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07.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2022
HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in July 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
In any high-pressure environment, from special operations to the operating theatre, you can divide people into two groups - those who control their performance from the inside out, and those whose performance is controlled from the outside in. In Inside Out, Charlie Unwin, one of the world's leading performance psychologists, explains the techniques that enable the elite to perform at their best under immense pressure. It reveals how they think, prepare and perform, taking you inside the highly unpredictable modern battlefield, the chaos of the catwalk, the operating theatre, the stadium, the maximum-security prison and the opera house. Whatever the challenge, whether life-or-death, or simply chasing a promotion at work, we are all susceptible to becoming 'outside in' - when you start paying more attention to the thought of not messing up than the process of doing something well. The 'Inside Out' method helps you gain control so that you can have a greater impact. It's about mindset, learning new skills, maintaining confidence and sustaining great results over time.
Exploring the dos and don’ts of sustainable corporate innovation, this book explains the most frequently made mistakes and highlights the most common pitfalls in the innovation process. To remain successful, organizations must be able to respond effectively to the fast pace of change or even stay one step ahead of it. To make this possible, it is crucial to look at the future in the right way. This means embracing uncertainty, seizing opportunities and recognizing threats in good time. Through the author's insightful and knowledgeable text, you will gain greater insight into the technological evolutions of the next 10 years and discover how this insight can be turned into a concrete approach that will build future-proof and successfully innovating companies and organisations.
In Driving Results: Six Lessons Learned from Transforming an Iconic Company, now-retired Bridgestone CEO Gary Garfield delivers an incisive and eye-opening road map of how to transform any organization, department, or group. Through a series of massive changes, Garfield drove record results while the CEO. By sharing his learnings on driving change in this insightful book, you’ll learn how you can use the six essential elements to drive results through change at your organization or with your team.
In The Upside of Uncertainty, INSEAD professor Nathan Furr and entrepreneur Susannah Harmon Furr provide a sweeping guide to embracing uncertainty and transforming it into a force for good. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, along with pioneering research in psychology, innovation, and behavioral economics, Nathan and Susannah provide dozens of tools—including mental models, techniques, and reflections—for seeing the upside of uncertainty, developing a vision for what to do next, and opening ourselves up to new possibilities.
From the leading theorist of the Metaverse comes the definitive account of the next internet: what the Metaverse is, what it will take to build it, and what it means for all of us. The term “Metaverse” is suddenly everywhere, from the front pages of national newspapers and the latest fashion trends to the plans of the most powerful companies in history. It is already shaping the policy platforms of the US government, the European Union, and the Chinese Communist Party. But what, exactly, is the Metaverse? As pioneering theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball explains, it is a persistent and interconnected network of 3D virtual worlds that will eventually serve as the gateway to most online experiences, and also underpin much of the physical world. For decades, these ideas have been limited to science fiction and video games, but they are now poised to revolutionize every industry and function, from finance and healthcare to education, consumer products, city planning, dating, and well beyond.
The ability to persuade and influence is the cornerstone of success. In Ignite a Shift, internationally acclaimed speaker Stephen McGarvey explores the subtleties of effective communication and highlights the essential fact that thinking impacts emotions which drive behavior. It is the quintessential guide to communication, positive persuasion and influencing with integrity. It reveals the proven techniques that the world's most effective leaders are using to motivate themselves and others to excel professionally and personally.
   
“To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.” — Cicero
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 03:01 PM
06.20.22
10 Books You Should Read This Summer
HER FATHER was an Olympic athlete, and her mother a physical education instructor. And unlike her siblings, Grace Kelly preferred reading to physical activity. Although her father was well-read, her proclivity to read didn’t always sit well with her father. He wanted her to be more athletic. At school, she was encouraged to read widely. And she did. And we should too. For me, reading some fiction is like taking a walk. It provides a diversion that gives your mind a chance to think through what you’ve been reading and learning. Especially for leaders, reading outside the normal leadership fare helps to provide you with context for your leadership. Reading fiction, histories, and biographies builds empathy and provide insights into human nature. While I like just about everything from David Baldacci, like his latest Dream Town, I also like to go back and read classics from authors like John Steinbeck. Wally Bock recommends that we take this time to read something we’ve always wanted to read, something to read for fun, and something we’ve never read about or that really stretches our brain. He even provides a helpful, downloadable sheet to help organize our list. With a few extra hours of daylight, the summer is an ideal time to relax and read. Listed below are ten books released this year that will entertain, make you think, and improve your leadership. Pick at least three and take some time to make yourself better this summer.
And I can’t leave out Build. If you’re looking for business or career wisdom, this is the book to turn to now.
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:22 AM
06.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2022
HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
In The Power of One More, you'll: • Learn why you're closer to your dreams and goals than you think and why using The Power of One More strategies will help you cross the finish line in whatever race you're running; • Understand the psychology and science of how to use The Power of One More in every part of your life will help you solve problems and achieve levels of success you never thought possible; • Discover time-tested and unique solutions to challenges that will remove the mental roadblocks you've been battling for years
Drawing insights from its strategies, structure, and history, Seo teaches readers the skills of competitive debate, and in doing so shows how they can improve their communication with friends, family, and colleagues alike. He takes readers on a thrilling intellectual adventure into the eccentric and brilliant subculture of competitive debate, touching on everything from the radical politics of Malcom X to Artificial Intelligence. Seo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, far from being a source of conflict, good-faith debate can enrich our daily lives. Indeed, these good arguments are essential to a flourishing democracy, and are more important than ever at time when bad faith is all around.
Is power the last dirty secret or the secret to success? Both. While power carries some negative connotations, power is a tool that can be used for good or evil. Don’t blame the tool for how some people used it. If fully understood and harnessed effectively, power skills and understanding become the keys to increasing salaries, job satisfaction, career advancement, organizational change, and, happiness. In 7 Rules of Power, Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, provides the insights that have made both his online and on-campus classes incredibly popular—with life-changing results often achieved in 8 or 10 weeks. Rooted firmly in social science research, Pfeffer’s 7 rules provide a manual for increasing your ability to get things done, including increasing the positive effects of your job performance.
In Building Trust: Exceptional Leadership in an Uncertain World, Darryl Stickel, one of the world’s foremost experts on trust, outlines his groundbreaking Trust Unlimited blueprint for building trust. Stickel moves away from the traditional approach of influencing people’s willingness to trust—the con artist’s tactic—to employing one or more of ten levers, which leaders can “pull” to close the gap between how much they are trusted and how much they should be. This approach also makes them more trustable and increases trust where it is deficient. Detailed case studies provide examples of his Trust Unlimited model in action.
What is the difference between a startup that makes it, and one that crashes and burns? Behind every story of success is an unfair advantage. But an Unfair Advantage is not just about your parents' wealth or who you know: anyone can have one. An Unfair Advantage is the element that gives you an edge over your competition. This groundbreaking book shows how to identify your own Unfair Advantages and apply them to any project. Drawing on over two decades of hands-on experience, Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba offer a unique framework for assessing your external circumstances in addition to your internal strengths. Hard work and grit aren't enough, so they explore the importance of money, intelligence, location, education, expertise, status, and luck in the journey to success. From starting your company, to gaining traction, raising funds, and growth hacking, The Unfair Advantage helps you look at yourself and find the ingredients you didn't realize you already had, to succeed in the cut-throat world of business.
Leading lightly is about looking at what you do through a radical new lens. It’s a way to powerfully transform your performance, make better decisions, gain greater self-awareness, and develop the capacity to manage your work and life with enduring ease and clarity. An alternative to the everyday stress, pace, challenges, and burdens that weigh you down, Leading Lightly shows you how to shift your mindset, live lighter, and optimize your effectiveness. Part leadership, part mental fitness, part health and wellness guide, this book empowers you to work at your best and operate at your fullest potential.
  
“To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.” — Cicero
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:54 AM
05.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for May 2022Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
What passes for strategy in too many businesses, government agencies, and military operations is a toxic mix of wishful thinking and a jumble of incoherent policies. Richard P. Rumelt’s breakthrough concept is that leaders become effective strategists when they focus on challenges rather than goals, pinpointing the crux of their pivotal challenge—the aspect that is both surmountable and promises the greatest progress—and taking decisive, coherent action to overcome it. Rumelt defines the essence of the strategist’s skill with vivid storytelling, from how Elon Musk found the crux that propelled the success of SpaceX to how the American military came to grips with the weaknesses of its battle strategy. Musk’s core challenge, for example, was rocket reusability. His intense focus on the soft landing of SpaceX’s rockets enabled them to be used again—radically reducing the cost of putting a pound in orbit. Musk’s strategy was not based on how value is created or how to position SpaceX in its industry. It was a design foraction, the mental maneuver that focuses energy on what really made a difference through understanding the crux and creating an effective response that led to breakthrough.
“We are living an earned life when the choices, risks, and effort we make in each moment align with an overarching purpose in our lives, regardless of the eventual outcome.” That’s the definition of an earned life. But for many of us, that pesky final phrase is a stumbling block: “regardless of the eventual outcome.” Not being attached to the outcome goes against everything we’re taught about achievement and fulfillment in modern society. But now, in his most personal and powerful work to date, world-renowned leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith offers a dazzling but simple approach that accommodates both our persistent need for achievement and the inescapable “stuff happens” unfairness of life. Goldsmith implores readers to avoid the Great Western Disease of “I’ll be happy when. . . .” He offers practical advice and exercises aimed at helping us shed the obstacles, especially the failures of imagination, that prevent us from creating our own fulfilling lives. With this book as their guide, readers can close the gap between what they plan to achieve and what they actually get done—and avoid the trap of existential regret, the kind that reroutes destinies and persecutes our memories. Packed with illuminating stories from Goldsmith’s legendary career as a coach to some of the world’s highest-achieving leaders as well as reflections on his own experiences, The Earned Life is a road map for ambitious people seeking a higher purpose.
Unresolved workplace conflict wastes time, increases stress, and negatively affects business outcomes. But conflict isn’t the problem, mismanagement is. Leaders unintentionally mismanage conflict when they fall into patterns of what Marlene Chism calls “the Three As:” aggression, avoidance, and appeasing. “These coping mechanisms are ways human beings avoid the emotions that come with conflict, but in the end it’s all avoidance,” says Chism. In this book she shows how to fearlessly deal with conflict head-on by expanding your conflict capacity. Conflict capacity is a combination of three elements. The foundation is the Inner Game—the leader’s self-awareness, values, discernment, and emotional integrity. The Outer Game is the skills, tools, and communication techniques built on that foundation. Finally, there’s Culture—the visible and invisible structures around you that can encourage or discourage conflict.
Reggie Fils-Aimé, retired President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America Inc., shares leadership lessons and inspiring stories from his unlikely rise to the top. Although he’s best known as Nintendo's iconic President of the Americas-immortalized for opening Nintendo’s 2004 E3 presentation with, “My name is Reggie, I'm about kicking ass, I'm about taking names, and we're about making games”-Reggie Fils-Aimé’s story is the ultimate gameplan for anyone looking to beat the odds and achieve success. Learn from Reggie how to leverage disruptive thinking to pinpoint the life choices that will make you truly happy, conquer negative perceptions from those who underestimate or outright dismiss you, and master the grit, perseverance, and resilience it takes to dominate in the business world and to reach your professional dreams.
At the heart of Admiral James Stavridis’s training as a naval officer was the preparation to lead sailors in combat, to face the decisive moment in battle whenever it might arise. In To Risk it All, he offers up nine of the most useful and enthralling stories from the US Navy’s nearly 250-year history, and draws from them a set of insights that we can all put to use when confronted with fateful choices. Conflict. Crisis. Risk. These words have a distinct meaning in a military context that we hope will never apply identically in our own lives. But at the same time, as Admiral Stavridis shows with great clarity, many lessons are universal. To Risk it All is filled with thrilling and heroic exploits, but it is anything but a shallow exercise in myth burnishing. Every leader in this book has real flaws, as all humans do, and the stories of failure, or at least the decisions that have been defined as such, are as crucial as the stories of success. In the end, when this master class is concluded, we will be better armed for hard decisions both expected and not.
Most people try their best to avoid conflict. Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer understands that. Conflict can have negative results. It’s easy to think that the key to a happy workplace or marriage is to avoid conflict. In reality, that’s not the case—the key is to argue smarter. Enter the Toolkit for Getting Conflict Right. Taffer’s approach is focused on deliberate conflict—otherwise known as “conflict with a purpose.” There are selective and strategic ways to have difficult conversations, and when doing so, to stay aware of your objectives rather than escalating tension unnecessarily. As Taffer explains, “The key is to act affirmatively, constructively, and productively.” Eliminating conflict isn’t always the answer; inevitably there will be times when it will arise. Engaging in conflict can be a way to clear the air, and get to the bottom of issues that, once resolved, can strengthen friendships, ease tensions at work, and address problems before they have a chance to bubble over.
  
 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.” — Cicero
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:15 AM
04.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for April 2022Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
You've long been told to "Do what you love." Sounds simple, but the real challenge is how to do this in a world not set up to help you. Most of us actually don't know the real truth of what we love—what engages us and makes us thrive—and our workplaces, jobs, schools, even our parents, are focused instead on making us conform. Sadly, no person or system is dedicated to discovering the crucial intersection between what you love to do and how you contribute it to others. In this eye-opening, uplifting book, Buckingham shows you how to break free from this conformity—how to decode your own loves, turn them into their most powerful expression, and do the same for those you lead and those you love.
Over a stellar career, Roger Martin has advised the CEOs of some of the world's most successful companies. From the beginning, he noted that almost every executive he talked to had a "model"—a framework or way of thinking that guided their strategy and activities. But these models tended to become automatic, so much so that when one didn't work, the typical response was just to apply it again—with greater enthusiasm. Martin took a fresh, critical approach to helping. When company leaders came to him with fundamental questions—How do you decide where to play and how to win? What is the key to shaping and changing corporate culture? How can you design a successful, sustainable innovation process?—his first response was to break the spell of the current model with a memo articulating a new way to think about the problem at hand and a more powerful and effective way to successfully overcome it.
Why is leading innovation in today’s dynamic business environment so distressingly hit-or-miss? More than 90 percent of high-potential ventures don’t reach their projected targets. Surveys show that 80 percent of executives consider innovation crucial to their growth strategy, but only 6 percent are satisfied with their innovation performance. Should leaders aim for Steve Jobs-level genius, shower their projects with resources, or lean in to luck and embrace uncertainty? None of the above, say Christopher Bingham and Rory McDonald. Drawing on cutting-edge research and probing interviews with hundreds of leaders across three continents, in Productive Tensions Bingham and McDonald find that the most effective leaders and successful innovators embrace the tensions that arise from competing aims: efficiency or flexibility? consistency or change? product or purpose? Bingham and McDonald spotlight eight critical tensions that every innovator must master, and they spell out, with dozens of detailed examples of both success and failure, how to navigate them.
Cut through the noise and create the biggest possible audience for your work. This book offers a proven method for expanding your reach online so you can make a meaningful difference for others. Anyone who makes the bold decision to put their ideas out into the world wants to reach as many people as possible. Unfortunately, too many think it’s a question of numbers—the more people you can get in front of, the better. But true reach is about expanding your audience while making a meaningful and enduring difference that has a lasting impact. Reach provides a clear and structured approach to creating a successful online presence that will create the biggest possible impact for any message. Becky Robinson shares a framework to cultivate followers that requires four commitments: value, consistency, endurance, and generosity. When you make these four commitments, you’ll deliver memorable content on a regular basis while keeping the long-term view in mind and being committed to helping and sharing with others.
In 2008, with no event production experience and two college degrees between the four of them, Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz became business partners and set out to build a global events company. With passion and tenacity, they began cold calling as many inspiring company founders as they could and tried to convince them to attend their first event. In the beginning, only nineteen people said yes. Since then, they have grown Summit into a global community with events all over the world, hosting luminaries including Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Shonda Rhimes, Brené Brown, Kendrick Lamar, and Al Gore. In 2013, the Summit founders acquired Powder Mountain, the largest ski resort in the United States, with a dream of building a mountaintop town of the future. In Make No Small Plans, they reveal the triumphs, mistakes, and cornerstone lessons from their journey, which began during the Great Recession and continues today.
In their groundbreaking book, Human + Machine, Accenture technology leaders Paul R. Daugherty and H. James Wilson showed how leading organizations use the power of human-machine collaboration to transform their processes and their bottom lines. Now, as AI continues to rapidly impact both life and work, those companies and other pioneers across industries are tipping the balance even more strikingly toward the human side with technology-led strategy that is reshaping the very nature of innovation. In Radically Human, Daugherty and Wilson show this profound shift, fast-forwarded by the pandemic, toward more human—and more humane—technology. Artificial intelligence is becoming less artificial and more intelligent. Instead of data-hungry approaches to AI, innovators are pursuing data-efficient approaches that enable machines to learn as humans do. Instead of replacing workers with machines, they're unleashing human expertise to create human-centered AI. In place of lumbering legacy IT systems, they're building cloud-first IT architectures able to continuously adapt to a world of billions of connected devices. And they're pursuing strategies that will take their place alongside classic, winning business formulas like disruptive innovation.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.” — Isaac Barrow
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:13 AM
03.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for March 2022Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in March 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
What if the most powerful coach that could help you reach your own potential was actually...yourself? Take Charge Of You teaches you the secrets to self-coaching. Everyone could use a good coach to help them reach their full potential. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough good ones to go around, and the ones that exist are often too expensive or sought-after for most of us to even consider hiring them. But that doesn't mean you should go without! Your life is too important to leave your personal growth and professional development up to chance. Take Charge of You helps you define for yourself what you want out of life and give yourself what you need to succeed.
Leading to Greatness is a hands-on how-to leadership development program designed to guide leaders to self and organizational excellence. By applying five core leadership principles top-level executives will be primed to take their organizations and teams into the future. Principle 1: Define a crystal-clear understanding of values and purpose―and never deviate. Principle 2: Recognize core strengths and align them with passion. Principle 3: Identify and engage the right people and get them in the right seats; no leader excels at everything. Principle 4: Learn to manage energy―not time―to become fully engaged in life (and thus, leadership). Principle 5: Develop a consistent inner discipline to achieve exceptional results. Author Jim Reid combines his decades of top-level leadership and coaching experience with the best research and science available to deliver to leaders a practical and actionable plan that when consistently applied in one’s life becomes a transformative experience.
Discover true leadership with this actionable guide from a world renowned leadership expert, psychoanalyst, and executive coach. In Leading Wisely: Becoming a Reflective Leader in Turbulent Times, renowned leadership expert, psychoanalyst and executive coach Manfred Kets De Vries delivers an insightful and unique exploration of what it means to lead with wisdom. The book demonstrates that exclusive reliance on knowledge, data, and information yields a superficial leadership style lacking in depth and discernment. What's more important in the wisdom equation is possessing humility, judgment, empathy, compassion, and night vision.
The time-honored tradition of defining career development exclusively in terms of promotions, moves, and title changes is dead. Beyond, between, and besides the climb up the positional ladder, there are many other ways that employees can―and want to―grow. However, many organizations still operate under the notion that promotions are the only option for career development, leaving employees disengaged, managers frustrated, and the business disadvantaged in its efforts to retain talent. The good news is that career development is so much more than promotions alone, and managers are in a powerful position to redefine career development and create positive results for their employees and their organizations in this area. In Promotions Are So Yesterday, Julie Winkle Giulioni offers you a new approach for developing your employees' careers and helping them thrive in a company when promotions are not readily available. Discover an easy-to-apply framework of seven alternative dimensions of development that will engage your employees―dynamic opportunities for growth that are completely within your control as a manager.
From the world’s most influential management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, an insight-packed, revelatory look at how the best CEOs do their jobs based on extensive interviews with today’s most successful corporate leaders—including chiefs at Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Sony. Being a CEO at any of the world’s largest companies is among the most challenging roles in business. Billions, and even trillions, are at stake—and the fates of tens of thousands of employees often hang in the balance. Yet, even when “can’t miss” high-achievers win the top job, very few excel. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs last fewer than three years, and two out of five new CEOs are perceived to be failing within eighteen months. For those who shoulder the burden of being the one on whom everyone counts, a manual for excellence is sorely needed.
Feelings of loneliness among employees are on the rise with 72% of global workers suffering from it. This sense of isolation is contributing to a real and growing mental health problem that affects both individuals and organizations. In Connectable, you’ll learn how tackling the issue of worker loneliness head on can transform an isolated workforce into one that’s happier, more engaged, and more productive. With more than a decade of experience spent helping companies lessen worker loneliness, Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen distill their methodology, showing you what’s causing today’s loneliness, the role inclusion plays in solving it, and how you can decrease loneliness and increase belonging, engagement, and performance with employees at every level―including yourself.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.” — Isaac Barrow
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:11 AM
02.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2022Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
Everybody has regrets, Daniel H. Pink explains in The Power of Regret. They’re a universal and healthy part of being human. And understanding how regret works can help us make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and bring greater meaning to our lives. Drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology, Pink debunks the myth of the “no regrets” philosophy of life. And using the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey—which has collected regrets from more than 15,000 people in 105 countries—he lays out the four core regrets that each of us has. These deep regrets offer compelling insights into how we live and how we can find a better path forward.
