WINNER of the Dartmouth Book Awards, First Book Award (Non-Fiction) The “respectfully uncensored” story of how Mandy Rennehan’s savvy business skills and innovative thinking led her to the top of the male-dominated construction industry before the age of thirty Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Mandy Rennehan began her business career at the age of ten by catching bait and selling it to local fishermen. She was so good at her job, she knew she wanted to be her own boss one day. At the age of seventeen, Rennehan decided to strike out on her own, so she packed a hockey bag full of her belongings and fled to Halifax, where she began cold calling construction companies, volunteering to work for free, so she could learn more about contracting and the trades. Three years later, Rennehan had garnered all the experience she needed to start her own company, Freshco, a boutique retail maintenance and construction company. Still in her early twenties, Rennehan’s reputation as a knowledgeable and trustworthy contractor led to her first corporate contract with The Gap. Her business has since gone on to become a multi-million-dollar company whose clients are some of the top corporations in North America. Known as the Blue Collar CEO for her ability to seamlessly navigate between the white- and blue-collar worlds, and as a tireless advocate for the trades, this is the story of how Rennehan succeeded in business through honesty, integrity, and most of all, authenticity—by always remaining true to herself and her vision for success.
In Limbo, award-winning journalist Alfred Lubrano identifies and describes an overlooked cultural phenomenon: the internal conflict within individuals raised in blue-collar homes, now living white-collar lives. These people often find that the values of the working class are not sufficient guidance to navigate the white-collar world, where unspoken rules reflect primarily upper-class values. Torn between the world they were raised in and the life they aspire too, they hover between worlds, not quite accepted in either. Himself the son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, Lubrano informs his account with personal experience and interviews with other professionals living in limbo. For millions of Americans, these stories will serve as familiar reminders of the struggles of achieving the American Dream.
Essay on the personnel management of professional workers in the USA - examines occupational structure, occupational qualifications, work attitudes, labour productivity, wages, etc. Among nonmanual workers whose work involves creative thinking, Innovation, or complex problem solving ('gold-collar workers'); discusses the failure of traditional personnel management techniques in this respect; proposes alternatives destined to improve Motivation and job satisfaction; considers use of computerization to increase the brainpower of highly qualified workers.
Spending most of your time at work putting out fires? Frustrated with employees who don't do the job properly? Tired of your phone blowing up with questions and crises whenever you try to get away? In The 7-Power Contractor, former contractor and contracting business expert Al Levi lays out seven simple business powers that hundreds of owners have applied successfully to run their businesses with less stress and more success. In these pages, you will learn about the seven power concepts-Planning and Leadership, Operating, Financial, Staffing, Selling, Marketing, and Sales Coaching-you can use to run your business better. You'll also hear from other contractors about how their application of these concepts faithfully and consistently over time empowered them to transform their businesses and their lives forever. If you're ready to create a business you can run with less stress and more success, this book is for you.
"It's easier to compete when you're attracting great people instead of searching for good people." Mack Story"We just can't find any good people." is a phrase Mack hears far too often as he speaks to and interacts with leaders all across the USA. If you or a member of your leadership team has ever spoken these words, this book was written specifically for you. It doesn't have to be this way.Blue-Collar Leadership(R) & Culture will help you understand why culture is the key to becoming a sought after employer of choice within your industry.Culture matters because those who work there will determine who wants to work there.Becoming a sought after employer means, "People who don't work at your organization have a strong desire to work there."Becoming an employer of choice means, "People who already work at your organization have a strong desire to continue working there."Mack wrote Blue-Collar Leadership(R) & Culture specifically for leaders who want to become THE sought after employer of choice within their industry and in their area of operations.Sought after employers of choice attract great people and don't spend their time and resources constantly searching for good people.Mack has logged over 11,000 hours leading leaders and their blue-collar teams through process improvement, organizational change, and cultural transformation and speaks with his wife, Ria Story, on personal growth and leadership development throughout the USA as they help leaders transform their cultures and develop high performance teams.Although leaders in all industries at all levels will benefit greatly from this book, Mack structured the content specifically for the top leader who has never led a cultural transformation but is curious to find out what will be required. He'll help you not only discover why you should transform your culture, but also what to do and how to do it. Therefore, Mack includes many references and links to additional resources throughout the book that will support and accelerate your cultural transformation.Blue-Collar Leadership(R) & Culture is intended to not only teach, but also to serve as a tool, a guide, and a transformational road map for leaders who want to create a high impact culture that will become their greatest competitive advantage. It's a starting point for those who don't know how to start or those who want to become more intentional and methodical as they take their team to the next level and beyond.In Blue-Collar Leadership(R) & Culture, you'll also discover how to leverage the components of The Transformation Equation to create a culture that will support, attract, and retain high performance team members. To learn more about The Transformation Equation, visit GetTheTransformationEquation.com "My first words are, GET SIGNED UP! This training is not, and I stress, not your everyday leadership seminar! I have never been a part of anything like it. After 30 years in technology and two years in Concrete Construction, I have attended dozens and sent hundreds to the so-called 'Leadership-Training'...while all of the courses, classes, webinars, and seminars, had good intentions, nothing can touch what Mack and Ria Story provide...100% of the team that attended said that they were 'blown-away.'" Sam McLamb, VP Sam M. VP/COO
Stupid is the new smart—but it wasn’t always so Popular culture has divorced itself from the life of the mind. Who has time for great books or deep thought when there is Jersey Shore to watch, a txt 2 respond 2, and World of Warcraft to play? At the same time, those who pursue the life of the mind have insulated themselves from popular culture. Speaking in insider jargon and writing unread books, intellectuals have locked themselves away in a ghetto of their own creation. It wasn’t always so. Blue Collar Intellectuals vividly captures a time in the twentieth century when the everyman aspired to high culture and when intellectuals descended from the ivory tower to speak to the everyman. Author Daniel J. Flynn profiles thinkers from working-class backgrounds who played a prominent role in American life by addressing their intellectual work to a mass audience. Blue Collar Intellectuals shows us how much everyone—intellectual and everyman alike—has suffered from mass culture’s crowding out of higher things and the elite’s failure to engage the masses.
Becoming successful in today's America is simple: graduate high school, go to a good college, and get a white-collar job. That path is going to lead you to the biggest paycheck and the best opportunities. Right?The truth is, some of the most lucrative jobs out there are blue-collar jobs-yet society pushes the perception that being an auto mechanic, plumber, electrician, or construction worker somehow indicates a lack of success. A career in the skilled trades was once regarded as a good, honest profession. Now, we discourage young people from pursuing those careers in favor of racking up massive student loan debt and pursuing professional careers that may not always play to their strengths.In Blue Is the New White, Josh Zolin shows that success doesn't have to mean a college degree. He discovered this firsthand, rising through hard work from a technician at his dad's small business to the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company. There is more than one path to a stable career and a great financial future; in this book, you'll learn just how many opportunities await you in places you never thought to look.
