On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities


Barbara Eason-WatkinsJonathon Saphier - 2005
    These leaders have found common ground in expressing their belief in the power of PLCs although clear differences emerge regarding their perspectives on the most effective strategy for making PLCs the norm in North America.

The Florence Prescription: From Accountability To Ownership


Joe Tye - 2009
    In helping Memorial Medical Center build a culture of ownership, Carol Jean Hawtrey with the help of Florence Nightingale create a roadmap that every hospital can follow to create a more positive and productive workplace and a build a sustainable source of competitive advantage. In the form of a business parable, the story shows readers why the invisible architecture of core values, corporate culture, and emotional climate is more important than bricks and mortar for creating patient, physician and employee loyalty, and describes eight essential characteristics of a culture of ownership. Dozens of practical strategies for fostering a more positive and productive organization are woven into the story.

It's All Politics: Winning in a World Where Hard Work and Talent Aren't Enough


Kathleen Kelley Reardon - 2005
    You cannot afford to be apolitical at work if you have any aspirations for advancement. The only way to avoid politics is to avoid people—by finding an out-of-the-way corner where you can do your job. Of course, it’s the same job you’ll likely be doing for the rest of your career.In any job, when you reach a certain level of technical competence, politics is what makes all the difference with regard to success. At that point, it is indeed all politics. Everyday brilliant people take a backseat to their politically adept colleagues by failing to win crucial support for their ideas. Sometimes politics involves going around or bending rules, but more typically it’s about positioning your ideas in a favorable light, and knowing what to say, and how and when to say it.…Keep in mind that people benefit from perpetuating the image of politics as something you either know or you don’t. Ignore them. Political acumen is largely learned from observation. And then it’s a matter of practice, practice, practice. When a journalist suggested that golfing great Gary Player was very lucky, he replied: “It’s funny, but the more I practice, the luckier I get.” The same is true of politics.An indispensable guide to mastering the ins and outs of office politics—the single most important factor in getting ahead in your careerAs management professor and consultant Kathleen Reardon explains in her new book, It's All Politics, talent and hard work alone will not get you to the top. What separates the winners from the losers in corporate life is politics.As Reardon explains, the most talented and accomplished employees often take a backseat to their politically adept coworkers, losing ground in the race to get ahead—sometimes even losing their jobs. Why? Because they’ve failed to manage the important relationships with the people who can best reward their creativity and intelligence. To determine whether you need a crash course in Office Politics 101, ask yourself the following questions:Do I get credit for my ideas?Do I know how to deal with a difficult colleague?Do I get the plum assignments?Do I have a mentor?Do I say no gracefully and pick my battles wisely?Am I in the loop?Reardon has interviewed hundreds of employees, from successful veterans to aspiring hopefuls, examining why some people who work hard and effectively at their jobs fall behind, while those who are adept at “reading the office tea leaves” forge ahead. Being politically savvy doesn’t mean being unethical or devious. At heart, it’s about listening to and relating to others, and making choices that advance everyone’s goals. Like it or not, when it comes to work, it’s all politics. And politics is all about knowing what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to.

Discover Your Sales Strengths: How the World's Greatest Salespeople Develop Winning Careers


Benson Smith - 2003
    Now Gallup uses its expertise to offer a unique, interactive StrengthsFinder.com Profile that will identify your top five talents-and help you start getting the most from them in your sales career. Each copy of this book has a special, individualized code that lets you access the StrengthsFinder Profile on the Internet. The product of a twenty-five-year, multimillion-dollar effort, the StrengthsFinder program interviews you and offers an in-depth, individualized analysis of your predominant strengths and personality traits. Using this book, you can then find out how to put your strengths to work in the real world, how others with similar talents have succeeded or failed, and why you may need to make essential changes in your career. Debunking the most-repeated myths about sales-from the myth that anyone can sell to the myth that a good salesperson can sell anything-Discover Your Sales Strengths shows you: How to understand your top talents in sales-and focus on the ones that will help you most effectively plan your career How to use your strengths to have an impact on other people-and gain a competitive advantage How to find the right field, the right company, and the right boss for your talents Why different approaches to the same sale can both succeed. (There is no one right way to sell!) A book that only The Gallup Organization could create, Discover Your Sales Strengths offers you a powerful new knowledge of who you are, what you're good at, and how you work best. And in today's world of sales, that is the most powerful tool of all.

