Career & Growth

How do the principles of global espionage apply to building and growing a business? In Company Rules, Or Everything I Know About Business I Learned From the CIA, Mike Baker shares the nine make-or-break tactics that he mastered during his tenure with the Central Intelligence Agency and details how he used them to succeed in the private sector. These exclusive rules, once only accessible to the intelligence community, are laid out step-by-step and can be put into practice on your own terms. Leaving behind a life of international intrigue, Baker took on a new venture when he met a “pipe-smoking British fraud investigator” by the name of Mike Comer who was launching an ambitious startup, Maxima, in London’s West End. While Baker didn’t know the first thing about fraud investigation at the time, he realized that he could use what he learned in his CIA training to help bring the startup to prominence. While at Maxima, Baker recognized that success in business is dependent upon information-gathering, and as he notes, “Whoever has the best intelligence…wins.” From the Company Rules like Know Your Risk Appetite and Immediately Admit Your Mistakes, to Define Your Mission and Identify and Resolve Threats, Baker demonstrates that the business world isn't as unlike the spy world as one might think. Baker lays out the nine Company Rules clearly and precisely, intermixing them with accounts of riveting adventures from his time in the private sector. The tactical rules can be applied to any start-up, growing, or established business. Company Rules, Or Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the CIA is full of valuable insight for entrepreneurs and managers alike who are seeking a structured method to build a foundation for success.

Two pioneering researchers identify key causes of workplace burnout and reveal what managers can do to promote increased productivity and health. Citing a wealth of research data and drawing on illustrative anecdotes, The Burnout Challenge shows how organizations can change to promote sustainable productivity. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter provide useful tools for identifying the signs of employee burnout, most often exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. They also advise managers on assembling and interpreting worker self-evaluation surveys, which can reveal workplace problems and potential solutions. And when it comes to implementing change, Maslach and Leiter offer practical, evidence-driven guidance. The key, they argue, is to begin with less-taxing changes that employees nonetheless find meaningful, seeding the ground for more thorough reforms in the future. Experts estimate that more than $500 billion and 550 million workhours are lost annually to on-the-job stress, much of it caused by dysfunctional work environments. As priorities and policies shift across workplaces, The Burnout Challenge provides pragmatic, creative, and cost-effective solutions to improve employee efficiency, health, and happiness.

Ladies, leadership, and legacy! Like gravity, sowing and reaping is a natural law of life—you simply reap what you sow. It naturally plays and pays out, until it DOESN’T. Time and again, history has shown that until society learns and positively changes from the past with its deeply-rooted thought patterns and norms, we are condemned to repeat its many trappings, stereotypes, and shortcomings. Never Get Their Coffee is a call to action and underscores the glass ceiling disparities of gender equity in the marketplace. However, its focus fixates on helping shape societal strides in fueling fearless leadership, and its mission is in inspiring faith and tenacity of the human spirit to dream a dream, sow a thought, reap an action...a habit...a character...and ultimately to discover one’s destiny. Woods’ challenge for all her readers is that death is no respecter of persons—stop apologizing for success, aim high, dream deeply, and start living your divine calling. Become doers of destiny.

In a society which promises that great things come from hard work, Keith Boykin counters that great things come from quitting. Boykin writes that quitting “is for anyone” — quitting your job, your city, your relationship, and anything else that doesn’t serve you. At twenty-seven years old, Boykin left behind a lucrative law career to work for the Clinton administration in the White House. But when his skills were underutilized, he quit his prestigious post after two years. Boykin soon went on to write the New York Times best seller Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America, an examination of race and sexual orientation in the Black community. Since then, Boykin has quit a string of jobs, careers, organizations, and residences in pursuit of the autonomy and purpose that he eventually achieved. To him, nothing is more important than personal freedom: not money, not the veneer of success, and certainly not goals that other people have for his life. Quitting means change. And change is the first step on the path to freedom. Cut to 2021, and Boykin is cheering on the 47 million Americans who left their jobs — for many a good reason — in what has become known as the Great Resignation. This new wave of “quitters” may not be quitting the White House, as Boykin did. Instead, it’s about quitting jobs that he considers to be eternal “preplanned treadmills” rather than valued ways of life. In this candid memoir, Keith Boykin takes you on a roller-coaster ride of successes and failures that ultimately leads to a meaningful existence beyond “the identity of your employment.” Quitting: Why I Left My Job to Live a Life of Freedom is the bold encouragement that will push you toward making changes to live life on your terms.

