THESE ARE THE 8 BEST BOOKS OF ALL TIME, ACCORDING TO BILL GATES

When asked what advice he had for young people who want to make a positive impact on this world as part of a recent Reddit AMA (ask me anything) recently, Bill Gates's first suggestion was, "Read a lot." 

He's certainly taken his own advice. The billionaire entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist and super reader is constantly doling out book recommendations on his blog. 

Out of the dozens and dozens of titles he's mentioned over the years, which are his absolute favorites? In the course of the AMA Gates answers that too, naming eight diverse titles that he considers among his top books of all time. 

1. Grand Transitions by Vaclav Smil 

When Gates reviewed this book back in 2019, he called it "masterpiece" from "one of my favorite thinkers." While he cautioned the book is "not for everyone" and that "long sections read like a textbook or engineering manual," he also insisted that Smil's examination of the growth of just about everything, from dinosaurs to the number of transistors on a computer chip, is nothing short of brilliant. "Nobody sees the big picture with as wide an aperture as Vaclav Smil," Gates concluded. 

2. How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil 

Another title from the Czech-Canadian professor and Gates's favorite author, this one is apparently a light read compared to Smil's other more technical tomes. The book "represents the highly readable distillation of this lifetime of scholarship," according to The Wall Street Journal. It offers readers an overview of exactly how our material world, from concrete to fertilizer, is made. 

3. The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker 

"Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined stands out as one of the most important books I've read--not just this year, but ever," wrote Gates back in 2012. Apparently his opinion hasn't changed in a decade. 

Gates also had good things to say about Enlightenment Now, the follow-up book from the Harvard professor arguing that, despite appearances to the contrary, our world is not only growing less violent, but also more rational, prosperous, and all around better. If you're looking for a ray of sunshine amid the current gloom, maybe pick up one of these titles. 

4. The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

In his AMA, Gates says he's just finished this book by a First Amendment expert and social psychologist about the increasing unwillingness to engage with difficult ideas on college campuses, declaring it "good." A lot of critics seem to have agreed. 

The authors "do a great job of showing how 'safetyism' is cramping young minds. Students are treated like candles, which can be extinguished by a puff of wind," wrote Edward Luce in the Financial Times, concluding, "their book is excellent. Liberal parents, in particular, should read it."

5. Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein

This topical book by the well-known journalist and political analyst is also deemed "good" by Gates. The deeply researched book looks into what's driving Americans' division into highly partisan political camps.

"Reading Why We're Polarized is like having a conversation with a brilliant, extremely persuasive friend who has read everything and who is armed with scores of studies that he's able to distill into accessible bites," claims Amy Chua in Foreign Affairs. 

6. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Gates admits he reads a lot more nonfiction than fiction, but that doesn't mean he isn't profoundly moved by a novel now and again. In fact, he includes three on his best books ever list. In his 2019 review of this one about a Russian count sentenced to 30 years of house arrest in a hotel by the Bolsheviks, he confesses the novel brought him to tears. 

"A Gentleman in Moscow is an amazing story because it manages to be a little bit of everything. There's fantastical romance, politics, espionage, parenthood, and poetry," he writes, suggesting it not just for students of Russian history but for everyone who likes a great story well told.  

7. The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal

I have to confess I'm not entirely sure about this one, as Gates says only "Heart" is one of his favorites and there are a lot of books out there with the word "Heart" in the title. But I think it's a fair bet that he's referring to this novel about the untimely death of a young man and his family's decision to donate his heart because Gates wrote a rave review about it several years back. 

"It's poetry disguised as a novel," Gates said of the book at the time, noting, "At times I found myself reading more slowly than usual, simply because the way she describes things is so beautiful," He adds that the book forced him to face the depth of the grief of parents who have lost a child he encounters in the course of his philanthropic work. 

8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 

This Pulitzer-prize winning novel follows the story of a German soldier and a blind French girl whose lives collide during World War II. Critics used words like mesmerizing, exquisite, stunning, soulful, and hauntingly beautiful to describe it. Gates apparently also fell under the novel's spell, as it was the last book on his list of all-time favorites. 

CONTINUAL LEARNING MODE

Change Your Mindset
What is the difference between people in the bottom 80 percent and people in the top 20 percent? Simple. People in the top 20 percent have a different mind-set from people in the bottom 80 percent. Not only do the words they use have different meanings, but their thinking styles are different as well.

