Leadership Success

There are moments when we achieve peak performance: An athlete plays a perfect game; a business has a quarter with once-in-a-lifetime profits. But these moments are often elusive, and for every amazing day, we may have a hundred ordinary and even unsatisfying days. Fulfillment doesn’t come from isolated peak experiences, but rather from many consistent good days. So how do we sustain performance, while avoiding burnout and maintaining balance? In Optimal, Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss reveal how emotional intelligence can help us have a great day, any day.

When you put learning at the center of everything you do, you grow your career, your leadership, your relationships, and your joy and fulfillment in life. But even for people who are naturally curious and interested in solving problems, being an effective learner who can turn their learning into action takes insight and practice. With infectious enthusiasm and optimism, David Novak shows you how to master active learning.

Blueprint to Business is the ultimate guide to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Best-selling author and CEO Mike Alden puts aside the rainbows and sunshine, gets real about what it takes to "make it", and gives you the real-world guidance you need to hear. Through anecdotes and advice, he shares his experiences along with those of other top founders and entrepreneurs to give you a realistic picture of what it takes to build a business. It's a bit of tough love, a healthy dose of reality, and a tremendously motivating guide to striking out on your own.

Businesses everywhere are plagued by managers who seem to think that keeping their staff miserable is the best way to deliver profits. This is a failure of leadership that also hurts the bottom line; research has shown that maintaining a happy, engaged workforce consistently drives measurably better business results across the board. In When They Win, You Win, Russ Laraway, the Chief People Officer at Qualtrics, provides a simple, coherent, and complete leadership standard that teaches organizational planners and managers how to develop incredible levels of employee engagement.

The research is clear that quality leaders are second only to quality teachers in their impact on student achievement. But, what constitutes quality leadership? Viviane Robinson et al. (2008) concluded, among other things, that “leaders’ impact on student outcomes will depend on the particular leadership practices in which [leaders] engage” (p. 637) rather than on the specific type of leader (e.g., transformative, servant, distributed, etc.) leaders profess to be. Simply put, leadership practice trumps the leadership label.

First Things First is a revolutionary guide to managing your time by learning how to balance your life. Traditional time management suggests that working harder, smarter, and faster will help you gain control over your life, and that increased control will bring peace and fulfillment. But the authors of First Things First apply the insights of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to our daily problems of struggling with the ever-increasing demands of work and home life.

Who has not admired the titans of sport, entertainment, commerce, and public service and been inspired to set course by those stars? What youth has not dreamed of becoming rich and famous? What restless fast-food manager has not dreamed of being the boss of a nationwide restaurant chain? What hard-working employee has not dreamed of running his own company? Perhaps more important, what can they, and we, learn about achieving success from successful people? This is the magic of Masters of Success.

Why are some people more successful in business than others? Why do some businesses flourish where others fail? Renowned business speaker and author Brian Tracy has discovered the answers to these profoundly puzzling questions. In this eye-opening practical audio guide, he presents a set of principles or "universal laws" that lie behind the success of business people everywhere.

Management Tips 2: From Harvard Business Review puts the best management practices and insights, from top thinkers in the field, right at your fingertips. Listen to it any time you have a few minutes to spare, and you'll have a fresh, powerful idea you can immediately put into action. With this handy book as your guide, you'll stand the best chance of succeeding in your role as a manager.

It's comforting to imagine that superstars in their fields were just born better equipped than the rest of us. When a co-worker loses 20 pounds, or a friend runs a marathon while completing a huge project at work, we assume they have more grit, more willpower, more innate talent, and above all, more motivation to see their goals through. But that's not at actually true, as popular Inc.com columnist Jeff Haden proves. "Motivation" as we know it is a myth. Motivation isn't the special sauce that we require at the beginning of any major change.

Martha Stewart is an undeniable force in the business world. One of the world's greatest entrepreneurs, she turned her personal passion into Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a billion dollar business. This fall she's breaking new ground with two television shows from NBC -- her reality show The Apprentice: Martha Stewart and her daytime syndicated show Martha -- as well as a radio program on Sirius satellite radio which will provide daily round-the-clock how-to content. What's her secret for success?

The secret for creating magic in our careers, our organizations, and our lives is simple: outstanding leadership, the kind that inspires employees, delights customers, and achieves extraordinary business results. No one knows more about this kind of leadership than Lee Cockerell, the man who ran Walt Disney World Resort operations for over a decade.

The training to become a fighter pilot is among the most competitive and difficult in the world with less than one-in-a-thousand succeeding. Pushing a cutting-edge jet to its limits at over 1,000 mph means that every split-second decision can have catastrophic consequences. This extreme environment has forged a group of warriors who for the last 50 years have been considered at the apex of decision-making theory and practice. In The Art of Clear Thinking Hasard Lee distills what he’s learned during his career flying some of the Air Force’s most advanced aircraft.

When Carol Loomis first mentioned a little-known Omaha hedge-fund manager in a 1966 Fortune article, she didn’t dream that Warren Buffett would one day be considered the world’s greatest investor - nor that she and Buffett would become close personal friends. Now Loomis has collected and updated the best Buffett articles Fortune published between 1966 and 2012, including thirteen cover stories and a dozen pieces authored by Buffett himself. Loomis has provided commentary about each major arti­cle that supplies context and her own informed point of view.

This landmark book combines cutting-edge evidence with captivating stories to demonstrate how one of the most successful networkers in the United States of America developed his connections, why the creative genius behind one of the most popular shows in TV history toiled away for years in anonymity, how a basketball executive who was responsible for multiple draft busts transformed his franchise into a winner, and how we could have predicted Enron's demise four years before the company collapsed without ever looking at a single number.

In The 7-Power Contractor, former contractor and contracting business expert Al Levi lays out seven simple business powers that hundreds of owners have applied successfully to run their businesses with less stress and more success. In these audiobook, you will learn about the seven power concepts - planning and leadership, operating, financial, staffing, selling, marketing, and sales coaching - you can use to run your business better.

The Carrot Principle reveals the groundbreaking results of one of the most in-depth management studies ever undertaken, showing definitively that the most successful managers provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. Best-selling authors Gostick and Elton show how the transformative power of purpose-based recognition produces astonishing results. And they show how great managers motivate employees to excel by offering constructive praise and meaningful rewards.

The New Gold Standard takes you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Granted unprecedented access to the company's executives, staff, and its award-winning Leadership Center training facilities, bestselling author Joseph Michelli explored every level of leadership within the organization.

"There is no 'i' in 'team'." "No man is an island." "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." You may roll your eyes at these age-old clichés, but you can’t afford to breeze over their point. Individual all-stars can take you only so far. Ultimately, success - whether in business, family, church, athletic teams, or any other organization - is entirely dependent on teamwork. But how does one build that team? Leadership expert and New York Times best-selling author John C. Maxwell knows that building and maintaining a successful team is no simple task.

"Every line in this book is bursting with truth, wisdom, and power. Brian Tracy is the preeminent authority on showing you how to dramatically improve your life. Let him be your guide. I've learned so much from Brian myself that I can't thank him enough!" (Robert G. Allen, number-one New York Times best-selling author)