Most Popular Books by David Russo

Nations and other political entities are inadequate bases for studying the human past, because the other aspects of human life are not organized along the same lines as these political entities. All communities, including local ones, are amoeba-like, changing size and shape as we observe and probe them. Historians can improve the way they generalize about the past by tailoring their conclusions to the actual evidence they use. By using an array of historical questions of interest to scholars in all of the humanistically oriented disciplines, historians can offer more profound interpretations of their subjects, rather than confining themselves to an explanation of how and why human life evolves or persists through time and space. By doing so, historians can also significantly extend their influence among the general population.

This study is the first interpretive text for the study of American exceptionalism and the first overall assessment of geographic, political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of the American past written from a global perspective. Russo argues that life in the United States can be better understood if it is examined from either a wider perspective-the English speaking world, the Western Hemisphere, Western Civilization-or a narrower perspective-regional and local variations. Even when the Americans were innovative-in their multi-ethnic and multi-racial society, in their egalitarian social beliefs, in their political democracy-their innovations were soon copied by others. Therefore, Russo argues, they are no longer distinctly American. Using nations as the basis for fields of study can both reveal and distort the historical record. When one considers different perspectives, America's uniqueness recedes in importance. American culture was a variant of a wider Western culture. The American economy was an extension of Western capitalism, whether agrarian, commercial, or industrial. American society was a Western society with racial castes and multi-ethnic additions to the population. American government functioned like other Western governments, even with innovative forms: Republican, then democratic. The American past is thus seen to be far less distinctive than previous syntheses have assumed.

This is the eBook version of the printed book. This Element is an excerpt from 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage (9780137146703) by David Russo. Available in print and digital formats. How to reward what really matters--not just employee effort! Yes, expect genuine effort and hard work, but reward getting something done: something of value to your mission to build competitive advantage. It’s of paramount importance to applaud employees’ efforts. But reserve rewards for real accomplishments that bring about positive outcomes. Let’s look more closely at this because it’s central to engaging employees....

This is the eBook version of the printed book. This Element is an excerpt from 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage (9780137146703) by David Russo. Available in print and digital formats. What “human capital” really means--and why understanding it properly can help you unlock immense competitive advantage. There is a widely held notion among many leaders and managers, and particularly CFOs, that “human capital” is “the employees,” the physical presence of those people who companies recruit, hire, and pay. Sorry, but that’s wrong! It couldn’t be more wrong, and the mindset that breeds this misconception is at the root of what troubles many organizations today...

Long before Americans were imbued with the sense of a national past, local antiquarians and amateur historians wrote about the people, places, and happenings that were closest to their hearts, creating in the process a historical record of incalculable value. This gold mine of information and commentary is often overlooked by today's scholars. Russo's book puts us in touch with the historical consciousness of the American people and the once-paramount concern for the particular, the concrete, and the familiar.

This is the eBook version of the printed book. This Element is an excerpt from 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage (9780137146703) by David Russo. Available in print and digital formats. The real key to employee engagement: linking your company’s goals with your employees’ passions. To cultivate truly engaged employees, organizations need to build “linking opportunities” between an organization’s wants, needs, and culture and the issues that drive employees and garner their attention, passion, and care. Think visceral! You’d be surprised how really uncommon it is for leadership to be “in the know” about what makes the workforce tick. Try it yourself. Right now. Can you…

This is the eBook version of the printed book. This Element is an excerpt from 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage (9780137146703) by David Russo. Available in print and digital formats. How to consistently find and grow the best talent in a “seller’s market” for outstanding people. Although we strategists and tacticians find and hire talented people at all levels who perform the tasks that move our companies forward, we are really not as much in control of our “human assets” as we once were. We are the buyers, and it is no longer a buyer’s market when it comes to talent acquisition...

3 indispensable books help HR professionals transform talent management, supercharge workforces, and optimize the entire HR function! Three remarkable books offer indispensable, actionable solutions for finding, keeping, and engaging great employees, and optimizing all facets of the HR function. In Investing in People, renowned HR researchers Wayne F. Cascio and John W. Boudreau help HR practitioners choose, implement, and use metrics to improve decision-making, increase organizational effectiveness, and optimize the value of all HR investments. In 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent, top talent management consultant David Russo shows how to systematically build a workforce that’s truly engaged, committed, aligned with strategy, and capable of incredible performance. Russo reveals exactly what great companies do differently when it comes to managing their people – and shows how to apply those lessons in areas ranging from resourcing and compensation to leadership development and culture. In The Definitive Guide to HR Communication, Alison Davis and Jane Shannon offer dozens of practical tips for transforming employee-directed communications from boring to compelling. Organized around the employment cycle, this one-of-a-kind handbook gives HR pros an approach and specific techniques they can use every time they communicate – in any medium, whatever the goal! From world-renowned leaders in human resources and employee communications, including Wayne F. Cascio, John W. Boudreau, David Russo, Alison Davis, and Jane Shannon

The Enthusiastic Employee is an action-oriented book that helps companies obtain more from workers. The basic premise is that under the right kind of leadership, the more one side wins in a collaborative relationship, the more¿the other side wins too. The book is heavily evidence-based (using extensive employee survey data) and lays out two basic ideas: the “Three-Factor Theory” of human motivation at work and the “Partnership” company culture that is based on the Three-Factor Theory and that, by far, brings out the best in people as they respond with enthusiasm about what they do and the company they do it for. ¿ Drawing on research with 13,000,000+ employees in 840+ companies, The Enthusiastic Employee, Second Edition tells you what managers (from first-line supervisor to senior leadership) do wrong. Then it tells you something much more important: what to do instead. David Sirota and Douglas Klein detail exactly how to create an environment where enthusiasm flourishes and businesses excel. Extensively updated with new research, case studies, and techniques (they have added over 8.6 million employees and over 400 companies to their analyses ), it now contains a detailed study of Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s most effective healthcare organizations and a true representation of the principle of partnership, as well as more in-depth descriptions of private sector exemplars of partnership, such as Costco. ¿ 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage, first edition, ¿is about building an outstanding workforce, one that sets your company apart from competitors and is a true competitive advantage. It's about building a workforce that's truly engaged, committed, aligned with strategy, and capable of incredible performance. Simply put, it's about optimizing the #1 factor associated with outsmarting, outhustling, and out-executing your competition: your people. Through more than a dozen case studies, top workforce optimization consultant David Russo identifies exactly what great organizations do differently when it comes to managing their people. He distills these differences into 17 rules, covering everything from resourcing and compensation to leadership development, risk-taking to change management. You'll learn exactly how to apply these rules in your organization, whether you're large or small, high-tech or low-tech, profit-making or non-profit. Using Russo's techniques, companies can build genuine esprit de corps, virtually guaranteeing that the efforts, minds, and hearts of their employees are focused on the corporate mission, and challenged with producing outstanding results and competitive advantage. What's more, this book's techniques help companies attract and retain the kinds of talent best suited to their unique work environments, promoting long-term success, not just short-term "quick fixes."

Boy meats girl. They fall in love, only problem is the girl has "company". Follow the conflict against the dark forces. Can love survive, against the odds?