Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds. If you need the best practices and ideas for superior teambuilding--but don't have time to find them--this book is for you.Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in oneplace. This collection of HBR articles will help you: - Boost team performance through mutual accountability - Motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex projects - Increase groups' emotional intelligence - Reverse the fortunes of a struggling team - Prevent decision deadlock - Extract results from a bunch of touchy superstars - Fight constructively with top-management colleagues - Ensure productivity in far-flung teams

Go from being a good manager to an extraordinary leader. If you read nothing else on leadership, read these 10 articles.We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articleson leadership and selected the most important ones to help youmaximize your own and your organization's performance. HBR's 10 Must Reads On Leadership will inspire you to: - Motivate others to excel - Build your team's self-confidence in others - Provoke positive change - Set direction - Encourage smart risk-taking - Manage with tough empathy - Credit others for your success - Increase self-awareness - Draw strength from adversity

So much to do, so little time, so best to start early. Full of things to make, achieve, learn (and some things you shouldn't learn) this is the perfect handbook for any child who wants to revel in being young and not-boring. Can you Make an origami crane? Lie convincingly? Operate as a spy? Parents may need these skills (not origami) to wrest their child's copy from them and indulge in all the fun they should have had.

The final instalment in a new series offering straightforward,practical wisdom from a top business guru John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Amazing Creativity is thesecond title in a new series of titles from the noted businessexpert. Focused on concise, practical, and straightforward businesswisdom, the series offers the kind of real-world insight thatbusiness leaders thrive on. Short, punchy, and packed with real solutions, this bookprovides 100 proven and effective ideas for businesspeople in needof fresh new ideas, whether they work for a small firm or a Fortune100 giant. Proven, practical business wisdom for anyone who must create tosucceed The second book in a new series from renowned businessauthority John Adair Quick bites of business wisdom for everyday businesssuccess For effective tips on creative thinking from a proven expert,John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Amazing Creativity offerseverything you need to invent your own success in business.

Increase Profits, Be more Organized, attract a Higher Quality Quantity of Referrals, Run Your Business so That It Doesn′t Run You, Take Your Business to the Next Level... With Breakthrough Business Development!Breakthrough Business Development shows you how to attract and keep great clients, while running a profitable and efficient business. It helps every knowledge–for–profit professional to maximize your most valuable client relationships, and to develop a personalized business development plan to mine the untapped potential in your business.Praise for the Pareto System, Featured in Breakthrough Business Development."I am just beside myself on the results gathered so far from instituting the Pareto System. I use an agenda for meetings now and have formulated a standard package given to new clients. Already I have sent out twenty thank–you cards to new referrals. I even got a referral from a referral if that makes sense. Some clients didn′t know that I was still expanding my business. I am

The right way to start a business. This book includes all the invaluable information from TheComplete Idiot's Guide(r) to Business Plans, Second Edition, butadds a content-rich CD-ROM, featuring more than 90 time-savingplanning tools, business forms, and financial worksheets to helpentrepreneurs prepare, write, and make the most of their businessplans. ? According to the Small Business Administration, in 2007, thenumber of new businesses was 680,000, and that number is expectedto be higher in 2011 as the economy drives people into startingtheir own businesses ? Features eight business plans covering a broad range ofbusinesses ? The new CD-ROM is user-friendly, up-to-date, andcontent-rich

If you want to motivate your employees to be more productive,convince your customers to use more of your products and services,encourage a loved one to engage in healthier habits, or inspire anychange in yourself, renowned psychologist Dr. Michael Pantalon canshow you how to achieve Instant Influence in six simple steps.Drawing on three decades of research, Dr. Pantalon's easy-to-learnmethod can create changes both great and small in 7 minutes orless. This scientifically tested method succeeds in every area ofwork and life by helping people tap into their deeply personalreasons for wanting to change and finding a spark of "yes" withinan answer that sounds like "no."

The guide for anyone who deals with difficult authorityfigures at work. Sooner or later, we all have to work for someone we can'tstand-whether it's an inept supervisor, an undermining departmenthead, or an overly demanding client. When that happens, some peoplequit, some suffer in silence, and others cope by sulking,obsessing, or retaliating. But you can take charge of this crucial workplace relationship.In this book, Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster, authors of thebestseller Working for You Is Killing Me, offer concrete examplesof bad boss scenarios and a proven four-step program for improvingeach situation: ?Detect - Identify how this person drives you crazy. ?Detach - Discover concrete actions you can take to reclaim yourpower. ?Depersonalize - Learn how to take a boss's actions lesspersonally. ?Deal - Devise a plan to get what you need and move your careerforward.

