With the ambition of generating a “social epidemic of values-based leadership,” in #Values, Dr. Betty® Uribe shares key insights about the type of leadership we need today in the workplace and in the world. Based on her own research, which includes exploring the leadership journeys of several outstanding leaders, Dr. Betty® makes the case that the best leaders are those who’s leadership style aligns with their personal values. Her hope is to inspire others to apply core values such as integrity, honesty, courage, wisdom, and more to drive positive change in both their professional and personal lives.

Historically, companies could control their image and sell their goods and services through traditional marketing. However, thanks to the advent of the Internet and social media, hyperconnected Customers are the main brand promoters or detractors in today’s marketplace. In fact, Customers are so crucial that in his book @YourService, Frank Eliason argues that businesses should learn to capitalize the word. In a Customer-driven market, creating a brand trusted for its exceptional products and superlative service is essential, and in Eliason’s book, he explores how companies can adapt and flourish in the emerging yet critical field of social media.

According to the Gallup organization, only 30 percent of employees are engaged in their work. Disengaged employees are less productive and less satisfied. That can negatively affect your bottom line. In 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees, employee engagement expert Dr. Bob Nelson draws from research, real-life success stories, and company best practices to show how you can leverage the 10 most impactful variables for boosting employee engagement to transform your employees into trusted and engaged business partners.

Preparing a budget might seem stressful, but thoughtful planning makes the process easier and more productive. In 10 Steps to Successful Budgeting, Lianabel Oliver and Eduardo Nin lay out a planning process that can help you create a budget that reflects both your short- and long-term goals, aligns with your organization’s mission, and reduces redundancy.

Communicating Effectively,Digital Communication

While studies point to an inadequate level of writing in the business world, most business professionals view writing as a soft skill that is not worth an investment of time and money. Recently, however, some employers have begun to understand that poor writing equals low productivity. Employees who write poorly waste countless hours and, more importantly, countless dollars. In 10 Steps to Successful Business Writing, Jack Appleman notes that business writing is a learned skill based on fundamental principles like clarity, conciseness, and organization. Those who learn to write better will work more productively and be able to demonstrate leadership and management abilities.

Change happens. There is simply no stopping it. In 10 Steps to Successful Change Management, George Vukotich offers those faced with change at an organizational level a systemized, ten-step system to “manage”—that is understand, react to, mitigate and successfully execute—the often scary, often difficult business of change. From assessing the risks of change to dealing with detractors to reviewing the process after it has been completed, the goal is clear: learn to manage change before it manages you.

Customer service is based on a trusting relationship between customer and business. Clients come to customer service representatives with a need. Great service staff will be able to deal with these needs no matter how angry or confused customers are.

American Society for Training and Development

In10 Steps to Successful Facilitation, the American Society for Training and Development provides detailed instructions on becoming an effective and skillful facilitator. It discusses the necessity of planning, familiarizing oneself with the location, and creating and adhering to a group schedule. It also explains what tactics and tools do not work well with facilitation and emphasizes the importance of keeping the group engaged. By providing information on the most effective brainstorming tools, as well as tips for dealing with difficult participants, this book is extremely beneficial to anyone who regularly works in or manages groups of people.

Mentoring has great benefits for both the mentor and mentee. In 10 Steps to Successful Mentoring, Wendy Axelrod, PhD, shows how to actualize your mentoring strengths. From how to conduct meetings to how to use effective communication, her 10 steps illustrate exactly what it takes to leverage experience into growth. As a successful mentor, you can remain inspired, stay relevant, and gain new perspectives.

American Society for Training and Development

It is not unusual for today’s business professional to be expected to deliver effective communication and presentation skills.Ten Steps to Successful Presentationsby the American Society for Training and Development provides a framework that will help business people create an effective presentation in a short period of time. The tips and examples will help with both large and small presentations. Potential presenters will learn skills such as: how to conduct an audience analysis, plan the presentation outline, develop content, select visual aids, demonstrate polished presentation skills, and use facilitation techniques to engage the audience.

One practice that often sets successful businesses apart from the rest is strategic planning. These organizations benefit not just from having a strategic plan, but from undergoing the strategic planning process itself. In 10 Steps to Successful Strategic Planning, Susan Barksdale and Teri Lund detail how the planning process unites organizational leadership and enhances communication of critical information. Today's marketplace demands that employees, work groups, and organizations have a clear understanding of their roles, the products and services that they offer, as well as the processes that they use to create and market those products and services. A strategic plan is crucial for predicting the marketplace and determining how to react to the future. Strategic planning provides opportunities for organizations to methodically analyze past performances, prioritize performance needs, and set organizational goals. Following a strategic plan helps company leaders to ensure that products and services delivered to customers are consistent and of high quality, to promote better use of resources, and to resolve internal performance problems by clarifying expectations and standardizing performance.

10 Steps to Successful Teams by Renie McClay is a guide for team leaders and team members who are charged with accomplishing tasks through collaborative workforce groups. Organizations that use teams effectively accomplish more than simply solving internal problems; they create a culture of self-motivated problem solvers. Teams are made up of leaders who maintain a balance between keeping the group on task and allowing the team to make its own decisions, and members who communicate, collaborate, solve problems, and ensure tasks get accomplished. The leader directs the initial activities of forming the team, helping members learn new skills, and setting up the mission, focus, and process. Team members should be selected according to their strengths and weaknesses, and what they can contribute to the team. Teams develop and mature over time, and should be assessed periodically.

In 10 Steps to Successful Time Management, communications consultants Cyndi Maxey and Kevin O’Connor explain how to view time as a resource. The key is to achieve an understanding of what matters in life and work, and then to use time purposefully, productively, and energetically. While no one can truly master time, anyone can learn to think of it as source of energy instead of a source of anxiety. Maxey and O’Connor seek to offer simple, practical ways to use time as a means of communication and engagement, as opposed to a constraint or restriction.

