Psychological Management of Individual Performance A Handbook in the Psychology of Management in Organizations

Product Description

Psychological Management of Individual Performance is a unique combination of contributions from an academic and a practitioner for each topic.

Leading international authors come together in this integrative and comprehensive handbook, to combine academic research findings and to provide detailed practice-relevant information, on subjects such as performance concepts, work design, cognitive ability and personality as predictors of performance, performance appraisal and potential analysis, goal setting, training, mentoring, reward systems, strategic HRM as well as broader issues such as well-being and organizational culture.

This Handbook is a valuable resource for researchers, academics and advanced students in psychology and related fields; as well as consultants, practitioners and professionals in HR, who want to contribute to the enhancement and maintenance of high individual performance.

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #3896082 in Books
* Published on: 2001-12-15
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 540 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"…A weighty but nevertheless accessible book and one worth knowing about…" (The Occupational Psychologist, December 2002)

Download Description
Psychological Management of Individual Performance contains a unique combination of contributions from academics and practitioners for each topic. Leading international authors come together in this integrative and comprehensive handbook, to combine academic research findings and to provide detailed practice-relevant information, on subjects such as performance concepts, work design, cognitive ability and personality as predictors of performance, performance appraisal and potential analysis, goal setting, training, mentoring, reward systems, strategic HRM as well as broader issues such as well-being and organizational culture. This handbook is a valuable resource for researchers, academics and advanced students in psychology and related fields; as well as consultants, practitioners and professionals in HR, who want to contribute to the enhancement and maintenance of high individual performance.

Book Info
Handbook provides data on subjects such as performance concepts, work design, cognitive ability and personality as predictors of performance, performance appraisal, goal setting, training, mentoring, reward systems, and more.

Checklists for Life: 104 Lists to Help You Get Organized, Save Time, and Unclutter Your Life by Kirsten Lagatree

Product Description

A Handbook For An Organized Life

If you've ever wished for a class in Coping 101, or a guide to living more efficiently and with less stress, this book is for you! Over 100 sensible checklists offer quick tips and expert advice to make your life easier at work, at home, and through all of life's ups and downs.

Arranged by subject, from Personal Safety to Home Maintenance to Social Life, these lists will help you know what to ask, what to do, and what to have on hand in any situation.

What to do when your wallet is stolen
How to stock a bar
Questions to ask when hiring a contractor
What to keep in your medicine cabinet
Frequently overlooked tax deductions
How to be friends with your computer
The best and worse places to hide valuables
What to keep in a safe deposit box
Six steps of bare minimum housework
How to organize your file cabinet
How to cure your dying houseplants
Tips for writing an effective complaint letter
Tipping: who and how much
A countdown to moving day
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #64619 in Books
* Published on: 1999-11-30
* Released on: 1999-11-30
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 320 pages

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
At some point in our lives, we all wish life had come with an instruction manual; a little something to help us navigate the labyrinth of this complex world with a touch of grace and dignity. Is it so much to ask? Luckily for us, Kirsten M. Lagatree has risen to the challenge. Checklists for Life offers 104 lists that can help you with all those nagging little uncertainties, from organizing your closet to choosing a lawyer. "Show me a successful person," asserts Lagatree, "and I'll show you a list-maker.... Lists ensure that the job gets done correctly and completely--and with the added finesse that springs from an uncluttered mind."

Categorized into personal safety, getting organized, stocking up, home maintenance, housework, flowers and plants, social life, correspondence, death, children, moving, travel, health, the law, your money, professional life, your computer, and your car, many of the lists in this book consist, as she points out, of commonsense advice. Others, though, are less obvious. For instance, her advice on extras to pack when you go abroad (electricity converters, adapters, pre-addressed envelopes and Benadryl, just to name a few) and choosing realtors (Do they insist on a buyer/broker contract? Do they use a computer to help find homes?) are clearly the product of experience. While all the lists are highly helpful--the checklist for organizing your workspace alone is worth the price of the book--the best seem to be those for less common events, such as buying and moving to a new home or preparing for court. Lagatree has clearly done her research on these topics and her advice will save you time, money, and a great deal of stress. --Laszlo Simonyi

Inside Flap Copy
A Handbook For An Organized Life

If you've ever wished for a class in Coping 101, or a guide to living more efficiently and with less stress, this book is for you! Over 100 sensible checklists offer quick tips and expert advice to make your life easier at work, at home, and through all of life's ups and downs.

Arranged by subject, from Personal Safety to Home Maintenance to Social Life, these lists will help you know what to ask, what to do, and what to have on hand in any situation.

What to do when your wallet is stolen
How to stock a bar
Questions to ask when hiring a contractor
What to keep in your medicine cabinet
Frequently overlooked tax deductions
How to be friends with your computer
The best and worse places to hide valuables
What to keep in a safe deposit box
Six steps of bare minimum housework
How to organize your file cabinet
How to cure your dying houseplants
Tips for writing an effective complaint letter
Tipping: who and how much
A countdown to moving day

About the Author
Kirsten M. Lagatree is the bestselling author of Feng Shui and Feng Shui at Work, and the co-author of The Home Office Solution. She lives and makes lists in the New York area.
Customer Reviews

Informative4
For anyone who is young or inexperienced at everyday life to dos, this book can guide the way! I found it to be extremely informative. It helped me to get my life in order.

put this book in a drawer3
keep this book. read it a little at a time. some good thoughts but too much to consume in one reading. Wished that I had gotten it from the library (with extensions) than having bought it. Oh, well, I love Amazon.

I RETURNED this book1
This book is terrible. The lists are disappointingly incomplete and inconsequential. For example:

A list on tipping includes tips for restroom attendants, but it omits tips for valet parking. In my life, I have used valet parking significantly more often than a restroom attendant.

A list of common foreign phrases omits pronunciations. How useful is that? Knowing the spelling of a phrase does one no good during conversation should the pronunciation of a phrase be very different from its spelling.

Basically, if one had been raised by kindly wolves in the forest, and recently dropped into modern society, this book might be marginally useful. But anyone with a modicum of planning or forethought would have outgrown this trite little waste of words and paper by age 10.

Interviewing: A Guide for Journalists and Writers by Gail Sedorkin

Product Description

This practical guide to all aspects of interviewing for print and broadcast journalists demonstrates step-by-step how to manage the interview process, including how to prepare, what to do when you don't have time to prepare, the difference between "soft" and "hard" interviews, and how to make the most out of any interview situation.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #229781 in Books
* Published on: 2002-09-01
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 192 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Gail Sedorkin, journalism lecturer at Deakin University, is the coauthor of Get Your Message Across. She has worked for regional newspapers and ABC Radio. Judy McGregor is professor and head of the department of communication and journalism at Massey University. She spent 20 years as a reporter and editor of the Independent Newspapers Limited Group, and was the first female editor of a major paper in Australia.
Customer Reviews

Demystifying the art of interviewing5
There's an old journalists' saying - "you're only as good as your contacts", but in reality - "you're only as good as your interviews".

That's the subject of a new guide for journalists and writers which covers a broad range of topics and issues that comprise the art of interviewing.

'Interviewing' is written by two experienced Australian journalists: Gail Sedorkin, a journalism university lecturer and co-author of 'Get Your Message Across', who spent several years in newspapers and radio. Judy McGregor, a journalism professor, with 20 years experience as a newspaper reporter and editor.

The book is an essential guide to interviewing for both new and experienced scribes. It balances a plethora of tips, techniques and checklists with a variety of colorful and insightful anecdotes from some of the best known and highly regarded journalists in print and electronic media.

Some of the topics covered include:

* Types and styles of interviews (Vox pops, doorstops and ambushes, death knocks, rounds and events)
* Research
* Getting started
* Breaking the ice
* The questions
* Print and broadcast interviews
* Telephone and email interviews
* Handing the information (when to quote, naming sources)
* Legal and other issues (off the record, checkbook journalism, defamation, contempt of court)

While written principally for Australian and New Zealand writers, most of information and wisdom is universal, and supported by a number of Web site links.

'Interviewing' is a must-have reference book for all journalists and writers involved in researching and interviewing. Even if you think you know it all, this book will surprise you and inspire you.

Financial Institutions Management: A Risk Management Approach with S&P card (McGraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance and Real Esta)

Product Description

Saunders and Cornett’s Financial Institutions Management: A Risk Management Approach, 6th edition focuses on managing return and risk in modern financial institutions. The central theme is that the risks faced by financial institutions managers and the methods and markets through which these risks are managed are becoming increasingly similar whether an institution is chartered as a commercial bank, a savings bank, an investment bank, or an insurance company. Although the traditional nature of each sector’s product activity is analyzed, a greater emphasis is placed on new areas of activities such as asset securitization, off-balance-sheet banking, and international banking.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #118526 in Books
* Published on: 2007-10-03
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 871 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Anthony Saunders is the John M. Schiff Professor of Finance and the Chair of the Department of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Professor Saunders received his PhD from the London School of Economics and has taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses at NYU since 1978. Throughout his academic career, his teaching and research have specialized in financial institutions and international banking. He has served as a visiting professor all over the world, including INSEAD, the Stockholm School of Economics, and the University of Melbourne. He is currently on the Executive Committee of the Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions, NYU. His research has been published in all the major money and banking and finance journals and in several books. In addition, he has authored or co-authored several professional books, the most recent of which is Credit Risk Measurement: New Approaches to Value at Risk and Other Paradigms, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1999.

How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets by Andy Kessler

Product Description

Best-selling author Andy Kessler ties up the loose ends from his provocative book, Running Money, with this history of breakthrough technology and the markets that funded them.

Expanding on themes first raised in his tour de force, Running Money, Andy Kessler unpacks the entire history of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, from the Industrial Revolution to computers, communications, money, gold and stock markets. These stories cut (by an unscrupulous editor) from the original manuscript were intended as a primer on the ways in which new technologies develop from unprofitable curiosities to essential investments. Indeed, How We Got Here is the book Kessler wishes someone had handed him on his first day as a freshman engineering student at Cornell or on the day he started on Wall Street. This book connects the dots through history to how we got to where we are today.

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #418159 in Books
* Published on: 2005-06-01
* Released on: 2005-06-14
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 272 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This pasted-together romp through 300-odd years of technological advancement and financial development reads as it is billed: material cut from the manuscript of Kessler's 2004 book, Running Money. Per the brief foreword, Kessler's aim is to provide a list of "five simple creeds" that have helped him "explain the explainable" and "peer into the fog of the future": lower prices drive wealth; intelligence moves to the edge of the network; horizontal beats vertical; capital sloshes around seeking its highest return; and the military drives commerce and vice versa. His proof is delivered in a whirlwind tour of the industrial and digital revolutions. The first half of the book is a game of hopscotch through the Industrial Revolution and the evolution of early capital markets. The second half tells the story of the computer era and the growth of today's capital markets. Sandwiched between the two is an oddly abbreviated two-chapter section, 10 pages in all, that covers the development of the telegraph, telephone and power generation. Kessler returns to his "simple creeds" here and there, but the only real unifying force is hokey, techy wisecracks. The result is rehashed history often bewilderingly unconnected in theme and chronology, though many individual anecdotes are well told. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

After turning $100 million into $1 billion riding the technology wave of the late 1990s, Andy Kessler recounted his experiences on Wall Street and in the trenches of the hedge fund industry in the books Wall Street Meat and Running Money (and its companion volume, How We Got Here). Though he has retired from actively managing other people's money, he remains a passionate and curious investor. Unable to keep his many opinions to himself, he contributes to the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and lots of Web sites on a variety of Wall Street and technology-related topics, and is often seen on CNBC, FOX, and CNN. He lives in Silicon Valley like all the other tech guys.

Customer Reviews

Great Book5
I haven't read Running Money but its next on my list. Andy Kessler does a phenomenal job on grasping your attention and then holding onto to it till the end. Very informative and educational... a must read !!

mildly entertaining4
This book is a fast read and keeps your attention. I enjoyed the authors viewpoint on how recent history progressed as it did. I have not read the author's first two books "Wall Street Meat" and "Running Money", but from the reviews they are much different than this book, and have a lot to offer. He grabbed my attention, so I will add the other books to my wish list.

Fun, light reading for a sunday long bus ride....3
Nothing more than entretaining fare for a long tedious bus ride. Would not dissapoint the casual reader. No more no less.

Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell

Product Description


After examining the differences between leadership styles, Maxwell outlines principles for inspiring, motivating, and influencing others. These principles can be used in any organization to foster integrity and self-discipline and bring a positive change.

Developing the Leader Within You also allows readers to examine how to be effective in the highest calling of leadership by understanding the five characteristics that set "leader managers" apart from "run-of-the-mill managers."

In this John Maxwell classic, he shows readers how to develop the vision, value, influence, and motivation required of successful leaders.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #75647 in Books
Published on: 2004-09-08
Formats: Abridged, Audiobook
Number of items: 1
Binding: Audio CD
160 pages
Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Few of us are natural-born leaders, according to John C. Maxwell, author of Developing the Leader Within You. Fortunately though, "the traits that are the raw material of leadership can be acquired," he promises. "Link them up with desire and nothing can keep you from becoming a leader. This book will supply the leadership principles. You must supply the desire." True to his words, Maxwell offers a detailed and inspiring primer on becoming a leader. Even the Table of Contents reads like a motivational poster.

Maxwell (The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader), who is the founder of INJOY, a Christian-based leadership program, debunks the myth that strong leaders must have big egos and spend all their time harnessing personal power. Instead, he elevates leadership to a spiritual act of service: "The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." Maxwell relies on real-life anecdotes, short paragraphs, charts, and numerous lists to make his wisdom accessible. As a result, his writing often seems simplistic, with a self-help tone. Nonetheless, in teaching readers how to bring out the best in themselves as well as others, Maxwell offers a worthwhile life lesson that extends far beyond the workplace. --Gail Hudson
Customer Reviews

A great book for beginners in Leadership
Written by Lynnette Haygood because I was unable to list review under my own account. I found John Maxwell's book "Developing the Leader Within You" a very helpful tool for anyone interested in developing personal leadership skills or trying to bring out the leaders in their employees. Being new to the studying of leadership roles I found Maxwell's concept of everything rises and falls on leadership to be extremely true. I personally feel that this book is going to be a great tool in my future success in the business world. I have always considered myself to be a leader, in every position that I have been in I have always been considered a "go to" person, but always struggled with obtaining that management position. I am currently struggling with the next step in my career as a college student that has years of experience in the same field with the same position. Throughout my reading of Maxwell's book I started to learn valuable lesson in the difference between leaders and managers. I have been able to evaluate more clearly the types of managers that I have had, and have came to the conclusion that I have not had many leaders in my life who have been able to assist me with growing my own leadership abilities. I really enjoyed the way that Maxwell was able to clearly relate his knowledge and experience to real life situations that allowed me to grasp his concepts much easier. I especially could relate to the analogy that he gave in regards to the Sandhill cranes and their distinct leadership qualities and how they rotate leadership, and choose leaders who are able to handle the turbulence and how they all support the leader by honking in affirmation. After reading this book I am particularly excited to take my turn as the leader instead of constantly "honking in affirmation". Great book!