Pmp: Project Management Professional: Study Guide


Kim Heldman - 2002
    This new edition of the best-selling PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide covers the 2005 updates to both the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and the PMP exam. Author Kim Heldman presents the material in a clear and accessible manner, taking you through the process groups in their logical order so you understand the parts and the whole equally well.KEY TOPICS INCLUDE:Project Initiation. Determining project goals, determining deliverables, determining process outputs, documenting constraints, documenting assumptions, defining strategies, producing formal documentation.Project Planning. Refining a project, creating a WBS, developing a resource management plan, determining resource requirements, defining budgets, refining time and costs estimates, establishing project controls, obtaining plan approval.Project Execution. Committing and implementing resources, managing and communicating progress, implementing quality assurance procedures.Project Control. Measuring performance, refining control links, taking corrective action, evaluating effectiveness of corrective action, ensuring plan compliance, reassessing control plans, responding to risk event triggers, monitor project activity.Project Closing. Obtaining acceptance of deliverables, documenting lessons learned, facilitating closure, preserving product records and tools, releasing resources.Professional Responsibility. Ensuring integrity, contributing to knowledge base, balancing stakeholder interests, respecting differences.

The Portable Coach: 28 Sure Fire Strategies for Business and Personal Success


Thomas J. Leonard - 1998
    As the personal coaching movement booms, the father of the hottest self-improvement trends in the past decade--whose work has been featured in publications from Newsweek to New Age Journal--presents his internationally renowned program for life success.

Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession


John H. Schuh - 2010
    In this important resource, a new cast of student affairs scholars and practitioners examine the changing context of the student experience in higher education, the evolution of the role of student affairs professionals, and the philosophies, ethics, and theories that guide the practice of student affairs work.The fifth edition covers a broad range of relevant topics including historical roots and development of the profession, philosophies and ethical standards, legal issues, theoretical bases of the profession, organizing and managing student affairs programs, and essential competencies: leadership, multiculturalism, supervision, teaching, counseling and helping skills, advising and consultation, conflict resolution, community development, professionalism, and developing institutional partnerships. It also addresses the future of student affairs practice and how it is informed by student learning outcomes and technology."The painstakingly thorough coverage of topics important to the profession of student affairs makes this handbook a valuable resource to the scholarly and practice communities of the profession." --John M. Braxton, professor, Higher Education Leadership and Policy Program, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University; editor, Journal of College Student Development"Continues three decades of excellence in providing a comprehensive set of resources that provides firm grounding for the higher education student affairs community in all aspects of our profession." --Michael J. Cuyjet, professor, Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Louisville"Casts an impressively wide net, thoroughly capturing critical topics and offering a deeply nuanced and technical, yet readily accessible narrative trajectory and study of student affairs in higher education." --Theresa A. Powell, vice president for student affairs, Temple University

Lead Like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World


Richard Stearns - 2021
    After stints as CEO of Parker Brothers and then Lenox, Stearns accepted the invitation to leave his corporate career to become the president of World Vision US, where he became the longest serving president in their seventy-year history. During his tenure there he implemented corporate best practices, lowering overheads while tripling revenues. His leadership in calling the American church to respond to some of the greatest crises of our time, notably the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and the global refugee crisis, challenged Christians to embrace a bold vision for compassion, mercy, and justice. In Lead Like It Matters to God, Stearns shares the leadership principles he has learned over the course of his remarkable career. As a leader who has navigated both secular and sacred spaces, Stearns claims that the values Christian leaders embrace in their workplaces are actually more important than the results they achieve--that God is more concerned about a leader's character than a leader's success. With wisdom, wit, and biblical teaching, Stearns shares captivating stories of his life journey and unpacks seventeen crucial values that can transform leaders and their organizations. When leaders embody values such as integrity, courage, excellence, forgiveness, humility, surrender, balance, generosity, perseverance, love, and encouragement, they not only improve their witness for Christ, they also shape institutions, influence culture, improve team performance, and create healthy workplaces where people can flourish. Through this book, Stearns will inspire a new generation of Christian leaders to boldly take their values into their workplaces to tangibly demonstrate the character of Christ, the love of Christ, and the truth of Christ as they live out their faith in full view of others.

Becoming a Coaching Leader: The Proven Strategy for Building a Team of Champions


Daniel S. Harkavy - 2007
    This book equips you with the skills, disciplines, and knowledge to turn your paycheck-driven teams into vibrant and successful growth cultures. CEO and Head Coach of Building Champions, Daniel Harkavy shows you how to move beyond the theoretical to the very practical how to of coaching. He also presents valuable insight for assessing how fulfilled and on-purpose you are as a leader.

