Business Performance

As humans, what sets us apart is that we can achieve extraordinary goals when we focus, collaborate, and continuously check on our progress. However, even in large companies, only seven percent of the people know their company's top goals. OKRs, objectives, and key results, are what Google and many other top companies have been using deeply immersed into their culture from the very beginning.

Director of mental training for the St. Louis Cardinals and a top-tier executive coach, Dr. Jason Selk knows everything there is to know about developing the mental toughness required for achieving any goal you set for yourself. In fact, the techniques he outlines in this book are the same ones he used to help the Cardinals defeat the heavily favored Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series. A complete regimen from a leading expert on developing the mindset for attaining goals, Executive Toughness is your workout for ultimate success in your career and in your life.

Seasoned showrunner Jeffrey Melvoin shares his fascinating insider's perspective on how to call the shots and make the final decisions when choosing and writing scripts, hiring staff, casting, making the budget, and juggling schedules. Along with the managerial responsibilities that keep the show afloat, they are also the visionary for the series and the characters. Melvoin describes how to confidently communicate abstract ideas so they can become the show's reality.

For decades, alarms have sounded about declining engagement. Yet companies continue to struggle with toxic cultures, and the low productivity and unhappiness that go with them. Why is "culture" so difficult to improve? What makes so many good employees check out? Neuroscientist Paul Zak shows that innate brain functions hold the answers. It all boils down to trust. When someone shows you trust, a feel-good jolt of oxytocin surges through your brain and triggers you to reciprocate.

Over six years, long-time Sports Illustrated editor Don Yaeger was invited by some of the greatest companies in the world to speak about the habits of high-performing individuals. From Microsoft and Starbucks to the New England Patriots and San Antonio Spurs, what do some organizations do seemingly better than most of their opponents? Don identified 16 habits that drive high-performing teams. Building on stories, examples, and first-hand accounts, each chapter in Great Teams comes with applicable examples on how to apply these characteristics in any organization.

Almost everything you know about Mickey Mouse is wrong: He wasn’t Disney’s first star; Steamboat Willie wasn’t his first movie; Mickey wasn’t a nice guy - and Walt Disney didn’t invent him. In 1928, two very different best friends invented Mickey Mouse. And the success tore them apart. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks’ friendship is a story of betrayal, love, war, money, power, tragedy, intrigue, humor, despair, and hope. You’ll love them both - when you don’t want to drop anvils on their heads.

Want to learn how to make people laugh out loud? How to Make People Laugh is a book that targets regular comedians, such as you and me. It does not try to transform you into a professional comedian. Instead, it puts comedy in the spotlight of everyday life. With this book, you will learn techniques that you can easily incorporate at parties or even in regular banter with friends and colleagues.

Through her global consulting projects, keynote speeches, and work with thousands of leaders, Karen has seen first-hand how a pervasive lack of clarity strangles business performance and erodes employee engagement. Ambiguity is the corporate default state, a condition so prevalent that “tolerance for ambiguity” has become a clichéd job requirement. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Corporate learning and development programs play an undeniable role in successful business endeavors, but only when they're done right. The significant revisions in the third edition of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning add fresh, timely elements to a resource that has become known globally as a trusted guide for professionals determined to get the most of their companies' training and development programs.

"New Ideas for Old Problems: A Human Performance Approach to Sustainable Change" focus is on applying innovative ideas to long-standing challenges in safety and operational reliability, emphasizing the importance of Human Performance in making meaningful and lasting changes.

Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work—in fact, only seventeen percent of the workforce believe they use all of their strengths on the job. Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths. Buckingham shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss.

Tom Junod’s Esquire profile of Fred Rogers, "Can You Say...Hero?", has been hailed as a classic of magazine writing. Now, his moving story of meeting and observing the beloved host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is the inspiration for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. Here, Junod’s unforgettable piece appears for the first time in audiobook form alongside an inspiring collection of advice and encouragement from Mister Rogers himself.

You can’t sell without listening to your customers—and yourself. In Listen to Sell, sales coaches Mike Esterday and Derek Roberts draw on their decades of industry experience to reveal the conversations, mindset, and skillset needed to amplify your sales confidence and bring purpose back to your customer relationships. With self-analysis exercises and customized strategies, you’ll learn how your mindset—which encompasses your attitude, what you believe about yourself, and the confidence you have to succeed—is the foundation of top sales performance.

Researchers now have a clear understanding of the key drivers that make meetings successful. In The Surprising Science of Meetings, Steven G. Rogelberg, researcher and consultant to some of the world's most successful companies, draws from extensive research, analytics and data mining, and survey interviews with over 5,000 employees across a range of industries to share the proven practices and techniques that help managers and employees enhance the quality of their meetings.

You don't have to do a dangerous job to endure a health-destroying, possibly life-threatening workplace. Just ask the manager in a senior finance role whose immense workload required frequent all-nighters, leading to alcohol and drug addiction. Or the dedicated news media producer whose commitment to getting the story resulted in a 60-pound weight gain thanks to having no down time to eat properly or exercise. These individuals are not exceptions. Every industry is filled with them, and the costs, to both employees and their companies, is enormous.

How many audiobooks have you listened to on project management? On leadership? Too many, right? But no other book combines the practice of project management and leadership into one balanced approach with practical examples—except this book. You don’t even need Project Manager in your title to employ these lessons. You can be any person on any team who has stepped up to take a leadership role on a critical initiative. You’ll learn what it takes to become the binding agent—the glue—that creates cohesive, engaged, high-performing project teams.

Going well beyond the recycled, superficial tactics in most leadership books, Thrive by Design introduces you to the triggers of exemplary workplace behavior at a neurological level. Tapping into these triggers leads to increased productivity, well-being, accountability, and retention. As you apply the practical approaches and tools outlined in the book, you will see less absenteeism, corrosive gossip, employee drama, accidents, and quality shortfalls.

The Leadership Contract provides the manual that leaders around the world need. With only seven percent of employees feeling confident in senior leadership, the problem is evident: disappointing, and often disgraceful leaders. Employees deserve better than that; organizations need better than that - and this book provides a robust framework for stepping up and making the decision to lead. If you're not exceptional, step up or step aside - this book helps you toughen up and put your commitment to great leadership in writing for yourself as much as everyone else.

If you've ever struggled to motivate the young people in your sphere of influence, Answering Why is the game-changer you've been looking for. From the urgent skills gap crisis to the proven strategies to inspire our youngest generations, Answering Why addresses the burning questions faced by educators, employers, and parents everywhere. Author, CEO, and generational expert Mark C. Perna shares his wide experience and profound success as both a single dad and performance consultant for education and workforce development across North America.

It is taken for granted in the knowledge economy that companies must employ the most talented performers to compete and succeed. Many firms try to buy stars by luring them away from competitors. But Boris Groysberg shows what an uncertain and disastrous practice this can be.