“Filled with top-notch research, practical insight, and stories from the most inspiring women in business, Julia Boorstin lays out a new, inclusive vision for leadership and our world at large.” —Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive “A must-read for all leaders as they consider the future of work.” —Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space A groundbreaking, deeply reported work from CNBC’s Julia Boorstin that reveals the key commonalities and characteristics that help top female leaders thrive as they innovate, grow businesses, and navigate crises—an essential resource for anyone in the workplace. Julia Boorstin was thirteen when her mother told her that, by the time she grew up, women could be just as powerful as men, “captains of industry, running the biggest companies!” A decade later, working at a top business publication and seeing the dearth of women in positions of leadership, Boorstin assumed her mom had been wrong. But over the following two decades as a TV reporter and creator of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 franchise, interviewing, and studying thousands of executives, she realized that a gender-equity utopia shouldn’t be a pipe dream. Yes, women faced massive social and institutional headwinds, and struggled with double standards and what psychologists call “pattern matching.” Yet those who thrived, Boorstin found, shared key commonalities that made them uniquely equipped to lead, grow businesses, and navigate crises. They were highly adaptive to change, deeply empathetic in their management style, and much more likely to integrate diverse points of view into their business strategies, filling voids that their male counterparts had overlooked for generations. By utilizing those strengths, they had invented new business models, disrupted industries, and made massive profits along the way. Now, in When Women Lead, Boorstin brings together the stories of over sixty of those female CEOs and leaders, and dozens of new studies. Her combination of narrative and research reveals how once-underestimated characteristics, from vulnerability and gratitude to divergent thinking, can be vital superpowers—and that anyone can work these approaches to their advantage. Featuring new interviews with Katrina Lake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jenn Hyman, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Lena Waithe, Shivani Siroya, Julia Collins, and more, When Women Lead is a radical blueprint for the future of business, and our world at large.

From John Mack, former CEO of Morgan Stanley, an intimate personal memoir and riveting business story, recounting how he helped grow the company from 300 to 50,000 employees over four decades, transformed a notoriously competitive culture into a successful and collaborative one, and lead the company through the 2008 financial crisis. During his thirty-four-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, John Mack’s goal was to build the strongest and most productive team on Wall Street. His ability to motivate his employees to do their best work, especially in times of crisis, was fostered by his willingness to slash through bureaucracy and stand up to powerful interests. A forceful personality, one journalist said Mack was “described as ‘charismatic’ so regularly that it could be part of his name.” In Up Close and All In, Mack traces his personal journey from a one-stoplight North Carolina mill town to a fortieth-floor corner office on Wall Street—and shares the life lessons he learned along the way. He developed a titanium-strength stomach for risk, stress, and competition while landing accounts early in his career, as investment banks fought like wolfpacks to take advantage of new deregulation, fielding business raids, booms, and busts. As he rose through the ranks, he never forgot where he came from, relying on his instincts, doing what was right, and listening to his people on the front lines. This culture of trust and collaboration helped Morgan Stanley anticipate future trends before other firms, adapt quickly, and achieve record profits. This gripping memoir includes both humbling lows—like when Mack made the difficult decision to leave Morgan Stanley in 2001—and exhilarating highs—such as when he made an eleventh-hour agreement with the Japanese bank Mitsubishi to save the company during the 2008 financial crisis, having refused to give in when top regulators pressured him to sell the firm for $2 per share. With humor and honesty, Mack shares advice on both business and life: how to create a culture of team players, how to keep perspective during crises, how to make difficult decisions when all eyes are on you, and more. From a singular man who’s as unafraid to cry publicly as he is to anger some of the most powerful people in the world, this is an indispensable guide to living and leading well.

#1 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Steve Case, cofounder of America Online and Revolution and New York Times bestselling author of The Third Wave, shows how entrepreneurs across the country are building groundbreaking companies, renewing communities, and creating new jobs—in the process reimagining the American landscape and bringing people together around a shared future. In 2014, Steve Case launched Revolution’s Rise of the Rest, an initiative to accelerate the growth of tech startups across the country. Rise of the Rest is based on a simple idea: cities can be renewed and rise again if they develop a vibrant startup culture. A visionary entrepreneur himself, Case believes that great entrepreneurs can be found anywhere, and can thrive with the proper support and investment. In fact, they’re key to the American DNA. After all, America itself was a startup. It struggled to get going and almost didn’t make it. Today it’s the leader of the free world, in part because it has the world’s largest economy—a testament to several generations of pioneering entrepreneurs. But America needs help keeping its promises, as it is harder today for innovators who live outside the major tech hubs. For most of the past decade, seventy-five percent of venture capital has gone to just three states—California, New York, and Massachusetts—while the forty-seven states making up the rest of the country have been forced to share the remaining twenty-five percent. And it’s even harder for some people no matter where they live. Less than ten percent of venture capital currently goes to female founders, and less than one percent to Black founders. Since new companies—startups—are responsible for net new job creation, it is essential that entrepreneurs everywhere have the opportunity to start and scale companies. Rise of the Rest is about leveling the playing field for everybody, and in the process creating opportunity and jobs for the people and places that have been left behind. This book tells that story and provides a hopeful perspective on the future of America. In The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream, Case takes readers on an exhilarating journey into the startup communities that are transforming cities nationwide. Rise of the Rest’s signature road trips, on a big red tour bus, have created significant local and national buzz and spotlighted communities large and small that have committed to a new tech-enabled future. Along the way, Case introduces readers to dozens of entrepreneurs whose inspirational stories of struggle and achievement match the most iconic examples of American invention. To date, Case has traveled to forty-three cities on his Rise of the Rest bus tour and has been featured on 60 Minutes, and in The New York Times, USA TODAY, Fast Company, and The Wall Street Journal. With dedicated venture funds, backed by an iconic group of investors, executives, and entrepreneurs including Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Meg Whitman, John Doerr, Sara Blakely, and Ray Dalio, Rise of the Rest also invests in the most promising high-growth startups located anywhere in the US outside of Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston. The fund has invested in more than 175 companies across more than eighty cities, including: Phoenix, Chattanooga, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Louisville, Baltimore, Columbus, St. Louis, Green Bay, Madison, Buffalo, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Miami, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and dozens of others.

Measure Up helps those desiring or going through career transition understand their value and how to best communicate their value. For those considering career transition, Measure Up helps them create compelling and consistent messaging, resumes, and profiles that will attract the right leaders, peers, and hiring authorities. Within, readers learn how to identify and leverage companies hiring leaders, influencers, and peers in their career search and how to leverage process and technology to connect and communicate. By the end of Measure Up, readers will be able to identify and qualify for potential opportunities and be able to show their value from communication, networking, interviewing to ultimately getting hired at the best career opportunity possible. Measure Up teaches those considering career transition how to discover lucrative job prospects before anybody else does and gives them the tools and exercises to build their confidence and help them understand, appreciate, and “sell” their true value in the job marketplace.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A master class on investing featuring conversations with the biggest names in finance, from the legendary cofounder of The Carlyle Group, David M. Rubenstein. What do the most successful investors have in common? David M. Rubenstein, cofounder of one of the world’s largest investment firms, has spent years interviewing the greatest investors in the world to discover the time-tested principles, hard-earned wisdom, and indispensable tools that guide their practice.​ Rubenstein, who has spent more than three decades in the hypercompetitive world of private equity, now distills everything he’s learned about the art and craft of investing, from venture capital, real estate, private equity, hedge funds, to crypto, endowments, SPACs, ESG, and more. -How did Stan Druckenmiller short the British pound in one trade for a profit of $1 billion dollars? -What made Sam Zell the smartest, toughest investor the world of real estate has ever seen? -How did Mike Novogratz make $250 million off crypto in one year? -How did Larry Fink build BlackRock from scratch into a firm that manages more than $10 trillion? -How did Mary Callahan Erdoes rise to the top of J.P. Morgan’s wealth management division to manage more than $4 trillion for individuals and families all over the world? -How did Seth Klarman perfect value investing to consistently deliver net returns of nearly 20 percent? With unprecedented access to global leaders in finance, Rubenstein has assembled the most authoritative book of its kind. How to Invest reveals the thinking of the most successful investors in the world, many of whom rarely speak publicly. Whether you’re brand-new to investing or a seasoned professional, this book will transform the way you approach investing forever.

"Every day of our lives, we make judgments—and we don’t always do a very good job of it. Thinking 101 is an invaluable resource to anyone who wants to think better. In remarkably clear language, and with engaging and often funny examples, Woo-kyoung Ahn uses cutting-edge research to explain the mistakes we often make—and how to avoid them.”—Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies "Thinking 101 is a must-read—a smart and compellingly readable guide to cutting-edge research into how people think. Building from her popular Yale course, Professor Woo-kyoung Ahn shows how a better understanding of how our minds work can help us become smarter and wiser—and even kinder."—Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto, Brooks and Suzanne Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University, and the author of The Sweet Spot Psychologist Woo-kyoung Ahn devised a course at Yale called “Thinking” to help students examine the biases that cause so many problems in their daily lives. It quickly became one of the university’s most popular courses. Now, for the first time, Ahn presents key insights from her years of teaching and research in a book for everyone. She shows how “thinking problems” stand behind a wide range of challenges, from common, self-inflicted daily aggravations to our most pressing societal issues and inequities. Throughout, Ahn draws on decades of research from other cognitive psychologists, as well as from her own groundbreaking studies. And she presents it all in a compellingly accessible style that uses fun examples from pop culture, anecdotes from her own life, and illuminating stories from history and the headlines. Thinking 101 is an audiobook that goes far beyond other resources on thinking, showing how we can improve not just our own daily lives through better awareness of our biases but also the lives of everyone around us. It is, quite simply, required listening for everyone who wants to think—and live—better. A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly Bestseller Learn success secrets from original remote work pioneers on the mindset and strategies they developed to build and grow successful organizations from the ground up. With the unprecedented rise in remote work due to the pandemic, many businesses have struggled with how to effectively transition to a distributed format. Meanwhile, companies who had always been remote-first had a unique advantage: a highly scalable set of work processes, a unique communication style, and the proper “async mindset” required to succeed without an office.   This groundbreaking guide unlocks the secrets and lessons discovered by those pioneer entrepreneurs and founders who have figured out how to harness the async mindset and grow their businesses remotely in the most seamless, freeing, and cost-effective ways. Once you accept and master some fundamental differences, remote work can fuel higher productivity, eliminate time-wasting meetings and treacherous commutes, and strip away the ugly politics that often undermine the most talented employees. It also leads to great cultural inclusivity and richer cultural exchange.   Running Remote is for ventures of all stripes—companies small and large, one-person operations, mom-and-pop shops, and global megacorporations. The lessons herein are as valuable for on-premises organizations as they are for the tech worker.  Readers will: Master the fundamentals of the async mindset by exploring three overarching principles—deliberate overcommunication, democratized workflow, and detailed metrics. Learn nuts-and-bolts techniques and real-life lessons from remote work trailblazers who built successful all-remote organizations prior to the pandemic. Gain a better understanding of why hiring, on-ramping, and managing in a remote context is totally different—again with methods and first-hand stories from the founders and leaders that did it first. Lean how moving to a remote business model impacts traditional management and work processes. Accompanying figures, step-by-step instructions, and URLs are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.  

Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people dampens our creativity and productivity, degrades our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and causes us to disengage. In Getting Along, workplace expert and Harvard Business Review podcast host Amy Gallo identifies eight familiar types of difficult coworkers—the insecure boss, the passive-aggressive peer, the know-it-all, the biased coworker, and others—and provides strategies tailored to dealing constructively with each one. She also shares principles that will help you turn things around, no matter who you're at odds with. Taking the high road isn't easy, but Gallo offers a crucial perspective on how work relationships really matter, as well as the compassion, encouragement, and tools you need to prevail—on your terms. She answers questions such as: Why can't I stop thinking about that nasty email?! What's behind my problem colleague's behavior? How can I fix things if they won't cooperate? I've tried everything—what now? Full of relatable, sometimes cringe-worthy examples, the latest behavioral science research, and practical advice you can use right now, Getting Along is an indispensable guide to navigating your toughest relationships at work—and building interpersonal resilience in the process.

Learn how to reframe your time around life’s happiest moments to build days that aren’t just full but fulfilling with this “joyful guide” (Eve Rodsky, New York Times bestselling author) that is the antidote to overscheduling. Our most precious resource isn’t money. It’s time. We are allotted just twenty-four hours a day, and we live in a culture that keeps us feeling “time poor.” Since we can’t add more hours to the day, how can we experience our lives as richer? Based on her wildly popular MBA class at UCLA, Professor Cassie Holmes demonstrates how to immediately improve our lives by changing how we perceive and invest our time. Happier Hour provides empirically based insights and easy-to-implement tools that will allow you to: -Optimally spend your hours and feel confident in those choices -Sidestep distractions -Create and savor moments of joy -Design your schedule with purpose -Look back on your years without regrets Enlivened by Holmes’s upbeat narrative and groundbreaking research, Happier Hour “is filled with loads and loads of practical, evidence-based advice for how to live better by investing in what really matters. It’s the kind of book that can change your life for the better” (Laurie Santos, Yale professor and host of The Happiness Lab podcast).

Read by the author. You can't make the world fair, but you can take back your power. As a woman in Silicon Valley who worked her way to the top of the corporate ladder--she's a former VP at Facebook and the current president and CEO of Ancestry--Deborah Liu knows firsthand the challenges and obstacles in the workplace that keep the deck stacked against women in the workplace . . . and the ways to overcome them. For every woman who grew up competing on the uneven playing field, who is told she is too aggressive, assertive, dramatic, or emotional, this book is the battle cry you need to learn to thrive within the system that exists today, even if it's not the one we wish it were. Take Back Your Power presents both hard data and Liu's personal experiences from twenty years as a woman leader in the male-dominated tech industry to help you: Find your voice, learn how to ask, and achieve what you want in a system that isn't fair and wasn't created for you Debunk the negative connotations of "power" and harness it for your own success Discover how to be heard, seen, and taken more seriously at work by getting out of your own way Overcome the lie that success is only achieved alone by finding the four types of allies you need to reach your goals Become a great leader without losing yourself in the process You have the power to change the future of work for yourself--and for women everywhere. An accompanying diagram is included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