HYPERGROWTH: How the Customer-Driven Model Is Revolutionizing the Way Businesses Build Products, Teams, & Brands


David Cancel - 2017
    The key to achieving HYPERGROWTH is being customer-driven. So if you’re ready to start putting your customers first, keep reading... What You’ll Learn: A New Approach to Product Management and Developing SaaS Products People Love Today, there’s no excuse for not communicating with customers on a daily basis. Messaging has exploded, new generations are focused on 1:1 communication by default, and artificial intelligence is finally coming so we can deliver 1:1 at scale. So why would you build a product, or a company, without leaning into the advantages of that ecosystem? In his new book, HYPERGROWTH, serial entrepreneur and Drift co-founder/CEO David Cancel shares a modern approach for building products and structuring teams that makes customer communication a central priority. The book tells the story of how Cancel’s customer-driven approach started out as a test with a product team (Performable), transformed an entire organization (HubSpot), and sparked a new movement (Drift). What’s Inside: Practical Advice and Frameworks for Becoming Customer-Driven and Growing Your Business Responsive Development (RD): a new approach to building products that adds the customer back into the equation The Burndown Framework: a framework for implementing Responsive Development that’s faster and more flexible than Agile. The Three-Person Team: the customer-driven way to structure engineering teams. Each team consists of a tech lead who manages two other engineers. Getting Rid of Roadmaps: through building a culture of transparency and accountability and working closely with internal customers, you can release product updates more rapidly and iteratively. The Spotlight Framework: a framework for helping you focus on the right parts of customer feedback so you can take the appropriate next steps. The framework breaks feedback down into three main categories: user experience issues, product marketing issues, and positioning issues. Who This Book Is For: Entrepreneurs, Startup Founders, Product Managers, Product Teams, Marketing Teams … Entire Companies! Every part of your business can benefit from being customer-driven. With the rise of SaaS and the on-demand economy, customer expectations have changed. Customers expect their voices to be heard. They find value in being part of a community, and being part of that journey of creating the product. So stop running your business like we’re still living in the 2000s. It’s time to take a customer-driven approach. Here’s what people are saying about the book: “David Cancel is one of the best when it comes to building products that customers love. And now he’s sharing his wisdom and writing the book explaining how he does it. This is a must read for any entrepreneur or business owner.” -MARK ROBERGE Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School, Former SVP of Sale and Services at HubSpot ”When it comes to building business software, there’s no one better than David Cancel, and I saw fi

Read to Lead: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career


Jeff Brown - 2021
    It's responsible for unlocking limitless creativity and influence. It's known to reduce stress, improve decision-making skills, and make you a better leader. What is it? Reading. And it's the single best thing you can do to improve yourself professionally.Reading more and better books creates opportunities for you to learn new skills, rise above your competition, and build a successful career. In Read to Lead you'll learn- why you need to read like your career depends on it- the five science-backed reasons reading will help you build your career- how to absorb a book into your bloodstream- a technique that can double (or triple!) your reading speed- tips on creating a lifetime reading habit- and moreIf you want to lead a more satisfied life, have more intelligent conversations, and broaden your mind, you need to read to lead!

Collective Efficacy: How Educators' Beliefs Impact Student Learning


Jenni Donohoo - 2016
    The solution? Collective efficacy (CE)--the belief that, through collective actions, educators can influence student outcomes and increase achievement. Educators with high efficacy show greater effort and persistence, willingness to try new teaching approaches, and attend more closely to struggling students' needs. This book presents practical strategies and tools for increasing student achievement by sharing:Rationale and sources for establishing CE Conditions and leadership practices for CE to flourish Professional learning structures/protocols

Finding Your True North: A Personal Guide


Bill George - 2008
    Based on Bill George's bestselling book True North, this personal guide offers leaders a comprehensive method for identifying their unique "True North." The book offers methods for personal reflection and includes targeted exercises that help leaders hone in on the purpose of their leadership and developing their authentic leadership skills.

Entrepreneurship: Theory/Process/Practice [With CDROM]


Donald F. Kuratko - 1994
    Using exercises and case presentations, you can apply your own ideas and develop useful analytical skills. Cases found throughout the text present the venture creations or managerial ideas confronted by real-world companies.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Communication (with featured article “The Necessary Art of Persuasion,” by Jay A. Conger)


Harvard Business School Press - 2013
    How do you stack up?If you read nothing else on communicating effectively, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you express your ideas with clarity and impact—no matter what the situation.Leading experts such as Deborah Tannen, Jay Conger, and Nick Morgan provide the insights and advice you need to:• Pitch your brilliant idea—successfully• Connect with your audience• Establish credibility• Inspire others to carry out your vision• Adapt to stakeholders’ decision-making styles• Frame goals around common interests• Build consensus and win supportLooking for more Must Read articles from Harvard Business Review? Check out these titles in the popular series:HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The EssentialsHBR’s 10 Must Reads on CollaborationHBR’s 10 Must Reads on InnovationHBR’s 10 Must Reads on LeadershipHBR’s 10 Must Reads on Making Smart DecisionsHBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing YourselfHBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategic MarketingHBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams