Career Skills

Studies show that asking for help makes us better and less frustrated at our jobs. It helps us find new opportunities and new talent. It unlocks new ideas and solutions, and enhances team performance. And it helps us get the things we need outside the workplace as well. And yet, we rarely give ourselves permission to ask. Here, Wayne Baker shares a set of strategies - used at companies like Google, GM, and IDEO - that individuals, teams, and leaders can use to make asking for help a personal and organizational habit.

Have you ever wondered why some people earn attention and respect when they speak and others don't? The secret to their success can be summed up in one word: gravitas. In this revolutionary new book, leading voice coach and speaker Caroline Goyder reveals how to speak so others will listen. Through simple techniques to build your natural gravitas, you will learn how to express yourself clearly, with passion and confidence, to persuade, influence and engage listeners. By being grounded in your values and capabilities, you will gain the authority needed to make people sit up and pay attention.

After two decades as a behavior analyst in the FBI, Robin Dreeke knows a thing or two about sizing people up. He's navigated complex situations that range from handling Russian spies to navigating the internal politics at the Bureau. Through that experience, he was forced to develop a knack for reading people - their intentions, their capabilities, their desires and their fears. In Sizing People Up, Dreeke shares his simple, six-step system that helps you predict anyone's future behavior based on their words, goals, patterns of action, and the situation at hand.

In Ask Powerful Questions, Will Wise explains how the questions we traditionally ask are virtually meaningless when it comes to establishing connection. Introducing a set of practical tools for accessing and understanding others by changing the way we ask questions, Will shows how to transform "How are you? I'm fine, thanks" into a conversation that changes not only how you lead, but who you are as a person.

Whether it's a manager who keeps moving the goal posts, an uncooperative colleague, negative friend, or critical family member, some people are just plain hard to get along with. Often, your immediate response is to shrink or sulk, become defensive or attack. But there are smarter moves to make when dealing with difficult people. This book explains how to cope with a range of situations with difficult people and to focus on what you can change.

Negotiation is a skill people need to use every day. In this audio exclusive, learn the negotiation skills required to navigate difficult situations that arise in everyday life. From buying a car to purchasing a home, one needs to know how to effectively negotiate, especially when the other party is a seasoned professional. Harvard professor, Joshua N. Weiss, Ph.D., gives us to tools to negotiate when we have a major stake in the game or when we're perceived as the "weak consumer."

The 25 Minute Meeting goes beyond "cut to the chase" and shows you how to take back your work day with smarter planning and more productive action. Meetings have become a de facto way of working, and as they pile up and stretch to interminable lengths, they eat up our days and sink productivity - if they are poorly planned and run. Done well, meetings are short, sharp, productive affairs that provide critical time and space for the interactions that drive business forward.

Our noisy world has trained us to think that those who get in the last word win, when in fact it’s those who know how to stay silent who really hold the power. STFU is a book that unlocks this power and will change your life, freeing you to focus on what matters. Lyons combines leading behavioral science with actionable advice on how to communicate with intent, think critically, and open your mind and ears to the world around you. Talk less, get more. That’s what STFU is all about.

In your career, there is one transition that stands out as the most crucial - going from individual contributor to competent manager. New managers have to learn how to lead others rather than do the work themselves, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. Many fail to make the transition successfully. In this timeless, indispensable book, Harvard Business School professor and leadership guru Linda Hill traces the experiences of 19 new managers over the course of their first year in the role.

Want to learn how to make people laugh out loud? How to Make People Laugh is a book that targets regular comedians, such as you and me. It does not try to transform you into a professional comedian. Instead, it puts comedy in the spotlight of everyday life. With this book, you will learn techniques that you can easily incorporate at parties or even in regular banter with friends and colleagues.

The key to success in life and business is to become a master at Conversational Intelligence. It's not about how smart you are, but how open you are to learn new and effective powerful conversational rituals that prime the brain for trust, partnership, and mutual success. Conversational Intelligence translates the wealth of new insights coming out of neuroscience from across the globe, and brings the science down to earth so people can understand and apply it in their everyday lives.

What if you could guide others towards their own realizations, revealing hidden truths and fostering deeper connections? The frustration of feeling unheard, of struggling to articulate your thoughts, is a familiar feeling, right? But what if there was a way to break through that barrier, to become a master of communication, a champion of clarity? This book unveils the secrets of the Socratic method, a powerful tool for unlocking wisdom and revealing truths through insightful questioning.

Story isn't just one way to persuade. It's the way. It's built into the architecture of the brain, and has been since early humans gathered around the camp fire, trying to figure out how to outsmart the lion next door. In Story or Die, story coach Lisa Cron sets out to decode the power of story, first by examining how the brain processes information, translates it into narrative, and then guards it as if your life depends on it.

The STAR interview method is used by millions of people all around the world to answer interview questions and tell stories. Fortune 500 companies (Amazon included) recommend using the STAR method to answer behavioral questions. Whether you’re just starting your job search, already interviewing with a company, or looking for a different way to stand out - there are a dozen different ways you can incorporate the technique into your life. Any time you present yourself verbally or in written format, doing it in a narrative/story format will open people's ears.

These short pieces have been personally selected by Donald Trump for Think Like a Champion, giving his special perspective in what amounts to an "informal education" on how to succeed in business and life. The pieces are engaging, informative and educational, presenting the clearest picture yet into the mind and heart of an extraordinary individual.

In today’s video-first world, selling and connecting have fundamentally changed. With endless distractions and shorter attention spans, building genuine relationships has become more challenging than ever. Architecting Success: The Art of Soft Skills in Technical Sales by Evgeniy Kharam provides a comprehensive guide to mastering the human connection in technical sales. Discover how to connect on a personal level before diving into business.

Elite: High Performance Lessons and Habits from a Former Navy SEAL is a must-listen guide for everyone from aspiring entrepreneurs to established business leaders. No matter the stage of your business - development, exploitation, or disruption - Elite will change your approach to business and unlock the warrior within.

Discover a Path to Success That Doesn't Start in Debt! Are you a teen or a parent of a teen worried about the financial burdens of college and uncertain career paths? "Career Planning for Teens: Your Ultimate Guide for Self-Discovery, Skill Mastery, and Future Success Without Student Loans" offers a groundbreaking approach to preparing for the future.

Being a great leader means getting the fundamentals right. It also means consistently doing the "little things" that make a positive difference in the lives of employees, customers, and other stakeholders. The Busy Leader's Handbook: How to Lead People and Places That Thrive is a practical, easy-to-use book filled with gentle reminders of what we should be doing every day - especially when work is at its most intense.

In Joel's Schwartzberg's 10-plus years as a strategic communications trainer, the biggest obstacle he's come across - one that connects directly to nervousness, stammering, rambling, and epic fail - is that most speakers and writers don't have a point. They typically have just a title, a theme, a topic, an idea, an assertion, a catchphrase, or even something much less. This book shows you how to identify your point, leverage it, stick to it, and sell it and how to train others to identify and successfully make their own points.