The need for virtual presentations is growing. Seventy percent of managers in mid-sized to large companies have at least one team member who works remotely. However, over half of managers have not received any formal instruction about how to communicate remotely or manage remote teams. A majority of businesses that purchase licenses for Web-presentation tools discover that fewer than 25 percent of their employees feel competent enough to use the tools. Most of these people are either fearful of the technology or have not been taught to use the tools properly. Although more than 12 million Web-based meeting occur daily, participants frequently are not engaged or do not consider the meeting an effective use of their time. In 10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations, Wayne Turmel helps presenters learn how to develop virtual presentations that are more engaging and effective.

In 10 Virtues of Outstanding Leaders, Al Gini and Ronald M. Green identify and define 10 particular virtues that the most successful leaders have. The authors combine lessons they have gleaned from philosophy, history, and business teachings to distill the most essential characteristics of great leaders. Their premise is that leadership requires demonstrating ethical character, especially by acting with ethical responsibility to others. Famous leaders who excelled in one or more of the 10 virtues are portrayed in the second half of the book.

Treat your employees well and they’ll be energized to come to work and execute at their highest level every day. This approach results in a better work experience for them and better overall performance for your organization. In 1001 Ways to Energize Employees, motivational expert Bob Nelson shares hundreds of research-based and real-life techniques and strategies for energizing employees so they can feel their best at work and perform their best for your company.

Innovation & Technology,Communication,Personal Effectiveness

Accountability,Creativity,Goals & Priorities,Communicating Effectively,Problem Solving,Lifelong Learning,Teamwork

One of the best things you can do for the company you work for, your career, and yourself is to take every opportunity to excel, stand out, and be exceptional in your work environment, no matter what your job. In 1001 Ways to Take Initiative at Work, leadership expert Bob Nelson shares best practices and real-life examples of how to use your initiative to make a difference for yourself and others, without having to be told. When you take initiative, you effectively become your own boss, no matter who you work for.

Harvard Business School Publishing

According to Nilofer Merchant in the Harvard Business School Publishing title 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era, businesses, managers, and individual workers must all rethink some fundamental assumptions about how organizations work in order to survive and thrive in today’s “Social Era.” Thanks to the Internet and social media, small, savvy start-ups can quickly threaten even large, successful companies. By actively embracing change, businesses can learn to take advantage of new opportunities. Flexibility, openness, and shared purpose, rather than insularity, separateness, and focusing exclusively on the bottom line, are the values that will promote success in the new business environment.

Assigned positions, titles, and roles confer the framework for managing power, but true leadership comes from leadership presence. So writes leadership guru John Baldoni, who dedicates 12 Steps to Power Presence to “leaders who want to make a positive difference.” In this brief, readable primer on wielding power with grace, Baldoni offers people in positions of influence a guide to fulfilling their leadership potential. The booklet distills centuries of leadership advice into a dozen succinct lessons on developing the leadership presence necessary to achieve individual and organizational results.

In 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, author and therapist Amy Morin presents the 13 most important things that people who are emotionally on top of their games do not do. No one does everything right all the time, but by acknowledging all 13 of these behaviors, actions, and feelings, people can make significant progress in their lives. Mentally strong people have better chances of success, develop better relationships, and are generally happier and healthier.

The conversation surrounding women’s professional advancement often focuses on eliminating external issues like unequal pay and sexual harassment. However, there’s one other obstacle that prevents women from succeeding: bad mental habits. In 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do, therapist Amy Morin examines the different ways that women psychologically undermine themselves. By learning techniques to overcome these mental traps, women can increase their confidence, happiness, and professional success.

The logical iteration of the adage, “What gets measured gets done,” is, “What gets rewarded gets done more often.” In 1501 Ways to Reward Employees, management and employee motivation expert Dr. Bob Nelson explains how to implement reward and recognition systems that help you engage and motivate your employees and lead to improved company performance. Drawing from more than 1,000 real-life examples of how companies are putting these principles into action within their workforces, Nelson provides inspiration for creating and implementing successful reward and recognition programs and processes that please your employees and improve your bottom line.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Delegating work to others offers positive benefits for leaders, direct reports, and organizations alike. In 20 Minute Manager: Delegating Work, Harvard Business Review Press explores the positive effects that successful delegation can offer when utilized properly.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Whether confronting a colleague, giving feedback, or filing a complaint with management, finding the right words and methods to express oneself during a difficult conversation can be a challenge. And while most professionals might prefer avoiding any workplace confrontation, doing so often makes things worse. Harvard Business Review Press’s 20 Minute Manager: Difficult Conversations not only demonstrates the benefits of confronting contentious issues head-on but also provides a step-by-step guide to transforming interpersonal conflicts into productive dialogue. The book highlights the qualities and skills professionals need to become better communicators and examines how they can maintain positive relationships at work.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Many managers avoid delivering feedback to others because they find it to be awkward and difficult to do well. In Giving Effective Feedback, the Harvard Business School Publishing demonstrates that not only is feedback essential to an organization’s success, but it can actually be a straightforward and painless process. Giving Effective Feedback provides readers with a succinct, step-by-step guide to both conducting effective feedback sessions with colleagues and developing action plans to facilitate their subsequent growth. By learning how to conduct effective feedback and overcome the obstacles that often accompany it, managers can go on to instill cultures of feedback throughout their organizations.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Innovation & Technology,Management

