Leading eighteen strangers around the clock for a full year--through months of darkness and with no escape from the frigid cold, howling winds, and each other--Robertson learned powerful lessons about what real, authentic leadership is. Here, she offers a deeply honest and humorous account of what it takes to survive and lead in the harshest environment on Earth. What emerges from her graphic account is a series of powerful and practical lessons for business leaders and managers everywhere.Features practical leadership lessons that are particularly helpful for any leader who must get the best out of the team they've got Features solutions to many challenges common to all workplaces Includes real excerpts from Robertson's personal journals through twelve months of leading in the most challenging environment in the world Written by a popular speaker and business leader who has appeared at more than 350 national and international conferences and events for a wide range of industries Leading on the Edge explains what it's like to take charge when you've no place to hide and how truly harsh environments can serve as a leadership laboratory that results in truly effective, authentic leadership.

    The book contains a series of short chapters filled with examples, data, and insights that challenge questionable assumptions and much conventional management wisdom. Each chapter also provides guidelines about how to think more deeply and intelligently about critical management issues. Covering topics ranging from managing people to leadership to measurement and strategy, it’s good organizational advice, delivered by Dr. Pfeffer himself.

    

    "A thought-provoking and practical new vision for inclusion built on five disruptions to the status quo necessary to move inclusive schooling practices to the next level and realize the promise of meaningful educational experience for all students, including students with disabilities"--

    In fact, it has been argued that the number two position is the toughest job in a company. COOs are typically the key individuals responsible for the delivery of results on a day-to-day, quarter-to-quarter basis. They play a critical leadership role in executing the strategies developed by the top management team. And, in many cases, they are being groomed to be—or are actually being tested as—the firm's CEO-elect. Despite all this, the COO role has not received much attention.Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO provides a new understanding of this little-understood role. The authors—a scholar and a consultant—develop a framework for understanding who the COO is, why a company would want to create this position, and the challenges associated with successful performance in the COO role. Drawing heavily on a number of first-person accounts from CEOs and other top executives in major corporations, the authors have developed a set of strategies or principles to inform individuals who aspire to serve in such a position. The executives who share their experiences in this book are from some of the most established and important companies in today's economy: AirTran; American Standard Companies; Amgen; Adobe Systems, Inc.; Autodesk, Inc; eBay; Heidrick & Struggles; InBev; Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company; Mattel, Inc; Motorola; PepsiCo; Raytheon Company; Starbucks; and many others. Excerpts from the Book:On focusing on success"The primary goal I set for myself on how I define what success looks like for me is am I working at a company that matters? Am I working with somebody who I think affects positive change? Am I providing a benefit to my family? Am I enjoying myself? Why would I put a limitation on my enjoyment? There is an old view on Wall Street that says, 'They love you until they don't.' I am going to stay happy until I am not."—Dan Rosensweig, COO Yahoo!On the relationship between the CEO and COO"Deep down, you have to trust each other and you have to like each other. If you don't like each other, and/or don't trust each other, it may work, kind of, but it will be at a fifty percent level at best."—Craig Weatherup, Director, Starbucks, and former Chairman, PepsiOn the challenges of transitioning into the COO role"If you can't conceptualize the strategic objectives or help drive that or participate in that, I don't think you are going to succeed. But, equally, if you can't translate that into an executable plan, you are not going to succeed either."—Shantanu Narayen, COO, Adobe SystemsAdditional Quotes:"Miles & Bennett tackle an important and drastically under-researched area: the role, personalities, fit and success factors of COOs. We've seen several COOs who have been total winners, but it's striking how different the models of success can be depending on role, personal competencies, business situation/cycle/type, team strengths, and CEO strengths. The authors have done a very nice job of tying all of this together."—Jim Williams, Partner, Texas Pacific Group"The lessons reported in this book will be very useful to Boards, Heads of Human Resources and CEOs as they consider succession planning and organizational design."—Dale Morrison, President & Chief Executive Officer, McCain Foods Limited"The job of COO is becoming more important as companies and their boards look internally for succession alternatives. One question they face: Will the organization continue to run as the number 2 becomes the number 1? Riding Shotgun will help answer this and many more questions about the COO role in today's corporate structure."—John Berisford, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, The Pepsi Bottling Group"The COO plays a critical leadership role in most businesses, but its particularly true in the natural resources