Timeless message locked inside an older technology
The leadership principles from John Maxwell are timeless and always work to bring greater insight and rapid change for people who want to rise to a new level of leading others. I wore out my cassette tape player listening to Dr. Maxwell's leadership resources, (at least :15 minutes a day for years), because I realized they were so practical and useful to 'move to the front of the line' as a stronger leader in my personal and professional life. If you want to grow stronger as a leader, John Maxwell can take you there faster than you ever thought possible. Listening to John personally coach you, (he always does his own audio presentations), with enthusiasm and power in his voice will encourage, equip and empower you to achieve greater success.

THE Classic Leadership Book
Powerful Attitudes

John Maxwell has outlined the specific traits on what is required to be an effective leader. He then gives you the step by step instruction on how to acquire and adapt those traits. If you read and study leadership, this is book is a must read.

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone

Product Description

Influence search engine results and bring targeted traffic to your website in just an hour day with the second edition of this bestselling SEO guide, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day. Drawing on years of experience as successful SEO consultants, Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin provide detailed, practical, and often surprisingly simple techniques for increasing your online visibitlity and delivering stellar results. Their easy-to-follow strategies include setting SEO goals, optimizing your site for, search engines, blogs and social media, developing and implementing a strategy including both free and paid efforts, and using the latest tools to monitor trends, measure the competition, and track your results. Bracing as a shot of espresso, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day is your step-by-step guide to putting your website in the spotlight.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #8530 in Books
Published on: 2008-04-14
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
359 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
Put Your Website in the Spotlight

A Step-by-Step Guide

Back and bracing as ever, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, Second Edition offers brisk advice, bite-sized tasks, and smart tools to help you increase visibility for your website on the major search engines. In this new edition of their bestselling how-to guide, SEO consultants Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin offer surprisingly easy do-it-yourself techniques as well as the very latest SEO strategies for small, very small, and large businesses, as well as for bloggers and web designers.

Cut through the trendy jargon to find the "Eternal Truths" of SEO

Discover the right keywords using the latest research tools and your own gut check

Get to know your stats and the free stat-collector, Google Analytics

Optimize your site for search engines and your site visitors so you can be found, then make the sale

Use the social web to help you reach your business goals, even if you're not a social networking butterfly

You'll also find:

Essential hints, tips, and techniques for everyone from one-person shops to Fortune 500 companies

Engaging right-brain vs. left-brain discussions about tackling key issues from two unique perspectives

Real-world "From the Trenches" case studies that illustrate successes to learn from and mistakes to avoid

Praise for Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day

"This book offers a systematic, commonsense approach to the art and science of SEO."
—Chris Sherman, SearchEngineWatch.com

"The book is a step-by-step guide that can help drive targeted search-referred traffic to a variety of websites—perhaps even your website."
—P.J. Fusco, ClickZ Magazine columnist

"The practical and realistic emphasis on business-oriented needs makes the book a great reference."
—Joe Dolson, inter:digital strategies

"Written with clarity and detail, the book leaves little room for confusion about what you can do to improve your website's rank in the search engine results pages."
—Harvey Ramer, marketing designer and blogger, Design Delineations

About the Author
Search marketing consultants Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin have been improving the Internet presence of Fortune 500 companies and other firms in the media, entertainment, software, retail, nonprofit, and human resources industries since the early days of SEO. Jennifer, a former web project manager and corporate video producer, began focusing exclusively on SEO in 2000. Gradiva, a programmer and civil engineer, has been working in SEO since 1998. Together they deliver a well-rounded, left-brain/right-brain approach to successful search engine optimization.
Visit the authors' site at www.yourseoplan.com, or www.sybex.com/go/seohouraday2e for downloads, forums, and additional resources.
Customer Reviews

For me those tips worked well
There is a lot of proud guys entered the 1 star to this book - DO NOT be mis leaded please, when you are choosing a SEO book. Right on, there is probably a lot of water inside, and I also do not like the spreadsheets what authors are suggesting to download and fill all the way - but hey - the information what they suggest enter on them - are useful, and worked for me. I started use the tips they suggest in July 2007, and back then according Google analytics the % of organic google search was 0.5 %. Now, it came up to 18 % (most are PPC still), and guess what - I never used another book for this, and all other books I read till now, or numerous suggestions in blogs and forums, well they actually are same, maybe small details missed.
I highly recommend this book. My personal example shows - generally the methonds they offer works.

Some good, some just average information
I am torn on this book because I liked the first few chapters and found them simple to read and incorporate the ideas. I liked the theory of the "right brain + left brain" approach. I'm not new to SEO so I was able to move quickly through the work. The templates were helpful -- at first. But soon I found them cumbersome and not always worth the time I spent to put them together - especially when it came to key word selection. The industry is changing so fast the URLs were not always accurate anymore. The Wordtracker product they highly recommend i thought was a waste of my time - but it could just be the industry i'm in. So try this book if you are new to SEO - it won't hurt and may help.

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day
This books gets right to the heart of what all website owners want to know. How do I attract viewers to my sight. There are many practices that should be followed that the author suggests. Not a fluff book. Practical advice is given.

The Project Management Question and Answer Book by Michael W. Newell

Product Description

With project management methodology continually proving its worth in a myriad number of business settings, it's no surprise that more and more companies are turning to this incredibly effective productivity driver. For experienced project managers and rookies alike, The Project Management Question and Answer Book is a one-stop reference covering the most crucial processes and concepts. With questions ranging from elementary to advanced, simple to complex, this ready-to-use book can put any manager on the fast track to success. Aspiring project managers will find out:

* why PM is useful to them and their organization * how to interact with project stakeholders to maximize productivity * how to establish realistic cost, schedule, and scope baselines * what management techniques can be used to motivate teams * how to evaluate project team performance

The answers to dozens of questions will help departments and companies establish project management as a business tool and as a component for long-range success.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #277504 in Books
Published on: 2003-12-10
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
240 pages
Editorial Reviews

Review

Contract Management: "...a must have guide that covers everything a managers needs to know....I would highly recommend this book."

Book Info
Text provides the answers to critical questions in project management, from the simplest to the most advanced. Includes helpful explanations of crucial project management issues. Softcover. DLC: Project management.

About the Author

"Michael W. Newell is vice president of PSM Consulting and has thirty-five years of experience as a project manager. He has taught project management for companies such as IBM, Chevron Oil, and Sprint. He lives in Slidell, Louisiana.


Marina N. Grashina is manager of PSM Consulting, Moscow. She has extensive experience in managing international projects. She lives in Moscow, Russia."
Customer Reviews

Practical Complement to the PMBOK
Im a practicing PM and currently reviewing for PMI's CAPM certification.

I have this book and the PMBOK. I find this book to be clear and with useable, practical examples.