When organizations harness their teams’ creativity, they can develop innovative solutions for even their toughest challenges. In the Harvard Business Review Press title 20 Minute Manager: Innovative Teams, organizational leaders, team leaders, and team members can learn to establish the right teams, find the ideal times and settings to foster creativity, generate ideas through proven techniques, and narrow their choices to a single best option. Leaders who learn to value and embrace creativity can establish cultures that embrace the risks and inventive thinking that are critical not only for staying relevant in their industries, but also for propelling their organizations toward future success.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Employee Experience & HR,Management

The Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation title 20 Minute Manager: Leading Virtual Teams aims to help managers of remote groups succeed from afar. Virtual teams can present a unique set of challenges, including maintaining accountability from a distance and depending on technological means of communication, but these challenges can be overcome. Leaders of virtual teams can achieve success by ensuring that their teams have the right mix of skills and abilities for remote work, the right technological tools are in place, goals and processes are clearly defined and understood, and their employees remain engaged and accountable.

Harvard Business School Publishing

At some point, everyone feels as though there is too much to do and too little time to accomplish anything. Learning how to effectively manage time can lessen the stress that comes with feeling overbooked and help prioritize the critical tasks so they get done. 20 Minute Manager: Managing Time from Harvard Business Review Press offers the tools and tricks necessary to manage deadlines, create task-oriented routines, and begin a disciplined approach to taking control of time.

Harvard Business School Publishing

A commonly dreaded task for managers in any field is giving their direct reports feedback during annual performance reviews. While most managers acknowledge that feedback is important, annual assessments routinely become a rushed ritual conducted to fulfill a human resources requirement rather than improve performance. 20 Minute Manager: Performance Reviews from Harvard Business Review Press serves as a comprehensive yet concise guide that outlines the full process of gathering and analyzing information, documenting the evaluation, sharing feedback in person, and using the review to set new goals and further employee development. It equips managers with the fundamental tools for transforming performance reviews into a constructive use of time for organizations, managers, and their direct reports.

Harvard Business School Publishing

The art of the great presentation is an elusive pursuit. Harvard Business Review wants to change this reality. In Harvard Business School Publishing title Presentations, an installment of their 20-Minute Manager series, the editors offer a short, succinct crash course in crafting terrific speeches, pitches, and talks. Created for the “ambitious professional” looking to sharpen a message, persuade an audience, and gauge the impact, Presentations is a bite-sized bit of literature packed to the brim with helpful tips on how to master the art of the great presentation.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Leaders in any arena are concerned with the practices and skills that will help their teams succeed. Universally, one of the tools that ensures a team’s success is an effective meeting. Whether they are meant to brainstorm, make decisions, or inform, meetings can accomplish a variety of tasks in a relatively short time. The trouble arises when meetings are called without a clear vision or without the proper preparation. The Harvard Business School Publishing set out to prevent this type of disastrous meeting from occurring in 20 Minute Manager: Running Meetings, which details how to call, prepare, run, and follow up an effective meeting.

Harvard Business School Publishing

For managers and leaders, running effective virtual meetings—from conference calls to WebEx meetings—can come with an array of obstacles. Silences, interruptions, technical issues, and cultural differences can all add a degree of difficulty to hosting any kind of virtual meeting. 20 Minute Manager: Running Virtual Meetings from Harvard Business Review Press gives leaders the tools to choose the right channel for virtual meetings to take place, to prepare the materials necessary to keep participants meaningfully engaged, and to hold meeting members accountable for the meeting content, even from a distance.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Many professionals today are opting to work remotely either part- or full-time. Although the decision to work outside of a traditional office setting often provides professionals with more freedom and flexibility, it can also make collaborating with colleagues difficult. The Harvard Business School Publishing title 20 Minute Manager: Virtual Collaboration provides straightforward solutions to the many logistical, interpersonal, and technical challenges that virtual collaborators encounter. Highlighting the importance of clear communication and careful planning, the book demonstrates that productive virtual collaboration can be possible from any location.

In 20:20 Project Management, Tony Marks provides a guide for successful project management. Projects come in many forms and for many purposes, whether professional, commercial, or personal, but all projects have the same basic attributes. A lack of standard strategies for project management leads to project inefficiencies. Marks incorporates the best practice procedures and provides reliable guidelines so that every project can be fulfilled successfully and efficiently.

Harvard Business School Publishing

A solid business plan serves not only as a blueprint for a startup but also as a guide for continually developing a business. Harvard Business Review Press’s 20 Minute Manager: Creating Business Plans provides step-by-step guidelines for writing an effective business plan. It steers the writer through the practical aspects of business startups, including finances, marketing, and daily operations. During the process, the writer gains insight into potential roadblocks along with strategies for getting through them.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Harvard Business School Publishing’s 20 Minute Manager: Finance Basics demystifies the field of finance by offering clear and concise explanations of key financial concepts and formulas. It emphasizes the importance of finance to company operations and makes it accessible to busy professionals. Covering financial statements, budget preparations, investment calculations, and other related topics, Finance Basics cuts through the jargon and gives the world of numbers a compelling sense of importance.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Project management is a much sought-after skill in today’s marketplace. Skilled project managers are in high demand, lobbied by firms both large and small to head up projects in diverse sectors. Project managers are in charge of budgets, timelines, schedules, deliverables, personnel, and a multitude of other factors, and juggling them all in a desperate attempt to deliver a completed project is quite the task. Harvard Business School Publishing title 20-Minute Manager: Managing Projects aims to simplify all this complexity. Breaking down the life cycle of a project into four separate phases (planning, build up, implementation, and closeout), Managing Projects offers a variety of coherent advice and tangible steps individuals can take toward becoming better project managers.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Horrible bosses have become a permanent fixation of American culture and an undeniable reality in some corners of the modern workplace. For the most part, though, bosses are normal human beings trying to do their best in positions of authority. Your relationship with your boss is a human one, and pouring care and commitment into the relationship will inevitably strengthen it and produce positive results for your company. In Harvard Business School Publishing title 20-Minute Manager: Managing Up, Harvard Business Review presents some clear-sighted instructions on how to improve your relationship with your manager. By understanding your boss, working to clarify and manage expectations, communicating clearly, negotiating well, and being vigilant in relational upkeep, you can solidify a great relationship and have an increased voice in the halls of power.

