Every book in the Berrett-Koehler catalog, in one place. Browse our full collection of titles spanning leadership, management, workplace culture, social change, and beyond.
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Craig and Patricia Neal share, for the first time, the processes, tools, and techniques that they have developed in hundreds of “Thought Leader Gatherings” and other events to make any type of meeting or gathering be more meaningful and rewarding for participants and more transformational in action outcomes.
For creatives, entrepreneurs, job seekers, leaders, public figures, and speakers, Holley Murchison offers a proven six-step training process designed to help them craft and deliver comprehensive, compelling, and generally kick-ass introductions.
From artists to entrepreneurs, students looking for their first jobs to organizational leaders, public figures and speakers, Tell Me About Yourself helps bolster confidence and authentic communication in life's most vulnerable moments. Treading on a proven six-step process, founder and CEO of Oratory Glory, Holley Murchison, teaches you how to craft and deliver a comprehensive, compelling and generally kick-ass introduction.
• Step One: Revisit your introduction scenarios
• Step Two: Identify your audience
• Step Three: Clarify your response time and intent
• Step Four: Reframe the question
• Step Five: Decide what information you want to share
• Step Six: Build your story
When there's just one chance to make a first impression, the way we express who we are becomes the most important part of our conversations. Making a bad impression puts our potential for success on shaky ground, thereby stunting our growth and chance to make an impact in the world. Implementing the wisdom of this book and Murchison's methodology, even those of us who are shy can make a lasting first impression.
From artists to entrepreneurs, students looking for their first jobs to organizational leaders, public figures and speakers, Tell Me About Yourself helps bolster confidence and authentic communication in life's most vulnerable moments. Treading on a proven six-step process, founder and CEO of Oratory Glory, Holley Murchison, teaches you how to craft and deliver a comprehensive, compelling and generally kick-ass introduction.
• Step One: Revisit your introduction scenarios
• Step Two: Identify your audience
• Step Three: Clarify your response time and intent
• Step Four: Reframe the question
• Step Five: Decide what information you want to share
• Step Six: Build your story
When there's just one chance to make a first impression, the way we express who we are becomes the most important part of our conversations. Making a bad impression puts our potential for success on shaky ground, thereby stunting our growth and chance to make an impact in the world. Implementing the wisdom of this book and Murchison's methodology, even those of us who are shy can make a lasting first impression.
Bestselling author (Communicate with Confidence!, over 160,000 copies sold) Dianna Booher takes the mystery out of creating the “Personal Presence” that is central to everyone's success in leading, persuading, and selling to others. She gives specific and practical guidance for learning to look, talk, think, and act with presence.
Many family firms fail because the entrepreneurial spirit that drove the first generation isn't nurtured and developed in the generations that follow. Sharma and Cohen show how any family firm can create a "company of founders."
Companies that are owned and run by families need to develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills just like any other company, but family firms face obstacles that "hire and fire" companies don't. Family dynamics rarely perfectly mirror the best practices in the latest Harvard Business Review.
So what factors in the family and work environments enable the creation of leaders who share the entrepreneurial fire of the founders? Is there a specific education, training and experiential pathway that tips the odds of entrepreneurial success across generations? How do some firms manage to bypass family conflicts, disparate visions of the future, sibling rivalries, generational transition traps, death and divorces, that seem to mark the demise of so many family businesses?
Cohen and Sharma draw on their deep and extensive research on family businesses to reveal the secrets of enterprising families, using examples of both firms that flourished and those that failed. While this book is written with top leadership in mind, it's especially focused on the needs of the second and third generations. Cohen and Sharma emphasize that the most important skill of all is thinking like an entrepreneur--something that succeeding generations in family firms often miss.
Companies that are owned and run by families need to develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills just like any other company, but family firms face obstacles that "hire and fire" companies don't. Family dynamics rarely perfectly mirror the best practices in the latest Harvard Business Review.
So what factors in the family and work environments enable the creation of leaders who share the entrepreneurial fire of the founders? Is there a specific education, training and experiential pathway that tips the odds of entrepreneurial success across generations? How do some firms manage to bypass family conflicts, disparate visions of the future, sibling rivalries, generational transition traps, death and divorces, that seem to mark the demise of so many family businesses?
Cohen and Sharma draw on their deep and extensive research on family businesses to reveal the secrets of enterprising families, using examples of both firms that flourished and those that failed. While this book is written with top leadership in mind, it's especially focused on the needs of the second and third generations. Cohen and Sharma emphasize that the most important skill of all is thinking like an entrepreneur--something that succeeding generations in family firms often miss.
