Career Skills

Being a leader means working with people, and that's not always easy! Whether in your office, church, neighborhood, or elsewhere, your interpersonal relationships can make or break you as a leader. That's why it's so important to be a "people person" and develop your skills in tapping that most precious of all resources: People.

Many of us have a deep desire to make the world around us a better place. But often our good intentions are undermined by the fear that we are so insignificant in the big scheme of things that nothing we can do will actually help feed the world’s hungry, fix the damage of a Hurricane Katrina, or even get a healthy lunch program up and running in the local school. But extraordinary leaders such as Gandhi and even unlikely social activists such as Bob Geldof most often see themselves as harnessing the forces around them, rather than singlehandedly setting those forces in motion.

Networking is often considered a necessary evil for all working professionals. With social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at our disposal, reaching potential investors or employers is much easier. Yet, these connections often feel transactional and agenda-driven, leaving professionals feeling burnt out and stressed out.

This comprehensive guide to training your brain to do more for you presents a pragmatic set of tools to apply critical-thinking techniques to everyday business issues. Think Smarter is filled with real-world examples that demonstrate how the tools work in action, in addition to dozens of practice exercises applicable across industries and functions. Think Smarter is a versatile resource for individuals, managers, students, and corporate-training programs.

Networking has garnered a reputation as a sort of necessary evil in the modern business world. Some do relish the opportunity to boldly work the room, but for many others, the experience is often awkward, or even terrifying. The common networking advice for introverts are variations on the theme of overcoming or “fixing” their quiet tendencies. But Karen Wickre, a self-described introvert who has worked in Silicon Valley for 30 years, tells you to embrace your true nature to create sustainable connections that can be called upon for you to get career assistance, advice, introductions, and lasting connections.

For more than 25 years, small-talk expert Don Gabor has helped thousands of people communicate with wit, confidence, and enthusiasm with his best seller How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends. This newly revised and updated edition combines classic techniques in the art of conversation with necessary skills for communicating in the 21st century.

Average schools don't inspire greatness - and greatness is what our world needs if we are going to produce world-changing learners. In Culturize, author and education leader Jimmy Casas shares insights into what it takes to cultivate a community of learners who embody the innately human traits our world desperately needs, such as kindness, honesty, and compassion. His stories reveal how these "soft skills" can be honed while meeting and exceeding academic standards of 21st-century learning.

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.

The Art of Influence will make you think twice about everything you've ever learned about influence. As Chris Widener's inspiring story reveals, it's not something you "do" to other people but rather something that starts with how you shape and transform your own life.

Adulting can be hard. Every grown-up has experienced the challenging transition from adolescence to adulthood. It’s the critical period in life where you’re beginning to deeply feel not just what’s happening in the outside world, but also what’s going on within.

Developing Coaching Skills is essential listening for aspiring and practicing coaches, as well as for leaders and students of coaching. Learn what effective coaching really means, make coaching a habit, and bring out the best in other people!

What if the best way to grow your network isn't by introducing yourself to strangers at cocktail parties, handing out business cards, or signing up for the latest online tool, but by developing a better understanding of the existing network that's already around you? We know that it's essential to reach out and build your network. But did you know that it's actually your weaker or former contacts who will be the most helpful to you? Or that many of our best efforts at meeting new people simply serve up the same old opportunities we already have?

La persuasión es una habilidad imprescindible en cualquier actividad profesional a todos los niveles en organizaciones y empresas. Pero, ¿cuáles son las mejores técnicas de persuasión?, ¿qué elementos de la comunicación permiten conquistar al público?, ¿cuáles son los momentos fundamentales en una argumentación? y ¿qué diferencia a un comunicador eficaz de un auténtico persuasor? Con el rigor científico y la capacidad de divulgación que le caracterizan, Robert Cialdini explica en este libro cómo capitalizar el tiempo previo a la transmisión de un mensaje importante.

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from your subordinates, from those above you, and from your peers and customers. You're not alone. As Harvard Business School's Linda Hill and manager and executive Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It requires trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey and instead just learn how to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses.

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.

Getting an MBA takes time and money, making it inaccessible to many people who want to take charge in the business world. Now The 12-Week MBA offers an alternative way to learn business essentials, focusing on the skills and knowledge required to succeed as a manager and business leader. The 12-Week MBA’s unique premise is that there is a core set of business skills that entrepreneurs and future leaders of organizations can learn and will need regardless of their industry, function, or level.

What if you knew how to sell on the subconscious level? What if you knew the tactics and techniques that allowed you to penetrate through your customer’s conscious faculty and reach them on a deep and influential level? What if you knew exactly how to produce the emotional reaction that would cause them to buy? What if you knew how to read your customer’s body language so well that you could lead them to the decision you wanted, with ease? Listen to find out more.

Organizational consultant Adrian Pei describes key challenges ethnic minorities face in majority culture organizations. He unpacks how historical forces shape contemporary realities and what both minority and majority cultures need to know in order to work together fruitfully.

Your voice says a lot about you. Based on the tone and expression of your voice alone, your listeners may make up their minds about you before they even process the meaning of your words. And if what you say is at odds with how you say it, they can miss your message altogether. As important as our voices are, few of us know how to use them to their full potential. Full Voice offers a fun, tested method to harness the power of your voice to become a more effective and flexible communicator.

In this provocative yet practical book, renowned speaking coach and communication expert Nick Morgan highlights recent research that shows how humans are programmed to respond to the nonverbal cues of others--subtle gestures, sounds, and signals--that elicit emotion. He then provides a clear, useful framework of seven "power cues" that will be essential for any leader in business, the public sector, or almost any context. You'll learn crucial skills, from measuring nonverbal signs of confidence to the art and practice of gestures and vocal tones.