Leadership legend and bestselling author Ken Blanchard and trust expert and thought leader Randy Conley present this carefully curated collection of fifty-two essential leadership principles that are easy to implement and practice. Effective leadership is an influence process where leaders implement everyday, commonsense approaches that help people and organizations thrive. Yet somehow, many of these fundamental principles are still missing from most workplaces. In Simple Truths of Leadership, legendary servant leadership expert Ken Blanchard, whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide, and his colleague Randy Conley, known and recognized for his many years of thought leadership and expertise in the field of trust, share fifty-two Simple Truths about leadership that will help leaders everywhere make commonsense leadership common practice.
Human beings are born to connect―but in today’s increasingly polarized world, we’re losing sight of the importance of building and maintaining professional relationships. And that’s bad for business. In Bridge the Gap, two prominent Fortune 500 coaches explore how your biology and biography define and refine your behavior in relationships where you struggle to connect. Focusing on personal responsibility and awareness, meta-cognition, and curiosity, they provide a reliable and replicable framework to enhance open communication. And they illuminate the inner workings of the human brain and mind, and how they impact the way you connect, communicate, and collaborate.
From impromptu elevator pitches to full-board presentations, sales and marketing professionals face an “audience” daily―often with make-or-break consequences. As the person delivering the performance, you need to know you have a great script and are able to maintain composure throughout. In Pitch Like Hollywood, we learn how to up our game substantiall ―no matter what business we’re in―by incorporating elements of a classic Hollywood pitch: driving emotion, piquing curiosity, and ultimately winning over decision makers with powerful persuasion and performance. They take us on an insider’s tour of the entire process, from defining the fundamentals to designing effective presentation strategies to overcoming stage fright.
You've shed antiquated systems and processes. You went all-in on digital. Your teams settled into new, often better, ways of doing things. But did your organization change enough to stay competitive in the post-pandemic world? Did you fully leverage the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leap forward and grow stronger? Are you shaping the new environment to your advantage? If not, it's not too late to learn from the best. New York Times #1 bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi, along with coauthors Kian Gohar and Noel Weyrich, shows leaders how to shape their organizations and practices to remain competitive in a new, post-pandemic context.
Today, PayPal’s founders and earliest employees are considered the technology industry’s most powerful network. Since leaving PayPal, they have formed, funded, and advised the leading companies of our era, including Tesla, Facebook, YouTube, SpaceX, Yelp, Palantir, and LinkedIn, among many others. As a group, they have driven twenty-first-century innovation and entrepreneurship. Their names stir passions; they’re as controversial as they are admired. In building what became one of the world’s foremost companies, they faced bruising competition, internal strife, the emergence of widespread online fraud, and the devastating dot-com bust of the 2000s. Their success was anything but certain. In The Founders, award-winning author and biographer Jimmy Soni explores PayPal’s turbulent early days. With hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to thousands of pages of internal material, he shows how the seeds of so much of what shapes our world today—fast-scaling digital start-ups, cashless currency concepts, mobile money transfer—were planted two decades ago. He also reveals the stories of countless individuals who were left out of the front-page features and banner headlines but who were central to PayPal’s success.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.” — Isaac Barrow
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:08 AM
01.01.22
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2022Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in January 2022. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
There is significant evidence that an effective organizational culture provides a major competitive edge―higher levels of employee and customer engagement and loyalty translate into higher growth and profits. Many business leaders know this, yet few are doing much to improve their organizations’ cultures. They are discouraged by misguided beliefs that an executive’s tenure and an organization’s attention span are too short for meaningful transformation. James Heskett provides a roadmap for achievable and fast-paced culture change. He demonstrates that an effective culture supplies the trust that makes managing change of all kinds easier. It provides a foundation on which changes in strategy can be based, and it’s a competitive edge that can’t easily be hacked or copied.
Two world-renowned strategists detail the seven leadership imperatives for transforming companies in the new digital era. Digital transformation is critical. But winning in today's world requires more than digitization. It requires understanding that the nature of competitive advantage has shifted—and that being digital is not enough. In Beyond Digital, Paul Leinwand and Matt Mani from Strategy&, PwC's global strategy consulting business, take readers inside twelve companies and how they have navigated through this monumental shift: from Philips's reinvention from a broad conglomerate to a focused health technology player, to Cleveland Clinic's engagement with its broader ecosystem to improve and expand its leading patient care to more locations around the world, to Microsoft's overhaul of its global commercial business to drive customer outcomes. Other case studies include Adobe, Citigroup, Eli Lilly, Hitachi, Honeywell, Inditex, Komatsu, STC Pay, and Titan.
Escape the mediocrity that ensnares so many in business and become a better, more effective leader. Have you ever wondered what it would take to be a better leader, or achieve your wildest dreams, or make a bigger difference in the world? The answer lies in the choices you make: about everything from how you spend your time to the way you view the world. Smart Leadership is the latest essential business title from internationally bestselling author of Win the Heart and Chess Not Checkers. In this book, he shares the four research-based “smart choices” the best leaders make to scale their influence and results.
Donald Miller shares the plan that led him to turn his life around. There are four characters in every story: The victim, the villain, the hero, and the guide. These four characters live inside us. If we play the victim, we’re doomed to fail. If we play the villain, we will not create genuine bonds. But if we play the hero or guide, our lives will flourish. The hard part is being self-aware enough to know which character we are playing. In this book, Donald will use his own experiences to help you recognize if the character you are currently surfacing is helping you experience a life of meaning. He breaks down the transformational, yet practical, plan that took him from slowly giving up to rapidly gaining a new perspective of his own life’s beauty and meaning, igniting his motivation, passion, and productivity, so you can do the same.
Growth is the goal. Helping people develop their potential—enabling them to articulate and become the self they want to be, are capable of being, and that best serves them and others in the short and long term—is what we as individuals and leaders strive toward. But how do we grow? It turns out it happens in a predictable way, which means we can understand where we are in our growth and chart a way forward. In this compact, complete guide, Whitney Johnson dives more deeply than ever into the S Curve of Learning so that you can envision how growth happens and direct yourself and others in your organization to create a culture that fosters it. The growth and learning journey comes in three phases: the Launch Point, the Sweet Spot, and Mastery. Compelling examples of successful people will show you when and why growth is slow, how to keep going, what to do when growth and learning are almost too fast to keep up with, and how to leap from one growth journey to another.
Becoming a Master Communicator, by Renée Marino-communication coach, Broadway actress, and star of Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys film-is a guide for those looking to have clear and authentic communication with others by using digital technology as a tool—but not the only tool. Smartphones and computers make everyday communication incredibly convenient. However, when used as an individual’s sole source of connection, it can make one forget real human contact and interaction are incredibly vital, thus causing unnecessary misunderstandings. Through personal stories and easily applicable practices, Renée Marino explains how to become a master communicator in personal and professional settings by knowing when to use digital technology and when to put the devices down to have a direct conversation.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.” — Isaac Barrow
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:32 AM
12.15.21
The Best Leadership Books of 2021
The political environment in the United States as elsewhere is driven by fear-based narratives. And that feeds our approach in society at large. It leads to short-term thinking. That’s not the way to lead. Leadership is about hope. Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi wrote, “the fundamental role of a leader is to look for ways to shape the decades ahead, not just react to the present, and to help others accept the discomfort of disruptions to the status quo.” Leaders are dealers in hope. Many of the books listed below help us to do just that. Others were included because they help us to think differently, opening us up to potential we might not have considered. The books listed below help us to build the right foundation from which we can lead others. When we get it right on the inside, we can do right on the outside.
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2021)
(Collins, 2021)
(Celadon Books, 2021)
(Viking, 2021)
(St. Martin's Essentials, 2021)
(Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2021)
(McGraw-Hill Education, 2021)
(Wiley, 2021)
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2021)
(PublicAffairs 2021)
(The MIT Press 2021)
(Harper Business 2021)
(McGraw-Hill Education, 2021)
(HarperCollins Leadership, 2021)
Emerging Theme:
Biographies:
(Basic Books, 2021)
(Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 2021)
(Portfolio, 2021)
(Portfolio, 2021)
(Simon & Schuster, 2021)
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:30 PM
12.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for December 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
With Amy Herman’s Fixed., we now have access to what the FBI, NATO, the State Department, Interpol, Scotland Yard, and many more organizations and their leaders have been using to solve their most intractable problems. Demonstrating a powerful paradigm shift for finding solutions, Herman teaches us to see things differently, using art to challenge our default thinking and open up possibilities otherwise overlooked. Her unexpected, insightful, and often delightful methodology is sought after by leaders and professionals for whom failure is catastrophic. Luckily for us, these tactics work— no matter the problem’s scale or complexity.
Five simple qualities that captures the essence of outstanding leadership today. In today’s world, leadership is all about establishing community and connectivity so everyone can be part of something bigger than themselves. To have the grace to create this kind of leadership, we need greater self-awareness and genuine connection to others. In The Five Graces of Life and Leadership, CEO of the celebrated consulting firm Korn Ferry delivers a meaningful and thought-provoking exploration of leadership, emphasizing the five kinds of grace that leaders absolutely must have to lead their teams in today’s evolving workscape. In the book, you’ll learn how to the best leaders make their teams feel comforted, safe, and secure that they’re headed in the right direction.
Tom Ziglar shares ten leadership virtues that are essential for coaching employees through immense change and creating an environment of maximum potential and productivity. Delivering cutting-edge new research, wisdom gleaned from experience, and poignant insights from his work at Zig Ziglar Corp, Tom Ziglar identifies the communication styles that will keep everyone on the same page, regardless of their working environment. He also emphasizes the importance of closing the "empathy gap" between management and staff in order to create a more connected team that operates to its fullest potential--and how developing each team member's unique dreams, goals, and abilities sets up the company for success.
Great leaders embrace a higher purpose to win. The Net Promoter System shines as their guiding star. Few management ideas have spread so far and wide as the Net Promoter System (NPS). Since its conception almost two decades ago by customer loyalty guru Fred Reichheld, thousands of companies around the world have adopted it—from industrial titans such as Mercedes-Benz and Cummins to tech giants like Apple and Amazon to digital innovators such as Warby Parker and Peloton. Now, Reichheld has raised the bar yet again. In Winning on Purpose, he demonstrates that the primary purpose of a business should be to enrich the lives of its customers. Why? Because when customers feel this love, they come back for more and bring their friends—generating good profits. This is NPS 3.0 and it puts a new take on the age-old Golden Rule—treat customers the way you would want a loved one treated—at the heart of enduring business success.
A global pandemic, economic volatility, natural disasters, civil and political unrest. From New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it can feel as if the world as we know it is coming apart. Through it all, our human spirit is being tested. Now more than ever, it's imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion. But in hard times like these, leaders need to make hard decisions—deliver negative feedback, make difficult choices that disappoint people, and in some cases lay people off. How do you do the hard things that come with the responsibility of leadership while remaining a good human being and bringing out the best in others? Most people think we have to make a binary choice between being a good human being and being a tough, effective leader. But this is a false dichotomy. Being human and doing what needs to be done are not mutually exclusive. In truth, doing hard things and making difficult decisions is often the most compassionate thing to do.
When we think of resilience, we think of being able to “roll with the punches” and “bounce back” after uncertainty or change. But resiliency expert and bestselling author Adam Markel encourages you to aim higher. In Change Proof, he shows you how to truly, actually embrace change―to find the creative opportunity in uncertainty, as opposed to simply riding it out or reacting to it. In Change Proof, Markel demonstrates that this kind of resilience―thriving versus surviving―is a skill you can cultivate, both personally and professionally. Using case studies, current research, and real-life anecdotes from his work as an executive mentor, Markel clearly lays out the fundamentals of the required mind shift―how to change your relationship with change.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.” — Isaac Barrow
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:21 AM
11.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for November 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Become a next generation leader—rich in emotional and social intelligence and orchestrating outstanding collaborative results—by mastering these eight status quo-shattering paradoxes. The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership unpacks the fresh strategies and new mindset required today from a next generation leader. Author Dr. Tim Elmore helps leaders of all kinds navigate increasingly complex, rapidly changing environments, as well as manage teams who bring a range of new demands and expectations to the workplace that haven’t been seen even one generation prior.
By leading with “we”—putting the collective above the individual, holding the sum above the parts, and emphasizing the importance of the role that everyone plays—you can not only help solve the escalating challenges of today but also unlock extraordinary growth for your business, and abundance on our planet. Timely and compelling, this book’s message is simple: The future of profit is people’s purpose, aligned. Lead With We not only examines why we must all conduct business differently in order to grow in today’s market, but provides the how—concrete steps any reader, wherever they find themselves in the business hierarchy, can take toward success.
Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the result of poorly designed systems or are they just bad people? Are tyrants made or born? If you were suddenly thrust into a position of power, would you be able to resist the temptation to line your pockets or seek revenge against your enemies? Based on deep, unprecedented research from around the world, Corruptible will challenge your most basic assumptions about becoming a leader and what might happen to your head when you get there. It also provides a roadmap to avoiding classic temptations, suggesting a series of reforms that would facilitate better people finding a path to power—and ensuring that power purifies rather than corrupts.
Millennials, Baby Boomers, Gen Z—we like to define people by when they were born, but an acclaimed social researcher explains why we shouldn't. Boomers are narcissists. Millennials are spoiled. Gen Zers are lazy. We assume people born around the same time have basically the same values. It makes for good headlines, but is it true? Bobby Duffy has spent years studying generational distinctions. In The Generation Myth, he argues that our generational identities are not fixed but fluid, reforming throughout our lives. Based on an analysis of what over three million people really think about homeownership, sex, well-being, and more, Duffy offers a new model for understanding how generations form, how they shape societies, and why generational differences aren’t as sharp as we think.
The Leader's Mind taps into the same tips and techniques honed by top-tier athletes, such as how to get in a "zone," thrive on a team, and stay humble, to become a champion at work and the ultimate team player at home. Stop struggling with the expectations you face at work and at home by fundamentally changing the way you process what’s happening in your life. The mental edge that sets elite athletes apart outlined in this book will help you become the champion leader you want to be.
Gary Vaynerchuk explores the twelve essential emotional skills that are integral to his life—and business—success and provides today’s (and tomorrow’s) leaders with critical tools to acquire and develop these traits. For decades, leaders have relied on “hard” skills to make smart decisions, while dismissing the importance of emotional intelligence. Soft skills like self-awareness and curiosity aren’t quantifiable; they can’t be measured on a spreadsheet and aren’t taught in B-schools or emphasized in institutions. We’ve been taught that emotional intelligence is a “nice to have” in business, not a requirement. But soft skills can actually accelerate business success, Gary Vaynerchuk argues. For analytical minds, it’s challenging to understand how to get “better” at being self-aware, curious, or empathetic—or even why it’s important to try.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There’s a lot to learn from the right leadership books. If you think you know it, think again. Ask those you trust what books have inspired them, and dig in. Always have at least one book going.” — Kent Taylor, Made From Scratch
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:53 AM
10.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for October 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
In this book, General McChrystal offers a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. Instead of defining risk as a force to predict, McChrystal and coauthor Anna Butrico show that there are in fact ten dimensions of control we can adjust at any given time. By closely monitoring these controls, we can maintain a healthy Risk Immune System that allows us to effectively anticipate, identify, analyze, and act upon the ever-present possibility that things will not go as planned. McChrystal illustrates how these ten factors are always in effect, and how by considering them, individuals and organizations can exert mastery over every conceivable sort of risk that they might face.
You were born to be an entrepreneur. You were taught to be an employee. Aspiring entrepreneurs are instinctively driven to be the master of their own fate and to explore the limits of their potential. But most hear two conflicting voices in their heads: an optimistic voice telling them all the reasons they should start a business, and a second voice-one that fears uncertainty-telling them all the reasons they should remain someone else's employee. Millions of future business owners feel trapped by those voices-like they are meant for something more but are stuck where they are.
From Michael Dell, renowned founder and chief executive of one of America’s largest technology companies, the inside story of the battles that defined him as a leader. Play Nice But Win is a riveting account of the three battles waged for Dell Technologies: one to launch it, one to keep it, and one to transform it. For the first time, Dell reveals the highs and lows of the company's evolution amidst a rapidly changing industry—and his own, as he matured into the CEO it needed. With humor and humility, he recalls the mentors who showed him how to turn his passion into a business; the competitors who became friends, foes, or both; and the sharks that circled, looking for weakness. What emerges is the long-term vision underpinning his success: that technology is ultimately about people and their potential.
Why are some of the world’s most successful companies able to stay ahead of disruption, adopting and implementing innovative strategies, while others struggle? It’s not because they hire a new CEO or expensive consultants but rather because these pioneering companies have adopted a new way of strategizing. Instead of keeping strategic deliberations within the C-Suite, they open up strategic initiatives to a diverse group of stakeholders—front-line employees, experts, suppliers, customers, entrepreneurs, and even competitors. Open Strategy presents a new philosophy, key tools, step-by-step advice, and fascinating case studies—from companies that range from Barclays to Adidas—to guide business leaders in this groundbreaking approach to strategy.
In every organization there are Impact Players—those indispensable colleagues who can be counted on in critical situations and who consistently receive high-profile assignments and new opportunities. Whether they are on center stage or behind the scenes, managers know who these top players are, understand their worth, and want more of them on their team. While their impact is obvious, it’s not always clear what actually makes these professionals different from their peers. Liz Wiseman reveals the secrets of these stellar professionals who play the game at a higher level. Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, Wiseman explains what the most influential players are doing differently, how small and seemingly insignificant differences in how we think and act can make an enormous impact, and why—with a little coaching—this mindset is available to everyone who wants to contribute at their highest level.
Fear and uncertainty have been undermining performance and well-being in the workplace for as long as we have had workplaces. Here’s a little-known fact of business: mismanaged fear is responsible for almost all of the dysfunction that most organizations experience. While fear can drive short-term results, it does so at the cost of high employee burnout and turnover. It also undermines long-term business performance. But we can’t eradicate it entirely; it is inherent to the human condition. Winning organizations aren’t fear-free; they know how to reframe fear into opportunities for learning and growth. They create resilient cultures of unfear.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There’s a lot to learn from the right leadership books. If you think you know it, think again. Ask those you trust what books have inspired them, and dig in. Always have at least one book going.” — Kent Taylor, Made From Scratch
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:13 AM
09.10.21
Elon Musk: In His Own Words
ELON MUSK is a polarizing figure. In part, because he thinks differently than most people. At a 2017 World Government Summit, he once told an audience, “Some people think I’m an alien.” His raw ideas may sound irrational, but in time they seem obvious — even to his critics. Editor Jessica Easto has compiled his thoughts in Elon Musk: In His Own Words. Easto has organized the book into three parts: Getting Started, Growth, and Wit, Wisdom, and Personal Values. Here are several: ☙ I think I would make far fewer mistakes [if I were to go back in time and talk to my 20-year-old self], like, “Here’s a list of all the dumb things you’re about to do. Please do not do them.” It’d be a very long list. ☙ Do you have the right axioms, are they relevant, and are you making the right conclusions based on those axioms? That’s the essence of critical thinking, and yet it is amazing how often people fail to do that. I think wishful thinking is innate in the human brain. You want things to be the way you wish them to be, and so you tend to filter information that you shouldn’t filter. ☙ I do think a good framework for thinking is physics, you know, the first principles reasoning. What I mean by that is boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there as opposed to reasoning by analogy. Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means kind of copying what other people do with slight variations. And you have to do that, otherwise mentally you wouldn’t be able to get through the day. But when you want to do something new, you have to apply the physics approach. Physics has really figured out how to discover new things that are counterintuitive, like quantum mechanics; it’s really counterintuitive. ☙ A lot of times people think creating companies is going to be fun. I would say it’s not. It’s really not that fun. There are periods of fun, and there are periods where it’s just awful. Particularly if you’re the CEO of the company, you actually have a distillation of all the worst problems in the company. There’s no point in spending your time on things that are going right, so you only spend your time on things that are going wrong.... I think you have to feel quite compelled to do it and have a fairly high pain threshold. ☙ It’s better to approach this [building a company] from the standpoint of saying—rather than you want to be an entrepreneur or you want to make money—what are some useful things that you do that you wish existed in the world? ☙ Fundamentally, if you don’t have a compelling product at a compelling price, you don’t have a great company. ☙ Things move as fast as the least lucky and least competent supplier. Any natural disaster you care to name—all of those things have happened to our suppliers. The factory has burned down, there’s been an earthquake, there’s been a tsunami, there’s been massive hail, there’s been a tornado, the ship sank, there was a shoot-out at the Mexican border—no kidding. That delayed trunk carpet. ☙ If we don’t succeed, then we will be certainly pointed to as a reason why people shouldn’t even try for these things. So I think it’s important that we do whatever is necessary to keep going. ☙ Always take the position that you are, to some degree, wrong, and your goal is to be less wrong over time. ☙ You should actually take the approach that the constraints that you are given are guaranteed to be some degree wrong.… The counterpoint would be that they're perfect [which is never].... Question your constraints. It does not matter if the person handing you those constraints won a Nobel Prize—even Einstein was wrong some of the time. ☙ I have no problem with negative feedback, nor do I have a problem with critical reviews. If I had a problem with critical reviews, I would spend all my time battling critical reviews. There have been hundreds of negative articles—hundreds—and yet I’ve only spoken out a few times. I don’t have a problem with critical reviews, I have a problem with false reviews. ☙ The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur. ☙ As you get older, your obligations increase. And once you have a family, you start taking risks not just for yourself but for your family as well. It gets much harder to do things that might not work out. So now is the time to do that—before you have those obligations. I would encourage you to take risks now; do something bold. You won’t regret it. ☙ I just want to emphasize that sometimes—in fact, most of the time—I get way too much credit or attention for what I do. I’m just the visible element. But the reason those companies are successful is because we have extremely talented people at all levels that are making it happen. ☙ Honestly, I really am just trying to do the most amount of good with the time that I have on this earth. And, you know, not always succeeding, but that’s the goal. ☙ Really should be a rule that oatmeal-raisin cookies can’t look too much like choc chip. Doppelgänger cookie trickery! Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:47 AM
09.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for September 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in September 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
In The Art of Statistics, world-renowned statistician David Spiegelhalter shows readers how to derive knowledge from raw data by focusing on the concepts and connections behind the math. Drawing on real world examples to introduce complex issues, he shows us how statistics can help us determine the luckiest passenger on the Titanic, whether a notorious serial killer could have been caught earlier, and if screening for ovarian cancer is beneficial. The Art of Statistics not only shows us how mathematicians have used statistical science to solve these problems — it teaches us how we too can think like statisticians. We learn how to clarify our questions, assumptions, and expectations when approaching a problem, and — perhaps even more importantly -- we learn how to responsibly interpret the answers we receive.