Thousands if not millions of people have heard the term “servant leadership,” introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in his landmark essay The Servant as Leader, published in 1970. There are now Centers for Servant Leadership in ten countries and counting. His work is regularly cited by some of the most prominent business writers and leaders in the world, such as Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley, and Peter Block. And yet until now there has been no biography of the man who first developed this revolutionary idea.
Don Frick was given unfettered access to all of Greenleaf's papers and correspondence. The result is a fascinating book that details the sources of Greenleaf's thought, describes his friendships with dozens of well-known people, and shows how he influenced business history well before his first book was published at the age of 73, and lived his own life as a servant leader.
As Director of Management Research at AT&T for 38 years, Greenleaf was known as “AT&T's Kept Revolutionary.” Among other unusual initiatives, he oversaw a novel program which taught executive decision making through great literature, established the first corporate assessment center using knowledge gleaned from the OSS's approach to training civilian spies during World War II, and invited leading philosophers and theologians to have conversations with AT&T executives.
After a period of soul searching and some surprising experiments in consciousness, Greenleaf retired from AT&T and began to develop the concept of servant leadership, the then-heretical notion that leaders lead best by serving their followers rather than “commanding” them. He continued to promote the idea through teaching, writing, and consulting until his last years, and was instrumental in creating a score of important organizations such as The Center for Creative Leadership and Yokefellow Institute.
Always, Greenleaf was a seeker opening himself up to novel experiences and astonishing people. He was a complex person-an introvert who served in public roles, a wise person who refused to give others “The Answer,” a brilliant thinker who often declared, “I am not a scholar.” His grave carries the epitaph he wrote for himself: “Potentially a good plumber; ruined by a sophisticated education.”
Don Frick was given unfettered access to all of Greenleaf's papers and correspondence. The result is a fascinating book that details the sources of Greenleaf's thought, describes his friendships with dozens of well-known people, and shows how he influenced business history well before his first book was published at the age of 73, and lived his own life as a servant leader.
As Director of Management Research at AT&T for 38 years, Greenleaf was known as “AT&T's Kept Revolutionary.” Among other unusual initiatives, he oversaw a novel program which taught executive decision making through great literature, established the first corporate assessment center using knowledge gleaned from the OSS's approach to training civilian spies during World War II, and invited leading philosophers and theologians to have conversations with AT&T executives.
After a period of soul searching and some surprising experiments in consciousness, Greenleaf retired from AT&T and began to develop the concept of servant leadership, the then-heretical notion that leaders lead best by serving their followers rather than “commanding” them. He continued to promote the idea through teaching, writing, and consulting until his last years, and was instrumental in creating a score of important organizations such as The Center for Creative Leadership and Yokefellow Institute.
Always, Greenleaf was a seeker opening himself up to novel experiences and astonishing people. He was a complex person-an introvert who served in public roles, a wise person who refused to give others “The Answer,” a brilliant thinker who often declared, “I am not a scholar.” His grave carries the epitaph he wrote for himself: “Potentially a good plumber; ruined by a sophisticated education.”
Scenario planning is, now more than ever, crucial to any organizational venture, but much of what has been previously published leans more on theory rather than practice. Thomas Chermack's academic credentials in tandem with his tenure in industrial scenario planning roles grants him the knowledge to support theory with the experience to outline process and practice.
EMPLOYEES TODAY are actively searching for more meaning in the workplace, for work that resonates with their being. How does one dare yearn for something more, when so many workplaces seem aligned solely with financial survival and profit making? How do we get work done amidst the demands and tugs on our soul?
Bringing Your Soul to Work addresses these troubling questions in a way that provides a pathway for readers who want to bridge the gap between their spiritual and work lives. It honors readers' unique experiences and challenges them to think differently, aligning their actions with their hearts.
Engaging, inspiring, and poetic, yet grounded in real life, this book is written by consultants who see the contradictions of the workplace firsthand. Using case examples, personal stories, inspirational quotes, visual images, reflective questions, and specific applications, it shows readers how to use their own experience to grapple with the gritty realities of the workplace. Throughout the book, readers are invited to consider the book's concepts in relation to their own unique situations and, in the case of the applications, to record their responses in writing. They then learn to construct meaning from their own experience, drawing on imagination and practice, as well as the specific circumstances of their work lives.