What Every New Manager Needs to Know: Making a Successful Transition to Management by Gerard H. Gaynor

Product Description

Companies depend on the ability of managers to fulfill organizational vision and meet crucial objectives. But without a firm grasp of critical management competencies, new managers' own futures -- as well as the company's -- can be at serious risk.

What Every New Manager Needs to Know gives readers the skills they need to excel in their new responsibilities, such as managing the relationship between individual and team performance, making key people decisions like hiring, coaching and evaluating, developing budgets, and mastering the skills of project management. The book explores the key roles managers must take on in different situations, and answers fundamental questions like:

* What does it mean to be a manager? * What work can be delegated to others? * When is it -- and isn't it -- appropriate to take on an active leadership role?

Featuring examples and stories, What Every New Manager Needs to Know shows newly appointed managers how to think outside the cubicle and excel in their new roles.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #150968 in Books
Published on: 2003-11-14
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
256 pages
Editorial Reviews

Book Info
Guide to tackling the tough and complex job of being a manager. Topics include making critical people decisions, managing individual and team relationships, managing projects, and more. Softcover. DLC: Management.

About the Author

Gerard H. (Gus) Gaynor (Minneapolis, MN) has more than 45 years’ experience as a manager, including 24 years at 3M. He is the author of Innovation by Design(0-8144-0696-3).

Customer Reviews

A great introduction to the realities of management
I read WHAT EVERY NEW MANAGER SHOULD KNOW: MAKING A SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO MANAGEMENT by Gerard H. (Gus) Gaynor so that I could evaluate it for use in a course I'm teaching next semester. Since one of my coures objectives is to switch the mindset of students from that of tacticians to that of managers, I thought this would be a good way to start.

The book is an easy 229-page read, and with bulleted summaries and lists in larger type, the book is also easily scannable, especially for those who might read it "from the back" primarily (through indexed entries on specific topics).

Gaynor begins the book with a likely scenario for the reader: YOU have just been promoted at your organization to head a team or division, and you have until Monday morning to prepare yourself for the work of a manager. He stresses that management is a profession, with necessary core knowledge areas and skills and abilities, just as is the speciality from which you were promoted. The chapters of the book include:
1. Getting Started as a Manager
2. The Seven Management Hats
3. Making the Critical People Decisions
4. Managing Individual and Team Relationships
5. Project Management
6. Finding the Time and Doing the Work
7. Leadership and Communications
8. Thinking your Way to Success
9. Measuring your Chances of Success
10. Managing your Career

Several main ideas of Gaynor's focus on the ethical and people-oriented aspects of management. He states several times that managers do not manage people; they manage activities. Also, when writing about promotion and job assignments, he states that a manager can ruin someone's career by giving him or her the wrong assignment. Change agents aren't good at maintenance and vice-versa. If you give such a person responsibilities their natural talents don't lend themselves to, you could be dead-ending a perfectly good, contributing member of the organization. He also deals with leadership issues interestingly, and the notes sections at the end of each chapter offer other interesting reads, such as Senge's The Fifth Discipline and Henry Mintzberg's "The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact," from the Harvard Business Review.

I don't know that I will have my students read every chapter. The section on project management may be a little too detailed and contextual for students in a seminar, but I think the last chapter on self-assessment of managerial abilities is a good way to start them off on their consideration of their own strengths and weaknesses. I wished I had had this book when I first became the boss of people! It underscored some of my instincts (like never to be disrespectful to your employees) and provided sound reasoning for alternate points of view.

If you want more applied knowledge for new managers, want to improve your management skills or want to teach a class for new managers, I recommend this book, published by the American Management Association. Gaynor, who lives in Minneapolis, worked as a manager for more than 24 years at 3M and now has his own consulting firm.

http://rapidshare.com/files/19511691/What_Every_New_Manager_Needs_to_Know_-_Making_a_Successful_Transition_to_Management.rar

The Guru Guide to Marketing: A Concise Guide to the Best Ideas from Today's Top Marketers by Joseph H. Boyett

Product Description

* Discusses the newest marketing concepts.
* The Guru name is synonymous with expert, candid advice.
* The Guru format provides an easy reference to a wide range of ideas and practices.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #1185225 in Books
* Published on: 2002-11-15
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 252 pages

Editorial Reviews

Book Info
Compiles the best thinking on modern marketing from the most noted names in the field to help your business and your products stand out from the pack. Offers cutting-edge advice that is objective, thought-provoking and always practical.

From the Inside Flap
Marketing just isn't what it used to be. New technology and business practices as well as more informed and savvy consumers have made the business of marketing more complicated than ever before. Marketers know they must develop new ways to tap consumers and new ways to differentiate their products.

If you want to learn about the latest trends in marketing, then you can read the hundreds of books and thousands of articles published each year on the subject. Or you could turn to a trusted single resource for informed guidance from the top thinkers in the field. For the very best advice from the biggest names in the business, turn to The Guru Guide™ to Marketing.

A valuable source of inspiration and cutting-edge ideas, The Guru Guide™ to Marketing offers unparalleled access to the hottest trends in the field. Based on top Fortune 500 consultants Joseph and Jimmie Boyett's exhaustive research, it distills the wisdom of the world's top marketers into straightforward, bite-sized lessons about everything from branding to buzz.

In The Guru Guide™ to Marketing, you'll learn the secrets of brand management from legends Philip Kotler, Bernd Schmitt, and Jack Trout. You'll understand the new one-to-one consumer relationship with help from Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. You'll hear from Frederick Newell on customer relationship management, Kevin Clancy and Peter Krieg on customer retention programs, and Malcolm Gladwell on creating buzz.

Organized by broad themes that encompass every aspect of modern marketing, top thinkers like Seth Godin, Ian Gordon, and Sam Hill shed needed light on topics like the role of mass marketing in a fragmented consumer society, how to market to a global audience, and the new brand management. Fresh marketing concepts like permission marketing, relationship marketing, and experiential marketing are explored in detail.

Informed and opinionated, The Guru Guide™ to Marketing shows you where the experts agree and disagree and offers the Boyetts' own unique take on what the masters of marketing have to say. Loaded with insights from the industry's leading thinkers, it's a clear, concise, and informative digest of the best thinking about marketing today and for the future.

Back Cover Copy
How can I differentiate my products from the competition?
Do customer retention and loyalty programs really work?
How do I increase a customer's lifetime value to my company?
How can I build a strong brand and manage it wisely?

To find the answers to these and scores of other questions, turn to the experts at the pinnacle of the profession-the gurus of marketing. They see tomorrow's trends today, understand the new informed consumer, and are shaping the future of marketing. Now you can tap into their years of experience, gain insight from their wisdom, and learn from the mistakes they made on the way to the top. Read what they have to say about branding, buzz, product placement, and more. The Guru Guide™ to Marketing compiles the best thinking on modern marketing from the most noted names in the field to help your business and your products stand out from the pack. Like the other Guru Guides™ before it, this book offers cutting-edge advice that is objective, thought-provoking, and always practical.