Most organizations have created always-on work contexts that are burning people out and hurting performance rather than delivering productivity, innovation and engagement. Collaborative work consumes 85% of employees' time and is drifting earlier into the morning, later into the night, and deeper into the weekend. The dilemma is that we all need to collaborate more to create effective organizations and vibrant careers for ourselves. But conventional wisdom on teamwork and collaboration has created too much of the wrong kind of collaboration, which hurts our performance, health and overall well-being.
In Provoke: How Leaders Shape the Future by Overcoming Fatal Human Flaws, renowned strategy consultants and best-selling authors Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach deliver an insightful exploration of how people tend to act tentatively in the face of uncertainty and provide the tools we need to do things differently. Tuff and Goldbach offer up a compelling argument for the proposition that taking a "wait and see" approach is the exact opposite of what helps visionary leaders change the world. Drawing on principles from business and behavioral economics, the book shows readers from all walks of life how to provoke action as a mechanism to advance.
Your personal goals need a long-term strategy. Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need to reorient ourselves to see the big picture so we can tap into the power of small changes that, made today, will have an enormous and disproportionate impact on our future success. We need to start playing The Long Game. Everyone is allotted the same twenty-four hours — but with the right strategies, you can leverage those hours in more efficient and powerful ways than you ever imagined. It's never an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life and your career.
For a dozen years as one of the world’s most admired CEOs, Indra Nooyi redefined what it means to be an exceptional leader. The first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company — and one of the foremost strategic thinkers of our time — she transformed PepsiCo with a unique vision, a vigorous pursuit of excellence, and a deep sense of purpose. Now, in a rich memoir brimming with grace, grit, and good humor, My Life in Full offers a firsthand view of Nooyi’s legendary career and the sacrifices it so often demanded.
Iteration rules product development, but it isn’t enough to produce dramatic results. This book champions Radical Product Thinking, a systematic methodology for building visionary, game-changing products. When we iterate without a clear vision or strategy, our products become bloated, fragmented, and driven by irrelevant metrics. They catch “product diseases” that often kill innovation. Radical Product Thinking (RPT) gives organizations a repeatable model for building world-changing products. The key? Being vision-driven instead of iteration-led. Radhika Dutt guides readers through the five elements of the methodology (vision, strategy, prioritization, execution and measurement, and culture) to develop a clear process for translating vision into reality, and turning RPT skills into muscle memory.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There’s a lot to learn from the right leadership books. If you think you know it, think again. Ask those you trust what books have inspired them, and dig in. Always have at least one book going.” — Kent Taylor, Made From Scratch
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:36 PM
08.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for August 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Do you wish you could stop the mayhem of work and life and just take a minute? Do you sense you could contribute more if there were a little more room in the day? Does busyness deprive you and your burnt-out team of the oxygen your talents need to catch fire? Many have felt that way, yet taking a pause has seemed impossible—until now. Juliet shows all of us how to reclaim time for thinking and make room for what truly matters. Whether you are an individual trying to build a more sane and humane flow of daily work, a team that wants new levels of efficiency and effectiveness, or an entire organization changing your culture toward thoughtfulness, this book will lead you there.
Will the next rogue wave sink your ship―or will you choose to profit from it? At this moment, rogue waves are forming under your business. Emerging technologies, changing demographics, the data economy, automation, and other trends―the undercurrents of radical, systemic change―are crashing into each other. When they converge, they’ll produce sea changes that sink companies and wash away entire industries overnight. If your competitor can’t ride out the next wave and you can, you win. In Rogue Waves, Jonathan Brill―a renowned expert on resilient growth and decision making under uncertainty―shows you how to prepare your business to survive and thrive through the most radical upheavals.
Discover eight powerful mindset shifts that enable leaders and seekers of all ages to thrive in a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty. Being adaptable and flexible have always been hallmarks of effective leadership and a fulfilling life. But in a world of so much—and faster-paced—change, and an ever-faster pace of change, flexibility and resilience can be stretched to their breaking points. The quest becomes how to find calm and lasting meaning in the midst of enduring chaos. A world in flux calls for a new mindset, one that treats constant change and uncertainty as a feature, not a bug. Flux helps readers open this mindset—a flux mindset—and develop eight “flux superpowers” that flip conventional ideas about leadership, success, and well-being on their heads. They empower people to see change in new ways, craft new responses, and ultimately reshape their relationship to change from the inside out.
Too Proud to Lead provides essential advice on how to avoid that hubristic behavior that can endanger businesses, as well as cope with arrogant overconfidence in others in the workplace. Laying out the dangers of arrogant overconfidence for both individuals and organizations, Too Proud To Lead explores the economic and psychological costs of hubristic behaviour and argues for a new approach to leadership in order to avoid the pitfalls of hubris. The authors reveal exactly how confidence can sour into overconfidence--and why it can happen to anyone. With this easily-absorbed book, packed with checklists and key insights, readers acquire the essential arsenal of tools for understanding, identifying, anticipating and coping with hubris, in both themselves and in the workplace, leading to better lives and sustained success for years to come.
Be energized, but not overwhelmed. What’s the most pressure you’ve ever been under? How did you react? What helped? What didn’t? Over the past five years, Dane Jensen has asked these questions of thousands of high performers—from Olympic gold medalists to Navy SEALs, politicians, executives and busy parents. What has emerged from these conversations is that while everyone’s experiences under pressure are unique, pressure follows patterns and develops in predictable ways. If we can recognize the patterns, we can improve our ability to sidestep the biological traps that can sabotage us—and use the energy that accompanies pressure to thrive.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are engines of change, windows on the world and lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.” — Barbara Tuchman
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:27 AM
07.04.21
10 Books You Should Read This Summer
LIKE HIS MOTHER Rose, John Kennedy believed that reading constituted the most important instrument of knowledge. JFK‘s advisor Ted Sorensen said he read widely on history, biography, and politics. “But he had little interest in abstract theories. He primarily sought truths upon which he could act and ideas he could use in his office.” Reading gives us a chance to reflect on our lives, grow our knowledge, and become more creative. Never threatened by opposing views, Kennedy welcomed new and even controversial perspectives. He stated in the Saturday Review magazine in October 1960: If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty. With a few extra hours of daylight, the summer is an ideal time to relax and read. Listed below are ten books released this year that will entertain, make you think, and improve your leadership. Pick at least three and take some time to make yourself better this summer.*
To think again may make us uncomfortable. But rethinking can also help us find solutions to old problems, deepen our perspective, release us from inherited dogma and other people’s opinions, and understand how our closely held values relate and are applied to our changing environment. As JFK advised in the statement above, our challenge is to listen to others and to rethink those deeply held ideas and beliefs that tend to divide us—especially those ideas that we have blindly accepted from others.
This book discusses seven tests that all leaders face in one form or another. Their goal in writing the book is “to start conversations, not end them, and to provide guidance and frameworks to help refine your thinking and strategies on the aspects of leadership that matter most.”
Wherever there is judgment, there is noise. Noise is a hidden force that clouds our judgment and undermines our decisions. It is variability in judgments that should be identical. We can make better choices by reducing both noise and bias by following the prescriptions offered here.
Change comes most readily when you turn an uphill battle into a downhill one. You will learn methods for identifying and overcoming common barriers to change, such as impulsivity, procrastination, and forgetfulness. This book will help you reshape your environment and improve your trajectory by utilizing fresh starts and cues, building flexible habits, and more.
We are told to work smarter, not harder. Friedman will show you how. By reverse engineering what has worked for others, we can unlock patterns that will work in our own lives. How do you take apart a work you admire, enabling you to extract its formula and unleash your own creative juices?
Baldoni reflects on the practical application of grace. Over the course of the last year, he has collected his thoughts on the response to the pandemic and its implications. These notes touch on many elements of what it means to be a good citizen, a friend, and a leader. A quick read but plenty to meditate on.
Instead of looking for balance, learn to be where your feet are. Finding balance is “like aspiring to be in the middle.” On the other hand, “being present, focused, committed, and hardworking at home and at work is the path to finding success and fulfillment.”
Gladwell asks, “How is it that, sometimes, for any number of unexpected and random reasons, technology slips away from its intended path?” The Bomber Mafia held to their belief. “They persisted, even in the face of technology’s inevitable misdirection, even when abandoning their dream offered a quicker path to victory, even when Satan offered them all the world if only they would renounce their faith. Without persistence, principles are meaningless. Because one day your dream may come true. And if you cannot keep that dream alive in the interim, then who are you?”
When the conversation changes from a discussion of ideas to a battle between good and evil—you’re good they’re bad—then the game changes, and we feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can rehumanize the other side, restore your curiosity, and break free from outrage.
The pressure is always to have more. So we keep adding more and more. We add tasks, commitments, and possessions while neglecting to subtract any. Ironically, the secret to having more is to subtract. Make a “To Don’t” list. The summer is an excellent time to ask yourself what you could take away to have more. *If you struggle to read or doubt the immense payoff for doing so, you might pick up Jeff Brown and Jesse Wisnewski’s Read to Lead: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career (August 2021). Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:04 AM
07.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in July 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
According to a Fortune 500 study, as much as 80% of working time is lost to tiresome meetings, unclear expectations, difficult decisions, and other wasteful delays. Overcoming the lack of clarity behind this waste - on both an individual and organizational basis - would reap huge rewards. In The Power of Clarity, Ann Latham exposes the unrecognized confusion and explains how to eliminate it. This fascinating guide to workplace productivity and effectiveness draws upon extensive research and case studies to demonstrate how you can get better results in far less time while also increasing confidence and commitment.
Trust is, however, an elusive, even mushy, concept. Creating and sustaining trust does not, Sandra Sucher and Shalene Gupta show, come from "reputation-building" and PR but by being the "real deal," creating products, services, and technologies that work, having good intentions, treating people fairly, and taking responsibility for all the impacts an organization creates, whether intended or not. Then, through a framing of how to think through the elements of trust - competence, motives, means, impact - combined with in-depth stories from twenty years of research we emerge with a new understanding of the business, economic and societal importance of trust and how to regain it once lost. How to, in short, bridge the gap from where you are to where you should be.
In Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions, accomplished sales, negotiation, and influence experts Andres Lares, Jeff Cochran, and Shaun Digan PhD deliver a concise and insightful take on how to transform your ability to persuade others regardless of the setting. Persuade is perfect for executives, managers, entrepreneurs, and other business leaders and will earn a place in the libraries of any professional who negotiates or influences on a regular basis. It is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to improve their persuasion or deal-making abilities.
Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. He also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
When it comes to raising children in a digital world, every parent feels underprepared and overwhelmed. We worry that our children will become addicted to online games, be victims of cyberbullying, or get lost down the rabbit hole of social media. We warn them about all the things they shouldn't do online, but we don't do nearly enough to teach them the skills of digital well-being. It's time to start a new conversation. In Digital for Good, EdTech expert Richard Culatta argues that technology can be a powerful tool for learning, solving humanity's toughest problems, and bringing us closer together. He offers a refreshingly positive framework for preparing kids to be successful in a digital world—one that encourages them to use technology proactively and productively—by outlining five qualities every young person should develop in order to become a thriving, contributing digital citizen.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity.” — A. Edward Newton
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:40 PM
06.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
When we're moving at 115 MPH, we rarely see the wall coming. But it comes for all of us and when it does, we grasp for lessons, for meaning, for purpose. Each moment (good or bad) and each win or loss, provides us an opportunity to learn, and if we choose to take it, that opportunity can change our lives—and the world—for the better. The human spirit craves connection. Authenticity. Belonging. Touch. Gratitude. Purpose. We need to make our interactions count. Whether it's the death of a friend, loss of a job, a bad break-up, or the isolation of Covid-19, those who manage to be where their feet are will grow, stretch and emerge stronger, smarter, and more prepared as we find peace and gratitude in the pause. In Be Where Your Feet Are, this CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils offers his own story of grief and healing, and shares his most valuable lessons in what keeps him present, grounded, and thriving as a father, husband, coach, mentor, and leader.
Transform your organization with speed and efficiency using this insightful new resource. Incremental improvement is no longer sufficient in helping organizations navigate the complexity, uncertainty and volatility of today’s world. In Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times, authors John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Gaurav Gupta explore how to create non-linear, dramatic change in your organization. You’ll discover the emerging science of change that teaches us about how to build organizations – from businesses to governments – that change and adapt rapidly.
In his career as an executive at IBM, Cisco, and now as CEO of Anaplan, Frank A. Calderoni discovered that character is just as vital for companies as it is for individuals. In Upstanding: How Company Character Catalyzes Loyalty, Agility, and Hypergrowth, the author explores the powerful link between corporate strategy, company culture, and individual character, and how activating this link is essential to realizing strong company character—and an essential ingredient for organizations to achieve hypergrowth, agility, and loyalty. This innovative resource features real-life examples of how today’s most successful companies are building upstanding character while increasing employee engagement, happiness, and performance.
In Japan it's called the "Ghosn Shock"—the stunning arrest of Carlos Ghosn, the jet-setting CEO who saved Nissan and made it part of a global automotive empire. Ghosn spent two decades building a colossal partnership between Nissan and Renault that looked like a new model for a global business, but the alliance's shiny image fronted an unsteady, tense operation. Culture clashes, infighting among executives and engineers, dueling corporate traditions, and government maneuvering constantly threatened the venture. Expertly reported, Collision Course explores the complex suspicions around what and who was really responsible for Ghosn's ouster. It explains how economics, history, national interests, cultural politics, and hubris collided, crumpling the legacy of arguably the most important foreign businessman ever to set foot in Japan.
For years, companies have been implementing programs that promote social responsibility and improve employee health, both of which benefit the financial bottom line. Now it’s time to focus on positive social interactions and relationships in the workplace. In Work Better Together, two experts from Deloitte explain how working remotely, over-relying on digital communication, and always being “on” is fast-increasing feelings of isolation and burnout―and how a work culture driven by quality relationships can reverse these trends. Work Better Together walks you through the process of implementing change and fueling a much-needed corporate movement towards humanity in the workplace.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity.” — A. Edward Newton
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:22 AM
05.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for May 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Have you ever dreaded Sunday night, got a pit in your stomach on the way to work, or had your heartbeat speed up at the sound of your boss’s voice? If so, you may have had anxiety at work. In this empathetic and wise guide, executive coaches and gurus of gratitude Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton explore the causes of workplace stress and anxiety and the management practices that have proven successful in reducing tension and cultivating calm. In today’s volatile, fast-paced, and ever-changing global climate, organizations and their employees are under more pressure than ever to perform. Anxiety at Work shows how everyone at all levels can work together to build an environment that fosters camaraderie, productivity, and calm.
What if the next global crisis is a mental health pandemic? It is here now. One-third of Americans have shown signs of clinical anxiety or depression, and the current state of suffering globally has risen significantly. The mental health pandemic manifests everywhere, not least in your workplace. As organizations around the world face health and social crises, as well as economic uncertainty, acknowledging and improving wellbeing in your workplace is more critical than ever. Increasingly, leaders and managers must support mental health and cultivate resilience in employees — not just increase engagement and performance. Based on more than 100 million Gallup global interviews, Wellbeing at Work shows you how to do just that.
Almost ten years ago, Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone captured the rise of Amazon in his bestseller The Everything Store. Since then, Amazon has expanded exponentially, inventing novel products like Alexa and disrupting countless industries, while its workforce has quintupled in size and its valuation has soared to well over a trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos’s empire, once housed in a garage, now spans the globe. Between services like Whole Foods, Prime Video, and Amazon’s cloud computing unit, AWS, plus Bezos’s ownership of The Washington Post, it’s impossible to go a day without encountering its impact. We live in a world run, supplied, and controlled by Amazon and its iconoclast founder. Definitive, timely, and revelatory, Stone has provided an unvarnished portrait of a man and company that we couldn’t imagine modern life without.
The definitive guide to communicating and connecting in a hybrid world. Humans rely on body language to connect and build trust, but with most of our communication happening from behind a screen, traditional body language signals are no longer visible -- or are they? In Digital Body Language, Erica Dhawan, a go-to thought leader on collaboration and a passionate communication junkie, combines cutting edge research with engaging storytelling to decode the new signals and cues that have replaced traditional body language across genders, generations, and culture. In real life, we lean in, uncross our arms, smile, nod and make eye contact to show we listen and care. Online, reading carefully is the new listening. Writing clearly is the new empathy. And a phone or video call is worth a thousand emails. Digital Body Language will turn your daily misunderstandings into a set of collectively understood laws that foster connection, no matter the distance. Dhawan investigates a wide array of exchanges―from large conferences and video meetings to daily emails, texts, IMs, and conference calls―and offers insights and solutions to build trust and clarity to anyone in our ever changing world.
An all-in-one resource for every working mother and father. Sure, there are plenty of parenting books out there. But as working moms and dads, we've never had a trusted, go-to guide all our own—one that coaches us on how to do well at work, be the loving and engaged parents we want to be, and remain true to ourselves in the process. Enter Workparent. Whether you're planning a family, pushing for promotion during your kids' teenage years, or at any phase in between, Workparent provides all the advice and assurance you'll need to combine children and career in your own, authentic way. Written by Daisy Dowling, a top executive coach, talent expert, and working mom, Workparent answers all of your questions and feels like a good talk with your favorite mentor.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “The great thing is to be always reading but never get bored—treat it not like work, more as a vice.” — C. S. Lewis
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:12 AM
04.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for April 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
The old ways of creating competitive advantage for your business—such as building moats to ward off competitors—have become dangerous. Giants like Amazon and Alibaba are creating vast new market spaces through a deft combination of tools like machine learning and business savvy that reimagines customer experiences while generating immense shareholder value. A handful of traditional companies, including Fidelity Investments, Walmart, and B2W, have adopted these new approaches to reinvigorate their businesses. Most, however, are stalled—and the clock is running out. In this lively, accessible guide, Ram Charan, bestselling author and adviser to some of the world’s top CEOs and boards, redefines competitive advantage for the digital-first era, offering a set of new rules to get ahead.
Overthinking isn't a personality trait. It's the sneakiest form of fear. It steals time, creativity, and goals. It's the most expensive, least productive thing companies invest in without even knowing it. And it's an epidemic. When New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff changed his life by transforming his overthinking, he wondered if other people might benefit from what he discovered. He commissioned a research study to ask 10,000 people if they struggle with overthinking too, and 99.5 percent said, "Yes!" The good news is that in Soundtracks, Acuff offers a proven plan to change overthinking from a super problem into a superpower.
When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe--and shoot down those we don't. But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should train ourselves to have a "scout" mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true.
As high achievers, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the path to success is paved with relentless work. That if we want to overachieve, we have to overexert, overthink, and overdo. That if we aren’t perpetually exhausted, we’re not doing enough. But lately, working hard is more exhausting than ever. And the more depleted we get, the more effort it takes to make progress. Stuck in an endless loop of “Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat,” we’re often working twice as hard to achieve half as much. Getting ahead doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. No matter what challenges or obstacles we face, there is a better way: instead of pushing ourselves harder, we can find an easier path. Effortless offers actionable advice for making the most essential activities the easiest ones, so you can achieve the results you want, without burning out.
When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over. That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people. High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “The great thing is to be always reading but never get bored—treat it not like work, more as a vice.” — C. S. Lewis
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:00 AM
03.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for March 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in March 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Are you ready to lead? Will you pass the test? The CEO Test is the authoritative, no-nonsense insider's guide to navigating leadership's toughest challenges, brought to you by authors uniquely qualified to tell the stories. Adam Bryant has conducted in-depth interviews with more than 600 CEOs. Kevin Sharer spent more than two decades as president and then CEO of Amgen, where he led its expansion from $1 billion in annual revenues to nearly $16 billion. He has served on many boards and is a sought-after mentor for CEOs of global companies. Leadership is getting harder as the speed of disruption across all industries accelerates. The CEO Test will better prepare you to succeed, whether you're a CEO or just setting out to become one.
Modern knowledge workers communicate constantly. Their days are defined by a relentless barrage of incoming messages and back-and-forth digital conversations--a state of constant, anxious chatter in which nobody can disconnect, and so nobody has the cognitive bandwidth to perform substantive work. There was a time when tools like email felt cutting edge, but a thorough review of current evidence reveals that the "hyperactive hive mind" workflow they helped create has become a productivity disaster, reducing profitability and perhaps even slowing overall economic growth. Equally worrisome, it makes us miserable. Humans are simply not wired for constant digital communication. The question is not whether a world without email is coming (it is), but whether you'll be ahead of this trend. A World Without Email will convince you that the time has come for bold changes, and will walk you through exactly how to make them happen.
