Career Skills

Most hiring managers are getting it wrong. Of course skills are important, but a particular skill set is about the easiest thing to test in an interview. Although much harder to recognize, attitude should be your number one focus during the hiring process. Don't suffer from poor chemistry - even one employee with the wrong attitude could cause years of suffering for your other employees and customers. Whether you're hiring new employees, choosing existing employees for a new team, or upgrading your current talent pool, you need people with the right attitude!

Collaborative intelligence, or CQ, is a measure of our ability to think with others on behalf of what matters to us all. It is emerging as a new professional currency at a time when the way we think, interact, and innovate is shifting. In the past, "market share" companies ruled by hierarchy and top-down leadership. Today, the new market leaders are "mind share" companies, where influence is more important than power, and success relies on collaboration and the ability to inspire.

Every day, you have an opportunity to use your voice to have a positive impact - at work or in your community. You can inspire and persuade your audience - or you can distract and put them to sleep. Nervous, rambling robotic - these presentation styles can ruin a talk on even the most critical topics. And with each weak performance, career prospects dim. To get ahead and make an impact, you need to deliver well-crafted messages with confidence and authenticity. You must sound as capable as you are.

No matter the industry or the position, business is built on relationships—and at the heart of all good relationships is good etiquette. Understanding good business etiquette, and how to adapt it to your job, is key to building a successful career. For instance, how you adjust your attire as you transition from a large corporation to a small start-up (or vice-versa) will greatly determine your new colleagues’ first impressions of you. Work environments are complex, and it’s important to know how to identify what type of environment you’re in and how to adjust your behavior accordingly.

How to read the room and understand the people and the situation instantly. Social awareness is not a given these days. But if you have it, it will seem like you have a superpower because of how perceptive you'll be. But the secret is that it's not hard. Get inside people's heads with a simple conversation or observation.

Did you know that 93 percent of CEOs agree that this skill is more important than your college degree? Amazon's market cap is 1.7 trillion dollars. And it all started when Jeff Bezos used this skill to see a market inefficiency back in the day, before anyone else. Having this skill in your back pocket is like shortcutting Malcom Gladwell's 10,000 hours rule to learning something (who's got time for that?). So, what is it? Nothing complex or fancy. It's critical thinking. This audiobook is dedicated to imparting to you the maxims of how to think critically.

Meet the 12 people that can accelerate your success - in business and in life. It's Who You Know is the long-awaited handbook to effective, productive, and influential networking.

In Content-Based Networking, you’ll learn a proven three-part framework to consistently connect with potential customers, investors, referral partners, industry influencers, and anyone in between. Using this framework, you’ll develop thought leadership in your industry, while simultaneously creating meaningful relationships with the exact people that can help you reach your goals and dreams.

What would you do if you had the power to read people and know what they are thinking and feeling? What would you do if you could use this knowledge - just like Patrick Jane from the successful TV show The Mentalist - in order to influence others and succeed in everything you do? If you'd like to learn the mentalist secrets and understand how a mentalist uses his powers to read people and influence them, this is the audiobook for you!

Most of us want to choose inclusive, respectful, and empowering language when communicating with or about others. But language—and how we use it—continually evolves, along with cultural norms. When contradictory opinions muddle our purpose, how do we align our word choices with our beliefs? Who has the final say when people disagree? And why is it so hard to let go of certain words? Afraid of getting something wrong or offending, we too often treat words as right or wrong, regardless of context and nuance.

The words you use say a lot about who you are and where you're headed. Whether you want to express yourself clearly to impress a prospective employer during a job interview, or just brush up on those pesky words you encounter every so often reading the newspaper, Kaplan Word Power is the essential tool to help you expand your daily vocabulary.

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.

Refinement of Manner will set you on a journey to a finer, more elegant lifestyle, while encouraging and challenging you to become the best person you can be in all areas of life. Social, career, financial, home life... you can balance it all with grace, poise, and talent you never thought you had. This is your way to a greater, more fascinating you! This is the book on becoming beyond mannerly to absolutely elegant and refined. Here are the tools to becoming a refined elegant woman of the 21st century.

Every day you face dozens of important decisions - but have you heard everything you need to know to make the right choice? Kevin J. Murphy believes that listening is the most neglected managerial skill. In this powerful audio program he demonstrates what effective listening really means - and what it can do for you.

Did you know that everything is negotiable? Unfortunately, most people are poor negotiators, and the number one reason why can be traced back to early childhood. This audio series can help you change that. Whether you are trying to influence or negotiate with your largest client, boss, spouse or even one of your children—you need to be skillful. Do you think it might help to be better at reading body language?

We all know the importance of having a good reputation. We all know just how critical it is for people to look at us in a favorable light. But, the unfortunate truth about today's world and its hyper-fast communications across mobile and Web platforms, is that word spreads fast. And, when mistakes are made, people certainly know how to call others out on it. Whether or not you've had issues with your reputation in the past, this audiobook will open your eyes to just how to build, protect, and repair a reputation.

In this bestselling book, authors Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact.

There’s no shortage of negotiation books that advise you to “get to yes,” urge you to “never split the difference,” and push you to “ask for more.” But these one-size-fits-all negotiation techniques disregard the reality of our complex, multifaceted, multicultural world, where snap judgements are made based on perceived differences. When bias lies behind every negotiation, the only constant is you. Learn to leverage who you are—and gain the upperhand.

Conversation Tactics, Book 3 focuses on the subtle and nuanced tactics that will allow you to command any social situation. I'll shine a light onto the secrets of those that can own a room, always have a witty reply, and are never caught without just the right thing to say. I want this book to arm you with definitive tactics, maneuvers, and replies to whatever comes your way in a conversation.

On average, people leave about 20 percent of potential mutual gains untapped in any negotiation. This is akin to taking 20 percent of the value in any deal and dumping it into a garbage canister. Finding that hidden 20 percent, the “sweet spot”, is a skill that takes practice but is also one that anybody can learn. In Negotiating the Sweet Spot, Leigh Thompson offers surefire best practices and tools to use in daily negotiations and conflict situations.