Some of the Gurus you'll meet:

David Aaker, author of Building Strong Brands
Adam Curry and Jay Curry, coauthors of The Customer Marketing Method
David F. D'Alessandro and Michele Owens, coauthors of Brand Warfare
Laura Day, author of Practical Intuition for Success
Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point
Seth Godin, coauthor of Permission Marketing
Ian Gordon, author of Relationship Marketing
Sam Hill, coauthor of The Infinite Asset and author of 60 Trends in 60 Minutes
Philip Kotler, author of Kotler on Marketing and Marketing Insights from A to Z
Regis McKenna, author of Real-Time Marketing
Mary Modahl, author of Now or Never
Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, coauthors of The One to One Future
Faith Popcorn, author of EVEolution
Bernd Schmitt and Alex Simonson, coauthors of Marketing Aesthetics
Carl Sewell, Paul Brown, and Tom Peters, coauthors of Customers for Life
Patricia Seybold, author of The Customer Revolution
Judy Strauss, coauthor of Marketing on the Internet
Jack Trout, author of Differentiate or Die
Sergio Zyman, author of The End of Advertising as We Know It

E-Human Resources Management: Managing Knowledge People

Product Description

This book provides a deep discussion about e-HRM issues so the reader can have a thoughtful background about the key role played by those who participate in e-HRM activities. A variety of experiences are provided to involve the reader in real problems and to help the reader gain an understanding of current and future e-HRM challenges. E-Human Resources Management: Managing Knowledge People also explores the impact of IT on communication effectiveness, the concept of protean career, the integration of handheld computer technology into HR practice, the B2E models, and perspectives in organizational development and IT.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #3303040 in Books
* Published on: 2004-11-01
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 296 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Teresa Torres Coronas, Ph. D., has a bachelor's degree in economics (Barcelona University) and a Ph.D. in management (Rovira i Virgili University). She won first prize in the 2000 edition of EADA related management research. She is the author of the book Valuing Brands (Ediciones Gestión 2000. Spain), co-author or the book Retrieve Your Creativity (Septem Ediciones, Spain), co-editor of the book Changing the way you teach: Creative tools for management education, (Septem Ediciones, Spain, in press), and author of many articles and conference papers about intangible management, management education, and applied creativity and TI. She is management professor at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, and she is one of the Spanish associates of the Center for Research in Applied Creativity (in Canada). She is an active member of the Management Education and Development Division (Academy of Management) and the Information Resources Management Association. Mario Arias Oliva: Dr. Mario Arias is PhD in Management by Rovira Rovira i Virgili University. His PhD research was about Virtual Organizations. He attended several courses at Erasmus Universiteit Rótterdam and MBA courses at Rotterdam School of Management, Holland. He is professor at Rovira i Virgili University in the Management area. Dr. Arias collaborate as well with the Center for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, UK. In 2002 become International Research Associate of this Center. He has conducted several research projects as, "Self-employment analysis in Spain" (Edited by the Spanish Economic Ministry) or "The relationship between training consultancy organizational design and strategy: the effects on quality and performance of training services" (Edited by the Spanish Union "Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT"). Mario Arias has been invited as speaker to several MBA programs, seminars, courses and International Conferences: Autónoma University of Madrid, Vigo University, Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid University, Politecnic University of Madrid, De Montfort University (UK), Unisinos (Brazil) Autónoma del Sur (Chile), Atacama University (Chile), UNICEN University (Argentina) and UCES (Argentina).

Big Secrets by William Poundstone

Product Description


The Book That Gives the Inside Story on Hundreds of Secrets of American Life --Big Secrets.

Are there really secret backward messages in rock music, or is somebody nuts? We tested suspect tunes at a recording studio to find out.

What goes on at Freemason initiations? Here's the whole story, including -- yes! -- the electric carpet.

Colonel Sanders boasted that Kentucky Fried Chicken's eleven secret herbs and spices "stand on everybody's shelf." We got a sample of the seasoning mix and sent it to a food chemist for analysis.

Feverish rumor has it that Walt Disney's body was frozen and now lies in a secret cryonic vault somewhere beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit at Disneyland. Read the certified stranger-than-fiction truth.

Don't bother trying to figure out how Doug Henning, David Copperfield, and Harry Blackstone, Jr., perform their illusions. Big Secrets has complete explanations and diagrams, nothing left to the imagination.

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #605499 in Books
Published on: 1985-06-26
Released on: 1985-06-26
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
232 pages
Customer Reviews

A great book, and never mind the haters...
I'm a librarian with over fifteen years' experience in my profession, and this is one of my favorite reference books. I find it more amusing than irritating that this book's rating has been driven down by, variously, a magician, a bitter would-be know-it-all, and a couple of Freemasons. The way that they respond to this book is probably one of the best testimonials to its relevance and quality.

The "big secrets" that Poundstone reveals are, in large part, not that difficult to discover on one's own. With all of the Masons walking around, there are bound to be a few that will blab about the sooper-seekrit initiation ceremonies. With all of the minimum-wage fast food workers, it has to be pretty easy to get a sample of the KFC chicken coating for analysis. With all of the magic books that have been written and published... you get the idea.

The real secret that Poundstone reveals in these instances is that they really aren't secrets, but have been promoted as such by those who benefit from the illusion of secrecy. The whole myth behind Coca-Cola, for example--that the formula is secret, that there's a secret ingredient "7X", that only two people know the formula, and they each only know part of it, and that they can't travel on the same plane--is pure corporate hogwash. The recipe for the syrup has been part of the public legal record for decades. The centuries-old initiation rites of the Masons are pretty much like the ones that you made up for your neighborhood "No Gurls Alowd" clubhouse when you were eight, only with somewhat better props. Stage magicians are still flogging the same tired tricks that were old when Houdini was a kid in Appleton, Wisconsin. And so on.

Naturally, some of the same people who want the general public to believe that these things are unknowable, save only to an initiated few, are upset that Poundstone stuck them between covers for anyone to read. But for the rest of us, who delight in discovery and the puncturing of myths, the book is a sheer blast.

Speculation about mostly irrelevant things!
I enjoyed other, more recent, books by William Poundstone and I decided to try this. I was very disappointed. I am sure the fact that the book was written twenty years ago contributes to my disappointment: many subjects present only nostalgic value for some people and mostly outdated. Don't look for revelations - the author is mostly speculating on the subject (secrets mostly will stay secrets). In our time much more and better information could be found on the Internet. I gave it two stars just for some historical data that I found sometimes interesting.

Psst! Wanna hear a secret?
Did you know that the seductive essence of KFC's secret blend of herbs and spices is nothing more than pepper and MSG? Yikes, no wonder I can chow down the 12-piece box in one sitting!

Author William Poundstone provides a wide variety of esoteric knowledge in BIG SECRETS - everything from an analysis of Coca Cola, an explanation of bar codes and the Rorschach (inkblot) Test, an interminable listing of "secret" radio frequencies, the truth about subliminal shots in movies and ostensibly secret messages in popular song tracks, and an answer to the question "Is Walt Disney's corpse frozen?".

The range of topics in this book is wide, and for that I'd award five stars. However, though I'm reasonably intrigued by the arcane technology of printing currency, the magician's technique of sawing a woman in half, and whether or not there's two-year old fish in Worcestershire Sauce or a secret bank in Beverly Hills, I couldn't care less about the secret ingredients in high-end perfumes, the details of Freemason initiation rites, the method behind the Amazing Kreskin's feats of telepathy, or how playing cards are "marked". And that's the book's biggest problem. While there's likely to be something of interest for everyone in its pages, not everything will be of interest to the individual reader. Therefore, since I read for entertainment, BIG SECRETS is, for me, only a three-star entertainment vehicle. Also, since the book was originally published in 1983, twenty-one years ago - it's woefully outdated. I mean, nothing is mentioned about a secret email address for Bill Gates or what Martha Stewart does when she goes slumming.