Burnout has become one of the most talked about workplace topics, and its impact is far-reaching. The 24/7 pace of work, constant demands, and scant resources can easily put busy professionals on a path to burnout, a cycle that has only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout affects the health and well-being of the entire organization, yet most attempts to help focus on quick-fix strategies aimed at individuals. Something is missing. Davis’s research-driven, fast-reading, and actionable book is the first of its kind to explore a new solution to the burnout problem at work: a comprehensive approach focused on building the resilience of teams of all sizes.
Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them.
The Eight Pillars of Trust (Clarity, Compassion, Character, Competency, Commitment, Connection, Contribution, and Consistency) are based on Horsager's original research and extensive experience working with Fortune 500 companies and top government agencies around the globe. In addition to the business parable, this book is rich in practical advice for implementing each of the Eight Pillars. You will learn strategies to increase alignment, overcome attrition, and get absolutely clear on executing your top priorities. Horsager offers a road map for how to become the most trusted expert in your industry.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “The great thing is to be always reading but never get bored—treat it not like work, more as a vice.” — C. S. Lewis
Like us on Instagram and Facebook for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:46 AM
02.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.
An inspiring and practical look inside the mind of Bill Novelli, one of the founders of social marketing, Good Business challenges all of us to change the world for the better and is a blueprint for tackling today's critical issues. Throughout the book, Novelli argues that you can make a positive social difference regardless of what business you are in or where you are in your career. Readers will come away with the message that anyone who wants to have a positive impact on the world can do it right now from where they are―or can be inspired by Novelli's story to make the leap to somewhere they can.
For the first time in American history, a significant number of mothers are heading major corporations, including General Motors, Ulta Beauty, and Best Buy. Over the past several decades, women have made gains throughout executive suites. Yet these “Power Moms” still struggle with balancing their management responsibilities with raising children. Joann S. Lublin draws on the experiences of the nation’s two generations of these successful women to measure how far we’ve come—and how far we still need to go.
For most people, conflict triggers a fight or flight response. Disagreeing productively is a hard skill for which neither evolution or society has equipped us. It’s a skill we urgently need to acquire; otherwise, our increasingly vociferous disagreements are destined to tear us apart. Productive disagreement is a way of thinking, perhaps the best one we have. It makes us smarter and more creative, and it can even bring us closer together. It’s critical to the success of any shared enterprise, from a marriage, to a business, to a democracy. Isn’t it time we gave more thought to how to do it well?
A memoir of successful leadership in times of crisis: the former CEO of General Electric, named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” three times by Barron’s, shares the hard-won lessons he learned from his experience leading GE immediately after 9/11, through the economic devastation of the 2008–09 financial crisis, and into an increasingly globalized world. In Hot Seat, Immelt offers a rigorous, candid interrogation of himself and his tenure, detailing for the first time his proudest moments and his biggest mistakes. The most crucial component of leadership, he writes, is the willingness to make decisions. But knowing what to do is a thousand times easier than knowing when to do it. Perseverance, combined with clear communication, can ensure progress, if not perfection, he says. As the business world continues to be rocked by stunning economic upheaval, Hot Seat is an urgently needed, and unusually raw, source of authoritative guidance for decisive leadership in uncertain times.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Compare the difference between the life of a man who does no reading and that of a man who does. The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighborhood. From this prison there is no escape.” — Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:49 AM
01.01.21
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2021Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in January 2021. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
A global security expert draws on psychological insights to help you master the art of social engineering—human hacking. Make friends, influence people, and leave them feeling better for having met you by being more empathetic, generous, and kind. Christopher Hadnagy shows you how to use social engineering as a force for good—to help you regain your confidence and control. Human Hacking provides tools that will help you establish rapport with strangers, use body language and verbal cues to your advantage, steer conversations and influence other’s decisions, and protect yourself from manipulators. Ultimately, you’ll become far more self-aware about how you’re presenting yourself—and able to use it to improve your life.
In Rebel Ideas, Syed argues that our brainpower as individuals isn't enough. To tackle problems from climate change to economic decline, we'll need to employ the power of "cognitive diversity." Drawing on psychology, genetics, and beyond, Syed uses real-world scenarios including the failings of the CIA before 9/11 and a communication disaster at the peak of Mount Everest to introduce us to the true power of thinking differently. Rebel Ideas will strengthen any kind of team, while including advice on how, as individuals, we can embrace the potential of an "outsider mind-set" as our greatest asset.
It’s undeniable that we’re entering a new era of remote work. While many leaders seek to run business as usual, why settle for the usual when remote teams allow us to work even better? The research shows that employees are more productive and engaged when they have the freedom to work from anywhere. Which means leaders need the skills to lead from anywhere. In this meticulously researched, refreshingly practical book, top business thought leader David Burkus provides managers with the field guide to leading remotely, packed with everyday examples and illuminating insights.
Even before the coronavirus hit, remote work was growing at nearly 30 percent per year, and now it's just a fact of life. There are many millions of people who once worked at a central location every day who now find themselves facing an entirely new way of working. Written by the founders of the Remote Leadership Institute, this book is the most authoritative single resource for helping remote workers get work done effectively, build relationships that are both productive and satisfying, and maintain a career trajectory when they are not in constant close contact with their leader, coworkers, or the organization in general. The Long-Distance Teammate tackles three important issues: navigating the personal and interpersonal, growing the skills to be productive, and communicating effectively--all from a distance.
We see poverty, homelessness, violence, mental illness, corruption, and the breakdown of the family, and we think, Why doesn’t somebody do something? The institutions we’ve depended on aren’t making the world a better place the way we thought they could and should. So now it’s up to us. The good news is, YOU can change your world. In this book, John Maxwell and Rob Hoskins guide you through the entire process. These two leaders have been making a positive impact for decades, transforming millions of lives, communities, and businesses around the world with a sense of mission and regard for human dignity. And whether you influence only one other person or you’re the leader of a large organization, you too can bring about positive, lasting change.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Compare the difference between the life of a man who does no reading and that of a man who does. The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighborhood. From this prison there is no escape.” — Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:02 AM
12.07.20
The Best Leadership Books of 2020
2020 has tested us. It has illuminated our strengths and exposed our vulnerabilities. It has called on us to reinvent and transform. It has called on us to learn to think better. In the list below, you will find resources to help you do just that—think better. Certainty is out. Complexity is in. We can’t repeat our experiences, but we can extract the lessons and principles and apply them to the changing circumstances of our non-linear world. The more we use technology and outsourced thinking, we diminish our ability to think for ourselves. Common sense no longer helps us connect the dots. Other people’s agenda becomes our narrative. Patrick Lencioni asks the most fundamental question of all: Why are you leading? Too many lead for the sake of position and power and what that entitles them to. Gruenfeld reminds us that we have more power than we think no matter where we are in life. All of the resources below are designed to help us think better and therefore perform better as leaders and guides.
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2020)
(Harvard Business School Press, 2020)
(HarperCollins Leadership, 2020)
(PublicAffairs, 2020)
(Portfolio, 2020)
(Jossey-Bass, 2020)
(Currency, 2020)
(Harvard Business School Press, 2020)
(Post Hill Press, 2020)
(Simon & Schuster, 2020)
(McGraw-Hill Education, 2020)
(PublicAffairs, 2020)
Biographies:
(Harper Business, 2020)
(Doubleday, 2020)
(Simon & Schuster, 2020)
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:02 AM
12.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for December 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Smart new technologies. Longer, healthier lives. Human progress has risen to great heights, but at the same time it has prompted anxiety about where we're heading. Are our jobs under threat? If we live to 100, will we ever really stop working? And how will this change the way we love, manage and learn from others? One thing is clear: advances in technology have not been matched by the necessary innovation to our social structures. In our era of unprecedented change, we haven't yet discovered new ways of living. Drawing from the fields of economics and psychology, Scott and Gratton offer a simple framework based on three fundamental principles (Narrate, Explore and Relate) to give you the tools to navigate the challenges ahead. Both a personal road-map and a primer for governments, corporations and colleges, The New Long Life is the essential guide to a longer, smarter, happier life.
Highly respected Silicon Valley turn-around expert Thomas L. Steding presents his proven leadership process for achieving peak performance by accessing the untapped/unseen intelligence of deep imagination as well as the superior creativity and intelligence of the connected team. Thomas Steding has seen first-hand that the leadership skills that can take an organization from poor to peak performance and outdistancing its competition were not taught in business schools or management seminars or even a part of the leadership conversation. Real Teams Win is the culmination of Steding's four decades of high-impact methods that offer real change from within the organization with real results that work really fast.
Triumph over adversity using proven Special Operations habits and mindsets with this inspiring guide from retired Navy SEAL and New York Times bestselling author Jason Redman. Adversity can often catch you by surprise and leave you struggling with what to do next. What if you could confront any adversity, from the biggest challenges—the loss of your job, divorce, health issues, bankruptcy—to normal daily challenges—a late flight, a disappointing phone call, a missed promotion, a bad day—and not just survive it, but thrive afterwards?
What is it about the top tech product companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix and Tesla that enables their record of consistent innovation? Most people think it’s because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products.
During the brutal crucible of Navy SEAL training, instructors often tell students to "embrace the suck." This phrase conveys the one lesson that is vital for any SEAL hopeful to learn: lean into the suffering and get comfortable being very uncomfortable. In this powerful, no-nonsense guide, Navy SEAL combat veteran turned leadership expert Brent Gleeson teaches you how to transform every area of your life--the Navy SEAL way. Embrace the Suck provides an actionable roadmap that empowers you to expand your comfort zone to live a more fulfilling, purpose-driven life. Through candid storytelling, behavioral science research, and plenty of self-deprecating humor, Gleeson shows you how to use pain as a pathway, reassess your values, remove temptation, build discipline, suffer with purpose, fail successfully, transform your mind, and achieve more of the goals you set
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 28 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Compare the difference between the life of a man who does no reading and that of a man who does. The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighborhood. From this prison there is no escape.” — Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:10 AM
11.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for November 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Align, part 1 of a 3-part series, shares four simple steps that transforms the way leaders lead and renew their self-confidence. Through the process Align offers, leaders develop the courage to connect with their team in a meaningful way and start winning together. Through Align, leaders will learn to create alignment within their organization and develop a culture built on employee fulfillment. It shows leaders exactly how to get there.
Creative work doesn't come with a guarantee. But there is a pattern to who succeeds and who doesn't. And engaging in the consistent practice of its pursuit is the best way forward. Based on the breakthrough Akimbo workshop pioneered by legendary author Seth Godin, The Practice will help you get unstuck and find the courage to make and share creative work. Godin insists that writer's block is a myth, that consistency is far more important than authenticity, and that experiencing the imposter syndrome is a sign that you're a well-adjusted human. Most of all, he shows you what it takes to turn your passion from a private distraction to a productive contribution, the one you've been seeking to share all along.
A guide to understanding and overcoming bias in the workplace, from the experts at FranklinCovey. Unconscious bias affects everyone. Ideal for every manager who wants to understand and move past their own preconceived ideas, The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias explains that bias is the result of mental shortcuts, our likes and dislikes, and is a natural part of the human condition. And what we assume about each other and how we interact with one another has vast effects on our organizational success—especially in the workplace. Teaching you how to overcome unconscious bias, this book provides more than thirty unique tools, such as a prep worksheet and a list of ways to reframe your unconscious thoughts.
Civility Rules! offers an opportunity to learn about the history, substance, and significance of civility through the lens of George Washington’s “Rules of Civility.” Drawing on personal experience, real-life examples, and a foundational belief that civility is integral to a democratic society, author Shelby Scarbrough shares how we might work toward a more perfect union by building a personal practice of civility. Civility is not an archaic concept of manners and politeness but rather a crucial component of a functioning democracy. Shelby shows us how―with conscientious practice and patience―we can each contribute to the preservation of our democracy, one interaction at a time.
In Jeff Bezos's own words, the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and Blue Origin. In this collection of Jeff Bezos's writings—his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas—you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.
  
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.” — Jennifer Egan
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:21 AM
10.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for October 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
In the modern workplace, employees collaborate. Managers are expected to be effective team leaders and employees are expected to be valued teammates. But many teams struggle. Being part of a struggling team can be unpleasant, but it can also hurt your career and waste company resources. In Teams That Work, Tannenbaum and Salas present the seven drivers of team effectiveness and the clearest recommendations on what really makes teams great. Applying the lessons they've learned from working with high-stakes, high-risk team situations to any kind of organization, they will dispel some of the most enduring myths (e.g., can you be both a star and a great team player?), feature the most useful psychological research, and share real-world illustrations of effective teams in action. Readers will find actionable, evidence-based tips for being an effective team leader, a great team member, a supportive senior leader, or an impactful consultant.
There's an 80 percent chance you're poor. Time poor, that is. Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment. How can we escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives? Time Smart is your playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans will give you proven strategies for improving your "time affluence."
What drives us to unleash our best work? And how do we tap into that drive to get superior results with our managers, coworkers, and direct reports? As Todd Henry reveals in this book, drawing on decades of research and interviews with over 100,000 people, the answer is not one size fits all: some people are energized by a race against the clock, while others put in extra effort only when they feel part of a team. For still others, nothing is as motivating as the possibility of public recognition. Henry shows, in fact, that there are twenty-seven "motivational themes”, each with its own unique DNA. The Motivation Code teaches us to decode our Core Motivation so that we can have conversations, make decisions, and even choose career paths that lead us to experience engagement and fulfillment.
Among the most successful leaders throughout history―from Abe Lincoln to Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi to Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. to Nelson Mandela―some were brilliant mathematicians and economists, others were creative visionaries, still others were masterful at strategic planning. Their mastery of their field wasn’t the secret to their highly effective leadership. All of their skill, grit, resilience, charisma, and courage emanated from one thing: their strength of character. In The Character Edge the authors leverage their perspectives to offer an empowering, story-driven argument―backed by the latest scientific research―that character is vital to success.
Leaders have experimented with open innovation programs, corporate accelerators, venture capital arms, skunkworks, and innovation contests. They've trekked to Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, and Tel Aviv to learn from today's hottest, most successful tech companies. Yet most would admit they've failed to create truly innovative cultures. There's a better way. And it all starts with the power of habit. In Eat, Sleep, Innovate, uses groundbreaking research in behavioral science to provide a first-of-its-kind playbook for empowering individuals and teams to be their most curious and creative—every single day. Throughout the book, the authors reveal a collection of BEANs—behavior enablers, artifacts, and nudges—they've collected from workplaces across the globe that will unleash the natural innovator inside everyone.
Among our greatest leaders are those driven by impulses they cannot completely control - by lust. Lust is not, however, an abstraction, it has definition. Definition that, given the impact of leaders who lust, is essential to extract. This book identifies six types of lust with which leaders are linked: 1. Power: the ceaseless craving to control. 2. Money: the limitless desire to accrue great wealth. 3. Sex: the constant hunt for sexual gratification. 4. Success: the unstoppable need to achieve. 5. Legitimacy: the tireless claim to identity and equity. 6. Legacy: the endless quest to leave a permanent imprint. Each of the core chapters focuses on different lusts and features a cast of characters who bring lust to life.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.” — Jennifer Egan
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:41 AM
09.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for September 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in September 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
The Digital Age will raise the question of how we humans will stay relevant in the workplace. To stay relevant, we have to be able to excel cognitively, behaviorally, and emotionally in ways that technology can't. Professor Ed Hess believes that requires us to become Hyper-Learners: continuously learning, unlearning, and relearning at the speed of change. To do that, we have to overcome our reflexive ways of being: seeking confirmation of what we believe, emotionally defending our beliefs and our ego, and seeking cohesiveness of our mental models. Hyper-Learning requires a new way of being and a radical new way of working.
Our personal experience is key to who we are and what we do. We judge others by their experience and are judged by ours. Society venerates experience. From doctors to teachers to managers to presidents, the more experience the better. It's not surprising then, that we often fall back on experience when making decisions, an easy way to make judgements about the future, a constant teacher that provides clear lessons. Yet, this intuitive reliance on experience is misplaced. In The Myth of Experience, behavioral scientists Emre Soyer and Robin Hogarth take a transformative look at experience and the many ways it deceives and misleads us. From distorting the past to limiting creativity to reducing happiness, experience can cause misperceptions and then reinforce them without our awareness. Instead, the authors argue for a nuanced approach, where a healthy skepticism toward the lessons of experience results in more reliable decisions and sustainable growth.
At age nineteen, Shannon Huffman Polson became the youngest woman ever to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America. She went on to reach the summits of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilimanjaro and spent more than a decade traveling the world. Yet it was during her experience serving as one of the Army's first female attack helicopter pilots, and eventually leading an Apache flight platoon on deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina, that she learned the lessons of leadership that forever changed her life. Where did these insights come from? From her own crucibles of experience—and from other women. In writing The Grit Factor, Polson made it her mission to connect with an elite pack of tough, impressive female iconoclasts who shared with her their candid stories of combat and career. With its gripping narrative and relatable takeaways, The Grit Factor is both inspiring and pragmatic, a book that will energize and enlighten current and aspiring leaders everywhere—whether male or female.
On the most fundamental level, leaders must bring divergent groups together and forge a consensus on a path forward. But what makes that possible? Humility—a deep regard for the dignity of others—is the key, says distinguished leadership educator Marilyn Gist. Leadership is a relationship, and humility is the foundation for all healthy relationships. Leader humility can increase engagement and retention. It inspires and motivates. Gist offers a model of leader humility derived from three questions people ask of their leaders: Who are you? Where are we going? Do you see me? She explores each of these questions in depth, as well as the six key qualities of leader humility: a balanced ego, integrity, a compelling vision, ethical strategies, generous inclusion, and a developmental focus.
Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, bestselling author of The Culture Map and one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings’s own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world’s most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.
Whether you’re an employer, an employee, a freelancer, or part of a management team, it’s important to understand how—now, more than ever—highly skilled 10x talent who can deliver exponential value is radically shifting the dynamics of corporations large and small. Use this groundbreaking book to learn how to identify, attract, vet, employ, manage, and retain—or become—the game-changing talent that will make a difference in the work world of tomorrow. Individuals, companies and governments around the globe need to understand what tactics are required to survive and thrive in an increasingly global, automated, and post pandemic, distributed economy. The lessons presented in Game Changer reveal those tactics for any industry.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.” — Jennifer Egan
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:12 AM
08.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for August 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases not listed here.
Creativity isn’t a “nice to have” leadership trait. It’s the key to success in every workplace and all industries. Learn to access yours, now―even if you don’t think you’re a “creative” person. From B-school through the big leagues, the business world often places value on logic and analysis. But on creativity? Not so much. And this, according to Nir Bashan, is a recipe for disaster. What gets the ball rolling when we’re feeling stuck in our careers? Why is my company not growing or reaching higher levels of profitability? What’s the difference between a workable plan and a stroke of genius? The answer is creativity―and it’s the missing ingredient for far too many of us who feel we’re not reaching our creative potential (or doubt we have it in the first place).
Bullshit isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data. Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school bullshit that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don’t feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school bullshit presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling Bullshit, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data.
Why do so many organizations, teams, couples, families, and groups who should be working together end up wasting energy on unproductive conflict? Even when everyone has the same general goals, what’s often missing is a deeper alignment based on mutual trust, respect, and empathy. With Radical Alignment, top-level life and business coaches (and happily married couple) Alexandra Jamieson and Bob Gower share their potent method for helping groups to stop clashing and start working together―to jump from “we can’t” to an enthusiastic “hell yes!” The essential tool at the heart of Radical Alignment is the All-In Method: a four-step approach to communication designed to increase clarity, minimize miscommunication, honor each person’s individuality, and build a shared sense of trust and respect for long-term success.
A groundbreaking look at the science of learning—how it's transforming education and how we can use it to discover our true potential, as individuals and across society by a renowned MIT professor. As the head of Open Learning at MIT, Sanjay Sarma has a daunting job description: to fling open the doors of the MIT experience for the benefit of the wider world. But if you're going to undertake such an ambitious project, it behooves you to ask: How exactly does learning work? What conditions are most conducive? Are our traditional classroom methods—lecture, homework, test, repeat—actually effective? And if not, which techniques are? Along the way, Sarma debunks long-held views (such as the noxious idea of "learning styles"), while equipping readers with a set of practical tools for absorbing and retaining information across a lifetime. He presents a vision for learning that's more inclusive and democratic—revealing a world bursting with powerful learners, just waiting for the chance they deserve.
In Humanocracy, Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini make a passionate, data-driven argument for excising bureaucracy and replacing it with something better. Drawing on more than a decade of research and packed with practical examples, Humanocracy lays out a detailed blueprint for creating organizations that are as inspired and ingenious as the human beings inside them. Whatever your role or title, Humanocracy will show you how to launch an unstoppable movement to equip and empower everyone in your organization to be their best and to do their best. The ultimate prize: an organization that's fit for the future and fit for human beings.
The world is changing drastically before our eyes―will you be prepared for what comes next? A groundbreaking analysis from one of the world's foremost experts on global trends, including analysis on how COVID-19 will amplify and accelerate each of these changes. Once upon a time, the world was neatly divided into prosperous and backward economies. Babies were plentiful, workers outnumbered retirees, and people aspiring towards the middle class yearned to own homes and cars. Companies didn't need to see any further than Europe and the United States to do well. Printed money was legal tender for all debts, public and private. We grew up learning how to "play the game," and we expected the rules to remain the same as we took our first job, started a family, saw our children grow up, and went into retirement with our finances secure. That world―and those rules―are over.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.” — Jennifer Egan
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:05 AM
07.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in July 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
This book describes how 25 outstanding leaders used emotional intelligence to deal with critical challenges and opportunities. Featuring commentary from the leaders themselves describing how they handled each situation, it helps managers better understand not just what emotional intelligence is, or how to measure it, or how it is linked to bottom-line results: it also shows how real leaders used their emotional intelligence to deal with real situations. The book distills the leaders' experiences into nine strategies that can help any leader or potential leader to be more effective. Each chapter concludes with activities that help readers to apply immediately each of those strategies.