Addressing what many feel but cannot say out loud, Bringing Your Soul to Work links ideas about soul to the realities of work in a unique way. For all those looking to increase their effectiveness at work and bring more feeling, imagination, and heart into their efforts with others, it will serve as a guide for creating something new and lasting.
Bringing Your Soul to Work addresses these troubling questions in a way that provides a pathway for readers who want to bridge the gap between their spiritual and work lives. It honors readers' unique experiences and challenges them to think differently, aligning their actions with their hearts.
Engaging, inspiring, and poetic, yet grounded in real life, this book is written by consultants who see the contradictions of the workplace firsthand. Using case examples, personal stories, inspirational quotes, visual images, reflective questions, and specific applications, it shows readers how to use their own experience to grapple with the gritty realities of the workplace. Throughout the book, readers are invited to consider the book's concepts in relation to their own unique situations and, in the case of the applications, to record their responses in writing. They then learn to construct meaning from their own experience, drawing on imagination and practice, as well as the specific circumstances of their work lives.
Addressing what many feel but cannot say out loud, Bringing Your Soul to Work links ideas about soul to the realities of work in a unique way. For all those looking to increase their effectiveness at work and bring more feeling, imagination, and heart into their efforts with others, it will serve as a guide for creating something new and lasting.
This updated bestseller shows leaders how to transform fragmentation into authentic community with new workplace applications and proven strategies for today’s divided world.
With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.
This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:
From neighborhood councils transforming local engagement to organizations shifting from competitive to cooperative cultures, Block demonstrates how simple positive change can be once we decide it’s essential. Whether readers are community leaders, organizational consultants, or concerned citizens, this book provides the framework and tools to move from fragmentation to connection, from isolation to belonging.
With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.
This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:
- New stories and examples demonstrating community building as a more powerful approach to social problems than traditional policies and programs
- Expanded resources and a discussion guide designed for classroom and training program use
- A new closing chapter covering broader implications of the book’s ideas for organizational transformation
- Fresh content exploring the creative economy’s relationship to belonging and social capital’s role in authentic engagement
- Updated examples showing how community principles apply to today’s workplace and virtual world challenges
From neighborhood councils transforming local engagement to organizations shifting from competitive to cooperative cultures, Block demonstrates how simple positive change can be once we decide it’s essential. Whether readers are community leaders, organizational consultants, or concerned citizens, this book provides the framework and tools to move from fragmentation to connection, from isolation to belonging.
We must take risks if we are to grow personally and professionally. Risks are a part of a fully-lived life. But in the commotion of today's fast-paced, technology-driven world, people have become disconnected from the wise counsel of their inner resources, hampering their ability to make meaningful choices. Consequently, risks are increasingly being taken in an impulsive, haphazard, and often reckless way. In Right Risk, Bill Treasurer draws on the experiences and insights of successful risk-takers (including his own experiences as a daredevil high diver) to detail ten principles that readers can use to take risks with greater intelligence and confidence.
Right Risk is about taking more deliberate and intentional risks in an increasingly complex world. It aims to answer such questions as: How do I know which risks to take and which to avoid? How do I balance the need to take more risks with the need to preserve my safety? How do I muster up the courage to take risks when it is so much easier not to? How do I confront all those people who keep telling me what a mistake it would be to take the risk? And, most importantly, How do I make risk-taking less of an anxiety-provoking experience?
Right Risk will help readers take risks with greater discipline, focus, and maturity-to confidently face life's challenges and take advantage of life's opportunities.
Right Risk is about taking more deliberate and intentional risks in an increasingly complex world. It aims to answer such questions as: How do I know which risks to take and which to avoid? How do I balance the need to take more risks with the need to preserve my safety? How do I muster up the courage to take risks when it is so much easier not to? How do I confront all those people who keep telling me what a mistake it would be to take the risk? And, most importantly, How do I make risk-taking less of an anxiety-provoking experience?
Right Risk will help readers take risks with greater discipline, focus, and maturity-to confidently face life's challenges and take advantage of life's opportunities.
America's poor, working poor, and middle class are in a waiting game they cannot win. Jobs will not come, times will not get better, and communities will not flourish until they “get the memo”-that is, take charge of their own financial futures. Bestselling author John Hope Bryant (How the Poor Can Save Capitalism-40,000 copies sold) tells them how.
