We have goals for ourselves, our team, our institution and it’s the time of year when many of us review those goals and our progress towards them. Gleeson Library offers some resources to support this process, including communication, setting boundaries and expectations, and supporting our colleagues.
Conversations about job performance: a communication perspective on the appraisal process by Michael E. Gordon and Vernon D. Miller (2011)
“As the appraisal process is intended as a means for discovering and sharing information about employee performance, this institutional interaction should be designed to facilitate communication. The relevance of communication to the appraisal process is apparent when one considers that many of the problems associated with traditional performance appraisal stem from procedures that interfere with effective information discovery and sharing and with collaborative conversations.”
10 Steps to Flawless Appraisal Interviews from Video Education Australasia. [video, 16 minutes]
The manager’s guide to employee feedback: master this essential management skill and boost your team’s performance by Glenn Devey (2014)
“Creating the environment and readiness for effective communication in the workplace is a critical leadership skill for people, whatever role they perform. For a team to achieve optimal performance, all members of the team carry the responsibility to hold themselves and each other to account for fulfilling their role. Being able to deliver strong messages of support and of expectation with clarity and respect for colleagues is a skill to be developed and nurtured for all aspiring leaders; principles of EARSHOT: Evidence-based, Activity-focused, Results-orientated, Specific, Honesty, Only positive language, Timed well”
Feedback in performance reviews by E. Wayne Hart (2011)
“You can make performance reviews win-win for all the stakeholders if you understand how and when to use different types of feedback, if you can combine different types of feedback for maximum benefit, and if your feedback engages, informs, empowers, and inspires employees.”
Preparing for My Appraisal from Seven Dimensions Films of Australia [video, 8 minutes]
Skills for Career Success Maximizing Your Potential at Work by Elaine Biech (2021)
“This book can help you tap into what you are passionate about, what skills you have, and what skills you need. You also need to look to the future to determine what skills will be required—that is, what will someone pay you for? And what’s the gap between what you want to do, can do, and still need to learn to do? That’s where you can make a difference for you. You can determine how to upskill and reskill your proficiency so that you can win the race to the career you desire.”
Communication is all year long
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition by Joseph Grenny (2012)
“What makes each of these conversations crucial—and not simply challenging, frustrating, frightening, or annoying—is that the results could have a huge impact on the quality of your life. In each case, some element of your daily routine could be forever altered for better or worse. If you know how to handle crucial conversations, you can effectively hold tough conversations about virtually any topic.”
Get heard, get results: how to get buy-in for your ideas and initiatives by Simon Dowling (2019)
“What many of us don’t get is an opportunity to formally learn the skills required to build cooperation and buy-in…This book will show you how to get heard and get results…It will equip you with the skills to become a true catalyst of change…build genuine agreement and commitment and convert buy-in into meaningful long-term change.”
Message Received: 7 Steps to Break Down Communication Barriers at Work by Mary Donohue (2021)
“Today, we are in the midst of what I call the Great Digital Crisis, when the message sent is not the message received. My data tells me that we understand only 20 percent of what is communicated through digital technology. We make best guesses the other 80 percent of the time, what I call the assumption rate…which is causing us unheard-of levels of stress….Constant misunderstanding is like plaque in the brain: it builds up over time. You don’t know it’s happening until you suddenly realize you are exhausted, disengaged from your job, and angry all the time—classic burnout symptoms.”
Words that work in business: a practical guide to effective communication in the workplace by Ike Lasater with Julie Stiles (2019)
Based in Nonviolent Communication, “Words That Work In Business…tells you where to focus your attention and what conduct to engage in—what to say and do—in challenging workplace situations…Did what just happened meet your needs, or when looking to the future, do you predict that one strategy versus another will better meet your needs? When you are consistently assessing and acting to meet your needs, you experience increased satisfaction and meaning in your life. With that, you’re more effective in contributing to others’ well-being.”
Think on your feet: tips and tricks to improve your impromptu communication skills on the job by Jen Oleniczak Brown (2020)
“Improv at its core is about listening and responding. It’s based on rules and techniques, and it taps directly into your soft communication skills. By incorporating it into your prep work for professional situations, you’ll learn how to retrain your brain for the unexpected and get out of your own way in those unexpected—and expected—professional situations. Practicing improv isn’t about being funny. Instead, it’s about developing the mental agility to spin any surprise in your favor and to communicate with confidence.”
Writing for the Workplace by Janet Mizrahi (2015)
“The task of writing can be broken down to three separate steps, for which I’ve developed an acronym: AWE, short for assess, write, and edit.”
Set boundaries, find peace: a guide to reclaiming yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab (2021)
“This book presents a clearly outlined formula for knowing when you have a boundary issue, communicating the need for a boundary, and following it up with action. This process isn’t always pretty. Communicating what you want and need is tough at first. And dealing with what comes after can be downright uncomfortable. But the more you do it, the easier it gets —especially when you experience the peace of mind that follows.”
The assertiveness guide for women: how to communicate your needs, set healthy boundaries, and transform your relationships by Julie de Azevedo Hanks (2016)
“This book will teach you how to develop emotional awareness and to allow your feelings to guide you but not overwhelm you. You will gain the tools to effectively expand beyond unhelpful communication patterns…involves not only the clear communication piece but also how to know what you feel, think, want, and need in the first place.”
Emotional Intelligence Pocketbook: Little Exercises for an Intuitive Life by Gil Hasson (2017)
“Emotional intelligence can help you to live and work with others more easily…You’re more able to sense and manage the emotional needs of others. You’re more able to think before responding and know to give yourself and others time to calm down if emotions become overwhelming….emotional intelligence is not only about understanding and managing difficult situations and emotions. It’s also about knowing how to engage the ‘feel good’ emotions that can give you and other people positivity, confidence, support, motivation and inspiration.”
Your perfect right: assertiveness and equality in your life and relationships by Robert Alberti, PhD, and Michael Emmons, PhD. (2017)
“Discussion of what it means to be assertive…procedures for developing assertive behaviors that express your needs and feelings while respecting the other people in your life…exploration of some practical applications of assertive action: handling anger, responding to put-downs, assertiveness on the job, and dealing with difficult people…guidelines for deciding when to be assertive or not, and responding when assertiveness doesn’t work…”
curated by Penny Scott and Justine Withers
For technical assistance, read our guides on Using Ebooks and Videos and Streaming Media Collections.