Top people are in continual learning mode. They are curious, interested, and eager to absorb new knowledge. They are hungry to learn. They read, listen to audio programs, attend seminars, and ask questions of people who know more than they do. They are great listeners. They take notes during every seminar and conversation.

Income and Information Go Together
The people in the top 20 percent see that there is a direct link between new information and increased income. They never stop improving. They know that one of the best time–management tools in the world is to get better at what you do. Geoffrey Colvin, author of the bestselling book Talent Is Overrated, refers to this as "deliberate practice."

The people who get ahead faster than others are those who deliberately invest the time and put in the hard word to learn and practice new, essential skills that can help them advance up the ladder of their careers. They never stop learning and growing. Their entire focus is to push to the front.

The Only Real Difference
In its simplest terms, the difference between people at the bottom of the ladder and people at the top is practical knowledge and skill. The people who are ahead today, and getting further ahead, are those who have the knowledge and skill that they require to excel in their fields. They continually add to that knowledge and skill.

Just as money grows with compound interest, knowledge and skills also grow through compounding. Each bet of valuable information that you learn makes your mind like Velcro, enabling you to recognize and hook onto other pieces of information that can help you do your job even better than before.

MEET THE 20 MOST PURPOSE-DRIVEN BRANDS OF 2022

It can seem hard to quantify a company's purpose--but not impossible. 

The 2022 Purpose Power Index is here, and it points to the 100 most purpose-driven companies at work in the U.S. today. The index is published by marketing and advertising agency StrawberryFrog and first-party data company Dynata and is the result of a survey of the U.S. general population, which looked at more than 200 companies across 50 industries. The index measures a few different elements of each company: Commitments to a purpose beyond profit, to improving lives, and to creating a better society and world, not just for shareholders. This is the third year that the Purpose Power Index has ranked companies according to these attributes. 

The top companies that made this year's Power Purpose 100 will likely sound familiar: The eco-friendly cleaning company Seventh Generation, owned by Unilever, once again took home the first spot, after taking home the top prize last year. The charitably oriented shoe company Toms also came in second place for the second year in a row. Toms's placement on this list is something of a surprise, given that its visionary founder Blake Mycoskie lost control of the business and was forced to sell to creditors in 2019. 

Compared to previous indexes, this year's top 20 includes more mainstream, billion-dollar businesses. This year, 10 companies are new to the top 20 spots on the Purpose Power Index, including Pfizer, Patagonia, and Zoom.

A company's sense of purpose isn't just important for altruistic reasons; as Dynata CEO Gary S. Laben noted while announcing the 2022 Purpose Power during Inc.'s Purpose Power Summit 2022 livestream event on Tuesday, a sense of purpose creates an economic benefits, too. Dynata's audience modeling tool found that 85 million U.S. consumers are motivated by company purpose to buy goods and services--and 149 million would choose to boycott a company based on its socio-political stance on issues. And not only that: A sense of purpose can also help a company to attract and retain talent, Scott Goodson, CEO and founder of StrawberryFrog wrote on Inc.com in February.

It's clear that U.S. audiences care about where companies stand--and these are the top 20 that they see making a real difference.

1. Seventh Generation

2. Toms

3. Zoom

4. Allbirds

5. AbbVie

6. Burt's Bees

7. Wegmans

8. USAA

9. Tesla

10. REI

11. Google

12. UnitedHealth Group

13. Pfizer

14. LG

15. Clorox

16. General Electric

17. Patagonia

18. Panera Bread

19. Toyota

20. Roche

HOW TO HELP AN EMPLOYEE WHO STRUGGLES WITH TIME MANAGEMENT

The tell-tale signs are there: Tasks done at the last minute, completed late, or even forgotten. Tardiness at meetings. No response to e-mails or replies at weird times, like 2 a.m. And more explanation of why items aren’t done than action to finish them.

You’ve got a direct report struggling with time management. As a manager, it can be challenging to know how to address the issue. On the one hand, you need them to get things done, and your natural tendency can be to respond in obvious annoyance at the lack of follow through or even to consider writing them up. On the other hand, you want to develop your team members. You may have truly brilliant individuals who you know have the potential to be exceptional contributors if they could only figure out how to use their time effectively.

As a time management coach, I talk with people who struggle in this area every day. I know how their brains work, and I help them to move into a place of higher levels of productivity.