At long last, John Hope Bryant lays out five simple rules to provide a path to economic liberation for anyone in any situation. The Memo provides a simple path from financial literacy and mindset shifts to ownership, positive relationships, and a completely new attitude toward money. In a provocative exploration of the intersections of race and class, Bryant preaches the definitive conclusion that to be free, one must be economically liberated. Readers will learn how to achieve economic power in the following chapters:
• We Live in a Free Enterprise System-Embrace This
• Your Mindset Makes or Loses You Money and Wealth
• Your Relationships Are Your Investments-Your Most Important Relationship Is with Yourself
• Don't “Get a Job”-Create Value. You ARE Capital.
• Spiritual Capital Is the Start of True Wealth
Those who suffer from poverty haven't gotten “the memo”-until now. For decades, John Hope Bryant has reached out to the underserved in our “free enterprise” system. Through Operation HOPE, he has reached tens of thousands of people. In this work, he's found that most problems that stem from racism are directly linked to economic slavery. The five rules are spelled out clearly: readers must embrace the “free” in free enterprise, shift their mindset, build relationships, switch from working a job to actively creating value from within, and realize that they can never be truly wealthy without hope.
At long last, John Hope Bryant lays out five simple rules to provide a path to economic liberation for anyone in any situation. The Memo provides a simple path from financial literacy and mindset shifts to ownership, positive relationships, and a completely new attitude toward money. In a provocative exploration of the intersections of race and class, Bryant preaches the definitive conclusion that to be free, one must be economically liberated. Readers will learn how to achieve economic power in the following chapters:
• We Live in a Free Enterprise System-Embrace This
• Your Mindset Makes or Loses You Money and Wealth
• Your Relationships Are Your Investments-Your Most Important Relationship Is with Yourself
• Don't “Get a Job”-Create Value. You ARE Capital.
• Spiritual Capital Is the Start of True Wealth
Those who suffer from poverty haven't gotten “the memo”-until now. For decades, John Hope Bryant has reached out to the underserved in our “free enterprise” system. Through Operation HOPE, he has reached tens of thousands of people. In this work, he's found that most problems that stem from racism are directly linked to economic slavery. The five rules are spelled out clearly: readers must embrace the “free” in free enterprise, shift their mindset, build relationships, switch from working a job to actively creating value from within, and realize that they can never be truly wealthy without hope.
Bestselling author Thom Hartmann (SCREWED, THE LAST HOURS OF ANCIENT SUNLIGHT) is the host of the flagship show of the Air America Radio network, held during radio prime time on stations from coast-to-coast and on satellite radio.
Drawing on ancient and contemporary wisdom and many moving stories, Leider and Shapiro invite readers on a journey to discover how to live authentically and wholeheartedly in the second half of life and, in doing so, find new ways to both enjoy the world and make a meaningful contribution to improving it.
WINNER OF THE 2025 BEST BOOK AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY
This candid business biography reveals how bestselling author, speaker, and business consultant Ken Blanchard revolutionized management by leading with love and service.
Ken Blanchard transformed modern leadership theory through unlikely means-by catching people doing things right. Written like a novel with warmth and humor, this authorized biography reveals how a mediocre student who was told he "couldn't write" became a bestselling author and a globally renowned management expert.
Through extensive access to personal papers, letters, and interviews spanning six decades, Martha Lawrence paints an intimate portrait of the man behind The One Minute Manager and dozens of other influential books. From his early days coaching Cub Scouts to building a worldwide training organization, Blanchard demonstrated that nice guys can finish first by focusing on serving rather than being served.
During pivotal moments-his sister's tragic death, losing his home to wildfire, economic downturns threatening his company-Blanchard's optimistic leadership philosophy was tested. Yet his unwavering commitment to bringing out the best in others while leading with love created a lasting legacy that continues to influence organizations globally.
More than just a business biography, this book shows an American success story of someone who achieved greatness not through ruthless ambition but by genuinely caring about people and helping them reach their full potential. Blanchard's story offers an inspiring road map for anyone seeking to lead with both results and relationships in mind.
This candid business biography reveals how bestselling author, speaker, and business consultant Ken Blanchard revolutionized management by leading with love and service.
Ken Blanchard transformed modern leadership theory through unlikely means-by catching people doing things right. Written like a novel with warmth and humor, this authorized biography reveals how a mediocre student who was told he "couldn't write" became a bestselling author and a globally renowned management expert.
Through extensive access to personal papers, letters, and interviews spanning six decades, Martha Lawrence paints an intimate portrait of the man behind The One Minute Manager and dozens of other influential books. From his early days coaching Cub Scouts to building a worldwide training organization, Blanchard demonstrated that nice guys can finish first by focusing on serving rather than being served.