In 21st Century Business Icons, journalist Sally Percy unveils the hidden secrets, innovative approaches, and leadership lessons of some of the most established and accomplished business leaders of today and for tomorrow. Discover the stories that brought these household names to the forefront of society and glean insight into the behavior and characteristics responsible for their phenomenal success.

As the 21st century approaches, boards of directors are rushing to complete a reconstruction that, according to Ward, is bigger than any in corporate governance history. Though lacking major ownership of the company, and without the power of the top inside executives, the board is transforming itself into a new corporate form-independent, powerful, and a distinct force for governance accountability. In 21st Century Corporate Board, Ward offers a penetrating and vigorous analysis of how this happened and why, as well as practical insights into the structures, tools, and knowledge required for boards to consolidate their new-found power and independence to effectively challenge the complex governance issues that lie ahead.

Too many entrepreneurs are bogged down by the day-to-day details of their businesses, but working more can cost you productivity and opportunity. Instead of measuring your success against hours worked, shift your focus to systemizing, organizing, automating, and delegating the tasks that can help your business grow. In 3 Hours a Day, thought leader Knolly Williams introduces a seven-step framework you can follow to work less and earn more. By using his 3 Hours a Day method, you can discover who you are, what makes you happy, and how you can start living life by design.

Business leaders often become “human doings” rather than “human beings,” ignoring the inner landscapes that inform their decisions. In 4D Leadership, Dr. Alan Watkins presents the Enlightened Leadership Model, a framework that takes four dimensions of leadership into consideration: being, short-term doing, long-term doing, and relating. Multidimensional leaders who excel in all four areas are not just better at business—they are happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.

Harvard Business School Publishing

In times of relentless change, one can be certain of one thing—challenges and opportunities will present themselves that could not be imagined in today’s world. Knowing which skills will be required to succeed is a quandary. In Harvard Business School Publishing title 5 Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner discusses the need to master the “five minds” required to meet the demands of the future. Without the ability to master these minds, future inhabitants risk being overwhelmed by information, unable to succeed in the workplace, and unable to make personal and professional judgments needed to thrive. In an ever-changing world, no individual or organization can afford to rest on its intellectual laurels. The future is in the hands of those who make an active and life-long commitment for continuous learning.

Great leaders understand how they sound to others and know how to listen for value in the voices of their colleagues and employees. In 5 Voices, Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram outline a framework you can use to identify your leadership voice, communicate more effectively, and influence those around you.

In 5% More, Michael Alden offers simple, common-sense methods for giving 5 percent more to your family, your colleagues, your managers, your business, and yourself. He illustrates how adopting the 5 Percent Model can make a dramatic difference in your achievements, no matter where you are in life. Through research and inspiring stores, he demonstrates how step-by-step improvements have a greater chance for success than do large leaps, which often result in failure. Putting forth 5 percent more allows you to set goals that are small enough to be achievable and yield productive, sustainable, and significant results.

In the business world, sales professionals spend most of their time communicating reactively with customers and solving problems for a small portion of their client base. To close more sales and earn more money, salespeople must instead communicate proactively with customers and prospects. In 5-Minute Selling, Alex Goldfayn shares his proven system of consistent, repeated actions that take only minutes a day but result in greater sales success.

Innovation & Technology,Management

Most entrepreneurs believe passionately in their ideas, yet most new businesses fail within a few years of launching. In 6 Secrets to Startup Success, John Bradberry explains that entrepreneurial passion may actually contribute to startup failure. He argues that this passion can be a double-edged sword, fueling entrepreneurs to start new ventures but blinding them to potential pitfalls along the way. Bradberry encourages new founders to take a long look before they leap and offers six secrets to help them ensure that they are ready emotionally, financially, and operationally to pursue the startup success they desire.

A CEO is the single, most powerful force in an organization, but that force is diminished when the CEO uses outdated ways of running the business. CEOs are most impactful when they focus their energy on thinking about the business in big-picture terms and demonstrating character qualities that inspire those who work for them. In 60-Minute CEO, Dick Cross describes how, by improving upon thinking and character skills, such as authenticity, a CEO can revamp his or her approach to the job and make the greatest contribution to the organization.

While companies and their leaders generally support the concept of ethical leadership, they often differ greatly in how they define it. This is because ethical leadership is interpreted through many different lenses. In 7 Lenses, leadership consultant Linda Fisher Thornton describes the 7 Lenses of Ethical Responsibility and their underlying principles. She builds a case for a learning-based concept of ethical leadership that combines these lenses with their supporting principles to create a holistic and global ethical leadership approach that will better serve companies, their constituents, and society as a whole.

Crisis is the defining moment for a leader. It pushes leaders to their limits and tests whether they will be able to hold true to their beliefs under the toughest of circumstances. In 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, author Bill George offers readers seven essential lessons for facing unprecedented crisis and enormous pressure, explaining that when handled appropriately, crisis can be an opportunity for long-term success. According to George, truly excellent leaders know the importance of following their “True North” – their internal compass of beliefs, values, and principles that guide them through life. 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis provides leaders a guidebook to understand their inner compasses, rise to the occasion, and skillfully navigate treacherous seas. Leaders who follow their “True North” are able to lead themselves and their organizations through crisis by having self-awareness, self-confidence, and the ability to take responsibility for failure.

