Career Skills

Knowing how to transform conflict is critical in both our personal and professional lives. Yet, by and large, we are terrible at it. The reason, says longtime mediator Chad Ford, is fear. When conflict comes, our instincts are to run or fight. To transform conflict, Ford says we need to turn toward the people we are in conflict with, put down our physical and emotional weapons, and really love them with the kind of love that leads us to treat others as fellow human beings, not as objects in our way.

If you want to improve your conversational skills - and achieve greater levels of personal and professional success - The Art of Talking to Anyone is the ultimate book. Rosalie Maggio has built a career on teaching people how to say the right thing at the right time - and she's made her techniques available to you.

In this modern classic, Annette Simmons reminds us that the oldest tool of influence is also the most powerful. Fully revised and updated to account for new technology and social media, along with two new chapters on the role of stories in the development of civilization and how to adjust your story to your specific goal, Simmons showcases over 100 examples of effective storytelling drawn from the front lines of business and government, as well as myths, fables, and parables from around the world.

In 2010, award-winning journalist John Bowe learned that his cousin Bill, a longtime extreme recluse living in his parents' basement, had, at the age of 59, overcome a lifetime of shyness and isolation - and gotten happily married. Bill credited his turnaround to Toastmasters, the world's largest organization devoted to teaching the art of public speaking.

Keeping someone's attention while telling a story is a trick not everyone knows. Just regurgitating facts and figures is no way to achieve it. You need something relatable that your audience can feel and see themselves in. Using storytelling while communicating a message is one way of doing this.

In The Science of Likability, you'll get all that and more. I've taken 27 seminal scientific and psychological studies and broken them down, so you can use their findings to your advantage. Every piece of advice in this book to increase your social standing and likability factor is 100% backed by in-depth, peer-reviewed research. You can get a new haircut and wardrobe, and you even learn funny jokes. But likability is something more. It's subconscious, and it's the small signs that signal our brains to let their guards down and embrace others.

Not only do we need more female leaders at the top, but we need more women at all levels of business, government, and nonprofits to step up - there's no time to waste. The problem, says Helene Lerner, isn't so much that women lack confidence but that they misunderstand what confidence really is. True confidence isn't fearlessness; it's having the courage to jump in even when your knees are shaking.

As the founder and CEO of the management training organization Executive Essentials, Michelle Tillis coaches and trains leaders to experience continual growth and achieve results through the power of collaboration, communication, and relationships. In 11 Laws of Likability, she presents activities and real-life anecdotes from professional and social settings to show listeners how to identify what's likable in themselves and use those characteristics to build connections with other professionals.

Ethical intelligence may not get as much attention as other forms of "smarts", but as Bruce Weinstein reveals, it is the most practical, valuable, and even courageous form, determining success on the job, fulfillment in relationships, and sense of self-worth. After reviewing the basic ethical principles agreed upon by cultures and religious traditions around the world and throughout time, Weinstein tells listeners how to develop their ethics IQ by applying these principles in daily life.

Have you ever had that sinking feeling that your career’s going nowhere and that if you could only find half the confidence your colleagues seem to have, you could find the success and fulfillment you crave? This clear yet empathetic guide will show you the path towards increasing your confidence at work, arm yourself with the tools you need no matter what chaos is unraveling around you.

This is a complete and practical guide which highlights the authors' new strategic approaches to selling when the buyer initially declines or is resistant on a sales opportunity. The authors introduce a novel concept called the Circle of Persuasion which offers sales reps a new approach in this potentially tricky process. Along the way, When Buyers Say No details prescriptive steps and even sample dialogues that will instruct and guide sales professionals on how to best cultivate buyer-seller relationships.

In Words Like Loaded Pistols, Sam Leith traces the art of argument from ancient Greece down to its many modern mutations. He introduces verbal villains from Hitler to Richard Nixon—and the three musketeers: ethos, pathos and logos. He explains how rhetoric works in speeches from Cicero to Obama, and pays tribute to the rhetorical brilliance of AC/DC's "Back In Black". Before you know it, you'll be confident in chiasmus and proud of your panegyrics—because rhetoric is useful, relevant, and absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

Prospect the Sandler Way shares 30 core principles for mastering stress-free lead development by phone and over the Internet, in accordance with the selling system developed by David H. Sandler. Includes updated strategies on 21st-century topics like conducting effective online pre-call research, and using LinkedIn to generate referrals.

Negotiations are incredibly stressful and can bring out the worst in people. Wouldn’t it be better if there were a principled way to negotiate? Wouldn’t it be even better if there were a way to treat people fairly and get treated fairly in a negotiation? Split the Pie offers a new approach that does both—a field-tested method that reframes how negotiations play out. Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale School of Management, helps identify what’s really at stake in a negotiation: the “pie.” The negotiation pie is the additional value created through an agreement to work together.

Tradition says there are three ways to grow a company's revenue: fire up the sales team with empty promises, cut costs and downsize, or cook the books. But what if there's a better way, a way that nine amazingly profitable and well-run companies are already embracing.

From prominent communication coach Frances Cole Jones comes this indispensable guide in which anyone can learn how to make a spectacular impression in all aspects of their work life - from giving top notch presentations to dazzling a client to wowing at cocktail parties. It's the go-to handbook for achieving success by making a lasting impression.

Your workday is filled with them - people who frustrate, impede, maneuver, undermine, plot, connive, and whine. This indispensable guide details specific techniques for handling all of them, with easy-to-follow scenarios for every situation. Updated and revised to reflect modern issues including technology, generation gaps, and language barriers, this guide describes 10 kinds of culprits and offers helpful strategies and phrases for diffusing workplace tensions and effectively resolving conflicts.

Highly acclaimed author, trainer, and presenter Paul Sloane demonstrates how the lateral leader develops the vision, culture, and processes that transform a regular business into an innovation hothouse. With a lively, energetic and practical approach, The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills will teach you dynamic, up-to-date techniques to unleash the creative energies of your people and reveal how to put the techniques to work immediately.

Too many companies are managed not by leaders but by mere role players and faceless bureaucrats. What would it take to replace these empty suits with real leaders - men and women who are confident in who they are and who truly inspire people to achieve extraordinary results? Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones argue that leaders don't become great by aspiring to a list of universal character traits. Rather, effective leaders are authentic: They deploy individual strengths to engage followers' hearts, minds, and souls.

Years of experience as a magician taught Tim David that real magic is all about words, and the way they influence the minds of the audience. What sets a professional magician apart from an amateur are people skills like communication, influence, and engagement - skills that are also effective in the workplace. By applying seven "magic" words in a business setting, David offers tools for effective and persuasive communication.