Before Silicon Valley disrupted the world with new technologies and business models, America’s industrial giants paved the way. Companies like General Electric, United Technologies, and Caterpillar were the Google and Amazon of their day, setting gold standards in innovation, growth, and profitability. Today’s leaders can learn a great deal from their successes, as well as their missteps. In this essential guide, three veteran Wall Street analysts reveal timeless lessons from the titans of industry―and offer battle-tested survival tactics for an ever-changing world.
These days, whenever anything spreads, whether it's a YouTube fad or a political rumor, we say it went viral. But how does virality actually work? In The Rules of Contagion, epidemiologist Adam Kucharski explores topics including gun violence, online manipulation, and, of course, outbreaks of disease to show how much we get wrong about contagion, and how astonishing the real science is. Whether you are an author seeking an audience, a defender of truth, or simply someone interested in human social behavior, The Rules of Contagion is an essential guide to modern life.
In this game-changing yet practical book, talent guru and bestselling author Bruce Tulgan reveals the secrets of the go-to person in our new world of work. Based on an intensive study of people at all levels, in all kinds of organizations, Tulgan shows how go-to people think and behave differently, building up their influence with others—not by trying to do everything for everybody but by doing the right things at the right times for the right reasons, regardless of whether they have the formal authority.
Becoming a courageous culture means building teams of microinnovators, problem solvers, and customer advocates working together. A microinnovator is the employee who consistently seeks out small, but powerful, ways to improve the business. A problem solver is the employee who cares about what’s not working and wants to make it better. They uncover and speak openly about what’s not working and think critically about how to fix it. A customer advocate is the employee who sees through your customers’ eyes and speaks up on their behalf. They actively look for ways to improve customers’ experience and minimize customer frustrations.
Extraordinary leaders share a passionate commitment to achieving their vision that borders and sometimes crosses the line into obsession. All In shows why obsession, if properly focused and managed, is both necessary and productive. Advances in any endeavor almost always depend on a small group of individuals who are completely consumed by the goal they're pursuing. When these leaders and teams are successful, everyone benefits from their obsessive nature. Shaw also provides insight into the dark side of obsession and its destructive potential. Appealing to any reader of entrepreneurial biographies, All In shows individuals, teams and organizations how to manage obsession's downsides while realizing the benefits of relentlessly seeking to create something that truly matters.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.” — Jennifer Egan
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:31 AM
06.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Leadership isn't easy. It takes grit, courage, and vision, among other things, that can be hard to come by on your toughest days. When leaders and aspiring leaders seek out advice, they're often told to try harder. Dig deeper. Look in the mirror and own your natural-born strengths and fix any real or perceived career-limiting deficiencies. Frances Frei and Anne Morriss offer a different worldview. They argue that this popular leadership advice glosses over the most important thing you do as a leader: build others up. Leadership isn't about you. It's about how effective you are at empowering other people—and making sure this impact endures even in your absence. As Frei and Morriss show through inspiring stories from ancient Rome to present-day Silicon Valley, the origins of great leadership are found, paradoxically, not in worrying about your own status and advancement, but in the unrelenting focus on other people's potential.
Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the clichés they hear about how to make a startup succeed―from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions. This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths―legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley―Rizwan Virk provides startup models―frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life.
Have you ever followed your GPS device to a deserted parking lot? Or unquestioningly followed the advice of an expert—perhaps a doctor or financial adviser—only to learn later that your own thoughts and doubts were correct? And what about the stories we've all heard over the years about sick patients—whether infected with Ebola or COVID-19—who were sent home or allowed to travel because busy staff people were following a protocol to the letter rather than using common sense? Why and how do these kinds of things happen? As Harvard lecturer and global trend watcher Vikram Mansharamani shows in this eye-opening and perspective-shifting book, our complex, data-flooded world has made us ever more reliant on experts, protocols, and technology. Too often, we've stopped thinking for ourselves. Mansharamani illustrates how in a very real sense we have outsourced our thinking to a troubling degree, relinquishing our autonomy.
In Strategy First, Brad Chase, the mind behind some of Microsoft’s largest and most successful initiatives, explains why building robust strategies is the imperative to business success. Chase leads readers through his easy-to-use strategy model, Strategy = E x mc2, which teaches readers the art of strategy—how to build and execute winning strategies relative to the competition. To supplement the model, Chase provides 5 key tips to strategy prosperity and over 50 examples from a broad range of businesses that help the reader think about how they can use his Strategy First toolkit. The author will inspire readers to examine the effectiveness of their current strategies, using the model that has served him in his distinguished career.
Accountable Leaders is the real-world guide to propelling your business to extraordinary levels of performance and achievement. Leadership accountability is a major issue in organizations around the globe. Research has shown that teams and individual employees are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the degree of accountability demonstrated by their leaders. Effective teams need responsible and accountable leaders―the solution seems simple. Yet, thousands of businesses are struggling with mediocre performance and widening gaps in leadership. This essential resource provides practical and no-nonsense strategies to transform any organization into a cohesive, highly motivated culture of accountable leaders and fully committed teams.
Short-termism is rampant among executives and managers today, causing many companies to underperform and even go out of business. With competition intense and investors demanding strong quarterly gains now, leaders all too often feel obliged to sacrifice the investments so necessary for long-term growth. Dave Cote is intimately familiar with this problem. Upon becoming Honeywell’s CEO in 2002, he encountered an organization on the verge of failure, thanks to years of untrammeled short-termism. To turn the company around, he and his team adopted a series of bold operational reforms and counterintuitive leadership practices that enabled them to “do two conflicting things at the same time”--pursue strong short- and long-term results. The outcome was phenomenal.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:09 PM
05.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for May 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
“Mindsets” is a word that is used quite frequently, however, many of those who use it are unaware that mindsets are foundational to and dictate one’s success in life, work, and leadership. They are also unable to identify specific mindsets that are necessary for success. Ryan Gottfredson has created a comprehensive and research-based guide, Success Mindsets, that is designed to awaken readers to: the power of mindsets, the four mindsets they need to have to be successful, and the mindsets they currently possess through personal mindset assessment
Jeff Bezos is the business story of the decade. Bezos, the richest man on the planet, has built one of the most efficient wealth-creation machines in history with 2% of US household income being spent on nearly 500 million products shipped from warehouses in seventeen countries. Amazon’s business model has not only turned the retail industry and cloud computing inside out, but now its tentacles are squeezing media and advertising, and disrupting the state of technology, the economy, job creation, and society at large. Amazon’s impact is so pervasive that business leaders in nearly every sector around the world need to understand how this force of nature operates. Based on unprecedented behind-the-scenes reporting from 150 sources inside and outside of Amazon, Bezonomics unveils the underlying principles Jeff Bezos uses to achieve his dominance—customer obsession, extreme innovation, and long-term management, all supported by artificial intelligence—and shows how these are being borrowed and replicated by companies across the United States, in China, and elsewhere. Brian Dumaine shares tips for Amazon-proofing your business. Most important, Bezonomics answers the fundamental question: How are Amazon and its imitators affecting the way we live, and what can we learn from them?
Decades of research demonstrates that we often have an over-inflated sense of self and are rarely as good as we believe. Perfectly Confident is the first book to bring together the best psychological and economic studies to explain exactly what confidence is, when it can be helpful, and when it can be destructive in our lives. Moore reminds us that the key to success is to avoid being both over- and under-confident. In this essential guide, he shows how to become perfectly confident—how to strive for and maintain the well-calibrated, adaptive confidence that can elevate all areas of our lives..
Matt Ridley argues in this book that we need to change the way we think about innovation, to see it as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens to society as a direct result of the human habit of exchange, rather than an orderly, top-down process developing according to a plan. Innovation is crucially different from invention, because it is the turning of inventions into things of practical and affordable use to people. It speeds up in some sectors and slows down in others. It is always a collective, collaborative phenomenon, not a matter of lonely genius. It is gradual, serendipitous, recombinant, inexorable, contagious, experimental and unpredictable. It happens mainly in just a few parts of the world at any one time. It still cannot be modelled properly by economists, but it can easily be discouraged by politicians. Far from there being too much innovation, we may be on the brink of an innovation famine.
When external pressures are mounting, and employees are working from far-flung locations across the globe, says bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi, we can no longer afford to waste time navigating the complex chains of command or bureaucratic bottlenecks present in most companies. But when we choose the bold new methodology of co-elevation as our operating model, we unlock the potential to boost productivity, deepen commitment and engagement, and create a level of trust, mutual accountability, and purpose that exceeds what could have been accomplished under the status quo. And you don’t need any formal authority to do it. You simply have to marshal a commitment to a shared mission and care about the success and development of others as much as you care about your own. Regardless of your title, position, or where or how you work, the ability to lead without authority is an essential workplace competency.
In this clear-eyed, indispensable book, Bain & Company thought leader Darrell Rigby and his colleagues Sarah Elk and Steve Berez provide a much-needed reality check. They dispel the myths and misconceptions that have accompanied agile's rise to prominence--the idea that it can reshape an organization all at once, for instance, or that it should be used in every function and for all types of work. They illustrate that agile teams can indeed be powerful, making people's jobs more rewarding and turbocharging innovation, but such results are possible only if the method is fully understood and implemented the right way.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:16 AM
04.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for April 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Many leaders see their roles as presiders/managers, with a primary focus on keeping results consistent with past performance and on budget. These kinds of leaders make important contributions but rarely leave a mark on the businesses they serve. For those wanting to make a lasting impact, new skills are required. They need to learn to launch new initiatives, inspire others, and champion innovative approaches. Joel Peterson calls these higher-level leaders “entrepreneurial leaders,” and they create durable enterprises that deliver on their promise. Peterson lays out a path to achieving this summit, with a series of leadership maps organized around the four essential basecamps on the path to Entrepreneurial Leadership:
A former rocket scientist reveals the habits, ideas, and strategies that will empower you to turn the seemingly impossible into the possible. Rocket science is often celebrated as the ultimate triumph of technology. But it's not. Rather, it's the apex of a certain thought process—a way to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable. It's the same thought process that enabled Neil Armstrong to take his giant leap for mankind, that allows spacecraft to travel millions of miles through outer space and land on a precise spot, and that brings us closer to colonizing other planets. Fortunately, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to think like one. In this accessible and practical book, Ozan Varol reveals nine simple strategies from rocket science that you can use to make your own giant leaps in work and life.
The definitive book on leadership in the digital era: why digital technologies call for leadership that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity. Certain ideas about business leadership are held to be timeless, and certain characteristics of leaders―often including a square jaw, a deep voice, and extroversion―are said to be universal. Amit Mukherjee argues that since digital technologies are changing everything else, how could they not change leadership ideologies and styles? As more people worldwide participate equally in business, those assumptions of a leader's ideal profile have become irrelevant. Offering a radical rethinking of leadership, Mukherjee shows why digital technologies call for a new kind of leader―one who emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and inclusivity.
Leading futurist Bob Johansen shows how a new way of thinking, enhanced by new technologies, will help leaders break free of limiting labels and see new gradients of possibility in a chaotic world. The future will get even more perplexing over the next decade, and we are not ready. The dilemma is that we're restricted by rigid categorical thinking that freezes people and organizations in neatly defined boxes that often are inaccurate or obsolete. Categories lead us toward certainty but away from clarity, and categorical thinking moves us away from understanding the bigger picture. Sticking with this old way of thinking and seeing isn't just foolish, it's dangerous. Full-spectrum thinking is the ability to seek patterns and clarity outside, across, beyond, or maybe even without any boxes or categories while resisting false certainty and simplistic binary choices. It reveals our commonalities that are hidden in plain view.
Innosight's Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz introduce a new way of thinking and managing, called "future-back," that enables any manager to become a practical visionary. Addressing the many barriers to change that exist in established organizations, they present a systematic approach to overcoming them that includes: The principles and mind-set that allow leadership teams to look beyond typical short-term planning horizons / A method for turning emerging challenges into the growth opportunities that can define an organization's future / A step-by-step approach for translating a vision into a strategic plan that teams can align around and commit to / Ways to ensure that visionary thinking becomes a repeatable organizational capability
We're often told that we're living amidst a startup boom. Typically, we think of apps built by college kids and funded by venture capital firms, which remake fortunes and economies overnight. But in reality, most new businesses are things like restaurants or hair salons. Entrepreneurs aren't all millennials—more often, it's their parents. And those small companies are the fabric of our economy. This book is the real story of entrepreneurship. It confronts both success and failure, and shows how they can change a human life. It captures the inherent freedom that entrepreneurship brings, and why it matters.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 32 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:16 AM
03.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for March 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in March 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Everyone has something they want to change. Marketers want to change their customers’ minds and leaders want to change organizations. Start-ups want to change industries and nonprofits want to change the world. But change is hard. Often, we persuade and pressure and push, but nothing moves. Could there be a better way? This book takes a different approach. Successful change agents know it’s not about pushing harder, or providing more information, it’s about being a catalyst. Catalysts remove roadblocks and reduce the barriers to change. Instead of asking, “How could I change someone’s mind?” they ask a different question: “Why haven’t they changed already? What’s stopping them?”
So often in life, we get stuck in a cycle of response. We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems. Cops chase robbers, doctors treat patients with chronic illnesses, and call-center reps address customer complaints. But many crimes, chronic illnesses, and customer complaints are preventable. So why do our efforts skew so heavily toward reaction rather than prevention? Upstream probes the psychological forces that push us downstream—including “problem blindness,” which can leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst.
Workers want and need to know their work is appreciated. Showing gratitude to employees is the easiest, fastest, most inexpensive way to boost performance. New research shows that gratitude boosts employee engagement, reduces turnover, and leads team members to express more gratitude to one another—strengthening team bonds. Studies have also shown that gratitude is beneficial for those expressing it and is one of the most powerful variables in predicting a person’s overall well-being—above money, health, and optimism.
In 1984, Doug Conant was fired without warning and with barely an explanation. He felt hopeless and stuck but, surprisingly, this defeating turn of events turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Doug began to consider what might be holding him back from realizing his potential, fulfilling his dreams, and making a bigger impact on the world around him. Embarking on a journey of self-reflection and discovery, he forged a path to revolutionize his leadership and transform his career trajectory. Ultimately, Doug was able to condense his remarkable leadership story into six practical steps. It wasn't until Doug worked through these six steps that he was able to lift his leadership to heights that ultimately brought him career success, joy, and fulfillment.
Parents in today's fast-paced, disorienting world can easily lose track of who they are and what really matters most. But it doesn't have to be this way. As a parent, you can harness the powerful science of leadership in order to thrive in all aspects of your life. Drawing on the principles of his book Total Leadership—a bestseller and popular leadership development program used in organizations worldwide--and on their experience as researchers, educators, consultants, coaches, and parents, Stew Friedman and coauthor Alyssa Westring offer a robust, proven method that will help you gain a greater sense of purpose and control.
What potential is so close within your grasp? What are you actually capable of? Create the Future teaches you how to think disruptively, providing specific steps to create real innovation and change. It combines Jeremy's high energy provocative thinking with tactics that have been battle tested through projects with leading innovators like Disney, Starbucks, Amex, IBM, Adidas, Google, and NASA. Better yet, this is a double-sided book. Create the Future is paired with a revised edition of Jeremy's award-winning innovation handbook, Exploiting Chaos.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:37 AM
02.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Life is not what you get out of it . . . it's what you put back in. Yet our current means for summarizing life's work, from resumes to salaries, are devoid of what matters most. This is why the work we do is often bad for our wellbeing, when it should be making us happier and healthier. What are the most meaningful contributions we can make? This is Life's Great Question. Life is about what you do that improves the world around you. It is about investing in the development of other people. And it is about efforts that will continue to grow when you are gone. Life's Great Question will show you how to make your work and life more meaningful, and greatly boost your wellbeing. In this remarkably quick read, author Tom Rath describes how finding your greatest contribution is far more effective than following talent or passion alone.
As the most trusted mental coach in the world of sports, Trevor Moawad has worked with many of the most dominant athletes and the savviest coaches. From Nick Saban and Kirby Smart to Russell Wilson, they all look to Moawad for help finding or keeping or regaining their competitive edge. (As do countless business leaders and members of special forces.) Moawad's motivational approach is elegant but refreshingly simple: He replaces hardwired negativity, the kind of defeatist mindset that's nearly everybody's default, with what he calls "neutral thinking." His own special innovation, it's a nonjudgmental, nonreactive way of coolly assessing problems and analyzing crises, a mode of attack that offers luminous clarity and supreme calm in the critical moments before taking decisive action. Not only can neutral thinking raise your performance level-it can transform your overall life.
When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition, experience, and big data alone don't work. What does? Running disciplined business experiments. And what if companies roll out new products or introduce new customer experiences without running these experiments? They fly blind. That's what Harvard Business School professor Stefan Thomke shows in this rigorously researched and eye-opening book. It guides you through best practices in business experimentation, illustrates how these practices work at leading companies, and answers some fundamental questions: What makes a good experiment? How do you test in online and brick-and-mortar businesses? In B2B and B2C? How do you build an experimentation culture?
Most businesses identify six key digital technologies―artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledgers and blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous machines, virtual and augmented reality, and 5G communication―as critical to their relevance and growth over the coming ten years. These new disruptive technologies present significant opportunity for businesses in every industry. The first businesses to understand automation and these transformative technologies will be the ones to reap the greatest rewards in the marketplace. The Innovation Ultimatum helps leaders understand the key technologies poised to reshape business in the next decade and prepare their organizations for technology-enabled change. Using straightforward, jargon-free language, this important resource provides a set of strategic questions every leader will need to ask and answer in order to prepare for the impending changes to the business landscape.
When it comes to setting and meeting goals, we may see—quite literally—our plans, our progress, and our potential in the wrong ways. We perceive ourselves as being closer to or further from the end than we may actually be depending on our frame of reference. We handicap ourselves by looking too often at the big picture and at other times too long at the fine detail. But as award-winning social psychologist Emily Balcetis explains, there is great power in these misperceptions. We can learn to leverage perceptual illusions if we know when and how to use them to our advantage. A mind-blowing and original tour of perception, Clearer, Closer, Better will help you see the possibilities in what you can’t see now. Inspiring, motivating, and always entertaining, it demonstrates that if we take advantage of our visual experiences, they can lead us to live happier, healthier, and more productive lives every day.
New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni has written a dozen books that focus on how leaders can build teams and lead organizations. In The Motive, he shifts his attention toward helping them understand the importance of why they’re leading in the first place. In what may be his edgiest page-turner to date, Lencioni thrusts his readers into a day-long conversation between rival CEOs. Shay Davis is the CEO of Golden Gate Alarm, who, after just a year in his role, is beginning to worry about his job and is desperate to figure out how to turn things around. With nowhere else to turn, Shay receives some hard-to-swallow advice from the most unlikely and unwanted source―Liam Alcott, CEO of a more successful security company and his most hated opponent. Lencioni uses unexpected plot twists and crisp dialogue to take us on a journey that culminates in a resolution that is as unexpected as it is enlightening.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t.” — Mark Twain
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:42 PM
01.01.20
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2020Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in January 2020. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Teaching by Heart summarizes the author's key insights gained from more than forty years of teaching and managing. It illustrates how teachers can both lift people up and let them down. It proposes that the best teachers are also leaders, and the best leaders are also teachers. In examining how to lead and teach, renowned Harvard Business School professor Thomas J. DeLong takes the reader inside his own head and heart. He notes that, as teachers, we often focus more on our inadequacies and missteps than on our strengths and unique talents. He explains why this is so by dissecting and analyzing his own experiences--using himself as a case study. The book's goal is to help readers learn about the intricacies of teaching and managing, and to impart lessons about how teachers can create a unique teaching atmosphere. To do this, the author analyzes the process of creating a curriculum, preparing for an eighty-minute class, managing the fifteen minutes before class begins, and evaluating the nature of the teaching experience after the session concludes.
A set of tools for mastering the one skill standing between us and success: the ability to ask for the things we need to succeed. Studies show that asking for help makes us better and less frustrated at our jobs. It helps us find new opportunities and new talent. It unlocks new ideas and solutions, and enhances team performance. And it helps us get the things we need outside the workplace as well. And yet, we rarely give ourselves permission to ask. Luckily, the research shows that asking—and getting—what we need is much easier than we tend to think.
One of the leading business thinkers in the world offers a bold, new theory of advanced leadership for tackling the world's complex, messy, and recalcitrant social and environmental problems. When traditional approaches are inadequate or resisted, advanced leadership skills are essential. In this book, Kanter shows how people everywhere can unleash their creativity and entrepreneurial adroitness to mobilize partners across challenging cultural, social, and political situations and innovate for a brighter future.
What is the greatest return on a leader’s time? After leaders have invested in their own leadership growth, what is the best way to accomplish their vision and grow their organizations? Develop leaders! The more leaders an organization has and the better equipped they are to lead, the more successful the organization and all of its leaders. In The Leader’s Greatest Return, Maxwell shares the most important lessons he’s learned about the leadership development process over the last quarter century.