In 7 Mindsets of Success, Sten Morgan explains that a gap may have grown between where you are today and where you actually want to be. Chances are, you need more than wishful thinking, a self-help seminar, or a simple job change to get over this gap and reach your desired goal. To do this, you must change how you think and adopt seven new mindsets that can allow you to reach rapid, top-level success.

Before you can transform your organization, you must transform yourself. This means identifying your hopes and dreams, living out your goals, and being fully present in your interactions with others. In 7 Principles of Transformational Leadership, leadership consultant Hugh Blane illuminates the pathway to transforming yourself, and he lays out an actionable plan for cascading that transformation throughout the workplace.

Whether it’s used for evil or good, power is one of the most consistent predictors of a person’s success at work and ability to drive change. Fortunately, it isn’t a tool that’s inherited. Instead, it’s a skill anyone can learn to influence people, shift narratives, drive changes, and build important connections. In 7 Rules of Power, Jeffrey Pfeffer identifies a series of principles every person can learn, implement, and adapt to their circumstances to claim power and leverage it for status and success.

Adaptability & Resilience,Problem Solving,Lifelong Learning

In 7 Rules of Self-Reliance, Maha Abouelenein offers specific strategies you can adopt to set a course for your future and be accountable for making it a reality. Many of the steps require mastering the right mindset, but she also offers direction to build momentum, involve others, and create value. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to chart a course to their highest goals, but it’s especially helpful for dreamers in need of a friendly but focused game plan to turn their vision into a possible, plausible reality.

Most people make decisions so quickly that they may not even know they are making them; therefore, logic seldom has anything to do with the process. Psychological and scientific studies have proven that the brain’s nonconscious, automatic system is responsible for quickly generating impressions that lead to making choices. In 7 Secrets of Persuasion, James C. Crimmins, PhD explains how people can appeal to the brain’s automatic system to impact the decisions of their family members, work associates, friends, or customers.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Employee Experience & HR,Personal Effectiveness

Performance Management,Goals & Priorities

High performance is the key to higher pay, more power, greater recognition, or more opportunities in the workplace. However, it’s often difficult for people to identify the actions they must take to consistently deliver better results than 75 percent of their peers. In 8 Steps to High Performance, Marc Effron identifies and explains eight proven techniques you can use to enhance your performance at work.

Delegating & Empowering,Management Skills

Organizations spend little time training managers to develop their people skills, but having the appropriate skills and strategies to manage workers effectively plays a large part in a manager’s success. In 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Bosses, Stephen E. Kohn and Vincent D. O’Connell outline the nine people management skills that make managers most effective. They arrange the skills in a pyramid, with four human relations skills (self-awareness, empathy, following the Golden Rule, and safeguarding credibility) as the base on which managers can build additional skills. The middle layer consists of the three supervisory skills (observing boundaries, criticizing artfully, and adopting a coaching style). At the top of the pyramid are two capstone skills (flexing to different people styles and transforming conflict into opportunity). The authors offer tips and techniques managers can use to strengthen each skill.

Mentor-protégé relationships are a unique and particularly effective method for bringing out excellence in individuals. In 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Mentors, Stephen E. Kohn and Vincent D. O’Connell describe proven practices that mentors can use to help their protégés reach their highest potential. These practices include providing career and psychosocial support, modeling desired behaviors, uncovering protégé motivations, building rapport, inspiring protégés to ambitious goals, protecting credibility, promoting lifelong learning, and teaching strategic thinking.

Effective teamwork is increasingly critical in today’s highly complex and collaborative organizations. But forming and managing a team involves much more than simply bringing together a group of people with complementary skills. In 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Teams, leadership experts Stephen Kohn and Vincent O’Connell explain the behaviors and attitudes at the heart of superior team performance. The authors provide nine practical, proven techniques for building, managing, motivating, and leading cohesive teams that not only accomplish their goals, but also create a resonant, gratifying group experience for all of their members.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Career Management,Personal Effectiveness

The hallmark of success is reaching one’s personal and professional goals. Yet, what makes some people more successful than others is often unclear. In 9 Things Successful People Do Differently, published by Harvard Business School Publishing, Heidi Grant Halvorson has gathered research from experts around the world and identified nine strategies that anyone can use to increase the likelihood they will attain their goals.

Confidence isn’t contagious, but in 90 Seconds to a Life You Love, Joan I. Rosenberg provides a simple formula you can use to develop confidence, emotional strength, and self-esteem. By choosing to be present, being willing to tolerate difficult emotions, and riding one or more 90-second waves of bodily sensations, you can connect to the vitality of life. In only 90 seconds, the Rosenberg Reset formula can help you accelerate sustained personal transformation and build the authentic life you want.

<p>In 99% Perspiration, Adam Chandler illustrates that the &ldquo;abracadabra&rdquo; stories of the American prosperity have conditioned people to believe that grit, hard work, and endurance are the only keys to success. He suggests that the playing field may not be level enough for this type of simplistic thinking to hold true and describes a &ldquo;work-less&rdquo; way of life, centered on community, equity, and dignity, that may be a happier, healthier approach to the American Dream.</p>

In the third edition of A Complaint Is a Gift, Janelle Barlow provides new examples and research on handling customer complaints. She also reinforces many truisms and simplifies the “gift formula” for handling complaints. Anyone who interacts with customers or is responsible for retaining them can develop the mindset that customers are thought partners and their complaints provide opportunities for improvement. The book will help you deepen existing customer relations and empower customer representatives to respond with empathy and an appropriate resolution.