    His profound and poetic speeches are famous around the world, evidence of the greatness of American’s most beloved leader. But did you know that the sixteenth president of the United States was also a backwoods hillbilly from America’s western frontier, with a Kentucky accent so thick you could cut it? Or that he liked wrestling matches, dirty jokes, and had a reputation for telling hilarious, R-rated stories that weren’t suitable for mixed company? From his childhood working as a virtual slave for an abusive father, to sailing a river raft to New Orleans, to the Illinois General Assembly, Congress, and the White House, the story of Abraham Lincoln’s life is the story of America. He mourned the deaths of almost everyone he loved, endured marriage to a wife whose mental health issues made her a domestic abuser, and lost more elections than he won. But Abraham Lincoln believed in one thing above all: that everyone deserved a fair shot at the American dream. Why did John Wilkes Booth really shoot Abraham Lincoln? The truth is as shocking now as it was in 1865.

    Every so often employees are sent to “Brainstorm Island”: an off-site replete with trendy lectures, creative workshops, and overenthusiastic facilitators. But once they return, it’s back to business as usual.Innovation experts Paddy Miller and Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg suggest a better approach. They recommend that leaders at all levels become “innovation architects,” creating an ecosystem in which people engage in key innovation behaviors as part of their daily work.In short, this book is about getting to a state of “innovation as usual,” where regular employees—in jobs like finance, marketing, sales, or operations—make innovation happen in a way that’s both systemic and sustainable.Instead of organizing brainstorming sessions, idea jams, and off-sites that rarely result in success, leaders should guide their people in what the authors call the “5 + 1 keystone behaviors” of innovation: focus, connect, tweak, select, stealthstorm, (and the + 1) persist:• Focus beats freedom: Direct people to look only for ideas that matter to the business• Insight comes from the outside: Urge people to connect to new worlds• First ideas are flawed: Challenge people to tweak and reframe their initial ideas• Most ideas are bad ideas: Guide people to select the best ideas and discard the rest• Stealthstorming rules: Help people navigate the politics of innovation• Creativity is a choice: Motivate everyone to persist in the five keystone behaviorsUsing examples from a wide range of companies such as Pfizer, Index Ventures, Lonza, Go Travel, Prehype, DSM, and others, Innovation as Usual lights the way toward embedding creativity in the DNA of the workplace.So cancel that off-site. Instead, read Innovation as Usual—and put innovation at the core of your business.

    It explains how to set clear expectations and focus on the endpoint as opposed to managing the process that gets you there. With eyes set on getting rid of distractions, long meetings, and unnecessary updates, this book offers quick, everyday strategies to experience huge increases in productivity (without adding resources) and dramatic drops in turnover.Authors Ressler and Thompson began their work together at Best Buy where they are credited with revolutionizing the workplace Reframes thinking away from counting on general availability (Where's Bob?) to creating clear expectations (Does Bob know exactly what's expected of him?) Explains how to reduce the number of meetings while increasing their quality Shows how to eliminate scheduled events in order to increase critical thinking and improve communication ROWE is a bold, cultural transformation that permeates the attitudes and operating style of an entire workplace, leveling the playing field and giving people complete autonomy--to manage their measurable results using adult common sense.

