ORK TIMES article, "3 Professors Shaping the Future of Business," Professor Alex Stajkovic brings his MBA class to life by teaching us how to be more effective managers and how to grow into transformational leaders. Based on decades of empirical research, he shows us how to put sound theory into practice to increase the motivation and performance of our people.

Management and Leadership are taught in almost all MBA programs. Many schools require these topics in an opening class. Paraphrasing a renowned physicist, Robert Oppenheimer, physics would be really hard if particles could talk. In the study of Management and Leadership, we focus on people. People talk, talk back, and come with different preferences, attitudes, and personalities. Some work less, some work more. Some are more agreeable, some are less open-minded. Some are happy, and some are grumpy. Yet, managers and leaders need to motivate all employees.

What power-holders do is often at odds with the best evidence. Learning how to motivate and lead is fundamental to an organization's success. Half-truths de jour are dangerous because they can be partly right. However, these myths are misleading often enough to get many organizations into serious trouble.

This pocketbook is a straight-forward, easy-to-read reference guide to classic theories in work motivation. Making business choices based on fiery proclamations, flimsy data, and equivocal recommendations leads to questionable results. Evidence-based answers are needed.

Tolstoy opens up his novel Anna Karenina with this unforgettable line:

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Organizations must assemble the right mix of ingredients to produce a recipe for success. Misery is more idiosyncratic, but few things in business bring a company down faster than a demotivated workforce antagonized by insolent leadership and ineffective management.

In conversations with leaders, a common theme emerges. Many did not have an opportunity to study the psychology of leadership before they found themselves consumed by its demands. They recollect how it was only after their leadership tenure ended that they found time to study the subject that had filled their lives for decades.

How do you motivate employees to reach their goals and go above and beyond?

In this pocketbook, Professor Stajkovic and Sergent use research, stories, history, philosophy, and religion to answer these questions in a to-the-point style that readers and students have come to expect and appreciate.

Whether you've taken Professor Stajkovic's class, watched one of his webinars, or read one of his many academic publications, this pocketbook is for anyone who wants evidence-based tips on becoming a more effective manager and inspirational leader.