About the Book
FINALIST: American Book Fest Best Book Award 2020 - Business: Careers
Success. Innovation. Creativity. Growth. We all want these things at work - but the one thing they all have in common is that they involve failure.
A fear of failure, or the inability to bounce back and learn from failures, is one of the biggest things that can hold us back in our professional development - so how do we learn how to fail well and develop our resilience? Wherever we work, and whatever role we deliver, we all have the power to change our thinking and our response to failure - Bounce Back is here to help.
Written by Business Psychologist Dr Susan Kahn, this book will show you how to embrace failure. Failing fast, failing well, and learning how to be agile and resilient at work is a vital part of being a successful and innovative leader, approaching opportunities with excitement and creativity, and driving forward your personal and professional growth.
Packed with practical exercises, inspirational case studies and a useful resilience self-assessment guide, Bounce Back will show you how to invest in your resilience in a deliberate way, and empower you to face risk head-on. From learning how to respond well to critical feedback, to understanding cultural attitudes to failure around the world, this book will help you be a stronger, more resilient you.
Table of Contents:
Chapter - 00: Introduction;
Chapter - 01: Fail fast;
Chapter - 02: Brain and body;
Chapter - 03: Below the surface;
Chapter - 04: Change, disruption and loss;
Chapter - 05: Leadership;
Chapter - 06: Conflict;
Chapter - 07: Purpose;
Chapter - 08: Closing thoughts;
About the Author :
Dr Susan Kahn is a business psychologist, coach, consultant and mediator. As a coach, she works together with individuals and their organizations to help clients develop and enhance their authentic leadership style. As a mediator, she is skilled in improving working relationships and developing common understanding between parties in toxic relationships. In addition, she is a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, teaching coaching and organizational psychology, and is a faculty member at the School of Life, working with businesses to develop their emotional intelligence.
Review :
"What a brilliant subject for a book, courageously chosen and boldly tackled. We all fail. What matters is what we do next, how we cope with it. I will still fail, but after reading Susan's Kahn's first-rate book I know I can bounce back. And if I can cope more confidently with failure, I'm more likely to succeed."
"How to fail fast and be resilient at work should be a staple on any entrepreneur's bookshelf. Susan Kahn's book is full of practical advice and tools for anyone trying to understand themselves deeper, become a better leader and co-worker, and live a balanced life. Not a book to simply be read, but a manual that also gives its reader space for introspection and questioning."
"In Bounce Back, Susan Kahn provides a comprehensive exploration of our resilience both at work and in our personal lives. Susan skillfully weaves insights from neuroscience, psychoanalysis and positive psychology to create a practical and essential guide to building more resilient behaviours. The book also explores issues of human purpose with the help of Aristotle, Frankl and the Japanese idea of Ikigai, as well as key concepts in leadership (and followership!) which explore with kindness and compassion the difficulties that we face leading in the modern world of work. Each chapter finishes with some helpful and readily applicable exercises which can be put into practice straight away by the reader. In short, a thoroughly enjoyable, well researched and hugely practical book which is essential reading in these uncertain times."
"Often books like this fall between two types. They are either too to complex and psychological, or too quick fix and simplistic. Dr Susan Kahn has squared that circle by producing a book which mixes real depth and richness with accessible practical advice. There's no better book on resilience that you could read."
"This wonderful book by Dr Susan Kahn focuses on what many believe to be the key to success at work - our psychological resilience and our ability to thrive - rather than crumble - in a changing environment."
"Dr Susan Kahn writes of that most human of dichotomies: our drive to succeed, and our fear of failure. It is here that she places resilience, not as a binary construct, but something malleable, adaptable, flexible and (importantly) something that can be learned and developed. Powerful exercises bring the material to life, and allow for deeper insights. Bounce Back is a deeply compassionate and optimistic work."
"Bounce Back is energising, expertly and elegantly written. With well researched explanations and practical exercises to help the reader reflect and advance, Bounce Back will lift you out of 'stuck' and into hopeful and empowered. Every employee should read it. So should their managers and leaders."
"Susan takes us on a journey of better understanding of how to harness our ability to bounce back. Resilience is a trait to be practiced and developed and reclaimed in or modern world. Easily accessible, her chapters encourage understanding and growth, and dipping into the tasks will create personal development. Her examples encourage us to risk, embrace failure with positivity and bounce back stronger."
"Anyone reading Bounce Back cannot fail to pick up highly useful strategies for achieving results. It is steeped in carefully thought through, logically assembled suggestions. The writing style is informative, practical and backed with robust references. This self-help book covers a broad range of accessible, easy to implement ideas. There will be more than one that personally resonates and that can be actioned to achieve impact."
"In this book, Susan brings together her considerable experience into a crucial yet fun and practical business book. Bouncing back from failure is what makes great entrepreneurs. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it and doing some of the exercises with my colleagues."
"Dr Susan Kahn has written an incredibly accessible book that is a valuable read for anybody at any stage of a career, whether starting out or running the business, as well as those who are keen to support and understand those facing difficulties. Reading this book will provide insight, understanding, strength and empathy as well as providing tools to rebound and succeed, and to assist others to do so. As a professional working day to day on troubling management issues arising from personal and professional troubles, I can easily envisage how lessons learnt from this book would both avoid issues arising and enable a swifter and more effective bounce back to strength."