Laura Huang, a preeminent Harvard Business School professor, shows that success is about gaining an edge: that elusive quality that gives you an upper hand and attracts attention and support. Some people seem to naturally have it. Now, Huang teaches the rest of us how to create our own from the challenges and biases we think hold us back, and turning them to work in our favor. In Edge, Huang offers a different approach. She argues that success is rarely just about the quality of our ideas, credentials, and skills, or our effort. Instead, achieving success hinges on how well we shape others' perceptions--of our strengths, certainly, but also our flaws. It's about creating our own edge by confronting the factors that seem like shortcomings and turning them into assets that make others take notice.
Are you a future-ready leader? Based on exclusive interviews with over 140 of the world's top CEOs and a survey of nearly 14,000 people. Do you have the right mindsets and skills to be able to lead effectively in the next ten years and beyond? Most individuals and organizations don’t even know what leadership will look like in the future. Until now. The majority of the world's top business leaders that Jacob interviewed believe that while some core aspects of leadership will remain the same, such as creating a vision and executing on strategy, leaders of the future will need a new arsenal of skills and mindsets to succeed.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss)
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:00 AM
12.13.19
The Best Leadership Books of 2019
LEADERSHIP development is a lifelong process. It is made possible with a quality that we spend a lifetime acquiring: self-awareness. People don’t experience our intentions; they experience our behavior. It is a theme that runs through most of these titles. Books like Helping People Change and The Power of Bad, have the power to change forever how we work with others and address the things that hold us back. Grace is a tough concept to sell in today’s environment. Grace looks at the bigger picture. It is not primarily concerned for the self. It does not rejoice in the downfall of others. It does not seek its own way. It is outwardly focused. We marginalize others when we insist on our rightness. The need for an outward focus is the underlying conclusion of these titles. The biographies on this list are more than mere memoirs. They all provide insights into leading and how others have tried to make sense of the world. They all share their methods, their successes and failures, and the lessons they learned. Biographies provide, like no other genre, roadmaps and guardrails in a context that makes them relevant for our own lives. It’s like having a mentor guide your journey. When we get our thinking right, the success comes almost automatically.
(Page Two, 2019) 
(Indigo River Publishing, 2019)
(Rodale Books, 2019)
(HarperCollins Leadership, 2019)
(Penguin Press, 2019)
(Portfolo, 2019)
(HarperCollins Leadership, 2019)
(Harvard Business Review Press, 2019)
(PublicAffairs, 2019)
(Riverhead Books, 2019)
(CenterPoint Publishing, 2019)
(Currency, 2019)
(TarcherPerigee, 2019)
by Amy Jen Su (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019)
Biographies:
(Baker Books, 2019)
(Random House, 2019)
(Random House, 2019)
(Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2019)
(Simon & Schuster, 2019)
(Little, Brown and Company, 2019)
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:57 AM
12.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for December 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Mark Hannum reveals the evidence-based secrets that surfaced from vast data Linkage has collected on leadership effectiveness. He details the five commitments that the best leaders make to themselves and their organizations: Inspire others to join the pursuit of a common vision, Engage every team member to contribute their best abilities, Innovate key products or processes that lead to the goal, Achieve results by organizing people and aligning resources, Become more self-aware and courageous as a leader.
Both enlightening and entertaining, Dr Max Mckeown delivers concise advice on how to move from original insights to new ideas, and from new ideas to valuable real-world innovation. You’ll learn how to increase creativity, understand the psychology of thinking differently, encourage collaboration, co-create with customers, overcome indifference, create an idea-hungry culture, rid yourself of creativity zombies and get to innovation paradise.
Adversity can often catch you by surprise and leave you struggling with what to do next. What if you could confront any adversity, from the biggest challenges-the loss of your job, divorce, health issues, bankruptcy-to normal daily challenges-a late flight, a disappointing phone call, a missed promotion, a bad day-and not just survive it, but thrive afterwards? Redman was horrifically wounded in Iraq in 2007 when he was shot at close range through the face and arm. After 40 surgeries, including extensive facial reconstruction and skin grafts, he came back from this experience stronger than ever-despite carrying scars and injuries he will have for the rest of his life. Redman went on to launch two successful companies and speaks all over the country on how to build better leaders through his Overcome mindset.
Amazon’s trillion-dollar success is the envy of everyone, but achievable by anyone. What has propelled their record streak of growth? Their management system, and it can do the same for you no matter what business you are in or what level. Learning it is as simple as six building blocks: Customer-Obsessed Business Model, Continuous Bar-Raising Talent Pool, AI-Powered Data & Metrics System, Ground-Breaking Invention Machine, High-Velocity & High-Quality Decision-Making, A forever Day 1 culture. Whether you are an established CEO or a recent college grad, this concise and actionable book will help your business win in a new digital era that demands nonstop innovation.
The intent of this book—the author's goal for you—is to understand the baseless underpinnings of almost all our fears. We are far better at dealing with external, tangible fears than our own imagined ones. It’s time to realize there is no monster under the bed, never has been, and never will be without having to check nightly and without needing a weapon on the night table. Picture yourself freed of restraints that you could never properly articulate and were loath to discuss, but which you carried on your shoulders constantly, a dead weight, nonetheless. Essentially, this book is for entrepreneurs, business owners, and those who seek a better position for themselves and their talents, but who procrastinate, delay, and hang back.
Why are we devastated by a word of criticism even when it’s mixed with lavish praise? Because our brains are wired to focus on the bad. This negativity effect explains things great and small: why countries blunder into disastrous wars, why couples divorce, why people flub job interviews, how schools fail students, why football coaches stupidly punt on fourth down. All day long, the power of bad governs people’s moods, drives marketing campaigns, and dominates news and politics. But once we recognize our negativity bias, the rational brain can overcome the power of bad when it’s harmful and employ that power when it’s beneficial. In fact, bad breaks and bad feelings create the most powerful incentives to become smarter and stronger. Properly understood, bad can be put to perfectly good use.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Reading is an honor and a gift from a warrior or historian who—a decade or a thousand decades ago—set aside time to write.” — Jim Mattis
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:52 AM
11.21.19
James Mattis: My Favorite Books
GENERAL JAMES MATTIS credits his leadership success to his prodigious reading habits. He says, “You stay teachable most by reading books, by reading what other people went through.” Admiral James Stavridis is also an avid reader and believes that reading is central to leading. Reading lists are personal, but they do provide a guide as to what others have read to improve their leadership and their understanding of the human condition. In Call Sign Chaos, James Mattis writes: Reading is an honor and a gift from a warrior or historian who—a decade or a thousand decades ago—set aside time to write. Non-Fiction
Biographies
Fiction
This list is available as a PDF. 
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:49 AM
11.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for November 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
If we're not careful, loserthink would have us believe that every Trump supporter is a bigoted racist, addicts should be responsible for fixing the opioid epidemic, and that your relationship fell apart simply because you chewed with your mouth open. Even the smartest people can slip into loserthink's seductive grasp. This book will teach you how to spot and avoid it--and will give you scripts to respond when hollow arguments are being brandished against you, whether by well-intentioned friends, strangers on the internet, or political pundits. You'll also learn how to spot the underlying causes of loserthink, like the inability to get ego out of your decisions, thinking with words instead of reasons, failing to imagine alternative explanations, and making too much of coincidences.
For anyone who’s sought to create change, or felt sucked into the drama and chaos of a toxic work environment, this book will advance the notion that everyone at an organization is a leader – for good or for bad – and that leaders have tremendous power to influence those who follow their example. The quality of our leadership is based upon our intentions, energy, and presence. By emphasizing authorship, self-care, and response-ability (not responsibility) as leadership skills and therefore cultural amplifiers, Contagious You shows you how to walk the path of more effective leadership while navigating the road blocks in your way.
Organizational culture has undergone a seismic shift in the 21st century―and with it, the requirements of leadership. In Building the Best, LearnLoft CEO John Eades takes you on a journey of transformation that will equip you with the tools you need to become the kind of cutting-edge leader today’s workplace so urgently needs. “Leadership is about empowering, inspiring, and serving in order to elevate others over an extended period of time. You are the perfect person to live this out every day.” Eades’s powerful words form the backbone of this groundbreaking guide to cultivating leadership at its highest level.
Leaders today spend up to 90 percent of each day communicating to make good things happen in their organizations. They communicate with colleagues, customers, shareowners, creditors, regulators, advocates, and competitors. They influence culture, opportunity, risk-taking, and risk aversion. The stakes in this new communication environment are very high, driving home Winston Churchill’s statement: “The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.” Whether they recognize it or not, leaders are chief credibility officers, with organizational reputations often resting on their words and actions, especially in times of crisis. As a CEO quoted in the book said: “Communication shouldn’t be just another hat that a CEO wears. It should be at the core of everything you do.”
Despite the unprecedented connectivity enabled by modern technology, we are far less likely to trust and to invest the time needed to build strong relationships. How can we use technology to reverse this trend? A groundbreaking new branch of artificial intelligence―Personality AI―may be the answer. Combining traditional machine learning, data analytics, and behavioral psychology, Personality AI helps professional communicators tear down walls, establish trust with their audiences, and utilize data to build meaningful relationships, strengthen empathy, and win more customers.
The Age of Software is here, and another mass extinction event looms—this is a story about rebel developers and business leaders working together, racing against time to innovate, survive, and thrive in a time of unprecedented uncertainty...and opportunity. “My goal in writing The Unicorn Project was to explore and reveal the necessary but invisible structures required to make developers (and all engineers) productive, and reveal the devastating effects of technical debt and complexity. I hope this book can create common ground for technology and business leaders to leave the past behind, and co-create a better future together.” —Gene Kim
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “It is a man’s duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.” — Henry Ward Beecher
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:51 AM
10.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for October 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Do you know how to play the game you’re in?
In Sailing True North, Admiral Stavridis offers a much more intimate, human accounting: the lessons of leadership and character contained in the lives and careers of history's most significant naval commanders. He brings a lifetime of reflection to bear on the subjects of his study—on naval history, on the vocation of the admiral with its special tests and challenges, and on the sweep of global geopolitics. Above all, this is a book that will help you navigate your own life's voyage: the voyage of leadership of course, but more important, the voyage of character. Sadly, evil men can be effective leaders sailing toward bad ends; ultimately, leadership without character is like a ship underway without a rudder. Sailing True North helps us find the right course to chart.
How can you be the leader you want to be, every day? The answer is more than a time-management system or a silver-bullet solution for changing your routines. Leadership expert and coach Amy Jen Su's powerful new book helps readers discover that the answer lies within. By focusing in specific ways on five key leadership elements—Purpose, Process, People, Presence, and Peace--you can increase your time, capacity, energy, and ultimately your impact, with less stress and more equanimity.
In The Intelligent Leader, Mattone lays out an accessible, practical, and compelling path that anyone can take to become the kind of leader that brings enrichment to the lives of others, enjoys a more fulfilling life, and leaves a lasting legacy. Each chapter uses a variety of real-world examples, tools, and assessments to explore one of Mattone’s 7 dimensions of Intelligent Leadership.
In this three-part book, Gino Wickman reveals the six essential traits that every entrepreneur needs in order to succeed, based on real-world startups that have reached incredible heights. If these traits ring true for you, you’ll get a glimpse of what your life would look like as an entrepreneur. What’s more, Wickman will help you determine what type of business best suits your unique skill set and provide a detailed roadmap, with tools, tips, and exercises, that will accelerate your path to startup success.
What You Do Is Who You Are is a journey through culture, from ancient to modern. Along the way, it answers a question fundamental to any organization: who are we? How do people talk about us when we’re not around? How do we treat our customers? Are we there for people in a pinch? Can we be trusted? Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say in company-wide meeting. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. Who you are is what you do. This book aims to help you do the things you need to become the kind of leader you want to be—and others want to follow.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “It is a man’s duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.” — Henry Ward Beecher
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:20 AM
09.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for September 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in September 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.  Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis and Bing West
Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’s storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas—and short-sighted thinking—now facing our nation.
 The Brilliant Jerk Conundrum: Thriving with and Governing a Dominant Visionary by Marc J. Epstein and Rob Shelton
With a strong leader at the helm, what can possibly go wrong? Betting on a dominant visionary is one of the biggest business gambles an investor, employee, or board member will ever make. If things go right, a visionary's wizardry changes entire industries and generates massive value for shareholders, employees, and society. But if things go wrong, millions (possibly billions) of dollars are lost--and sometimes people go to jail. The challenge for investors, employees, and board members is knowing the difference between an inspired visionary and an idealistic time bomb and if, when, and how to intervene.
 Love is Just Damn Good Business: Do What You Love in the Service of People Who Love What You Do by Steve Farber
It’s time to toss aside the touchy-feely notions of love in business and acknowledge the real power that it holds. Love is not only appropriate in the context of business, it’s the foundation of great leadership. To put it bluntly: love is just damn good business. It’s a refreshingly human way of doing business.
 Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth by Richard Boyatzis, Melvin L. Smith and Ellen Van Oosten
Helping others is a good thing. Often, as a leader, manager, doctor, teacher, or coach, it's central to your job. But even the most well-intentioned efforts to help others can be undermined by a simple truth: We almost always focus on trying to "fix" people, correcting problems or filling the gaps between where they are and where we think they should be. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well, if at all, to inspire sustained learning or positive change. There's a better way.
 The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger with Joel Lovell
This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as the lowliest studio grunt at ABC. It’s also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the Star Wars mythology.
 How to Lead in a World of Distraction: Four Simple Habits for Turning Down the Noise by Clay Scroggins
While many leaders have learned to tune out distractions that keep them from being productive, they remain deaf to their inner desires and emotions. In How to Lead in a World of Distraction, Clay Scroggins teaches leaders four simple habits that create space for emotional evaluation and exploration. These helpful practices will empower leaders to replace the chaos of their busy days with emotional competence and awareness that leads to a calmer, more fulfilling life.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:15 AM
08.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for August 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Transforming Legacy Organizations provides real-world advice and research-based information on how to grow innovation by employing new technologies, improving processes, and establishing a culture of creativity and forward momentum. Conventional business wisdom views innovation as the biggest advantage startups have over large, established organizations, often referred to as legacy organizations. This belief is false, especially when considering that 70% of all startups fail within 20 months of their first venture round. The truth is innovation initiatives of legacy organizations have far better chances of succeeding.
In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner. The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning offers powerful strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention.
Everyone has insecurities. Like with most insecurities–especially those that are not self-inflicted–we don’t tend to “fix” or “get over” them; they are always with us and a part of who we are. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we can recognize them, understand them, and seek to find a way to live our most authentic lives free from the chaos they often create.
Oren is throwing out the old playbook on persuasion. Instead, he'll show you a new approach that works on this simple insight: Everyone trusts their own ideas. If, rather than pushing your idea on your buyer, you can guide them to discover it on their own, they'll believe it, trust it, and get excited about it. Then they'll buy in and feel good about the chance to work with you. That might sound easier said than done, but Oren has taught thousands of people how to do it with a series of simple steps that anyone can follow in any situation. And Oren has been in a lot of different situations.
Instant gratification is the norm today—in our lives, our culture, our economy, and our politics. Many of us have forgotten (if we ever learned) how to make smart decisions for the long run. Whether it comes to our finances, our health, our communities, or our planet, it’s easy to avoid thinking ahead. The consequences of this immediacy are stark: Superbugs spawned by the overuse of antibiotics endanger our health. Companies that fail to invest stagnate and fall behind. Hurricanes and wildfires turn deadly for communities that could have taken more precaution. Today more than ever, all of us need to know how we can make better long-term decisions in our lives, businesses, and society. Bina Venkataraman sees the way forward.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:11 AM
07.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in July 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
The Coffee Bean: an illustrated fable that teaches readers how to transform their environment, overcome challenges, and create positive change. Life is often difficult. It can be harsh, stressful, and feel like a pot of boiling hot water. The environments we find ourselves in can change, weaken, or harden us, and test who we truly are. We can be like the carrot that weakens in the pot or like the egg that hardens. Or, we can be like the coffee bean and discover the power inside us to transform our environment.
The true, behind-the-scenes history of the people who built Silicon Valley and shaped Big Tech in America. Now, after almost five years of pioneering research, O'Mara has produced the definitive history of Silicon Valley for our time, the story of mavericks and visionaries, but also of powerful institutions creating the framework for innovation, from the Pentagon to Stanford University. Deploying a wonderfully rich and diverse cast of protagonists, across four generations of explosive growth in the Valley, from the Forties to the present, O'Mara has wrestled into magnificent narrative form one of the most fateful developments in modern American history.
In Follow the Feeling, strategy advisor Kai D. Wright answers a critical question plaguing entrepreneurs, brand strategists, marketers, and leaders: how do you grow your brand in a noisy world? Analyzing 1,500 fast-growing companies from Alibaba to Zara, the Columbia University lecturer and Ogilvy global consulting partner unpacks five branding secrets. Follow the Feeling will show you how to best build and position your brand so you can stand out from competitors, build a tribe, and engineer a positive feeling across five important branding territories—lexicon, audio cues, visual stimuli, experience, and culture.
In an increasingly experience-driven economy, companies that deliver great experiences thrive, and those that do not die. The book presents interdisciplinary research underlying key concepts such as memory, intentionality, and dramatic structure in a down-to-earth style, drawing attention to both the macro and micro levels. It provides readers with the tools they need to design innovative and indelible experiences and to move their organizations into the experience economy.
A fascinating story about the power of networking, connection, and mentorship. Written as an engaging parable, Swim! How a Shark, a Suckerfish, and a Parasite Teach You Leadership, Mentoring, and Next Level Success brings to life real-world challenges (and their solutions) and presents them in simple, yet powerful terms. The book explores the vital importance of networking, explores the steps that lead to successful networking, and explains why we need it.
On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first and only U.S. president to resign from office—to avoid almost certain impeachment. Utterly disgraced, he was forced to flee the White House with a small cadre of advisors and family. Richard Nixon was a completely defeated man. Yet only a decade later, Nixon was a trusted advisor to presidents, dispensing wisdom on campaign strategy and foreign policy, shaping the course of U.S.-Soviet summit meetings, and representing the U.S. at state funerals—the very model of an elder statesman. How did he do it? Kasey S. Pipes, advisor to President George W. Bush, tells the fascinating story of Nixon’s comeback.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.” — Charlie "Tremendous" Jones
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:38 AM
06.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases.
Jeffrey Hull shares the secrets, strategies, and science underlying his, and his clients', successes. Interweaving real-life stories with practical tips and the latest evidence-based research, he equips readers with the insights they need to thrive in today's world. Based on his popular classes with Harvard Medical School physicians and NYU business students, Hull has identified the six key elements that leaders in this new workplace need to succeed: Flexibility, Intentionality, Emotional Intelligence, Realness, Collaboration, and Engagement.   You're It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most by Leonard Marcus, Eric McNulty, Joseph M. Henderson and Barry C. Dorn
Today, in an instant, leaders can find themselves face-to-face with crisis. An active shooter. A media controversy. A data breach. You're It takes you to the front lines of some of the toughest decisions facing our nation's leaders-from how to mobilize during a hurricane or in the aftermath of a bombing to halting a raging pandemic. The authors introduce readers to the pragmatic model and methods of Meta-Leadership. They show you how to understand what is happening during a moment of crisis and change, what to do about it, and how to hone these skills to lead high-performing teams.  The Sponsor Effect: How to Be a Better Leader by Investing in Others by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
Many people know the benefit of finding a sponsor--someone who goes beyond traditional mentorship to partner with a junior-level employee to help build their skills, advocate for them when opportunities arise, and open doors. But few realize that being a sponsor is just as important to career growth as finding one. According to new research, senior executives who sponsor rising talent are 53 percent more likely to be promoted than those who don't. Similarly, middle-level managers who have proteges are 167 percent more likely to be given stretch assignments. But how do you find standout proteges, let alone develop them so that they're able to come through for you and your organization?  Feedback (and Other Dirty Words): Why We Fear It, How to Fix It by M. Tamra Chandler with Laura Grealish
Feedback: the mere mention of the word can make our blood pressure rise and our defenses go up. However, if we take a step back and think about its true intent, we realize that feedback needn't be a bad thing. After all, understanding how others experience us provides valuable opportunities to learn and grow. When it's done right, feedback has been proven to be the most effective means of improving communication and performance for you and your organization.  Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna
One of the start-up world’s most in-demand executive coaches, Jerry Colonna helps start-up CEOs make peace with their demons, the psychological habits and behavioral patterns that have helped them to succeed—molding them into highly accomplished individuals—yet have been detrimental to their relationships and ultimate well-being. Reboot is a journey of radical self-inquiry, helping you to reset your life by sorting through the emotional baggage that is holding you back professionally, and even more important, in your relationships.