An essential guide to tackling what students, families, and educators can do now to cut through stress and performance pressure, and find a path to purpose. Today’s college-bound kids are stressed, anxious, and navigating demands in their lives unimaginable to a previous generation. They’re performance machines, hitting the benchmarks they’re “supposed” to in order to reach the next tier of a relentless ladder. Then, their mental and physical exhaustion carries over right into first jobs. What have traditionally been considered the best years of life have become the beaten-down years of life. Belle Liang and Timothy Klein devote their careers both to counseling individual students and to cutting through the daily pressures to show a better way, a framework, and set of questions to find kids’ “true north”: what really turns them on in life, and how to harness the core qualities that reveals, allowing them to choose a course of study, a college, and a career. Even the gentlest parents and teachers tend to play into pervasive societal pressure for students to PERFORM. And when we take the foot off the gas, we beg the kids to just figure out what their PASSION is. Neither is a recipe for mental or physical health, or, ironically, for performance or passion. How to Navigate Life shows that successful human beings instead tap into their PURPOSE—the why behind the what and how. Best of all, purpose is a completely translatable quality to every aspect of life, from first jobs to last jobs and everything in between. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.

National Bestseller "In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness beautifully and persuasively reimagines our understanding of toughness. This is a must-read for parents and coaches and anyone else looking to prepare for life's biggest challenges." -- Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Talking to Strangers and host of the Revisionist History podcast From beloved performance expert, executive coach, and coauthor of Peak Performance Steve Magness comes a radical rethinking of how we perceive toughness and what it means to achieve our high ambitions in the face of hard things. Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet, the prevailing model has promoted a mentality based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any sign of weakness. In other words, the old model of toughness has failed us. Steve Magness, a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes, rebuilds our broken model of resilience with one grounded in the latest science and psychology. In Do Hard Things, Magness teaches us how we can work with our body – how experiencing discomfort, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action can be the true indications of cultivating inner strength. He offers four core pillars to cultivate such resilience:  Pillar 1- Ditch the Façade, Embrace RealityPillar 2- Listen to Your BodyPillar 3- Respond, Instead of React Pillar 4- Transcend Discomfort    Smart and wise all at once, Magness flips the script on what it means to be resilient. Drawing from mindfulness, military case studies, sports psychology, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, he provides a roadmap for navigating life’s challenges and achieving high performance that makes us happier, more successful, and, ultimately, better people.

Because the battle begins before a book even hits the shelves, an author needs every weapon to get ahead of the competition. Guerrilla Marketing for Writers is packed with proven insights and advice, it details 100 “Classified secrets” that will help authors sell their work before and after it’s published. This life range of weapons-practical low-cost and no-cost marketing techniques-will help authors design a powerful strategy for strengthening their proposals, promoting their books, and maximizing their sales.

“One of my favorite books of the year. It completely reshaped how I think about information and how and why I take notes.” —Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive A revolutionary approach to enhancing productivity, creating flow, and vastly increasing your ability to capture, remember, and benefit from the unprecedented amount of information all around us. For the first time in history, we have instantaneous access to the world’s knowledge. There has never been a better time to learn, to contribute, and to improve ourselves. Yet, rather than feeling empowered, we are often left feeling overwhelmed by this constant influx of information. The very knowledge that was supposed to set us free has instead led to the paralyzing stress of believing we’ll never know or remember enough. Now, this eye-opening and accessible guide shows how you can easily create your own personal system for knowledge management, otherwise known as a Second Brain. As a trusted and organized digital repository of your most valued ideas, notes, and creative work synced across all your devices and platforms, a Second Brain gives you the confidence to tackle your most important projects and ambitious goals. Discover the full potential of your ideas and translate what you know into more powerful, more meaningful improvements in your work and life by Building a Second Brain.