According to Poundstone, 7-Up is the only major soft drink with no "secret" ingredients. Maybe that's why the beverage is so boring.

The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose by Robert B. Catell

Product Description

In a business era in which executives are taken away in handcuffs and corporate malfeasance and scandal dominates the business headlines, there is tremendous value in the stories of ethical companies and spiritual business leaders. The CEO and the Monk is one such compelling story, the story of KeySpan, the nations fifth largest energy giant and a profitable, Fortune 500 company, and the two KeySpan executives–one a former monk–whose unique working relationship is based on something as simple and powerful as "doing the right thing." This isnt yet another prescriptive business guide written by breathless consultants. It is a story about a real business and how two unusual and dedicated humanists can keep their eyes on profits and ethics at the same time.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #111986 in Books
Published on: 2004-01-16
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
256 pages
Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The sublime union of temporal and spiritual power in the business world is celebrated in this earnest corporate hagiography. The titular monk is ex-Catholic clergyman Moore, a "thoughtful, provocative, gentle and good-natured" man with "the interpersonal skills of a priest, the serenity of a monk, the unbiased attitude of a business neophyte and a stark absence of a personal agenda." Signing on to the human resources department of gas utility Brooklyn Union, Moore becomes a confessor to troubled colleagues and a spiritual advisor to CEO Catell. As the energy market deregulates and Brooklyn Union metastasizes into energy conglomerate KeySpan through a series of traumatic mergers and acquisitions, Moore helps the company "hold on to its soul" through a regimen of high-concept human resources initiatives in which employees meditate, create murals, do improv comedy and vent their feelings, initiatives that are also supplemented by random acts of senseless beauty, like sending anonymous floral bouquets to unsung workers. Nominally the company ombudsman, Moore displays a combination of sacramental and community-building roles that makes him more like an archbishop; he likens one of his HR functions to a Catholic Mass, another to the Last Supper, and even presides, decked out in priestly vestments, over a "funeral" for Brooklyn Union. Employees roll their eyes at first, but Moore is stoutly supported by Catell, a "messianic CEO" whose "salvific task" Moore compares to that of Moses himself. In the book's trinitarian chapter structure, business journalist Rifkin (Radical Marketing) offers third-person narrative sections praising the character and good works of the two KeySpan executives, followed by first-person sections in which Moore and Catell praise each other (and themselves.) The result is a fairly well-written devotional tract that will inspire far more than it enlightens.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
“… showing executives how to instill a philosophy that balances bottom-line demands with a sense of caring.” (The Deal, 15th March 2004)

"It's an odd partnership that makes for an offbeat but intriguing story." (Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, March 8,2004)

"Entertaining and human story of making a business work by keeping an eye on the intangibles of the human experience." (HR.Com Book of the Year 2003, Runner-Up, January, 2004)

"If you're interested in CEO thinking, human resources issues, and corporate culture, ''The CEO and the Monk" is worth reading." (Boston Globe, March 7, 2004)

Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, March 8,2004
"It's an odd partnership that makes for an offbeat but intriguing story."
Customer Reviews

Spiritual and Business-Savvy? Whodathunkit?
I work for an A/V company who does small trade shows and pharmaseutical companies. I ordinarally fall asleep during these presentations, but when Kenny hit the stage with his understated enthusiasm and wisdom about how the bottom lines of profit and spirituality can come together -- and make both bottom lines go up for all concerned -- I was transfixed.

All I do is run a sound board. I get a lot of free books from these shows, and to be honest I sell most of them on EBay.

I am keeping this one.

This should be a best seller!! BUY THIS BOOK!!!! Read why.
I'm not ordinarily a fan of business books, but I fell in love with this story about a company with heart, soul and a strong sense of moral responsibility and community. If we all lived our business lives like The CEO and The Monk, there would be no Enrons and all our bottom lines would be healthy.

There are so many places in the book that pull you up short and make you think, like the Monk's recalling words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us." I felt energized reading this book, inspired to start all over again and make a difference. I am sharing this book with my staff. And, I've been buying copies and giving to friends who work in the corporate world. BUY THIS BOOK!!!!

Spiritually, Very Average......
This book is "ok". If you use the track record of corporations to measure Key Span (Brooklyn Union), then what they've done is good, not great, but good. If you use a spiritual or moral measure, then what they've done is quite mediocre. The main accomplishment is that of the monk, Kenny Moore, who was able to foster direct and non-judgemental communication between the workers and management. This is a good thing and many companies would do well to learn from this example. Key Span does do a lot of charity work, but their motives for doing so, by their own terms of "enlightened self-interest", are just that, selfish. The company pressures average workers to give up their free time to volunteer for charity. The result is that Key Span gets publicity at the expense of their unpaid workers. This is PR on the cheap and takes unfair advantage of the already financially strapped workers. They hire social workers to aid the company in extracting money from customers who are unable to pay. On the surface it sounds good, but it's just a ploy to increase company profits by increasing collections. Much of the book is about the inside scoop on various Brooklyn Union/Key Span mergers and aquisitions, a bit boring. The rest is a lot of back slapping of both CEO and the Monk. There's very little investigative journalism here in terms of exploring contrarian points of view. What Key Span has done is just "ok", not great. They stand out not because of what good they've done, but rather because of what very bad other corporations have done. The bottom line, foster honest communication between management and the workers. The rest of the book is meaningless. It's the same old same old, the workers toil in order to make executives rich. Nothing new. That the CEO and the Monk can't see this is more telling than anything told in the book.

Power Talk: Using Language to Build Authority and Influence by Sarah Myers McGinty

Product Description

How to gain power in the workplace by effectively developing a strong and unique voice.Sarah Myers McGinty examines the social and psychological elements of language in the workplace. She then uses her conclusions to give us a better understanding of whos in charge and how to get ahead. Complete with strategies for individuals who want to strengthen their personal communication skills, Power Talk is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn to be their own best spokesperson.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #772225 in Books
Published on: 2002-02-01
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
224 pages
Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Ever been in a meeting and wondered after speaking, "Did they just hear me or did they really hear what I had to say?" McGinty, an expert in the field of linguistics, guides the listener toward a pubic speaking style that's effective in a variety of situations. She shows how to recognize the best ways to communicate, from the center or the edge, and how one style of communication isn't always adequate. Practical tips, like recording your telephone etiquette to analyze how you sound, are also discussed, as well as modern technology hints like how to use voice-mail and e-mail effectively. If you want to communicate like a leader, Power Talk will set you on the path to being heard. Recommended. Marty D. Evensvold, Arkansas City P.L., KS
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Download Description
We are what we say. Now Sarah Myers McGinty, Ph.D., takes up where Deborah Tannen left off to delve into the ways our speech creates our identity. In this breakthrough book, McGinty shows how a little attention to our verbal patterns helps us alter the balance of power and always come out ahead. You're a model employee who always does quality work, yet you are forced to watch helplessly as others get the credit and the rewards. Why? Studies show that people who project expertise and authority, people who sound like they're in charge, often win the acclaim. On the other hand, people who try to take over every situation or come on too strongly can silence their colleagues and miss critical information. In Power Talk , author Sarah Myers McGinty identifies two basic modes of communication: Language from the Center and Language from the Edge. While Language from the Center projects authority, Language from the Edge is collaborative, responsive, and often equally effective. Here McGinty argues that to be truly successful you can't get trapped in just one speaking mode--you need both. What are the secrets to speaking from the center--showing the people around you that you know what you're doing and have the ability to lead? What is the art of speaking from the edge--getting your point across without losing the consensus you need for team success? Power Talk breaks down actual workplace conversations, studying the messages hidden in every word choice, every phrase, even in every inflection. A remarkable study of language itself, this book will help you:* Analyze your own speech patterns and see whether your words fit the world of your work * Learn which situations call for Language from the Center and which call for Language from the Edge * Practice new ways of presenting information and ideas for your next meeting * Communicate more effectively with e-mail and voice mail, and play telephone tag like a pro. Examining the issue of gende

