting books (some of which are indeed good), but most I felt were superficial. Then someone mentioned Greg McKeown's 'essentialism' which I read and absolutely loved. On a podcast, Greg mentioned this book recently and especially emphasized the "do less, then obsess" principle from 'Great at Work' which I also love. In short, this book has been an equal, to me, in terms of potential for self-improvement. The way I see it, perhaps selfishly, is that I need to 'fix' myself before I can really improve all of my work practises. This books treatment - through a scientific and rigorous manner - of self-improvement is a refreshingly new take on many old paradigms that are misdirected or simply not true. As a consultant myself, I'm certain that following these principles will get me that much farther. To close, one of my favourite chapters deals with passion. I've generally lacked passion for anything for years and it has been a major stumbling block for me in my career. I was skeptical of this chapter, but as I progressed through everything there really holds true for me. Including the fact that I don't need to be passionate about a topic or a particular field in order to be passionate about what I do. For example I can be passionate about making other's lives easier and that's something you can do in any job. I'd highly recommend this book to any working professional, but at the same time I want to keep it a secret otherwise I feel like the bar might go up and I'll be that much farther behind! 5 stars

Im Vergleich zu vielen Konkurrenzprodukten hebt sich dieses Buch wohltuend durch den faktenbasierten Ansatz ab... Alles in allem sehr gut lesbar und mit interessanten Denkanstößen...

I temi trattati sono importanti, ovviamente serve un buon livello di Inglese tecnico, non solo commerciale o turistico. Libro adatto per chi voglia pensare in maniera diversa a come modificare il proprio modus operandi all'interno dell'Azienda o dell'Azienda stessa. Tutto si basa sulla costanza della messa in atto dei consigli dati. Consigliato.

Love the book n content is very close and relatable to my professional experiences. Not completed yet however this book has started making an impact on me and my approach.