Understanding money—how to make it, save it, and grow it—has always been fraught for most people, even in the best of times. So what went down when a global pandemic threw a monstrous wrench in the works was sadly-predictable. What was already confusing and stressful became overwhelming and existential, even for someone like Gaby Dunn, who’d spent the past few years researching and reporting on financial literacy for the underserved. In March 2020, as COVID-19 began to bring the world to a stuttering halt, Dunn—author of Bad with Money: The Imperfect Art of Getting Your Financial Sh*t Together and host of the Bad with Money podcast—watched as their income dropped by roughly 50 percent. Suddenly, what had been more of a passion for helping others became a renewed struggle for survival in the midst of economic disaster. What Dunn has learned in the interim takes center stage in this conversational how-to guide on navigating our new reality, including finance hacks not in pursuit of the ever-elusive American dream but, rather, a thoughtful, more inclusive approach to making the most of your money and surviving amidst financial jargon, shame and judgement. From worker advocacy, scam awareness, and positive thinking to earth-friendly practices, bill negotiation, and overlooked assistance programs, Stimulus Wreck serves as a primer on putting more power in your own hands. It’s also an inspiring reference for those who would take advantage of a system that is always taking advantage of you. With immense empathy and enlightening experience, Dunn doles out dozens of helpful ideas for common-sense steps you can take to turn things around and rebuild when all might seem lost—“so that people can afford to take care of themselves and their families and to plan for a future that allows them basic human rights like food, water, health care, shelter, and more.”

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A powerful guide to the art of leadership from David Gergen—former White House adviser to four US presidents, CNN analyst, and founder of the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. As nations careen from one crisis to the next, there is a growing cry for fresh leadership. Those in charge have repeatedly fallen short, and trust in institutions has plummeted. So, what does great leadership look like? And how are great leaders made? David Gergen, a leader in the public arena for more than half a century, draws from his experiences as a White House adviser to four presidents, his decades as a trusted voice on national issues, and years of teaching and mentoring young people to offer a stirring playbook for the next generation of change-makers. To uncover the fundamental elements of effective leadership, Gergen traces the journeys of iconic leaders past and present, from pathbreakers like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, John McCain, and Harvey Milk to historic icons like Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, to contemporary game changers like Greta Thunberg, the Parkland students, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Leadership is a journey that starts from within, Gergen writes. A leader must become self-aware and then achieve self-mastery. You cannot lead others until you can lead yourself. As you start to leap into the world, you begin your outer journey, overcoming setbacks, persuading others, empowering them, and navigating crises—armed with a sense of history, humor, passion, and purpose. By linking lessons of the past with the ever-changing practice of leadership today, Gergen reveals the time-tested secrets of dynamic leadership. An indispensable manual, Hearts Touched with Fire distills experience and wisdom of the past into an invaluable guide for leaders of our future.

WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Includes an audiobook-exclusive conversation with video game journalist Geoff Keighley! Read by the author. LESSONS FROM A BOSS-LEVEL DISRUPTOR AND GAMING LEGEND Reggie Fils-Aimé, retired President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America Inc., shares leadership lessons and inspiring stories from his unlikely rise to the top. Although he’s best known as Nintendo's iconic President of the Americas—immortalized for opening Nintendo’s 2004 E3 presentation with, “My name is Reggie, I'm about kicking ass, I'm about taking names, and we're about making games”—Reggie Fils-Aimé’s story is the ultimate game plan for anyone looking to beat the odds and achieve success. Learn from Reggie how to leverage disruptive thinking to pinpoint the life choices that will make you truly happy, conquer negative perceptions from those who underestimate or outright dismiss you, and master the grit, perseverance, and resilience it takes to dominate in the business world and to reach your professional dreams. As close to sitting one-on-one with the gaming legend as it gets, you will learn: About the challenges Reggie faced throughout his life and career—from his humble childhood as the son of Haitian immigrants, to becoming one of the most powerful names in the history of the gaming industry. What it takes to reach the top of your own industry, including being brave enough to stand up for your ideas, while also being open to alternative paths to success. How to create vibrant and believable visions for your career, your team, and your company. How to maintain relentless curiosity and know when to ask questions to shatter the status quo.

Star and executive producer of the hit TV show Bar Rescue and New York Times bestselling author of Don't Bullsh*t Yourself, Jon Taffer reveals the transformational power of conflict, sharing his toolkit for arguing smarter—at home, at work, and in life. Most people try their best to avoid conflict. Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer understands that. Conflict can have negative results. It’s easy to think that the key to a happy workplace or marriage is to avoid conflict. In reality, that’s not the case—the key is to argue smarter. Enter the Toolkit for Getting Conflict Right. Taffer’s approach is focused on deliberate conflict—otherwise known as “conflict with a purpose.” There are selective and strategic ways to have difficult conversations, and when doing so, to stay aware of your objectives rather than escalating tension unnecessarily. As Taffer explains, “The key is to act affirmatively, constructively, and productively.” Eliminating conflict isn’t always the answer; inevitably there will be times when it will arise. Engaging in conflict can be a way to clear the air, and get to the bottom of issues that, once resolved, can strengthen friendships, ease tensions at work, and address problems before they have a chance to bubble over. With easy-to-follow advice that shows how to best engage in constructive discourse to get the results you want, The Power of Conflict provides you with the rules to argue smarter, uphold your values, and keep the conversation real. The step-by-step guide starts with the inception of the conflict and carries through the difficult conversation’s conclusion, arming readers with the skills and confidence to fight for their principles.  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