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.” — Anthony Trollope
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:22 AM
05.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for May 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Turn Enemies Into Allies: The Art of Peace in the Workplace (Conflict Resolution for Leaders, Managers, and Anyone Stuck in the Middle) by Judy Ringer
Leaders often believe they don’t have the time to help employees navigate conflict. It takes more time not to address conflict than to constructively intervene. But before you can successfully guide others in managing disagreements, you must be able to manage yourself—your mindset, presence, and behaviors. Turn Enemies into Allies offers a way of working with clashing employees that is deliberate and systematic.  Cracking Complexity: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything Fast by David Komlos and David Benjamin
Too many leaders approach complexity the wrong way—they push their people harder and harder and tackle problems one at a time over months, sometimes even years, and nearly always in a linear fashion. In this book, the authors share their proven formula for dramatically shortening the process and solving an organization's toughest challenges in mere days.  It's the Manager: Gallup finds the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization's long-term success by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
Packed with 52 discoveries from Gallup’s largest study on the future of work, It’s the Manager shows leaders how to adapt their organizations to rapid change, ranging from new workplace demands to the challenges of managing remote employees, a diverse workforce, the rise of artificial intelligence, gig workers, and attracting—and keeping—today’s best employees.  Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yourself, Leading Others, and Leading an Organization by Ron Williams with Karl Weber
This master class on leadership, written by one of America's most prominent and successful executives, will help you develop the professional leadership qualities that deliver personal, interpersonal, and organizational success. Ron Williams provides you with practical, tested leadership advice, whether you're searching for a new career, looking for proven management solutions, or seeking to transform your organization.  Grace: A Leader's Guide to a Better Us by John Baldoni
GRACE: A Leader's Guide to a Better Us focuses on the role that grace plays as a catalyst in enabling us to create "the greater good" at work, at home and in our communities. GRACE tells the stories of women and men who are making a positive difference in our world by devoting themselves to serving as agents of positive change. GRACE is a clarion call for the goodness in the world around us as well as a practical guide for implementing grace in your own life.  Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility by David Weinberger
Through stories from history, business, and technology, philosopher and technologist David Weinberger finds the unifying truths lying below the surface of the tools we take for granted--and a future in which our best strategy often requires holding back from anticipating and instead creating as many possibilities as we can. Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “No two persons ever read the same book.” — Edmund Wilson
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:21 AM
04.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for April 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Nine Lies about Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real WorldMarcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall There are some big lies--distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking--that we encounter every time we show up for work. Nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, ultimately resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be. But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and that evidence is more powerful than dogma.  The Coaching Effect: What Great Leaders Do to Increase Sales, Enhance Performance, and Sustain GrowthBill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth The authors share three critical performance drivers, along with the four high-growth activities that coaches must execute to build a team that is motivated to achieve at the highest levels. Through both hard data and rich stories, Eckstrom and Wirth demonstrate how leaders can measure and improve their coaching to lead their teams to better results.  Great Leaders Have No Rules: Contrarian Leadership Principles to Transform Your Team and BusinessKevin Kruse Kevin Kruse debunks popular wisdom with ten contrarian principles for better, faster, easier leadership. Grounded in solid research and three decades of entrepreneurial experience, this book has one purpose: to teach you how to be both the boss everyone wants to work for and the high achiever every CEO wants to hire—all without drama, stress, or endless hours in the office  Labyrinth: The Art of Decision MakingPawel Motyl Every day, we make countless choices, yet we rarely stop to consider how we arrive at those decisions as we speed through our lives. In Labyrinth, leadership expert Pawel Motyl believes it’s time to take a closer look at how we make decisions―and learn how to decide better. Motyl digs into the series of decisions that led to some of the modern world’s most dramatic events: from the Cuban missile crisis to the 1996 Mount Everest climbing disaster; from the Apollo 13 rescue mission to the ill-fated Daimler–Chrysler merger. Along the way, he reveals 16 rules for effective decision-making that will challenge your pre-existing beliefs, and change your outlook forever.  How Change HappensCass Sunstein Sunstein focuses on the crucial role of social norms―and on their frequent collapse. When norms lead people to silence themselves, even an unpopular status quo can persist. Sometimes change is more gradual, as “nudges” help produce new and different decisions. And finally, he considers social divisions, social cascades, and “partyism,” when identification with a political party creates a strong bias against all members of an opposing party―which can both fuel and block social change. Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “No two persons ever read the same book.” — Edmund Wilson
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:08 AM
03.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for March 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in March 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of CompromiseHorst Schulze As the co-founder and former president of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Schulze led the company to unprecedented multi-billion dollar growth, setting the business vision and people-focused standards that made the Ritz-Carlton brand globally elite. Schulze's principles are both versatile and utterly practical to leaders of every age, career stage, and industry. You don't need a powerful title or a line of direct reports—you have everything you need to use them right now.  Win the Heart: How to Create a Culture of Full Engagement Mark Miller Employee engagement is shockingly low--but it's not an employee problem; it's a leadership problem. Bestselling author Mark Miller says it's up to leaders to create a workplace where their employees truly want to be—and he reveals four keys to doing it.  The 100X Leader: How to Become Someone Worth FollowingJeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram The best leader you've ever had in your life was a liberator—someone willing to fight for your highest good, even at a personal cost. Inside, global leadership experts Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram explain what made that leader so unique, how to become that person yourself, and how to share the same gift with others. The 100x Leader will help you become—and build—leaders worth following.  Innovating Innovation: Leadership Tools For Moving Your Business Forward and Making Change HappenDavid Morey Innovation is broken. Business leaders struggle to find ways to crack through their own corporate politics or bureaucratic silos, to move from defense to offense, to nurture real breakthrough, to drive visionary creativity in ways that add new value to everything they do. Morey will guide you across 11 concrete and pragmatic steps that unlock and drive day-to-day innovation in your business and help you gain a long-term competitive advantage in your marketplace.  The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to YouJulie Zhuo Having managed dozens of teams spanning tens to hundreds of people, Julie Zhuo knows the most important lesson of all: great managers are made, not born. If you care enough to be reading this, then you care enough to be a great manager. Whether you're new to the job, a veteran leader, or looking to be promoted, this is the handbook you need to be the kind of manager you wish you had. Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Books, because of the power they possess to exert intellectual influence, more so than any other form of serious communication, change the way readers — and even leaders — see the world and set the stage for them to change it.” — Peter J. Dougherty, editor-at-large at Princeton University Press
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:28 AM
02.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must EmbraceJohn C. Maxwell In Leadershift, John C. Maxwell helps leaders gain the ability and willingness to make leadership changes that will positively enhance their organizational and personal growth. He does this by sharing the eleven shifts he made over the course of his long and successful leadership career. Each shift changed his trajectory and set him up for new and exciting achievements, ultimately strengthening and sustaining his leadership abilities.  Relationomics: Business Powered by RelationshipsDr. Randy Ross with a Foreword by Ken Blanchard In Relationomics, Dr. Randy Ross lays out the principles and practices that will help readers develop and sustain the kind of relationships that can build their business and energize their team, including how to become a value creator, master the art of giving and receiving helpful feedback, dramatically decrease employee turnover, lead beyond self-interest, and much more.  Bedtime Stories for Managers: Farewell, Lofty Leadership . . . Welcome, Engaging ManagementHenry Mintzberg If you're like most managers and things keep you up at night, now you can turn to a book that's designed especially for you! But you won't find talking rabbits or princesses here. (There is a cow, but it doesn't jump.) Henry Mintzberg has culled forty-two of the best posts from his widely read blog and turned them into a deceptively light, sneakily serious compendium of sometimes heretical reflections on management.  Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?Aaron Dignan Dignan says you can’t fix a team, department, or organization by tinkering around the edges. Over the years, he has helped his clients completely reinvent their operating systems—the fundamental principles and practices that shape their culture—with extraordinary success. Seth Godin says, “This is the management book of the year. Clear, powerful and urgent, it's a must read for anyone who cares about where they work and how they work.”  The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to Do Well by Doing GoodJames O'Toole James O’Toole tells the largely forgotten stories of men and women who adopted forward-thinking business practices designed to serve the needs of their employees, customers, communities, and the natural environment. They wanted to prove that executives didn’t have to make trade-offs between profit and virtue. Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Books, because of the power they possess to exert intellectual influence, more so than any other form of serious communication, change the way readers — and even leaders — see the world and set the stage for them to change it.” — Peter J. Dougherty, editor-at-large at Princeton University Press
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 01:18 AM
01.01.19
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2019Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in January 2019. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Unlocking Creativity: How to Solve Any Problem and Make the Best DecisionsMichael A. Roberto Leaders do not have to conceive innovative ideas, but rather open the path for curious and creative employees within their organization. Unlocking Creativity aids organizations in removing obstacles to the creative process and helps to form an atmosphere of imagination and innovation.  Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and PurposeJean Case When National Geographic Chairman Jean Case set out to investigate the core qualities of great change makers, past and present, from inventors to revolutionaries, she found five surprising traits all had in common. They weren’t wealth, privilege, or even genius. It was that all of these exceptional men and women chose to make a “big bet,” take bold risks, learn from their failures, reach beyond their bubbles, and let urgency conquer fear.  Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained InnovationGary P. Pisano The conventional wisdom is that only disruptive, nimble startups can innovate; once a business gets bigger and more complex corporate arteriosclerosis sets in. Big organizations require a different set of management practices and approaches—a discipline focused on the strategies, systems and culture for taking their companies to the next level.  Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter MostRobert J. Anderson and William A. Adams Is your leadership built for scale as you advance in today’s volatile and disruptive business environment? This context puts a premium on a very particular kind of leadership—High-Creative leadership capable of rapidly growing the organization while simultaneously transforming it into more agile, innovative, adaptive and engaging workplace.  Return on Courage: A Business Playbook for Courageous ChangeRyan Berman Return on Courage is the go-to courage instructional manual that helps readers attack and shrink business fears head-on. They will learn how to relentlessly play offense, drive change, and transform into a Courage Brand®. ROC can be the secret weapon to innovating new products and services, maximizing ROI, and revolutionizing their industry.  Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees WantBeverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni Study after study confirms that career development is the single most powerful tool managers have for driving retention, engagement, productivity, and results. But most managers feel they just don't have time for it. This new edition offers a better way: frequent, short conversations with employees about themselves, their goals, and the business that can be integrated seamlessly into the normal course of business. Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Books, because of the power they possess to exert intellectual influence, more so than any other form of serious communication, change the way readers — and even leaders — see the world and set the stage for them to change it.” — Peter J. Dougherty, editor-at-large at Princeton University Press
Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:05 AM
12.14.18
The Best Leadership Books of 2018
 The Mind of the Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and Your Organization for Extraordinary Resultsby Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter (Harvard Business Review Press, 2018)  Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copiedby Howard Yu (PublicAffairs, 2018)  Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help Youby Heidi Grant (Harvard Business Review Press, 2018)  Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thriveby Bradley R. Staats (Harvard Business Review Press, 2018)  What Happens Now? Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns Youby John Hillen and Mark D. Nevins (SelectBooks, Inc., 2018)  The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Winby Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (St. Martin's Press, 2018)   Professionalizing Leadershipby Barbara Kellerman (Oxford University Press, 2018)  Dear Founder: Letters of Advice for Anyone Who Leads, Manages, or Wants to Start a Businessby Maynard Webb with Carlye Adler (St. Martin's Press, 2018)  This Is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Mattersby Drew Dudley (Hachette Books, 2018)  ICONIC: How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Highest Level of Distinctionby Scott McKain (Forefront Books/Simon & Schuster, 2018)  Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Greatby Carmine Gallo (St. Martin's Press, 2018)  Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Doby Carl J. Schramm (Simon & Schuster, 2018)  Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibilityby Patty McCord (Silicon Guild, 2018)  The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadershipby Fred Kofman (Currency, 2018)  by Hal Gregersen (HarperBusiness, 2018) 
Biographies:  Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup Worldby John Chambers with Diane Brady (Hachette Books, 2018)  Entrepreneurial Leader: A Lifetime of Adventures in Business, Education, and Governmentby William H. Donaldson with Karl Weber (Greenleaf Book Group, 2018)  Leading Matters: Lessons from My Journeyby John L. Hennessy (Stanford University Press, 2018)  Leadership In Turbulent Timesby Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster, 2018)
Related Interest:  Best Leadership Books of 2017
Best Leadership Books of 2016
Best Leadership Books of 2015
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:54 AM
12.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for December 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear by Richard Sheridan
Master Your Mind: Counterintuitive Strategies to Refocus and Re-Energize Your Runaway Brain by Roger Seip and Robb Zbierski
Great Mondays: How to Design a Company Culture Employees Love by Josh Levine
Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation by Gary Shapiro
The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. by Robin Sharma
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” — Lemony Snicket
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:07 AM
11.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for November 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Leading Transformation: How to Take Charge of Your Company's Future by Nathan Furr, Kyle Nel and Thomas Zoega Ramsoy
Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation by Dan Schawbel
Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life by Hal Gregersen
The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You by Scott E. Page
Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results by Barry O'Reilly
   
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Reading literature, more than informing us, shapes us." — Karen Swallow Prior, On Reading Well
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:25 AM
10.28.18
Books About Theodore Roosevelt
ON THE OCCASION of the anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's birth on October 27, 1858, we have assembled a list of some of the better books about him:  Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership: Executive Lessons from the Bully Pulpit by James M. Strock
Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of American Leadership by Jon Knokey
Theodore Roosevelt, CEO: 7 Principles to Guide and Inspire Modern Leaders by Alan Axelrod
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Book 1) by Edmund Morris
Theodore Rex (Book 2) by Edmund Morris
Colonel Roosevelt (Book 3) by Edmund Morris
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough
The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings of Theodore Roosevelt: A Reader by Theodore Roosevelt (Edited by Brian M. Thomsen)
 Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt
T.R.: The Last Romantic by H. W. Brands
Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Aida Donald
Theodore Roosevelt: A Life by Nathan Miller
Theodore Roosevelt: A Literary Life by Thomas Bailey and Katherine Joslin
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:20 AM
10.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for October 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. ICONIC: How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Highest Level of Distinction by Scott McKain
Moral Leadership for a Divided Age: Fourteen People Who Dared to Change Our World by David P. Gushee and Colin Holtz
Leaders: Myth and Reality by
Stanley McChrystal with Jeff Eggers and Jay Mangone
The Laws of Human Nature by
Robert Greene
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
   
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Read deep! Read often! Out-READ the Competition!!!" — Tom Peters
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:42 AM
09.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for September 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in September 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey Nieuwhof
Dear Founder: Letters of Advice for Anyone Who Leads, Manages, or Wants to Start a Business by Maynard Webb with Carlye Adler
Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World by John Chambers with Diane Brady
The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Read deep! Read often! Out-READ the Competition!!!" — Tom Peters
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:11 AM
08.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for August 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL's Guide by Brandon Webb and John David Mann
8 Steps to High Performance: Focus On What You Can Change (Ignore the Rest) by Marc Effron
Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein
Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People by Donna Hicks Ph.D
Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction by Chris Bailey
    
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A personal bookshelf is critical to developing the ability to inspire others in the pursuit of worthy goals." — Ret. U.S. Navy admiral James Stavridis, in Five Stars
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:30 AM
07.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in July 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases. Powered by Change: How to design your business for perpetual success by Jonathan MacDonald
Training Reinforcement: The 7 Principles to Create Measurable Behavior Change and Make Learning Stick by Anthonie Wurth and Kees Wurth
Leading With Emotional Courage: How to Have Hard Conversations, Create Accountability, And Inspire Action On Your Most Important Work by Peter Bregman
Transforming the Clunky Organization: Pragmatic Leadership Skills for Breaking Inertia by
Samuel B. Bacharach
Reinvent Your Business Model: How to Seize the White Space for Transformative Growth by Mark W. Johnson
    
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries." — A. C. Grayling, Financial Times
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:47 AM
06.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in June 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases this month. Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive by Bradley R. Staats
Straight Talk for Startups: 100 Insider Rules for Beating the Odds-From Mastering the Fundamentals to Selecting Investors, Fundraising, Managing Boards, and Achieving Liquidity by Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman
Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You by Heidi Grant
Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied by Howard Yu
Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers -- and Seize Success by Dawn Marie Graham
 
For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes." — Barrow
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:37 AM
05.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for May 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases this month. Born to Build by Jim Clifton and Sangeeta Badal
The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership by Fred Kofman
What Happens Now? Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You by John Hillen and Mark D. Nevins
Next Is Now: 5 Steps for Embracing Change—Building a Business that Thrives into the Future by Lior Arussy
The Power of a Positive Team: Proven Principles and Practices that Make Great Teams Great by Jon Gordon
  
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Elon Musk has always been an introvert thinker...where a lot of people would go to a great party and have a great time and drink and talk about all sorts of things like rugby or sports, you would find Elon had found the person's library and was going through their books." — Errol Musk
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:35 AM
04.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for April 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases this year. The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last by Thomas J. Peters
On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis
New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You by Jeremy Heimans
The Go-Giver Influencer: A Little Story About a Most Persuasive Idea by Bob Burg and John David Mann
Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "We read to know we are not alone." — C.S. Lewis
Posted by Michael McKinney at 01:07 PM
03.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for March 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in March 2018. Don't miss out on other great new and future releases this year. Professionalizing Leadership by Barbara Kellerman
Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First by Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, Dennis Carey
The Mind of the Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
The Essentials of Theory U: Core Principles and Applications by C. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaeufer
Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It by Chris Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." — Margaret Fuller
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:31 AM
02.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February. The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future by Skip Prichard
Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big Moves to Beat the Odds by Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt and Sven Smit
The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done by Stephen Denning
The Best Team Wins: The New Science of High Performance by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
Talent Magnet: How to Attract and Keep the Best People by Mark Miller
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." — Groucho Marx
Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:52 AM
01.01.18
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2018Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in January. Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord
The Right—and Wrong—Stuff: How Brilliant Careers Are Made and Unmade by Carter Cast
The Power of Vulnerability: How to Create a Team of Leaders by Shifting INward by Barry Kaplan and Jeffrey Manchester
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More by Morten Hansen
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others." — Abraham Lincoln
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:48 AM
12.25.17
The Best Leadership Books of 2017  Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Ageby Edward D. Hess and Katherine Ludwig Smart technologies will become ubiquitous, invading and changing many aspects of our professional and personal lives and in many ways challenging our fundamental beliefs about success, opportunity, and the American Dream. New skills will be needed. Uniquely human skills. Those skills, while uniquely human, are not what we are typically trained to do and require a deal of messy personal development. (Blog Post)  Ego Free Leadership: Ending the Unconscious Habits that Hijack Your Businessby Brandon Black and Shayne Hughes “Anytime we know intellectually what to do, but our actual behavior is inconsistent or in contradiction, it is a sign we are being short-circuited by our egosystem. These behavioral derailers come in many forms: conflict avoidance, procrastination, defensiveness, people pleasing, shutting down, being argumentative, just to name a few.” (Blog Post)  Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanityby Kim Scott Radical candor is a culture of guidance based on caring personally and challenging directly everyone you work with. The goal is to achieve collaboratively what you could never achieve individually, and to do that, you need to care about the people you’re working with. (Blog Post)  Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Timesby Nancy Koehn The crisis that can break one person can give birth to leadership in another. It’s a conscious choice to lead. Koehn brings out key lessons common to Ernest Shackleton, President Abraham Lincoln, legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and environmental crusader Rachel Carson, as they struggled with their thoughts in what were do or die situations. (Blog Post)  Principles: Life and Workby Ray Dalio Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.  The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teamsby Sam Walker The best leaders in sports history were not mesmerizing characters. They didn’t always make for great television. That’s what we’ve come to expect, however. So that’s what we continue to get. And so teams choose the wrong people to lead them. They promote people with the wrong characteristics. It’s typically not the player with the highest market value. What it takes to lead is not always what it seems. (Blog Post)  Open Source Leadership: Reinventing Management When There's No More Business as Usualby Rajeev Peshawaria Based on Peshawaria's research spanning 28 countries, he concludes that traditional industrial age thinking needs a massive upgrade to successfully navigating the brave new world of business. Open Source Leadership rewrites the rules of management, giving you a unique look at the most common misperceptions, illusions, and downright wrong information you’ve been getting about what works and what doesn’t. It provides a new, counterintuitive model for seizing competitive edge in any industry.  The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatnessby Lolly Daskal The gap in our leadership arises as a result of the disconnect between how we think people are experiencing our leadership and how they are actually experiencing our leadership. And where we find that disconnect we limit or even derail our leadership potential. (Blog Post)  Conflict without Casualties: A Field Guide for Leading with Compassionate Accountabilityby Nate Regier The misuse of conflict energy is the biggest crisis facing our world, and that we haven’t even begun to harness the creative potential of conflict. When people embrace the fullest meaning of compassion as a process of “struggling with” others in creative conflict, they can transform lives, companies, and the world. (Blog Post)  Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitudeby Raymond M. Kethledge and Michael S. Erwin We live in an age of noise. Getting some time for yourself is a challenge. But if we are going to lead effectively, we need white space. We need solitude. You don’t have to go off to a mountaintop or sit at the seashore. It can be a closed room, the library, a park bench, and even a waiting room. We have a responsibility to seek out periods of solitude. We owe it to ourselves and those we lead. (Blog Post)  Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less - and Achieve More Than You Ever Imaginedby Scott Sonenshein Scott Sonenshein dispels the notion that having more resources = getting better results and replaces it with the conviction that a better use of resources = getting better results. Especially in uncertain times, “stretching equips us with the abilities to adapt and change when facing a less predictable set of circumstances.” (Blog Post)  Insight: Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Lifeby Tasha Eurich Most people feel like they know themselves pretty well. But what if you could know yourself just a little bit better—and with this small improvement, get a big payoff…not just in your career, but in your life?  High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Wayby Brendon Burchard Based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on high performers, it turns out that just six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed. Adopt these six habits, and you win. Neglect them, and life is a never-ending struggle.  One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teamsby Chris Fussell with C. W. Goodyear In Team of Teams, retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal and former Navy SEAL Chris Fussell made the case for a new organizational model combining the agility, adaptability, and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organization. Now, in One Mission, Fussell channels all his experiences, both military and corporate, into powerful strategies for unifying isolated and distrustful teams. 