If you’re a manager unsure of how to help, here are some practical steps you can take to improve the situation, starting today.

Acknowledge your own emotions.

If you’ve been managing this person for a long time, you’ve likely experienced a broad range of emotions ranging from mild irritation to outright infuriation. Your feelings will vary depending on how severe the issues have been, the stakes involved, your personality, your expectations, and your stress levels.

Before you give feedback to your employee, acknowledge your own emotions. Write out anything you might be thinking or feeling in a free-flow manner. Do not share your raw thoughts (via email or otherwise) with your colleague. This exercise is so you can become aware of your own internal state.

Process what you’re feeling on your own or with a trusted person and honestly assess why you’re so upset. Is it a lack of control? Fear? Embarrassment? Stress?

This process helps you to release pent up negative emotions before you give feedback so that you’re not overly harsh with your direct report and do more harm than good.

Assess your part.

Your direct report may very well have poor time management. But you might want to consider whether you also have poor time management skills and in which ways, if any, you’re contributing to the problem.

If you send over assignments last minute, don’t give clear direction, refuse to set priorities, have no follow-up system, or forget to give feedback, then your actions could be playing a role in the situation. If you also expect your employees to be constantly available through email, chat, or other channels, so they can’t set boundaries to complete focused work, you’re also partially at fault for the struggles they face.

By identifying these issues in advance of the feedback conversation, you can go in acknowledging where you could also have done better.

Pinpoint the stress.

Earlier this year, I had a situation I found very stressful with an outside contractor. There was a large project that I needed them to complete, and they were very delayed. One day as I was thinking about it, I realized that within the larger project, there were just a couple of distinct items that mattered most. Once those were done, my stress would dramatically decrease, and the other parts could take more time.

By clarifying my most important needs, I felt much less stressed and could communicate what I needed to get back most urgently, even if the whole project wasn’t done.

Take the time to think through exactly what’s causing issues for you with your direct report’s lack of time management: Do you not have what you need for important update meetings or presentations? Are you experiencing stress from them asking you to review things last minute? Are their actions costing you time or money? Do you feel anxious when there’s not good communication on status? Once you know this, it will help focus your feedback discussions.

Communicate what you need.

Once you know exactly what’s bothering you, calmly communicate exactly what you need, when you need it, and why you need it. You can also ask them what they need from you to help them be successful.

Although you may feel tempted to unload all of your frustration on your direct report about the stress they’ve caused you and the issues they’ve had, a harsh approach will typically backfire. They’ll be so overwhelmed by your anger and shut down or become defensive and stonewall. Take deep breathes, and try to remember that they likely mean well but simply struggle in this area.

Help at the start.

In some situations, simply giving feedback about what you need or want can improve the situation. But in others, you’ll need to do more to help things move forward.

To get your direct report started, consider taking these actions with them:

• Work with them to prioritize the work
• Brainstorm the direction to take
• Talk through the smaller parts
• Set up intermediate milestones
• Do some of the work with them in a meeting
• Team them up with colleagues
• Request daily updates on what they planned to do and what they’ve accomplished

Structuring the situation so that they can get and keep momentum can make a world of difference.

Appreciate progress.

When you start noticing movement in the right direction, show appreciation for each step forward. You may feel concerned that giving positive feedback too quickly when they haven’t done everything yet will cause them to slack off. But the opposite is usually true. Positive feedback helps to build their confidence, positivity, and motivation and can propel them toward better and better outcomes.

Your direct report likely knows they have really bad time management and may feel worse about it than you do. Laying into them is counterproductive; increased negative emotions about their work usually causes more delays, not less. Remember that you’re on the same team. Instead of tearing them down, build them up each step of the way.

Get outside support.

Sometimes you’re too close to a situation. No matter how hard you try, you can’t provide objective, calm feedback. Or your direct report may not be able to be honest with you about what’s truly going on, such as wasting hours each day scrolling on their phone or a situation at home that may be distracting them.

In these situations, it can be helpful to connect your employee with outside resources such as time management training, an internal coach, or an external coach who can help them to develop these skills. Someone with experience in helping people overcome these challenges and who is more emotionally distant from the situation can often be more effective than someone with a history of frustration.

As a manager, you can’t force anyone to improve their time management. But your communication and actions can make a huge difference in your direct report’s ability to overcome their struggles and increase their productivity.

by Elizabeth Grace Saunders