A self help book to working smarter not harder. In a world were we want everything to happen now it's a good place to start with some good hacks to start on the right foot. Good read.

This book is about improving your performance by changing your behaviour. The author suggests that at times we are successful despite some of the habits we have picked up along the way. He recommends making simple, small changes at an individual level before looking to make a change at a broader or, organisational level. It’s about changing beliefs first because your beliefs impact on your behaviour. He gives you practical tools to assess the changes you are looking to make and cautions that changing our behaviour takes longer than you think, yet reassures you that this is just the nature of changing your behaviour.

Much has been written about how interruptions and distractions reduce productivity and the author echoes these sentiments and, for example, advises that checking email less frequently can reduce our stress levels!

The POWER triangle is a key paradigm for changing behaviour, and here he outlines the importance of Purpose, Optimism, Way (The Way), Environment and Reinforcement to enabling change.

I loved the holistic approach to improving work performance, for example:
that health and well-being were not seen as an afterthought, but rather essential to improving performance,
the encouragement to surround myself with healthy, positive people in order to reinforce ideal behaviours,
the value of Yoga (a personal favourite of mine) and meditation.

I enjoyed this book and believe many others will gain valuable insights by reading it.

With many thanks to the author, Skyhorse Publishing and NetGalley for my free copy to review.

I feel like this book makes some strong points. It is an easy and short read with clear topics and summaries on those topics, which can be great if you are looking for a condensed, almost textbook approach to getting your life together.
That being said, I also feel like the tone of the author can be quite self-congratulatory at times and a big chunk of the content is nothing new. It is the sort of book you will feel empowered and productive reading, but you do not effectively take into real life. Because most of it is made up of common sense statements and things you deep down already know but do not practice anyway. And I do not feel like this book is the thing that will prompt you up to tackle those issues in real life. I think that is partly due to a bad management of examples throughout the manuscript. The author will pinpoint what he considers to be a successful people that apply what he is talking about in said chapter or subchapter, but those testimonies are so generic and lack context in such a way all these successful names end up merging into one big blob of forgettable average humans (not that there is anything wrong with being average). I think some editing and some rewriting would do the author some good, not necessarily to make his points clearer or shorter, but actually to make them more substantial and memorable.

In "Work Stronger," Pete Leibman introduces his models building stronger habits and a stronger life: The P.O.W.E.R. Pyramid and The Stronger Cycle. It appears that this book was written as the foundation to launching a new program targeting businesses to engage with him to bring these work stronger principles to their employees. Part compilation of insights from other sources, part success stories from executives that have found wins by implementing these sorts of models, part nutrition and fitness reminders (including a lot of references to the nutrition coaching community where he is certified & this feels a bit like a sell to that program, too) - this book is overloaded with informations and directions it is trying to guide you towards adopting. While a lot of executive success stories are included, it seemed like the repeated lengthy job titles/descriptions of these executives unnecessary wordcount to the text - and quotation highlights from these executives are minimized, even in shaded callouts, when the name/job title/description in the box are longer than the quotation.

Free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Book is available July 31st.

A really positive and inspiring look at habits and productivity, will leave you fired up for success!

The author explores daily and simple habits, such as strength training, that lead to higher performance and improves productivity at work. Mr. Leibman kept my interest through the entire book. Well written!

In the last few years I've begun physically strength-training and while I love it, I never thought how we need to strength-train for work.. My only focus in work was how to be more effective and how to use defense mechanisms to keep my stress levels as low as possible. The author immediately got my attention of why read his book: "You can be so much stronger than you realize. However, today's world can easily make you weaker -- physically, mentally, and psychologically. This is due to three key reasons...". Those reasons are the ones that have subconsciously (or consciously) add to daily frustrations/stress. Having a psychology and sports background, Mr. Leibman kept my interest in how to become a higher-performing employee while at the same time becoming a physically and mentally stronger person all around.

The author explores daily and simple habits that lead to higher performance and improves productivity at work. The tone of writing is active and you cannot help but feel as though, 'once you're done reading, get up and do this,' and I liked that. The book also includes the transformation experiences from CEOs and Top Level Executives who changed how they worked and embraced the working stronger lifestyle. I also noted that the author draws a lot from fitness and strength training in reinforcing this lifestyle. Thank you NetGalley for the eARC, this has given me insights on how to shake things up at work.