As a manager, you make countless decisions every day. Some arestraightforward, such as assigning a team member to a project.Others are far more complex, such as determining how to handle anunderperforming product line. How can you boost the odds of makingthe best decisions for your organization? Treat decision-making asa process. This volume reveals key strategies for handling each step in theprocess. You'll find out how to: Generate a diverse set of alternative courses of action for thedecision at hand Assess the feasibility, risks, and ethical implications of eachalternative Select the best course of action Communicate your decision and carry it out

Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions is the ultimate guide to maximizing team productivity through executive sales coaching. Between professional deadlines and other business responsibilities, most sales managers can?t find the time to develop their sales staff. This book shows you how to develop your own executive sales coaching skills so you can boost sales efficiency, train your staff to better performance, and hire and retain top sales talent.

Praise for THE APPLE EXPERIENCE "There are three pillars ofenchantment: likability, trustworthiness, and quality. The Appleexperience is the best modern-day example of all three pillars.Carmine's book will help you understand and implement the same kindof world-class experience." --Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment:The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions and former chiefevangelist of Apple "Carmine Gallo explains beautifully and simplyjust what makes the Apple retail experience so successful. Nomatter what kind of business you are in, there are insanelyvaluable lessons in this book!" --Garr Reynolds, best-sellingauthor of Presentation Zen and The Naked Presenter "The AppleExperience isn't just for retailers. It applies to any businessthat involves people. At its core, this book is not about Apple.It's about delivering the best experience possible." --Tony Hsieh,New York Times bestselling author of Delivering Happiness and CEOof Zappos.com, Inc. "An exciting resource for any business owner inan

Practical advice from some of today's top early stageinvestors and entrepreneurs TechStars is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator withoperations in three U.S. cities. Once a year in each city, it fundsabout ten Internet startups with a small amount of capital andsurrounds them with around fifty top Internet entrepreneurs andinvestors. Historically, about seventy-five percent of thecompanies that go through TechStars raise a meaningful amount ofangel or venture capital. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons toAccelerate Your Startup is a collection of advice that comes fromindividuals who have passed through, or are part of, this provenprogram. Each vignette is an exploration of information often heardduring the TechStars program and provides practical insights intoearly stage entrepreneurship. Contains seven sections, each focusing on a major theme within theTechStars program, including idea and vision, fundraising, legaland structure, and work/life balance Created by two highly regarded experts in the wor

The secret of achieving and sustaining organizationalexcellence revealed In an ever-changing world where only a third of excellentorganizations stay that way over the long term, and where evenfewer are able to implement successful change programs, leaders arein need of big ideas and new tools to thrive. In BeyondPerformance, McKinsey Company's Scott Keller and Colin Pricegive you everything you need to build an organization that canexecute in the short run and has the vitality to prosper over thelong term. Drawing on the most exhaustive research effort of its kind onorganizational effectiveness and change management, Keller andPrice put hard science behind their big idea: that the health of anorganization is equally as important as its performance. In thebook's foreword, management guru Gary Hamel refers to this notionas "a new manifesto for thinking about organizations." The authors illustrate why copying management best practicesfrom other companies is more dangerous than helpful Cl

What do Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci, and RayKroc, the man who created the McDonald's franchise enterprise, havein common? They have all mastered the skills of creativegenius-essential tools in today's business climate. Having researched the lives and techniques of past and presentgeniuses for this inspiring and provocative new handbook, AnnetteMoser-Wellman helps workers at all levels build and refine theirworking styles. These qualities of creativity-drawn from the therealms of art, science, as well as business-make up the fivedistinct "faces": * Seer-the power to image * Observer-the power to notice details * Alchemist-the power to make connections * Fool-the power to celebrate weakness * Sage-the power to simplify Moser-Wellman shows how we can utilize these creative thinkingstrategies and flourish in the workplace. "It teaches people about the nature of creativity and how tocultivate it." (Fast Company) "Moser-Wellman has given us

Free Lunch answers the great mystery of our time: How did ourstrong and growing economy give way to job uncertainty, debt,bankruptcy, and fear for millions of Americans? Acclaimed reporterDavid Cay Johnston reveals how government policies and spendinghave reached deep into the wallets of the many to benefit the top1% of the wealthiest. He shows exactly who has been getting free lunches from thegovernment—from $100 million to Warren Buffett, to $1.3 billion tothe owners of the Yankees and Mets. But of course there’s really nosuch thing as a free lunch. The taxpayer always picks up the bill.With his in depth reporting, vivid stories, and sharp analysis,Johnston reveals the forces that shape our everyday economiclives—and shows us how we can finally make things better.