As she admits in the first salvo of her enlightening new guide to battling gender discrimination, award-winning author and radio journalist Celeste Headlee is herself … a sexist. But aren’t we all? Indeed we are, no matter the strength of our convictions otherwise, and herein lies the crux of Headlee’s examination of inherent—and often unconscious—cultural biases: Whether we can admit it or not, we all bring instinctive and learned prejudices to our interactions and conversations, to the detriment of everyone. Fortunately, Headlee presents a thoughtful, practical, and cogent manual on becoming aware of, and reversing, the sometimes subtle sexism with which we all struggle, actively or not. With the same empathetic and circumspect approach seen in her 2017 book We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter, Headlee lays out the fundamentals of creating allies, rather than alienating those who may simply be playing prescribed cultural roles. But deprogramming people without making them defensive (and dismissive) is easier said than done. The culprit? “Benevolent sexism.” As Headlee writes, this pervasive daily frustration for at least half the population is “hard to address because people often fail to recognize so-called friendly sexism as harmful.” To combat this, the author walks us through an often surprising and always illuminating three-step process, drawing on human psychology and refreshing common sense. In the end, we’re rewarded with a compelling take on one of our most insidious problems—and, happily, a way to bring people together in these divided times.

From the breakout star of Netflix’s Cheer, this motivational guide “will inspire you to aim high and succeed no matter what ‘getting on mat’ means in your life” (Gabi Butler, two-time national cheerleading champion and star of Cheer). In Full Out, “the Bill Belichick of cheerleading” (The Cut) Coach Monica Aldama shares how she built one of the most successful and beloved cheerleading programs in the country. Her uncompromising brand of discipline and consistency goes far beyond the mat—showing how the principles of building a winning team apply to personal goals, the corporate world, parenting, and all aspects of life. There’s a lot of talk these days about shortcuts and life hacks, but what really counts is commitment and integrity, helping your friends, and improving with your teammates. Coach Monica shares deeply personal stories of triumph and tragedy—from divorce and remarriage to her husband, her challenges as a young mother working more than full time, and her strenuous weeks on Dancing with the Stars. She shares surprising behind-the-scenes moments from the Cheer docuseries, and insights gleaned from more than two decades of pushing students to succeed. A true force and inspiration who has captured hearts around the world, Coach Monica “delivers the kind of down-to-earth advice we need to be fearless, make excellence a habit, and to bet on ourselves” (Whitney Cummings, comedian and author of I’m Fine… And Other Lies).

Whatever your remote work circumstance, learn how to be productive at home with nuggets of hard-earned wisdom. From choosing the best colors for workspace productivity to starting a business, these remote work gurus offer everything needed for a smooth work-to-home transition.

In his sixth business book, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and investor Gary Vaynerchuk explores the twelve essential emotional skills that are integral to his life—and business—success and provides today’s (and tomorrow’s) leaders with critical tools to acquire and develop these traits. For decades, leaders have relied on “hard” skills to make smart decisions, while dismissing the importance of emotional intelligence. Soft skills like self-awareness and curiosity aren’t quantifiable; they can’t be measured on a spreadsheet and aren’t taught in B-schools or emphasized in institutions. We’ve been taught that emotional intelligence is a “nice to have” in business, not a requirement. But soft skills can actually accelerate business success, Gary Vaynerchuk argues. For analytical minds, it’s challenging to understand how to get “better” at being self-aware, curious, or empathetic—or even why it’s important to try.  In this wise and practical book, Gary explores the 12 human ingredients that have led to his success and happiness and provides exercises to help you develop these traits yourself. He also shares what the “half” is—that emotional ingredient of leadership he’s weakest at and makes the most effort to improve. Working through the ideas and exercises in the book, he teaches you how to discover your own “halves” and offers insight on how to strengthen them.  Gary’s secret to success is using these twelve traits in varying mixtures, depending on the situation. But how do we know when to balance patience with ambition? Humility with conviction? Gary provides real-life examples involving common business scenarios to show you how to use them together for optimum results.  This iconoclastic book will help you refine your ingredients and improve your leadership capabilities. When implemented in the proper situation, these ingredients can help leaders land promotions, retain core employees, move faster than competitors, win the loyalty of customers, and build successful organizations that last.   

