Motivation Behavior

Far away from Silicon Valley, in familiar, traditional, even unglamorous fields, ordinary people are unleashing extraordinary advances that amaze customers, energize employees, and create huge economic value. Their secret? They understand that the work of inventing the future doesn't belong just to geeks designing mobile apps and virtual-reality headsets or to social-media entrepreneurs hoping to launch the next Facebook. Some of today's most compelling organizations are doing brilliant things.

We've decided by consensus that consensus is good. In In Defense of Troublemakers, psychologist Charlan Nemeth argues that this principle is completely wrong: left unchallenged, the majority opinion is often biased, unoriginal, or false. It leads planes and markets to crash, causes juries to convict innocent people, and can quite literally make people think blue is green. In the name of comity, we embrace stupidity. We can make better decisions by embracing dissent. Dissent forces us to question the status quo, consider more information, and engage in creative decision-making.

In Why Smart Executives Fail, Sydney Finkelstein uncovers - with startling clarity and unassailable documentation - the causes regularly responsible for major business breakdowns. Why Smart Executives Fail relates the stories of great business disasters and demonstrates that there are specific, identifiable ways in which many businesses regularly make themselves vulnerable to failure.

Organizational trauma takes many forms. It could be a pandemic that disrupts the way people work. An economic meltdown. An act of violence. A failed merger. A layoff - or continual threats of one. Whatever the scenario, events like these can traumatize leaders and employees, sending everyone into survival mode. Filled with tools and tactics, Trauma to Triumph is an organization-wide blueprint for navigating a future where we’ll likely experience one trauma or crisis after another.

9 Deadly Self-Sabotaging Behaviors is a self-help book written to help you get proven tips that can help you handle destructive and constructive criticism. It discusses procrastination, self-objectification, impatience, self-neglect, self-criticism, perfectionism, resistance to change, and distrust as nine deadly self-sabotaging behaviors you need to avoid. It is a must-have for anyone trying to do more without shooting themselves in the foot.

John C. Maxwell thinks there's no such thing as business ethics. There's only ethics. Maxwell asserts there's one ethical standard for all behavior, and you might be surprised by what it's based on.

We all have to work with people we can't stand to be around. Our challenge is to find creative ways to handle these difficult people. In the fable Make Difficult People Disappear, the skills and strategic plan needed to change your mindset are told through a clear, concise story. By first understanding the four main personality types in the workplace, commander, organizer, relater, and entertainer, listeners can then devise effective strategies for diffusing unproductive and damaging behavior.

Paul Williams and Andreas Krebs take a no-punches-held look at the stories we tell ourselves about business success. The rags-to-riches tale is tempting, but we don’t have to search far to see that most organizations rise for a time, only to experience a dramatic fall from grace. Just look at some of the companies that used to be household names: Nokia, AOL, Pan Am, Woolworth, and Blockbuster. The Illusion of Invincibility examines the why of success and failure. It’s a smart, funny, and radical look at how to build and sustain a great organization.

Change-Friendly Leadership: How to Transform Good Intentions into Great Performance is a simple affirmation that successful organizational change involves - requires, in fact - the active, willful participation of the people affected by the change. In the change approach prescribed here, the friendly factor is not just a play on words; it is the very foundation for effectively engaging people's heads, hearts, and hopes.

“You don’t have to turn into a corporate drone to kick ass in the working world,” says inspirational speaker Tania Katan. After more than ten years of smuggling creativity into the business sector, Katan is here to tell you that any task or pursuit can be a creative one. You just need to be willing to defy conformity and be ready to conjure imagination anywhere, at any time. That’s where Creative Trespassing comes in.

We judge people in business the same way we judge those in our personal lives. We listen to what they say, watch how they behave, and take note of the results of their actions. Success is ultimately built on a foundation of character, communication, and trust. To accomplish our goals, people must believe in us. The Power of Reputation offers business people an action plan for creating the kind of reputation that generates trust, inspires confidence, and paves the way for lasting success.

Maverick marketing whiz Mike Veeck offers you his simple, no-fail formula for business success!

Drawing on his own experience and the success stories of clients and others who have benefited from his philosophy, Veeck shows how fun, creativity, and passion can bring out the best in an organization and an individual.

The "Fun Is Good" philosophy applies to everyone, whether you're the CEO or lower on the totem pole.

Every day, thousands of hidden and ignored problems frustrate workers and customers and, in turn, reduce profits. The key to finding and fixing these problems is to engage employees closest to the work and closest to the customer in new ways so they can contribute their ideas. This book provides rules that, if followed, will allow employees to harvest all the low hanging fruit - and some that is not so low hanging - that will grow earnings, make customers happier, and increase morale.

In this insightful book, former director of the World Business Forum Eduardo Braun introduces a new vision of leadership: the new CEO - someone who puts people, cultures, and emotions first. Through thousands of hours of conversations with world-class leaders, Braun has identified five key roles leaders can use to inspire people to strive for greater success, and in turn change the world for good.

Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It explores how technology has progressed humanity's most noble pursuits, while also grappling with the origins of the industry's destructive empathy deficit and the practical measures Big Tech can take to self-regulate and make it right again. Author Maëlle Gavet examines the tendency for many of Big Tech's stars to stray from their user-first ideals and make products that actually profoundly damage their customers and ultimately society.

How many times have your financial challenges made you shout things like that? These and many other unprintable words are often how we must let our frustration out. But shout no more! Between these covers, you will find a simple, yet smart method to help you manage things better from now on.

With magazines such as Computerworld, PCWorld, and Macworld, Patrick McGovern's company, International Data Group (IDG), quickly became a global powerhouse with information technology publications in nearly 100 countries. The story of IDG's astonishing success has been a source of inspiration for entrepreneurs all around the world. Future Forward shows you how to apply McGovern's principles to your own organization.

Most companies talk about excellence, but what does excellence really mean? What specific attitudes and practices lead to excellence? Drawing on years of study and decades of experience, authors Harry Paul, John Britt, and Ed Jent have zeroed in on five core qualities of excellence. In this entertaining and enlightening book, they tell how to give and be your best in each of these five critical dimensions and foster excellence in your organization and in your life.

How do you attain self-discipline? What does self-discipline mean to you? Does it mean the ability to acquire the most fulfilling life while unlocking countless opportunities? Contrary to what you have been taught, true forms of self-discipline is not constantly being hard on yourself. Mastering self-discipline is the realization that you can tap into the inner strength and willpower that has always been present. It’s this awakening that will allow you to develop the abilities and self-discipline you need to achieve your goals and to attain the life you deserve.

Leadership Lessons is a book about how to improve organizational performance. The essays in this book are an accumulation of various projects that I have been involved in for more than a dozen years. The term projects spans quite a range of subject matter and purposes for their existence. The reality is that the central focus of all these essays is improving the ability to understand the dynamics at play that are impacting their organizations. The purpose is to help organizations and the people within them to be able to realize their individual and collective potential.