Online crowdfunding platforms have changed the way creative people can bring their dreams to life. Anybody who is passionate about an idea can initiate a crowdfunding project. On these platforms, an entrepreneur can establish a funding goal, set a time frame, build a project web page, and offer a few rewards to those who back the project in return for their support. In A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide, Jamey Stegmaier shares his experience with crowdfunding projects, presenting methods that have worked for him as well as those that have been unsuccessful. He guides potential entrepreneurs through the planning and execution phases, pointing out the pitfalls they might encounter and providing advice for achieving success.

Adaptability & Resilience,Problem Solving,Managing Risk,Managing Change

Complexity is the norm for individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. Most of the major challenges society confronts—digital revolution, financial meltdown, climate change, refugee crises, and terrorist insurgencies—are not easily addressed by one academic specialty or field of expertise. Theories about complex adaptive systems can enhance people’s understanding of these issues and thereby prescribe better solutions to them. In A Crude Look at the Whole, John H. Miller gives readers a primer on this relatively nascent scientific field and examines its many practical implications and uses. He outlines 10 specific features of complex adaptive systems that offer new perspectives of the world, alternate routes to discovery, and fresh methods for problem solving.

Employee Experience & HR,Leadership

In A Culture of Purpose, Christoph Lueneburger relates how leadership today faces the complex task of building a culture of purpose to power organizations. Pursuing a purpose rooted in commercial success is one of the best ways to plant such a culture in a corporation. A company’s purpose should be bigger than the bottom line. Leadership needs to poses the right combination of competencies, including change leadership, influencing, and commercial drive. Hiring talent that has innate determination, insight, and curiosity will help spread the culture of purpose throughout the organization. Such a winning culture can be cultivated further by imbuing the company with energy, resilience, and openness.

Employee Experience & HR,Personal Effectiveness

Many efforts to support the well-being journeys of individuals result in little more than transactional tactics. In his book, A Cure for the Common Company, Richard Safeer, MD, provides a prescription for companies to move beyond efforts that focus only on individual efforts and willpower. His culture-based approach is a comprehensive tool that places well-being on a spectrum and avoids the simplistic solutions that have led to failure and frustration. Organizational leaders who implement his framework will more effectively support the ongoing wellness journeys of their team members. Their team members will be happier, healthier, more resilient, and more productive.

Curiosity has been the defining trait of Hollywood producer Brian Grazer’s massively successful career. From his early days as a legal clerk at Warner Brothers to his iconic work at Imagine Entertainment, he has been led by an irrepressible curiosity that brought him face-to-face with some of the most interesting and influential people in the world, and helped him create films and TV series that have become cultural touchstones. In A Curious Mind, Grazer, along with Charles Fishman, relates episodes from his career to illustrate how he has used curiosity to spur creativity, recognize opportunity, manage and persuade others, and overcome his fears.

Innovation & Technology,Management

A Giant Reborn is Belgian economist Johan Van Overtveldt’s vigorous rejection that the American political and economic heyday has ended. The United States is poised to profit from the accelerated pace of change that he calls turbochange. Turbochange feeds on a combination of growth in human capital and knowledge, the entrepreneurial spirit, and globalism. Entrepreneurship and openness to change have characterized American culture since its beginning and propelled repeated comebacks from economic disaster throughout U.S. history. A strong rule of law, a widespread commitment to a free market, the cultural icon of the frontier, and openness to immigrants mark the U.S. as unique and place it as the frontrunner for dominance in the 21st century.

In A Great Place to Work for All, Michael C. Bush and the Great Place to Work Research Team teach you how to create an outstanding workplace culture. Through real-life examples and original research, you’ll learn how to boost revenue and contribute to a better society by bringing out the best in every employee.

The most innovative companies today are those that regularly collaborate with external partners. To successfully work with others outside of your company, you must embrace the practices of open innovation and crowdsourcing. A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing, edited by Paul Sloane, features a collection of essays and case studies that provide an in-depth look at these practices and illustrate future opportunities and obstacles.

Adaptability & Resilience,Emotional Intelligence

Fear is often marketed as a flaw, and when you buy into this idea, you might see it as something to fight and overcome. You may not recognize that fear can also be your most loyal friend. In A Healthy State of Panic, Farnoosh Torabi explains that fears provide a steady source of wisdom, revelations into your strengths and weaknesses, and clarity on who you are and what you need and expect from the world around you. She shares how you can navigate and leverage nine of your biggest fears to unlock a life with more power, agency, and intention.

No two brains process information or experiences exactly alike. There’s diversity in thought, understanding, perception, and preferences that create differences in how people communicate, learn, and complete work. However, some combinations of traits, processing styles, and preferences are more common than others. The prevalence of these “neurotypical” styles in the workplace often leads to norms that serve the majority but tend to disadvantage those who are neurodiverse. In A Hidden Force, Ed Thompson explains the importance of reexamining those norms and promoting neuroinclusion at work. He shares practices you can introduce today to make your work environment more open, adaptive, and supportive for neurodivergent thinkers.

General Ann Dunwoody rose through the ranks of the U.S. Army to become its first female four-star general. Along the way, she learned what it meant to soak up wisdom from her mentors and how to give that wisdom to those who were following her. She also learned how to be a successful leader, how to implement plans, and how to navigate the political world. Above all, she learned how to live to a higher standard. In her book A Higher Standard, General Dunwoody shares the principles that helped her achieve her leadership position and offers practical advice and strategies for achieving success in any field.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Over the past decade, business, government, and organizational leaders have spent billions of dollars on cybersecurity initiatives to protect their computers, systems, and infrastructures. And while these defenses are important to protecting a business, they aren’t enough to address the cyber vulnerabilities that could impact an organization’s critical business activities and undermine its strategic direction. In A Leader’s Guide to Cybersecurity, cybersecurity experts Thomas J. Parenty and Jack J. Domet call on board members to become digital stewards for their companies. They explain the cyber fundamentals, barriers, and solutions board members must work through to ensure that their organizations’ operations and strategic activities are protected and secured and that their people are ready to address and respond to any incidents that arise.

Kouzes and Posner's The Leadership Challenge was first published in 1987, and revised in 1996 and 2002, to become one of the bestselling leadership books of all time. Although each revision was offered to address the changing context in which leaders are forced to operate, the premise remained the same: "The most significant contribution leaders make is not simply to day's bottom line; it is to the long-term development of people and institutions so they can adapt, change, prosper, and grow" (The Leadership Challenge, p. xxviii). A Leader's Legacy is "a much more personal [and] introspective" examination of this-the leader's unique legacy.

Almost all leaders will experience a startling moment in their careers when they realize that there are flaws and problems inherent in their leadership styles. Bill Treasurer calls these moments kicks in the ass, and they offer leaders two choices: either continue down the same path without any changes, or embrace the experience with the hopes of becoming better. In A Leadership Kick in the Ass, Treasurer outlines the ways in which leaders can grow from negative learning moments in their careers by finding a balance between confidence and humility.

Black Americans are hurting. Some of their pleas for help and change were heard through the Black Lives Matter movement, but the racial problems and disparities between their lives and white folks’ haven’t improved. In A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues, Steven S. Rogers speaks up for the Black community and presses for a solution. He shares a strategy to support Black people organically and intentionally through commerce, investment, savings, philanthropy, and government policy to build the momentum that’s desperately needed to drive change.

Emilio Ontiveros,Juan Pedro Moreno,Angel Berges,Mauro F. Guillén

In A New Era in Banking, Angel Berges, Mauro F. Guillén, Juan Pedro Moreno, and Emilio Ontiveros explore the changing financial environment that continues to develop following the recession of 2008–2009. They examine various drivers of change, including demographics, regulation, and technology, and the broad effect of an overhauled banking sector on the financial services industry of the future. Banks that are flexible, technological, and information based will survive, adapt, and innovate in this new landscape.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Companies use established business models because they’ve been proven, and it’s easier and faster than inventing a new model. However, these models often don’t achieve the desired outcomes, and as a result, leaders simply apply the models more rigorously—only to get the same subpar results. In A New Way to Think, Roger L. Martin compares each of the 14 traditional models to an alternative model and demonstrates how rethinking business models can improve the likelihood of attaining the results you want.

Executive Presence,Adaptability & Resilience

Both a memoir and a business book, A Nose for Trouble recounts Michael Ainslie’s life. From his humble beginnings in Tennessee to his time as the CEO of Sotheby’s and his experience on the Lehman Brothers’ board during the financial crisis of 2008, Ainslie provides details of the myriad challenges that defined his career. By sharing his unfiltered insights on these events, Ainslie illustrates how resilience and a determination to learn from mistakes can ultimately lead to success.

A competitive global marketplace, rising costs of benefits, and a more transitory workforce have contributed to the growth of the contingent workforce. Encompassing more than the traditional less-skilled, temporary staff of the past, today’s contingent workforce is an important part of company planning and budgeting. In A Practical Guide to Managing Temporary Workers, Peter R. Garber and Joseph Mack III illustrate how to most benefit from contingent workers and avoid any potential problems that might result from adding them to your staff.

Harvard Business School Publishing

John P. Kotter established himself as the foremost authority on change with his 1996 bestseller, Leading Change, in which he presented his eight-step change process. In A Sense of Urgency, published by Harvard Business School Publishing, he focuses on the most important of these steps: creating true urgency. According to Kotter, real urgency is an essential asset that must be created over and over again. In this incisive guide, he outlines the process as a single strategy with just four basic tactics, and he amplifies this message with real case studies from the field.

In today’s business world it is challenging for companies to both deal with problems and changes internally and at the same time be productive and competitive in the marketplace. In A Team of Leaders, Paul Gustavson and Stewart Liff show readers how to create an environment where everyone is a leader. The lives of team leaders or supervisors can be fraught with frustration, as pressure is exerted on them from both the top and the bottom, as well as from the public who use their companies’ products or services. Some companies seek to lessen this stress by adopting team environments, which can be helpful but still puts leaders at the top of these teams. Building teams of leaders, however, replaces the supervisor-employee relationship with teams that eventually manage themselves.

Although Monks started out in law, its only purpose was to furnish the knowledge, contacts, and legitimacy he wouldlater need. In time, he found a mission that both matched his talents and moved his spirit when he undertook the task ofimproving corporate governance and accountability by prodding shareholders to act as owners.

Women in Business,Communicating Effectively

In A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space, Eliza VanCort offers women encouragement, resources, and strategies to claim and maintain power in their personal and professional lives without apology. Since the world often tells women to be small, there’s inherent power in first believing that you deserve to claim space and power—to have a voice and to stand tall. VanCort illustrates how women can say “yes” to themselves, trust their intuition, and speak up with authority and confidence. Inevitable backlash can be managed with direct and calculated responses, as well as strong allyship from a curated personal network.

In A World Gone Social, Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt explain the impact that social media is having on the world’s economy. The authors believe the world has entered a new “Social Age.” Coiné and Babbitt use stories and real-world situations that businesses, employees, and jobseekers can use to survive in this new age.

