Jesus Built an Inspired Team. You Can, Too. Laurie Beth Jones has given hundreds of thousands of businessreaders insight into how the ideas of Jesus can be used to enhanceperformance. In Teach Your Team to Fish , Jones focuses onone of the most critical areas for anyone in business: teamwork.Leaders today face their greatest challenges not only in definingstrategies and getting updated information but also in gettingdiverse human beings to pull together without falling apart. Jesus is a role model for team leaders everywhere. Teach YourTeam to Fish offers dozens of stories from the Bible, showinghow Jesus managed his team of disciples and other followers, withsuggestions for how to apply these lessons to real-worldteambuilding and management problems. It offers guidance andinspiration on: ? How to excite your team members in order to motivate them ? How to ground them so they’ll be realistic about what can beachieved ? How to transform them into a truly well-functioning team ? How to release them int

Since the publication of its first English translation in1974, The Book of Five Rings has become an underground classic inthe American business community, where it is studied as a text onJapanese management techniques. Here are timeless principles ofcraft, skill, timing, and spirit from a great samurai warrior--plusbackground on Zen, Bushido, Heiho, and Musashi's life. Twocolor.

"This is not another 'how to start your own business' book,but rather one man's struggle to find meaning and fulfillment inwork, latching onto elephants when needed, but mostly flying solowithout a net." -Booklist Social philosopher and international business guru, CharlesHandy provides a firsthand account of how we got here and where weare headed. Handy takes us on his life's journey, looking back tosuch topics as his childhood and education and how they prepared(or, rather, did not prepare) him for a career in business; thechanging nature of organizational life within the context of theold economy and the new; the great variety of capitalism around theworld; and, through it all, his struggle to find meaning andfulfillment in work. This book is both a poignant personal memoirand a deep reflection on the past and future of world capitalism,with all its possibilities and pitfalls.

The primary obstacle Is a confl:ct that s bUIlt into ourbrains, ay Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimedbestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that ourminds are ruled by two different systems--the rational mind and theemotional mind--that compete for control~ The rational mind wants agreat beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie~ Therational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mindloves the com-fort of the existing routine.This tension can doom achange effort--but if it is overcome, change can comequickly. In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people--employees andmanagers, parents and nurses have united both minds and, as aresult,achieved dramatic results. In a compelling, story-drivennarrative, they bring together decades of counterintuitive researchin psychology, sociol-ogy, and other fields to shed new light onhowwe can effect transformative change, whether your interest is inchanging the world or your waistline.

From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever.

This volume captures the spirit of discovery that pervades"Great Groups". It describes the free-form organization of suchteams, more interested in their mission than their hierarchy. Theauthors discuss how "Great Groups" believe both that they'reunderdogs up against a powerful foe and that they're bound tosucceed. The book also illuminates the roles of a "Great Group"leader as a gatherer of talent, a source of inspiration and abridge to the outside world. Today, organizations require creativethinking from every member, not just a few. The world's complexityand pace mean that people can no longer rely on individual leadersand "Lone Rangers" to solve problems. Rather, people must learn towork together, to identify their own missions, to form their own"Great Groups". The stories and advice from the book show readershow. Warren Bennis is the author of "On Becoming a Leader","Leaders" and "Learning to Lead".

In this absorbing tale, you watch the timeless principles ofservant leadership unfold through the story of John Daily, abusinessman whose outwardly successful life is spiraling out ofcontrol. He is failing miserably in each of his leadership roles asboss, husband, father, and coach. To get his life back on track, hereluctantly attends a weeklong leadership retreat at a remoteBenedictine monastery. To John's surprise, the monk leading the seminar is a formerbusiness executive and Wall Street legend. Taking John under hiswing, the monk guides him to a realization that is simple yetprofound: The true foundation of leadership is not power, butauthority, which is built upon relationships, love, service, andsacrifice. Along with John, you will learn that the principles in this bookare neither new nor complex. They don't demand special talents;they are simply based on strengthening the bonds of respect,responsibility, and caring with the people around you. Perhaps thisis why The Servant has touche

The extraordinary breakthrough management program--heralded byGE, Motorola, and AlliedSignal--that is sweeping corporate Americawith its unprecedented ability to achieve superior financialresults. Six Sigma is the most powerful breakthrough management tool everdevised, promising increased market share, cost reductions, anddramatic improvements in bottom-line profitability for companies ofany size. The darling of Wall Street, it has become the mantra ofFortune 500 boardrooms around the world because it works. What is Six Sigma? It is first and foremost a business processthat enables companies to increase profits dramatically bystreamlining operations, improving quality, and eliminating defectsor mistakes in everything a company does, from filling out purchaseorders to manufacturing airplane engines. While traditional qualityprograms have focused on detecting and correcting defects, SixSigma encompasses something broader: It provides specific methodsto re-create the process itself so that def

