Books: mindset over matter

Put your Mindset to Work
James Reed and Paul Stoltz. Portfolio. €16.99

Ostensibly a book for those looking for a new job, this volume concerns attitude to work in a wider context. It makes the point that what employers look for is a good mindset. This includes qualities such as integrity, tenacity, goodwill, agility, openness and perspective.

Mindset trumps skills in many ways, according to the authors, who back up their analysis with their own research amongst employers. Given the choice between someone with the desired mindset and someone with the complete skillset who lacks it, 96 per cent said they would prefer the former.

One of the reasons why more American and European MBA programmes send their students to India and China is to jar them loose from complacency, the book notes. Once they confront the vibrant intensity of the entrepreneurial, determined, possibility-fuelled young people they meet in these countries, they suddenly realise what they are up against.

The book provides readers with a way of gauging their mindset, tips for strengthening it and ideas for how to apply the best of your mindset to get, then advance and flourish in, the best jobs.