Review: The Soccer of Success: How the Beautiful Game Can Help You Achieve Goals in Business & Life by Ciarán McArdle

The Soccer of Success: How the Beautiful Game Can Help You Achieve Goals in Business & Life by Ciarán McArdle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC and an ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.  I found it helpful to have both formats available as there are some lists in the e-book and as I was listening along with the audiobook I always find it helpful to refer to the print version when lists are being read aloud.  The author did a good job with the narration and explaining his points, giving examples, and giving us his perspective.

This was a great common sense approach to achieving goals and setting yourself up for success.  The author uses soccer as an example for how elite professional soccer/football players around the world achieve their goals when it comes to training and living their dreams both on and off the field/pitch.  Having played soccer through high school and for fun through my adult life, the comparisons made a lot of sense to me.  His advice is common sense and straightforward, but sometimes you need to hear it to put it into action.  I've been struggling to get back into an exercise routine since COVID, but his method of prioritizing your top three at work and at home and eating the frog really resonated with me.  I found myself listening to this while I was getting some exercise, and thinking to myself "This isn't that hard, I can do this!  I really need to eat that frog."  Eating the frog refers to a concept of performing and prioritizing undesirable tasks, like exercise, first so you get them out of the way instead of putting them off until last so you never get them done.

My own kids want to be high achievers when it comes to sports and have high aspirations in their future careers.  I think this book would be great for a new high school or college grad.  The author speaks to breaking your day up into chunks to increase efficiency and prioritizing tasks, and most importantly turning off your phone to prevent internet distractions.  The book is not very long but McArdle gets to the point and lays out his keys to success in an understandable way.  If you are fan of soccer I think this will really hit home if you are struggling to prioritize or looking for some perspective on goal setting.  

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Review: Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance by Erica Dhawan

Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance by Erica Dhawan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my second book by the author and I was really excited to listen to the audio version as it was narrated by the author. She does a wonderful job as a narrator. Her work as a professional speaker and coach really shines through in her narration. You can really tell she has a passion for the subject, and I really appreciated that she provided personal and professional examples in the book. This book is so relevant given our current situation with many companies working virtually due to the COVID pandemic. I worked from home several days a week prior to COVID and found so many points that were made in this book very relevant. I wish I had read this several years ago. I can't tell you how many times I have questioned the tone in an email I received or sent, and this book may have made translating it a little easier. It has become more and more difficult to network in my industry during this time when face to face events aren't happening, and the "return to normal" isn't clear yet. We have transitioned to a "zoom" meeting culture and getting involved can become difficult. There are some really good tips on how to manage that in here. Now that much of the workforce has proven the ability to work from home, I expect more and more flexibility from companies moving forward from the corporate sector. I believe books like this can really help many of us navigate this world of video chats, professional texting, instant messages, and deciphering tone in digital communications.

I liked that she discussed gender and age differences when it comes to communicating digitally. As we move to a more digital forum, what I feel is professional as a mid-career professional may seem blunt and cold to an intern who as accepted an entirely different way of communicating. I also liked that she pointed out that you have to tailor your communication to your audience and your business environment. As a seasoned project manager I have always had a communication plan for my stakeholders so this makes perfect sense to me. By adding a few more criteria to that plan I can be much more successful in communicating with others in and out of the workplace.

I was provided an audio arc via Netgalley, all opinions are my own. This releases today May 11, 2021 and I plan on purchasing a physical copy for myself so I can reference some of the key points that the author made about punctuation and use of emojis as well as other ideas in this new digital world of communications. This would also be a great gift for new college graduates as they plan to enter the work force and head off into virtual interviews and crafting quality digital communications. I'll be recommending this to my professional colleagues as well.

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