Social Responsibility,Business Across Cultures

Three problems are plaguing the world: Climate change is worsening, income gaps are widening, and there aren’t enough jobs to help the world’s most impoverished people attain higher levels of economic success. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus believes that all three of these problems can be solved by creating a form of capitalism that uplifts humanity. In A World of Three Zeros, he explains how leaders can work together to undo the failures that the current economic engine has caused and create a system that provides people with opportunities to fulfill their potential.

How often do we open our inboxes with excitement? How frequently do we feel empowered by the work of sifting through our messages? More often, we look to our emails as a task to take on. The work doesn’t make us happier, more productive, or more fulfilled. In fact, research shows that it has the opposite effect. In the New York Times best-seller A World Without Email, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport explores the role email holds in our lives, how it’s claimed so much of our time, and why we allow it to take the place of more meaningful work. He shares principles that could point to a path forward—perhaps not one that’s completely free from email, but one that uses new frameworks so email works for us rather than against us.

As consumers continue to take a more assertive approach to their medical care, practices must meet patients’ expectations to remain competitive. Medical offices should get to know the needs of their patients and gear their clinical operations according to patient expectations. This will help attract and maintain a steady clientele. Offices should emphasize this outlook in the media, online, and through informational brochures in their waiting rooms to build trustworthy brands that inspire loyalty. A+ Marketing by Andrea T. Eliscu provides readers with ideas, practical knowledge, and examples that help them create and maintain effective marketing programs. Extending this outreach to communities, referring physicians, and staff members helps expand the scope of the practices, securing their market shares within the changing medical landscape.

Culture plays a significant role in a company’s overall performance. While people’s behaviors and attitudes vary based on how they may feel on a given day, organizations aim for consistency and logic. When employees and organizations work together, they each perform better. In Above the Line, Michael Henderson explains how corporate cultures are created and how they can be leveraged to increase business performance and engage employees.

Harvard Business School Publishing

Change is occurring at an increasingly accelerated pace. Businesses are challenged at every turn to stay competitive and grow amidst unprecedented turbulence. In Harvard Business School Publishing title Accelerate, John Kotter explains that the hierarchical structure most businesses operate under today is ill-equipped to manage this change. Kotter advocates companies resurrect their earlier “networked” business model and transition to a dual system in which a hierarchical structure runs parallel to a networked structure. This dual system provides the best of both worlds: the predictability and stability that are hallmarks of a hierarchy, and the creativity, innovativeness, and rapid response to change inherent in a network.

Talented leaders help their organizations grow, respond to crises, and maintain a competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced business environment. To cultivate these individuals, many companies are launching accelerated leadership development programs. In Accelerated Leadership Development, Ines Wichert explores the issues related to these programs such as scaling the initiatives and generating a return on investment.

Innovation & Technology,Management

Managing Change,Continuous Improvement

If your company sees great potential for growth but is unsure how to make it a reality, you&rsquo;re likely at an inflection point. In Accelerating Growth, Vern Davenport offers a proven blueprint for transformation. He shares a methodology called The Management System, which his private equity firm, QHP Capital, uses with portfolio companies to support significant growth.

In today’s business world, organizations are in an ongoing war for talent. As a result, companies that are skilled at finding and developing leaders are in a good position to get ahead. To address this issue, Global Knowledge, an award-winning global organization known for its strategic solutions and strong focus on people development, created the Business Performance Framework. The framework helps identify current or potential employee gaps in the context of an organization’s environment and strategy. In Accelerating Leadership Development, Jocelyn Bérard, vice president at Global Knowledge, outlines various processes that businesses can use to identify talent gaps, determine leadership requirements, select and develop promising talent, and promote leaders’ growth.

Markets are changing at an increasingly rapid pace. While many leaders focus on marketplace disruption, those who shift their focus toward acceleration are finding tremendous, sustainable success. In Accelerating Performance, Colin Price and Sharon Toye provide a comprehensive framework for organizational leaders who want to accelerate their performances at the strategic, organizational, team, and individual levels.

In Access to Asia, Sharon Schweitzer and Liz Alexander argue that in order to succeed in the landscape of international business, professionals must develop an awareness of different cultures around the world. Drawing from extensive research and firsthand accounts from 80 regional experts, the authors outline the skills and knowledge all professionals must have to create fruitful, long-lasting business relationships in Asia. The authors utilize an eight-question framework to provide profiles for 10 Asian countries, including the history, geography, and business etiquette of each.

Accountability is one of the best written management books that advocate freedom and responsibility without control in managing business organizations that achieves sustainable results in sales growth and overall bottom line performance for many industries. This advocacy professes the belief in granting individuals in a business organization the right and the freedom to make choices that allows people to be personally responsible in their jobs when they are allowed to design and own their jobs, and to create their systems. And for leaders to have faith in their people by believing that everyone wants to be great and that they be trusted to do great things. Control based thinking asserts that controls establish accountability while freedom based thinking says that control stifles accountability and leads to cheating, shortcuts, and passive aggressive behavior to achieve results that in turn defeats accountability. Whereas freedom based environment leads to more productive results in business enterprises since it offers "intrinsic" rewards that sustains accountability at all levels while control based environment offers "extrinsic" rewards that are themselves subtler forms of control to achieve results.

Accountability is one of the best written management books that advocate freedom and responsibility without control in managing business organizations that achieves sustainable results in sales growth and overall bottom line performance for many industries. This advocacy professes the belief in granting individuals in a business organization the right and the freedom to make choices that allows people to be personally responsible in their jobs when they are allowed to design and own their jobs, and to create their systems. And for leaders to have faith in their people by believing that everyone wants to be great and that they be trusted to do great things. Control based thinking asserts that controls establish accountability while freedom based thinking says that control stifles accountability and leads to cheating, shortcuts, and passive aggressive behavior to achieve results that in turn defeats accountability.