     From energizing morning routines, to insanely efficient work routines, to empowering evening rituals, the ultra-successful structure their days to utilize every last waking minute to its fullest potential. And in this book, you will learn how to do the same. How will you learn to create the ultimate daily routine? Inside the book: The secret to creating the ultimate morning routine so you can have your best day every day (Hint: It has 3 parts) How to get more done with an ultra-efficient work routine (plus the ultimate work routine for squeezing every last drop of potential out of your work hours) How to renew your energy throughout the day with an “energy ritual” for all-day energy and productivity (plus how to schedule tasks according to your energy levels) Why having cold showers every morning can leave you feeling more energized, happy, and productive The secret to waking up feeling energized (Hint: It has nothing to do with how long you sleep for) How to finish your day with a powerful evening routine so you can kick ass the next day (plus an example of a great evening ritual you can copy) And much more… To create a powerful daily routine and perform at the peak of your abilities day in and day out, scroll up to the top of this page and click BUY NOW.

    A firsthand look at how Mercedes-Benz transformed itself into a best-in-class, customer-obsessed organization.Driven to Delight offers an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at CEO Steve Cannon and his leadership team’s ambitious, multi-pronged strategy to elevate the company’s customer experience to best-in-class, across all brands and industries.Acclaimed author Joseph Michelli reveals how leaders within the organization drove the transformation of the operational and cultural environments at Mercedes-Benz through their strategic vision, “Driven to Delight.”Nowhere else can you find this in-depth, all-access look at senior leadership’s vision, strategy, and tactical steps to create and sustain the wide-sweeping actions needed to deliver a customer experience that lives up to the company’s brand promise, “the best or nothing.”

    Fully updated with the 2009 practice guidelines, this book will take you through every step of a project - from planning and establishing roles to closing and reviewing - offering practical and easy-to-understand advice on using PRINCE2. It also shows how to use the method when approaching the key concerns of project management, including setting up effective controls, managing project risk, managing quality and controlling change. PRINCE2 allows you to divide your project into manageable chunks, so you can make realistic plans and know when resources will be needed. PRINCE2 For Dummies, 2009 Edition provides you with a comprehensive guide to its systems, procedures and language so you can run efficient and successful projects.PRINCE2 For Dummies, 2009 Edition includes: Part I: How PRINCE Can Help You - Chapter 1: So What's a Project Method and Why Do I Need to Use One? - Chapter 2: Outlining the Structure of PRINCE2 - Chapter 3: Getting Real Power from PRINCE2Part II: Working Through Your Project - Chapter 4: Checking the Idea Before You Start - Chapter 5: Planning the Whole Project: Initiation - Chapter 6: Preparing for a Stage in the Project - Chapter 7: Controlling a Stage - Chapter 8: Building the Deliverables - the Work of the Teams - Chapter 9: Finishing the Project - Chapter 10: Running Effective Project BoardsPart III: Help with PRINCE Project Management - Chapter 11: Producing and Updating the Business Case - Chapter 12: Deciding Roles and Responsibilities - Chapter 13: Managing Project Quality - Chapter 14: Planning the Project, Stages, and Work Packages - Chapter 15: Managing Project Risk - Chapter 16: Controlling Change and Controlling Versions - Chapter 17: Monitoring Progress and Setting Up Effective ControlsPart IV: The Part of Tens - Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Make PRINCE Work Well - Chapter 19: Ten Tips for a Good Business Case - Chapter 20: Ten Things for Successful Project Assurance Part V: Appendices - Appendix A: Looking into PRINCE Qualifications - Appendix B: Glossary of the Main PRINCE2 Terms