From the man the Wall Street Journal hailed as "theguru of Revenue Management" comes revolutionary ways to recoverfrom the after effects of downsizing and refocus your business ongrowth. Whatever happened to growth? In Revenue Management, RobertG. Cross answers this question with his ground-breaking approach torevitalizing businesses: focusing on the revenue side of the ledgerinstead of the cost side. The antithesis of slash-and-burn methodsthat left companies with empty profits and dissatisfiedstockholders, Revenue Management overturns conventionalthinking on marketing strategies and offers the key to initiatingand sustaining growth. Using case studies from a variety of industries, smallbusinesses, and nonprofit organizations, Cross describes no-tech,low-tech, and high-tech methods that managers can use to increaserevenue without increasing products or promotions; predict consumerbehavior; tap into new markets; and deliver products and servicesto customers effectively and efficiently

Creative folks often know all too well that the muse doesn’talways strike when you want it to, or when the deadline for yournext brilliant project is creeping up on you like an ill-fittingturtleneck. Originality doesn’t follow a time clock, even when youhave to. While conventional time management books offer tons ofinstruction for using time wisely, they are traditionally organizedin a linear fashion, which just isn’t helpful for the right-brainmind. In Time Management for the Creative Person , creativityguru Lee Silber offers real advice for using the strengths ofartistic folks—like originality and resourcefulness—to adoptinnovative time-saving solutions, such as: * Learning to say no when your plate is just too full * How to know when a good job, not a great one, is goodenough * Making “to do” lists that include fun stuff, too—that way youwon’t feel overwhelmed by work * Time-saving techniques around the house that give you more timeto get your work done and more time to spend with your

"Wise. Relevant. Riveting." -Jim Collins, author of Good toGreat Denial is the unconscious belief that a certain fact is tooterrible to face and therefore cannot be true. It turns challengesinto crises, dilemmas into catastrophes. It's the single greatestobstacle business leaders face. Now Harvard business School professor Richard S. Tedlow tacklestwo essential questions: Why do so many sane, smart leaders oftenrefuse to accept and act on the facts that threaten their companiesand careers? And how do we find the courage to resist denial whenfacing new trends, changing markets, and tough newcompetitors? Tedlow highlights strategies the best leaders use to face hardfacts and turn challenges into opportunities. His book will helpyou become one of them.

Tradition says there are three ways to grow a company’sprofits: Fire up the sales team with empty promises, cut costs anddownsize, or cook the books. But what if there’s a better way—a waythat nine amazingly profitable and well-run companies are alreadyembracing? Jason Jennings and his research team screened more than100,000 Amer?ican companies to find nine that rarely end up onmagazine covers, yet have increased revenues and profits by tenpercent or more for ten consecutive years. Then they interviewedthe leaders, workers, and customers of these quiet super?stars tofind the secrets of their astoundingly consistent and profitablegrowth. What they have in common is a culture—a community—based on ashockingly simple precept: Think big, but act small. It works forretailers like PETCO, Cabela’s, and O’Reilly Automotive,manufacturers like Medline Industries, service compa?nies likeSonic Drive-In, private educational companies like Strayer,industrial giants like Koch Enterprises, a

True leadership isn't a matter of having a certain job ortitle. In fact, being chosen for a position is only the first ofthe five levels every effective leader achieves. To become morethan "the boss" people follow only because they are required to,you have to master the ability to invest in people and inspirethem. To grow further in your role, you must achieve results andbuild a team that produces. You need to help people to developtheir skills to become leaders in their own right. And if you havethe skill and dedication, you can reach the pinnacle ofleadership-where experience will allow you to extend your influencebeyond your immediate reach and time for the benefit ofothers. The 5 Levels of Leadership are: 1. Position - People follow because they have to. 2. Permission - People follow because they want to. 3. Production - People follow because of what you have done forthe organization. 4. People Development - People follow because of what you havedone for them personall

Teams can be a driving force for organizationalperformance--and managers can play a key role in teams' ultimatesuccess or failure. Highlighting the latest research on teamdevelopment and dynamics--and including hands-on tools forimproving communication, resolving conflicts, promotinginterdependence, and more--this guide helps managers at all levelsto motivate teams to achieve higher performance.