Book Info
A text focusing on the most important aspects of using language to build authority and influence with others. Shows how to find the right speech style for any workplace situation, how to practice new verbal patterns before using them, how to use voice mail and e-mail conversations to an advantage, and how to always be heard, even in a crowd. DLC: Business communication.
Customer Reviews

Power Talk????
It seems as if authors and publishers have decided to sell something that is marginal at best, just include the words Power,Prestige, wealth all seemingly offering some simple strategy to imporove and empower your life, Power talk fails to live up to its title. It is a ok book on how we talk and what the 2 distinct communication styles are all about. But it doesnt take a 200 page book to tell us that the key is to merge the two? This book is geared towards salespeople and corporate executives, if you work for a firm of 20 or less this probably won't help much. The key to success is adaptation to the enviroment your in rather than discuss key words or stratagies for enhancing vocabulary, structure , etiquitte this book just rehashes the adaptation philosophy. Probably great for some but the majority will just be wasting their time with this title.

Semi-helpful
The first six chapters are helpful and contain useful information about the use of Language from the Center and from the Edge. However, the next two chapters are simply the author's social commentary about not pre-judging people on their differences in communication. The last chapter is just an overview of the study of linguistics.

An excellent book for consultants and salespeople
This book made a profound difference in the way I conduct my business. I was an "Edge" person to the extreme. I had always been taught that asking questions and constantly probing was the best and most powerful way to deal with clients and prospects. Not so! There's a time to stop asking and start "telling."
My clients want confident advice from me. They don't want to sit around and explore options forever. I do not understand some of the negative reviews of this book. I found it to be a great help.

Power Talk: Using Language to Build Authority and Influence by Sarah Myers McGinty

Product Description

How to gain power in the workplace by effectively developing a strong and unique voice.Sarah Myers McGinty examines the social and psychological elements of language in the workplace. She then uses her conclusions to give us a better understanding of whos in charge and how to get ahead. Complete with strategies for individuals who want to strengthen their personal communication skills, Power Talk is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn to be their own best spokesperson.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #772225 in Books
Published on: 2002-02-01
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
224 pages
Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Ever been in a meeting and wondered after speaking, "Did they just hear me or did they really hear what I had to say?" McGinty, an expert in the field of linguistics, guides the listener toward a pubic speaking style that's effective in a variety of situations. She shows how to recognize the best ways to communicate, from the center or the edge, and how one style of communication isn't always adequate. Practical tips, like recording your telephone etiquette to analyze how you sound, are also discussed, as well as modern technology hints like how to use voice-mail and e-mail effectively. If you want to communicate like a leader, Power Talk will set you on the path to being heard. Recommended. Marty D. Evensvold, Arkansas City P.L., KS
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Download Description
We are what we say. Now Sarah Myers McGinty, Ph.D., takes up where Deborah Tannen left off to delve into the ways our speech creates our identity. In this breakthrough book, McGinty shows how a little attention to our verbal patterns helps us alter the balance of power and always come out ahead. You're a model employee who always does quality work, yet you are forced to watch helplessly as others get the credit and the rewards. Why? Studies show that people who project expertise and authority, people who sound like they're in charge, often win the acclaim. On the other hand, people who try to take over every situation or come on too strongly can silence their colleagues and miss critical information. In Power Talk , author Sarah Myers McGinty identifies two basic modes of communication: Language from the Center and Language from the Edge. While Language from the Center projects authority, Language from the Edge is collaborative, responsive, and often equally effective. Here McGinty argues that to be truly successful you can't get trapped in just one speaking mode--you need both. What are the secrets to speaking from the center--showing the people around you that you know what you're doing and have the ability to lead? What is the art of speaking from the edge--getting your point across without losing the consensus you need for team success? Power Talk breaks down actual workplace conversations, studying the messages hidden in every word choice, every phrase, even in every inflection. A remarkable study of language itself, this book will help you:* Analyze your own speech patterns and see whether your words fit the world of your work * Learn which situations call for Language from the Center and which call for Language from the Edge * Practice new ways of presenting information and ideas for your next meeting * Communicate more effectively with e-mail and voice mail, and play telephone tag like a pro. Examining the issue of gende

Book Info
A text focusing on the most important aspects of using language to build authority and influence with others. Shows how to find the right speech style for any workplace situation, how to practice new verbal patterns before using them, how to use voice mail and e-mail conversations to an advantage, and how to always be heard, even in a crowd. DLC: Business communication.
Customer Reviews

Power Talk????
It seems as if authors and publishers have decided to sell something that is marginal at best, just include the words Power,Prestige, wealth all seemingly offering some simple strategy to imporove and empower your life, Power talk fails to live up to its title. It is a ok book on how we talk and what the 2 distinct communication styles are all about. But it doesnt take a 200 page book to tell us that the key is to merge the two? This book is geared towards salespeople and corporate executives, if you work for a firm of 20 or less this probably won't help much. The key to success is adaptation to the enviroment your in rather than discuss key words or stratagies for enhancing vocabulary, structure , etiquitte this book just rehashes the adaptation philosophy. Probably great for some but the majority will just be wasting their time with this title.

Semi-helpful
The first six chapters are helpful and contain useful information about the use of Language from the Center and from the Edge. However, the next two chapters are simply the author's social commentary about not pre-judging people on their differences in communication. The last chapter is just an overview of the study of linguistics.

An excellent book for consultants and salespeople
This book made a profound difference in the way I conduct my business. I was an "Edge" person to the extreme. I had always been taught that asking questions and constantly probing was the best and most powerful way to deal with clients and prospects. Not so! There's a time to stop asking and start "telling."
My clients want confident advice from me. They don't want to sit around and explore options forever. I do not understand some of the negative reviews of this book. I found it to be a great help.

The Sales Success Handbook (Mighty Manager) by Linda Richardson

Product Description

To sell today, salespeople must add value, provide perspective, and show customers how a product will solve their specific needs. The Sales Success Handbook outlines a six-step program for hearing and understanding exactly what customers have to say and for selling solutions--instead of just selling products.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #814411 in Books
Published on: 2006-03-22
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
128 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Open your ears, close your mouth, and see your sales increase

The classic "features and benefits" sales approach is dead. To sell today, you must add value, provide perspective, and show customers how your product will quickly and consistently solve their specific needs. This requires that you first listen to your customers--to discover exactly what their specific needs are.