A fresh, road-tested guide to growing a flicker of an idea into a full-blown movement, often using unexpected and even counterintuitive principles It’s an age-old question: Why do some great ideas or inventions take off and soar while others never get off the ground? Today, with more and more young entrepreneurs seeking to incorporate social justice, economic equity, climate concerns, and communal health into their endeavors, the need for practical-yet-think-big answers is great. Thibault Manekin has a few. In 2002, eight years after the fall of apartheid, recent college graduate Manekin moved from his hometown of Baltimore to Durban, South Africa, on the strength of an idea: What if basketball could bridge even the deepest social divides? Despite enormous obstacles, such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, and fueled by support from figures including Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, he proved that it could. Manekin then took the lessons he’d learned back to Baltimore, where he asked himself how the real estate industry could be reimagined to unite cities, empower communities, and launch powerful ideas. Larger Than Yourself tells this story but is about much more than Manekin himself. It also profiles the remarkable real-world change makers he has worked with, and the innovative practices he has instituted, in the profitable companies and nonprofit organizations he has helped to create. Manekin makes these methods accessible to all, meaningful to anyone, and inspirational to everyone with an idea, a hope, and a purpose-driven dream.

Why do some people break through and make an impact while others get stuck going through the motions? In every organization there are Impact Players—those indispensable colleagues who can be counted on in critical situations and who consistently receive high-profile assignments and new opportunities. Whether they are on center stage or behind the scenes, managers know who these top players are, understand their worth, and want more of them on their team. While their impact is obvious, it’s not always clear what actually makes these professionals different from their peers. In Impact Players, New York Times bestselling author and researcher Liz Wiseman reveals the secrets of these stellar professionals who play the game at a higher level. Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, Wiseman explains what the most influential players are doing differently, how small and seemingly insignificant differences in how we think and act can make an enormous impact, and why—with a little coaching—this mindset is available to everyone who wants to contribute at their highest level.   Based on a study of 170 top contributors, Wiseman identifies the mindsets that prevent otherwise smart, capable people from contributing to their full potential and the five practices that differentiate Impact Players: While others do their job, Impact Players figure out the real job to be done. While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead.While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line.While others attempt to minimize change, Impact Players are learning and adapting to change. While others add to the load, the Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter. Wiseman makes clear that these practices—and the right mindset—can help any employee contribute at their fullest and shows leaders how they can raise the level of play for everyone on the team. Impact Players is your playbook for the new workplace. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

The Biggest Edition – Revised and Expanded with All New Chapters A captivating and inspiring guide to building an untouchable empire from mud to marble, no matter what obstacles stand in the way Rick Ross is a hip-hop icon and a towering figure in the business world, but his path to success was not always easy. Despite adversity and setbacks, Ross held tight to his vision and never settled for anything less than greatness. Now, for the first time, he shares his secrets to success, offering his own life as a road map to readers looking to build their own empire. Along the way he reveals:    How to turn your ambition into action  Tips for managing and investing your money  Inside stories from his business and music ventures  Why failure is central to success  Secrets to handling stressful situations  How to build the perfect team   As Ross explains, “It doesn’t matter what’s going on. Even the most dire situation is just another opportunity to boss up.”Intimate, insightful and brimming with no-nonsense advice, The Perfect Time to Boss Up is the ideal book for hustlers everywhere. 

Discover how to gain (and keep) power in any situation with this “remarkably insightful read on what power is, how it’s gained, and how it can be used for good” (Adam Grant, bestselling author of Think Again). Power is one of the most misunderstood—and therefore vilified—concepts in our society. Many assume power is predetermined by personality or wealth, or that it’s gained by strong-arming others. You might even write it off as “dirty” and want nothing to do with it. But by staying away from power, you give it up to someone else who may not have your best interest in mind. We must understand and use our power to have impact, and pioneering researchers Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro provide the playbook for doing so in Power, for All. Battilana and Casciaro offer a “necessary” (Tarana Burke, creator of the #MeToo movement and bestselling author of Unbound) and “invaluable” (David Gergen, CNN political analyst) vision of power: the ability to influence someone else’s behavior. This influence is derived from having access to valued resources, and once you understand what those are, you can take action to improve life for yourself and others. With proven strategies of agitating, innovating, and orchestrating change, Power, for All shows how those with less power can challenge established structures to make them more balanced. The authors teach you how to power-map your workplace to find who can create real change at work, plan for and cause sustaining shifts, and understand the two basic needs all human beings share—safety and self-esteem—and the resources people seek to satisfy those needs: money and status, but also autonomy, achievement, affiliation, and mortality. They explore how these dynamics play out through vivid storytelling: as Donatella Versace successfully leads her brother’s company after his death—despite having a title, but little influence; what social movements can learn from youth climate activists and how they can go farther; and how a manager can gain the trust of skeptical employees and improve the workplace. Power, for All demystifies the essential mechanisms for acquiring and using power for all people.