Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular workdays. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about management that makes a difference.

From Ravin Jesuthasan: The 8 Ways Companies Get Work Done, and How to Align Them

“To succeed in this new world of work, leaders need to focus on two things. They need to have a better understanding of the eight different sources of labor, and they need to better align the interests of these sources of work to create a unifying culture. In other words, leaders need to ‘use culture as the new structure.’ This is a phrase coined by my friend and colleague Leena Nair, chief human resources officer at Unilever, and it captures the essence of the glue that binds together these various work options.”

From the London School of Economics: How management structures can help firms hire and keep their best people

“More structured managerial practices have a strong relationship with firm productivity, writes Daniela Scur.”

From Katia Savchuk: How Much Does Management Matter to Productivity?

“More than you might realize. Research finds management practices account for 20% of variation in productivity among certain firms.”

From Roger Martin and Tony Golsby-Smith: Management: So Much More Than a Science

“Is it right to equate intellectual rigour with data analysis? If the answer is no — as we suggest in this article — then how should managers arrive at their decisions?”

From Mike Myatt: Leaders Stop Trying to Be Efficient

“Let me ask you a question – Have you become so efficient that you’ve rendered yourself ineffective? At an organizational level, have you focused so much on process improvements and incremental gains that you’ve failed to engage people, and seek opportunities to be disruptive? Are you efficient or effective, or do you know?”

Book Suggestions

Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach for Applying Automation to Work by Ravin Jesuthasan and John W. Boudreau

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by Roger L. Martin, A.G. Lafley, et al.

Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly by Mike Myatt

Every Monday, I do a blog post about business reading and business books. Follow this link to my review of The Power of Full Engagement.