Based on the best-seller Phonics Pathways, a complete approachto teaching phonics and early reading Dolores Hiskes has developed a wealth of helpful teachingaides based on her best-selling book Phonics Pathways. This boosterpack includes 46 double-sided flash cards that illustrate thesounds and spelling patterns of the English language; SpeakingPathways, a lively 35-minute audio CD that demonstrates the soundsof spoken English; and three fun phonics games: WordWorks, whichreviews and reinforces phonics reading skills, Blendlt, whichreinforces knowledge of beginning spelling patterns, and The TrainGame, which features individual "train car" cards that kids puttogether to make longer words. Companion CD demonstrates the sounds of spoken English Contains games that have been classroom-tested and proveneffective Offers aides that are at once challenging and a fun way to learnreading skills These powerful phonics teaching tools can be used with beginningreaders, English language learners, d

Bruce Greenwald, one of the nation’s leading businessprofessors, presents a new and simplified approach to strategy thatcuts through much of the fog that has surrounded the subject. Basedon his hugely popular course at Columbia Business School, Greenwaldand his coauthor, Judd Kahn, offer an easy-to-follow method forunderstanding the competitive structure of your industry anddeveloping an appropriate strategy for your specific position. Over the last two decades, the conventional approach tostrategy has become frustratingly complex. It’s easy to get lost ina sophisticated model of your competitors, suppliers, buyers,substitutes, and other players, while losing sight of the bigquestion: Are there barriers to entry that allow you to do thingsthat other firms cannot?

Levi-Strauss, the jeans and apparel maker, missed out on the hip-hop trend. They didn’t realize that those kids in baggy jeans represented a whole new—and lucrative—market opportunity, one they could have seen coming if they had but been paying attention to the shape of American culture. Levi Strauss isn’t alone. Too many corporations outsource their understanding of culture to trend hunters, cool watchers, marketing experts, consulting firms, and, sometimes, teenage interns. The cost to Levi-Strauss was a billion dollars. The cost to the rest of corporate America is immeasurable. The lesson? The American corporation needs a new professional. It needs a Chief Culture Officer. Grant McCracken, an anthropologist who now trains some of the world’s biggest companies and consulting firms, argues that the CCO would keep a finger on the pulse of contemporary cultural trends—from sneakers to slow food to preppies—while developing a systematic understanding of the deep waves of cultur

Felix Dennis is an expert at proving people wrong. Starting asa college dropout with no family money, he created a publishingempire, founded Maxim magazine, made himself one of therichest people in the UK, and had a blast in the process. How to Get Rich is different from any other book on thesubject because Dennis isn't selling snake oil, investment tips, ormotivational claptrap. He merely wants to help people embraceentrepreneurship, and to share lessons he learned the hard way. Hereveals, for example, why a regular paycheck is like crack cocaine;why great ideas are vastly overrated; and why "ownership isn't theimportant thing, it's the only thing."

It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of that economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, Lords of Finance is a potent reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, their fallibility, and the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.

Praise for Best Practices in Talent Management "This book includes the most up-to-date thinking, tools, models,instruments and case studies necessary to identify, lead, andmanage talent within your organization and with a focus on results.It provides it all—from thought leadership to real-worldpractice." Patrick Carmichael head of talent management, refining, marketing, andinternational operations, Saudi Aramco "This is a superb compendium of stories that give the reader apeek behind the curtains of top notch organizations who havewrestled with current issues of talent management. Their lessonslearned are vital for leaders and practitioners who want a veryvaluable heads up." Beverly Kaye Founder/CEO: Career Systems International and Co-Author, Love'Em or Lose 'Em "This is a must read for organization leaders and HRpractitioners who cope with the today's most critical businesschallenge—talent management. This book provides a vast amount ofthought provoking ideals, tools, and models, for building