Biographies:  Leonardo da Vinciby Walter Isaacson Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.  Finding My Virginityby Richard Branson Richard Branson titled his autobiography Finding My Virginity because “You can only lose your virginity once. But in every aspect of my life—building businesses, raising a family, embarking upon adventures—I try to do things for the first time every day.” He shares his ups and downs in his entertaining, candid style. “If your life is one long success story it won’t make for a good read. What's more, you’re most likely a liar. We all have ups and downs, trials and tribulations, failures and triumphs: we just hope to come out stronger on the other side.” (Blog Post)  Am I Being Too Subtle? Straight Talk From a Business Rebelby Sam Zell Billionaire investor Sam Zell has put down on paper an account of the principles that guide how he does business in Am I Being Too Subtle? He advocates an owner/entrepreneurial mindset in business and life. “An owner is consumed with making the most out of what he already has. He’s all in. An entrepreneur is always looking for a new opportunity. He’s always reaching.” (Blog Post)  Grantby Ron Chernow “If there were many small things Grant didn’t know about the presidency, he knew one big thing: His main mission was to settle unfinished business from the war by preserving the Union and safeguarding the freed slaves.” Grants example is instructive for us today. Related Interest: Best Leadership Books of 2016
Best Leadership Books of 2015
Best Leadership Books of 2014
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:07 AM
12.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for December 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December. A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs by Tren Griffin
Minds at Work: Managing for Success in the Knowledge Economy by David Grebow and Stephen J. Gill
Impromptu: Leading in the Moment by Judith Humphrey
Capacity: Create Laser Focus, Boundless Energy, and an Unstoppable Drive In Any Organization by Chris Johnson and Matt Johnson
The Art of Learning and Self-Development: Your Competitive Edge by Jim Stovall and Raymond H. Hull
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others." — Abraham Lincoln
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:22 AM
11.08.17
Let’s Go Invent Tomorrow
L Some are inspiring, and most are thought-provoking. You won’t agree with every opinion expressed, but you will gain a wider perspective to enhance your own. These successful business leaders share what worked and what didn’t work and more importantly how they approach their work. From Oprah Winfrey’s advice, “The key is not to worry about being successful but to instead work toward being significant—and the success will naturally follow. How can you serve your way to greatness?” to Warren Buffet’s advice on marriage, “Marry the right person. And I’m serious about that. It will make more difference in your life. It will change your aspiration, all kinds of things. It’s enormously important who you marry,” you will find insights to help you build a firmer foundation to grow from.  Gary Saul Morson wrote in The Words of Others: “Anatole France frankly advised, ‘When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.’ Yes, indeed, but do more. Copy many well-said things. Pierce them together. Assimilate them. Make the process of reading them a way to form the mind and shape the soul. As anthologies can never be complete, we will never exhaust the ways quotations can enrich our lives.” Let’s Go Invent Tomorrow will help “form the mind and shape the soul.”  Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:04 AM
11.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for November 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November. Shift Ahead: How the Best Companies Stay Relevant in a Fast-Changing World by Allen Adamson and Joel Steckel
Blueprint to Business: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Taking Action, Committing to the Grind, And Doing the Things That Most People Won't by Michael Alden
Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul by Shawn Askinosie with Lawren Askinosie
Breaking Bad Habits: Defy Industry Norms and Reinvigorate Your Business by Freek Vermeulen
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Timothy Ferriss
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." — Charles William Eliot
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:37 AM
10.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for October 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage by Daniel Burrus
Finding My Virginity by Richard Branson
The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth by Eric Ries
Myths of Management: What People Get Wrong About Being the Boss by Stefan Stern and Cary Cooper
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade." — Anthony Trollope
Posted by Michael McKinney at 01:27 AM
09.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for September 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in September. The Potential Principle: A Proven System for Closing the Gap Between How Good You Are and How Good You Could Be by Mark Sanborn
How to Be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship by Annie McKee
Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking by Jennifer Riel and Roger L. Martin
Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
The Four Dilemmas of the CEO: Mastering the make-or-break moments in every executive's career by Tom Biesinger, Ross Wall and Clifford Herbertson
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." — Mark Twain
Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:42 AM
08.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for August 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in August. The Innovation Code: The Creative Power of Constructive Conflict by Jeff DeGraff and Staney DeGraff
The Mood Elevator: Take Charge of Your Feelings, Become a Better You by Larry Senn
The Code of Trust: An American Counterintelligence Expert's Five Rules to Lead and Succeed by Robin Dreeke and Cameron Stauth
The Mythical Leader: The Seven Myths of Leadership by Ron Edmondson
Total Focus: Make Better Decisions Under Pressure by Brandon Webb and John David Mann
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A room without books is like a body without a soul." — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:27 AM
07.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in July. The Bridge to Growth: How Servant Leaders Achieve Better Results and Why It Matters Now More Than Ever by Jude Rake
Designed Leadership by Moura Quayle
Love Leads: The Spiritual Connection Between Your Relationships and Productivity by Steve Greene
Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact by Phil M Jones
The Little Black Book of Decision Making: Making Complex Decisions with Confidence in a Fast-Moving World by Michael Nicholas
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A room without books is like a body without a soul.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Posted by Michael McKinney at 03:15 PM
06.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in June. Built for Growth: How Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win by Chris Kuenne and John Danner
Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude by Raymond M. Kethledge and Michael S. Erwin
Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don't Agree with or Like or Trust by Adam Kahane
The Mathematical Corporation: Where Machine Intelligence and Human Ingenuity Achieve the Impossible by Josh Sullivan and Angela Zutavern
One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams by Chris Fussell with C. W. Goodyear
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A room without books is like a body without a soul.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:50 AM
05.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for May 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in May. Lifestorming: Creating Meaning and Achievement in Your Career and Life by Alan Weiss and Marshall Goldsmith
The EQ Leader: Instilling Passion, Creating Shared Goals, and Building Meaningful Organizations through Emotional Intelligence by Steven J. Stein
One Minute Mentoring: How to Find and Work With a Mentor--And Why You'll Benefit from Being One by Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz
The Power of Little Ideas: A Low-Risk, High-Reward Approach to Innovation by David Robertson with Kent Lineback
The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness by Lolly Daskal
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273
 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.” — Bell Hooks
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:58 AM
04.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for April 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in April. Good People: The Only Leadership Decision That Really Matters by Anthony Tjan
Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown
Conflict without Casualties: A Field Guide for Leading with Compassionate Accountability by Nate Regier
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
The Power of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World by Jon Gordon
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." — Franz Kafka
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:58 AM
03.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for March 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in March. Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team's Productive Power by Michael C. Mankins and Eric Garton
Leaders Made Here: Building a Leadership Culture by Mark Miller
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
The High Potential Leader: How to Grow Fast, Take on New Responsibilities, and Make an Impact by Ram Charan
Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm by Christian Madsbjerg
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 39 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." — Franz Kafka
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:07 AM
02.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in February. Pacing for Growth: Why Intelligent Restraint Drives Long-term Success by Alison Eyring
Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less - and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined by Scott Sonenshein
Extreme Teams: Why Pixar, Netflix, Airbnb, and Other Cutting-Edge Companies Succeed Where Most Fail by Robert Bruce Shaw
Leadership Step by Step: Become the Person Others Follow by Joshua Spodek
Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines who you will be when you can't help it." — Oscar Wilde
Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:32 AM
01.01.17
First Look: Leadership Books for January 2017Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in January. Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age by Edward D. Hess and Katherine Ludwig
The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters by Emily Esfahani Smith
Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change by Frank Sesno
Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies by Paul J. Zak
Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos by Heidi K. Gardner
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "You stay teachable most by reading books. By reading what other people went through." — Retired Marine General James Mattis
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:24 AM
12.25.16
The Best Leadership Books of 2016
ONCE AGAIN we see that despite our rhetoric, what we are is reflected in our leaders and leadership. Actions have consequences and continuity of character matters. We need to be “urgently” reflective because too often by the time we find out it’s broken, it’s been broken for a very long time. As technology becomes more disruptive and we see more importance placed on big data and artificial intelligence, what will matter most are those things that make us human – the soft skills. Creating meaning, teaching, empathy, self control, creativity, emotional intelligence, and the ability to define consequences, will be indispensable skills to prosper in the future. In this uncertain environment, including the mounting global economic concerns, a humble mindset will be the only thing that will unlock the most promising business, social and economic innovations. An oversized ego inevitably leads to blindness and an inability to formulate good answers.  Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted Worldby Cal Newport To thrive in the new economy—the current information economy—you need to master these two core abilities: 1. The ability to quickly master hard things. (If you can’t learn you can’t thrive.) and 2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed. (To produce tangible results that people value.) These two abilities depend on your ability to perform deep work. “To succeed,” writes Newport, “you have to produce the absolute best stuff you’re capable of producing—a task that requires depth. A deep life is a good life.” (Blog Post)  Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talentby Sydney Finkelstein Although Superbosses may differ in leadership styles, they share a playbook that leads to extraordinary success founded on making other people successful. Superbosses can be fierce or gentle, belligerent or self-depreciating, but whatever their style, they do a much better job inspiring and teaching because they get in their trenches with protégés, leading by example and giving them personalized attention they require to move up quickly. (Blog Post)  Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the Worldby Adam Grant There are so few originals in life. “We find surface ways of appearing original—donning a bow tie, wearing bright red shoes—without taking the risk of actually being original. When it comes to the powerful ideas in our heads and the core values in our hearts, we censor ourselves.” Adam Grant demonstrates how originality, can and should be taught and nurtured. Anyone can innovate if given the opportunity and the support. He provides practical tools to “unleash” the hidden creativity in all of us. However, not just for ourselves but also to build cultures of originality both at home and at work. (Blog Post)  The Three-Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovationby Vijay Govindarajan Ultimately our future is not in linear—incremental—improvements. It is in nonlinear—nonconforming, breakthrough—change. But the future is built in the now and that’s the problem. What should we be doing now to insure we have a future? Dartmouth professor Vijay Govindarajan writes, “As much as we might pay lip service to the fact that the future will differ dramatically from the past, we often behave as though it will be exactly the same.” There is a tension between and what we have to do now to continue on as an entity and what we need to be doing now to create our future along with the things that we are doing that get in our way of doing any of it. How do we create the future while managing the present? (Blog Post)  Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leaderby James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner have written a new book that examines a fundamental question: How do people learn leadership? How do they learn to become leaders? Learning Leadership is a comprehensive guide to unleashing the inner-leader in us all and to building a solid foundation for a lifetime of leadership growth and mastery. The book offers a concrete framework to help individuals of all levels, functions, and backgrounds take charge of their own leadership development and become the best leaders they can be. (Blog Post)  64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy Worldby Kevin Roberts In 64 Shots, Roberts draws on the biggest ideas, toughest experiences and greatest influences of his life to present 16X4 stripped down, straight-forward and instantly-absorbable insights on how to bring order to the chaos of business and life. The punchy insights into winning - hitting readers lightly jab after jab - are an array of one-liners, sound bites, tweets, charts, quotes and historical reference points. They are loaded with Roberts' experience, story, brio, provocation and direction.  The Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselvesby The Arbinger Institute Unknowingly, too many of us operate from an inward mindset—a narrow-minded focus on self-centered goals and objectives. When faced with personal ineffectiveness or lagging organizational performance, most of us instinctively look for quick-fix behavioral band-aids, not recognizing the underlying mindset at the heart of our most persistent challenges. Through true stories and simple yet profound guidance and tools, The Outward Mindset enables individuals and organizations to make the one change that most dramatically improves performance, sparks collaboration, and accelerates innovation—a shift to an outward mindset.  Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuadeby Robert Cialdini The author of the legendary bestseller Influence, social psychologist Robert Cialdini shines a light on effective persuasion and reveals that the secret doesn’t lie in the message itself, but in the key moment before that message is delivered. What separates effective communicators from truly successful persuaders? Using the same combination of rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, he explains how to capitalize on the essential window of time before you deliver an important message. This “privileged moment for change” prepares people to be receptive to a message before they experience it. Optimal persuasion is achieved only through optimal pre-suasion. In other words, to change “minds” a pre-suader must also change “states of mind.”  Hopping over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Failure into Successby Anthony Scaramucci So much of successful entrepreneurship is learning to lead yourself. It requires some luck, but more than anything it means always pressing forward and a good dose of creativity especially when things don’t look good. It’s not surprising then that Anthony Scaramucci’s book, Hopping Over The Rabbit Hole is not just an important read for would-be entrepreneurs but anyone who looking move through life in a forward direction. (Blog Post)  Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Workby Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. Joseph Badaracco offers five questions we should be asking to resolve the inevitable gray areas we will all face from time to time. Gray areas demand our best judgment. The five questions provide a way to get there. They are “a distinctive way of sizing up gray area issues, analyzing them carefully, grappling with their full, human complexity, and then—and only then—making final decisions.” (Blog Post)  Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Waysby William C. Taylor There's no such thing as an average or old-fashioned business, just average or old-fashioned ways to do business. In fact, the opportunity to reach for extraordinary may be most pronounced in settings that have been far too ordinary for far too long. The story of this book, its message for leaders who aim to do something important and build something great, is both simple and subversive: In a time of wrenching disruptions and exhilarating advances, of unrelenting turmoil and unlimited promise, the future is open to everybody. The thrill of breakthrough creativity and breakaway performance . . . can be summoned in all sorts of industries and all walks of life, if leaders can reimagine what’s possible in their fields.  The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtuesby Patrick M. Lencioni Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players. Whether you’re a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling. 
Biographies:  Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nikeby Phil Knight Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Knight details the many terrifying risks he encountered along the way, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors, the countless doubters and haters and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs and narrow escapes. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike.  A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Serviceby Robert M Gates In a time when change is not just inevitable, but must be encouraged and led, Robert Gates’ A Passion for Leadership is a must read. Gates offers from experience, strategies, techniques, and principles for implementing change. He includes many examples from the organizations he has served. (Blog Post)  Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrowby Steve Lehto Steve Lehto tackles the story of Tucker's amazing rise and tragic fall, relying on a huge trove of documents that has been used by no other writer to date. It is the first comprehensive, authoritative account of Tucker's magnificent car and his battles with the government. And in this book, Lehto finally answers the questions automobile aficionados have wondered about for decades: Exactly how and why was the production of such an innovative car killed?  The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspanby Sebastian Mallaby This is definitive biography of the most important economic statesman of our time. It is the product of over five years of research based on untrammeled access to his subject and his closest professional and personal intimates, brings into vivid focus the mysterious point where the government and the economy meet. To understand Greenspan's story is to see the economic and political landscape of the last 30 years—and the presidency from Reagan to George W. Bush—in a whole new light. As the most influential economic statesman of his age, Greenspan spent a lifetime grappling with a momentous shift: the transformation of finance from the fixed and regulated system of the post-war era to the free-for-all of the past quarter century. The story of Greenspan is also the story of the making of modern finance, for good and for ill. Related Interest: Best Leadership Books of 2015
Best Leadership Books of 2014
Best Leadership Books of 2013
Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:32 AM
12.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for December 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in December. Speed: How Leaders Accelerate Successful Execution by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman
Killing It: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart by Sheryl O'Loughlin
Your One Word: The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life That Matter by Evan Carmichael
Win at Losing: How Our Biggest Setbacks Can Lead to Our Greatest Gains by Sam Weinman
Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace by Christine Porath
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others." — Abraham Lincoln
Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:30 PM
11.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for November 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in November. To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy
Worth Doing Wrong: The Quest to Build a Culture That Rocks by Arnie Malham
The Mosaic Principle: The Six Dimensions of a Remarkable Life and Career by Nick Lovegrove
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman
Leading the Unleadable: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People by Alan Willett
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "It is better to read a little and ponder a lot than to read a lot and ponder a little." — Denis Parsons Burkitt
Posted by Michael McKinney at 02:02 PM
10.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for October 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in October. Rock Bottom to Rock Star: Lessons from the Business School of Hard Knocks by Ryan Blair
Simplify: How the Best Businesses in the World Succeed by Richard Koch, Greg Lockwood and Perry Marshall
Becoming a Leader of Character: 6 Habits That Make or Break a Leader at Work and at Home by James L. Anderson and Dave Anderson
Small Acts of Leadership: 12 Intentional Behaviors that Lead to Big Impact by G. Shawn Hunter
Hopping over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Failure into Success by Anthony Scaramucci
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "A room without books is like a body without a soul." — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:31 AM
09.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for September 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in September. Managing in the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini
The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging by Charles Vogl
The Cheat Code: Going Off Script to Get More, Go Faster, and Shortcut Your Way to Success by Brian Wong
Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways by William C. Taylor
 
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read." — Charlie "Tremendous" Jones
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:02 PM
08.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for August 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in August. Stop Spending, Start Managing: Strategies to Transform Wasteful Habits by Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson
Nimble, Focused, Feisty: Organizational Cultures That Win in the New Era and How to Create Them by Sara Roberts
Unmistakable: Why Only Is Better Than Best by Srinivas Rao
Head Ball Coach: My Life in Football, Doing It Differently—and Winning by Steve Spurrier with Buddy Martin
The Start-Up J Curve: The Six Steps to Entrepreneurial Success by Howard Love
    
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade." — Anthony Trollope
Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:13 AM
07.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for July 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in July. Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow by Steve Lehto
The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman
Hooked: Why cute sells...and other marketing magic that we just can't resist by Patrick Fagan
High-Hanging Fruit: Build Something Great by Going Where No One Else Will by Mark Rampolla
Great Teams: 16 Things High Performing Organizations Do Differently by Don Yaeger
   
For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273 Build your leadership library with these specials on over 100 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities. "Wear the old coat and buy the new book." — Austin Phelps
Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:43 PM
06.01.16
First Look: Leadership Books for June 2016Here's a look at some of the best leadership books to be released in June. That's Not How We Do It Here! A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall--and Can Rise Again by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly
The Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselves by The Arbinger Institute
64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World by Kevin Roberts
Pathways to Possibility: Transforming Our Relationship with Ourselves, Each Other, and the World by Rosamund Stone Zander
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Inside Out
Why Innovation Fails
Driving Results
The Upside of Uncertainty
The Metaverse
Ignite a Shift
The Power of One More
Good Arguments
7 Rules of Power
Building Trust
The Unfair Advantage
Leading Lightly
The Crux
The Earned Life
From Conflict to Courage
Disrupting the Game
To Risk It All
The Power of Conflict
Love + Work
A New Way to Think
Productive Tensions
Reach
Make No Small Plans
Radically Human
Take Charge of You
Leading to Greatness
Leading Wisely
Promotions Are So Yesterday
CEO Excellence
Connectable
The Power of Regret
Simple Truths of Leadership
Bridge the Gap
Pitch Like Hollywood
Competing in the New World of Work
The Founders
Win from Within
Beyond Digital
Smart Leadership
Hero on a Mission
Smart Growth
Becoming a Master Communicator
Fixed.
The Five Graces of Life and Leadership
10 Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times
Winning on Purpose
Compassionate Leadership
Lead with We
Corruptible
The Generation Myth
The Leader's Mind
Twelve and a Half
Risk
Boss Brain
The Art of Statistics
The Long Game
Radical Product Thinking
A Minute to Think
Too Proud to Lead
The Power of Clarity
Persuade
The Aristocracy of Talent
Digital for Good
Change
Upstanding
Collision Course
Work Better Together
Anxiety at Work
Wellbeing at Work
Amazon Unbound
Digital Body Language
Workparent
Rethinking Competitive Advantage
Soundtracks
The Scout Mindset
Effortless
High Conflict
A World Without Email
Beating Burnout at Work
Why Startups Fail
Trusted Leader
Good Business
Power Moms
Conflicted
Human Hacking
Rebel Ideas
Leading from Anywhere
The Long-Distance Teammate
Change Your World
The New Long Life
Real Teams Win
Overcome
Empowered
Embrace the Suck
Align
The Practice
The Leader's Guide to Unconscious Bias
Civility Rules!
Invent and Wander
Teams That Work
Time Smart
The Motivation Code
The Character Edge
Eat, Sleep, Innovate
Leaders Who Lust
Hyper-Learning
The Grit Factor
The Extraordinary Power of Leader Humility
No Rules Rules
Game Changer
The Creator Mindset
Calling Bullshit
Radical Alignment
Grasp
Humanocracy
2030
Leading with Feeling
Lessons from the Titans
The Rules of Contagion
The Art of Being Indispensable at Work
Courageous Cultures
All In
Unleashed
Startup Myths and Models
Strategy First
Accountable Leaders
Winning Now, Winning Later
Success Mindsets
Bezonomics
Perfectly Confident
How Innovation Works
Leading Without Authority
Doing Agile Right
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Think Like a Rocket Scientist
Leading in the Digital World
Full-Spectrum Thinking
Lead from the Future
The Soul of an Entrepreneur
The Catalyst
Upstream
Leading with Gratitude
The Blueprint
Parents Who Lead
Create the Future + the Innovation Handbook
Life's Great Question
It Takes What It Takes
Experimentation Works
The Innovation Ultimatum
Clearer, Closer, Better
All You Have to Do Is Ask
The Leader's Greatest Return
Edge
The Future Leader
Become
The Innovator's Book
The Amazon Management System
Fearless Leadership
Loserthink
Contagious You
Building the Best
Talk Is Chief
Predicting Personality
The Unicorn Project
Sailing True North
The Intelligent Leader
Leap
What You Do Is Who You Are
Transforming Legacy Organizations
Ultralearning
The Chaos Parallel
Flip the Script
The Coffee Bean
The Code
Follow the Feeling
Designing Experiences
Swim!
After the Fall