    No matter what your life looks like now, no matter what is happening right at this very moment, you’re invited to begin a spiritual revolution. Breaking Through is a manifesto for a more empowered life, and will help you achieve a permanent breakthrough in any barrier that may be holding you back in any aspect of your life, as you gain an extraordinary sense of clarity and freedom, dramatically increase your energy, and boldly take life head-on. Baron Baptiste shows you how to revitalize your relationships and infuse inspiration, passion, and adventure into your daily life. You will feel a new level of purpose, power, and peace of mind in your present days and future years. Baron invites you to come with him on a journey to discover what’s possible, and to courageously and spontaneously risk living on the growing edge of the unfamiliar. Along the way, you’ll be exploring practices and principles that will give you new contexts, new considerations, and a new way of viewing your life that will bring about a true and lasting transformation. As you read, you will effortlessly experience a series of smaller breakthroughs until you break through into a totally transformed life. You’ll be free from the stress that causes struggle, and the feelings of fight-and-flight survival, and you’ll begin to view life as a blank canvas on which you can create, expand, and open up to the ways of being that make a real difference in your world. This fascinating book is about awakening and embarking on a journey of uncovering who you are not . . . so you can access the powerful, creative, and positively awesome person that you are. This is what Baron calls “breaking through.” Take the journey.

    Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support.Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health."In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck.The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.

    If you listen to Jim analyze a business situation you get absolutely no baloney. And, frankly, finding someone like that is a rarity.” There is only one CEO in recent times who has faced—and succeeded at—the extraordinary challenges of leading three major companies—Gillette, Nabisco, and Kraft—into prosperous futures by doing what matters on the fundamentals. That CEO is Jim Kilts. In this vivid first-person account he reveals his system for success that is both cutting-edge and back-to-basics. Doing What Matters—the action plan for identifying and tackling what’s important and ignoring the rest—is the key to winning in a warp-speed world where the need for revolutionary speed and decisiveness increases by the day. Kilts illustrates his ideas with colorful stories, such as “that little red razor.” A new product idea he proposed early on at Gillette, it was initially shelved because “everyone knew you couldn’t sell a red razor,” but went on to become one of Gillette’s biggest marketing successes ever. Jim Kilts’s focus on both business fundamentals and personal attributes provides the “complete package,” showing how to get results that make a difference through:• Intellectual integrity: The ability to face the unvarnished truth about yourself and your business and using what you see as the basis for action.• Generating emotional engagement and enthusiasm: Using the force of your personality and ideas to infuse people and an entire organization with a sense of purpose and mission. • Action: Gillette, with just five product lines, had over 20,000 SKUs. After studying the issue for over two years, there were still 20,000. How Kilts got Gillette off the dime to pare down the number to 7,000 almost overnight is an astonishing example of getting the rubber to meet the road—with enormous benefits to the business. • Understanding the right things through an overarching concept to frame and filter issues: For Jim Kilts it was Total Brand Value, the framework he used in the consumer products industry for achieving better, faster, and more complete results than the competition.Whether you’re CEO of a multibillion-dollar global company, the brand manager for a product, an entrepreneur starting a small business, or just beginning a career, Doing What Matters provides the practical ideas that get results—ranging from a day one action plan for starting a new job to a chorus of cheers and support to a program of total innovation that involves everyone in changes from small to “big bang.”From the Hardcover edition.

    As educational leaders around the world implement Leverage Leadership ideas, their collective stories have revealed a simple framework by which the seven levers may be implemented: See It, Name It, Do It. This book aligns classic Leverage Leadership principles with this proven framework to streamline implementation and help good leaders become great. Expert discussion and real-life success stories prove that effective leadership is not about innate charisma, charm, or personality--it's about how a leader uses their time.Aimed at all levels of school leadership, this book shows you what to do, and how and when to do it. The companion DVD includes 30 real-world videos that showcase effective leadership happening in our schools right now, and all templates, tools, and other professional development materials have been fully refreshed with a renewed focus on real-world implementation. Informational, inspirational, and highly motivational, this book explores both the separate components of success and what it looks like as a whole.Learn the core principles of effective leadership Understand what success looks like on the ground Practice the seven levers of leadership that allow transformational growth Adopt the tools and techniques that facilitate a schoolwide transformation Educational leaders from a diverse array of schools around the world have found unprecedented success using the key principles detailed in Leverage Leadership, and this book is inspired -- and informed -- by their stories. Leverage Leadership 2.0 is the practical resource school leaders need to start making real change happen today.