The Sales Success Handbook outlines a battle-tested, six-step program for hearing and understanding exactly what your customers have to say and selling solutions instead of just selling products. Renowned sales trainer and author Linda Richardson presents twenty powerful lessons you can use to:
Learn from your customers
Develop a questioning strategy
Drill down to needs
Listen to question meaning
Position solutions
Use objections to win business
Avoid closing tactics
Leverage your resources
Build your dialogues

Selling is more difficult than ever before. Internet-savvy customers already know what your product is; they need you to explain what it can do for them. The Sales Success Handbook will show you how to sell to customers not by what you tell them, but by how well you listen to what they have to say--and persuasively position the value you bring to meet their business and personal needs.

Your customers no longer see you as an expert. They see themselves as the experts and you as a frontline resource, one who can add value primarily by taking the time to understand and give them what they want and need.

Top producers understand this truth. Do you?

The Sales Success Handbook shows you how to replace outmoded product-selling techniques with newly-developed interpersonal tools that will help you open true sales dialogues, confidently work toward the close through each stage of the dialogue, and consistently create lasting sales relationships. Whatever level your sales career has reached, this results-driven guide will provide you with:
Descriptions of the six critical skills for making dialogues fluid and productive--presence, relating, questioning, listening, positioning, and checking
Tips for optimizing your opening, and establishing invaluable rapport instead of engaging in generic product discussion
Guidelines for asking better questions, by phrasing, positioning, and sequencing questions to get your customers to open up and verbalize their wants
Non-offensive techniques for naming your price based on your schedule, instead of your customer's
Customer feedback strategies to help you achieve buy-in, seamlessly fine-tune your approach, and keep moving forward
Resource-leveraging skills for turning six degrees of separation into seven-figure sales
A three-phase closing process for setting pre-call objectives, making mid-call adjustments, and asking for the customer's business
A follow-up system, both within your firm and externally, for avoiding the "out of sight out of mind" syndrome

Top producers know that business has changed and to keep an essential edge they can no longer get by on product expertise alone. To reach or maintain the top five percent level, it is urgent that you keep up with this change. The Sales Success Handbook walks you through the entire process, drilling you on the six critical skills of successful sales talk and shifting you from the mindset of an expert to that of an essential, invaluable, and irreplaceable resource.

About the Author

Linda Richardson is founder, CEO, and president of Richardson, a leader in the global sales training industry. A pioneer in the ongoing move to consultative selling and popular speaker at industry and client conferences, Richardson also teaches sales and management courses at the Wharton School and Wharton Executive Development Center. She has been featured in Forbes, Nation's Business, and other national publications, and is the author of influential books including Stop Telling, Start Selling, Selling by Phone, Sales Coaching, and others.

The Essentials of Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers by Edward Fields

Product Description

Outside of the accounting and finance departments, not many business people are interested in the finer points of financial reports. But every manager must have a thorough understanding of what their finance and accounting staffs do, why they do it, and what these reports really mean.

This indispensable book demystifies the role that accounting and finance play in a corporation and demonstrates how financial decisions are manifestations of company goals. The author's crystal-clear examples show how managers can connect corporate financial information directly to their own strategies and actions. To demonstrate these connections, the author covers such essential topics as:

* Balance sheets and income/cash flow statements * Reading and understanding annual reports * Fixed-cost and variable-cost issues * Financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #45779 in Books
Published on: 2002-05-15
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
288 pages
Editorial Reviews

Book Info
Indispensable book demystifies the role that accounting and finance play in a corporation and demonstrates how financial decisions are manifestations of company goals. Essential topics include: Balance sheets, income/cash flow statements, fixed-cost and variable-cost issues and budgeting and forecasting. Softcover.

About the Author

Edward Fields (Old Bridge, NJ) has taught the American Management Association’s Essentials of Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers for over 20 years. He is a consultant on financial issues for many corporations.
Customer Reviews

The Essentials of Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers
Book was well written and speaks directly to someone who has never worked with the finances of a corporation.

How to understand the basics of a balance sheet
Edward Fields' Essentials Of Finance And Accounting For Nonfinancial Managers tells how to understand the basics of a balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and annual reports. Newcomers to reading company financials will appreciate the clear explanations on investment returns, analysis ratios, and other methods of understanding business reports.

Global Account Management: A Complete Action Kit of Tools and Techniques for Managing Big Customers in a Shrinking World by Peter Cheverton

Product Description

A realistic and pracitical guide to success with the truly "global" customer
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #857207 in Books
Published on: 2006-05-01
Format: Illustrated
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
242 pages

How Great Decisions Get Made by Don Maruska

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #393322 in Books
Published on: 2006-02-28
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
228 pages
Editorial Reviews

BookPage
"A blessing for anyone who hates meetings (who doesn't)- the art of team decision making"

Lauren Brown, President, Promega Biosciences, Inc. and 2003 Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Award Winner
"Don Maruska's insights and practical guidance helped our business through a critical transition phase."

Mike Pool, California State Director, U.S. Bureau of Land Management
"The ten-step process works!This approach is building lasting value for our organization,the resources we manage, and the public we serve."
Customer Reviews

Brad veiw
I found Don's book to be insightful and practical. Don has a way of clearly communicating both the "why do this" and the "how to do this." His examples help illuminate how to apply his ideas to real world situations. The Putting into Practice sections eliminate the guesswork when it comes to applying the process details with groups. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get effective progress towards making collaborative decisions that last.

Maruska 10 Steps to a Great Decision -- Great Book

Don Maruska does a great job laying out his 10 steps to a great decision. Don's decision model is based on the assumption that there are two divergent groups or view points that need to come together for an important decision.

Don also includes examples, suggestions, and tips from his past experience for each of the steps. This is very helpful and provides further coaching into the decision process.

Each step builds upon the last step to insure all the participants, best options, right information, and optimal choices are effective, efficient, and have long term success.

Lastly, the book has a broader application since Don's 10 step methodology could be used for a series of decisions that form the basis of strategic planning, business planning, data modeling, or customer service improvement considerations.

I would highly recommend this book to any person, group, or business that is contemplating an important, emotional, or difficult decision. With Don's 10 step methodology, you will be more likely to be successful, save time, save money, and have lasting support for decisions.

How to Measure Employee Performance (The performance management series) by Jack Zigon

Product Description

Here's a self-paced training manual and job aid that explains, demonstrates and teaches you how measure employee performance. You'll learn how to identify the value-added results of a job and then define more objective performance standards for each result. Each step in the process is explained in detail with examples from dozens of industries. It even covers techniques for developing performance standards for the hard-to-measure, qualitative aspects of employee performance. Concrete step-by-step instructions, examples from 40 different positions, worksheets, job aids and exercises are all also included in this guide.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #707267 in Books
Published on: 1999-07-01
Binding: Paperback
171 pages
Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Jack Zigon is president of Zigon Performance Group, a management consulting and online publishing firm specializing in custom performance management and performance measurement systems. For the past 23 years, he has worked with Fortune 1000 companies such as Kerr McGee, PECO Energy, Yellow Freight System, Beckman Instruments, and Ares-Serono to help them improve employee performance through better performance measurement, feedback and incentives. His performance management series entitled How to Measure Team Performance, How to Measure Employee Performance and Performance Measurement Examples won the 1997 ISPI Award of Excellence for Outstanding Instructional Communication. His website is known the world over as one of the most comprehensive collections of online performance measurement information. Mr. Zigon is a frequent speaker at the national meetings of the AMA, SHRM, ACA, ISPI, and ASTD.