During pivotal moments-his sister's tragic death, losing his home to wildfire, economic downturns threatening his company-Blanchard's optimistic leadership philosophy was tested. Yet his unwavering commitment to bringing out the best in others while leading with love created a lasting legacy that continues to influence organizations globally.
More than just a business biography, this book shows an American success story of someone who achieved greatness not through ruthless ambition but by genuinely caring about people and helping them reach their full potential. Blanchard's story offers an inspiring road map for anyone seeking to lead with both results and relationships in mind.
Everything that we've been told about women succeeding in the workplace-from leaning in to throwing out the idea of being “nice girls”-misses the true key that puts women ahead: influence. Leadership experts Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, Mary Davis Holt, and Diana Faison create an airtight case for the importance of the influence effect.
It's pure myth that women need to be more aggressive to succeed. Since the time when Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In was first published in 2013, one thing has become strikingly clear: leaning in simply isn't enough to turn the tide. To the contrary, studies show that imitating male behavior doesn't translate to professional advancement for women. The distinctive missing link is influence.
In every industry, from private equity investing to network television, women are underrepresented at the top and underpaid across the board and throughout their careers. The gap in the literature about what puts women ahead is influence-the capacity to have an impact on agendas and outcomes. Influence is more important to the women we work with than power itself.
The Influence Effect focuses on building influence that will enable women to gain traction in their careers and to achieve the advancement they deserve. The tools in this book are geared to help women rise above the politics of business and succeed on their own terms by achieving greater influence. Women have goals they want to achieve and ideas they can champion through change, and influence is the currency they need to make that happen.
It's pure myth that women need to be more aggressive to succeed. Since the time when Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In was first published in 2013, one thing has become strikingly clear: leaning in simply isn't enough to turn the tide. To the contrary, studies show that imitating male behavior doesn't translate to professional advancement for women. The distinctive missing link is influence.
In every industry, from private equity investing to network television, women are underrepresented at the top and underpaid across the board and throughout their careers. The gap in the literature about what puts women ahead is influence-the capacity to have an impact on agendas and outcomes. Influence is more important to the women we work with than power itself.
The Influence Effect focuses on building influence that will enable women to gain traction in their careers and to achieve the advancement they deserve. The tools in this book are geared to help women rise above the politics of business and succeed on their own terms by achieving greater influence. Women have goals they want to achieve and ideas they can champion through change, and influence is the currency they need to make that happen.
When it was first published, What If Boomers Can't Retire? predicted what would happen when boomers switched from buying stocks to selling them for retirement income. Since then-and as predicted by author Thornton Parker-stocks have become less important, prices have declined, corporations have shifted their emphasis from inflating stocks to just surviving, and there is currently a recession in full swing.
This book shows that there is a bright side, however. If enough boomers work in their later years and preserve their capital, and if the country improves the way it uses capital, the results can lead to fuller lives for millions of people, healthier communities, and more sustainable economies worldwide. Parker details specific actions that individuals and organizations can take to gradually make the shift from the dangerously risky pursuit of phantom wealth to productive investments based on real accomplishments, goods, and services.
This book shows that there is a bright side, however. If enough boomers work in their later years and preserve their capital, and if the country improves the way it uses capital, the results can lead to fuller lives for millions of people, healthier communities, and more sustainable economies worldwide. Parker details specific actions that individuals and organizations can take to gradually make the shift from the dangerously risky pursuit of phantom wealth to productive investments based on real accomplishments, goods, and services.
Shows how to ensure that capitalism promotes progress and equality rather than enriching the few at the expense of many
Based on principles developed by the Caux Round Table, an international network of senior business executives from such companies as 3M, Canon, NEC, Bankers Trust, Shell, Prudential, and dozens of other companies
Provides practical guidelines for corporate social responsibility through the Caux Round Table's Seven General Principles for Business
The world is drifting without a clear plan for its economic development. Communism is dead, but in the wake of Enron and similar scandals, many see capitalism as amoral and too easily abused. A blueprint for progress is needed and Moral Capitalism provides one.
Moral Capitalism is based on principles developed by the Caux Round Table, an extraordinary international network of top business executives who believe that business can-and must-weigh both profit and principle. Caux Round Table's global chair, Stephen Young, argues that the ethical standards inherent in capitalism have been compromised by cultural values inimical to capitalism's essentially egalitarian, rational spirit, and distorted by the short-sighted dog-eat-dog doctrines of social Darwinism into what he calls brute capitalism. He demonstrates how the Caux Round Table's Seven General Principles for Business can serve as a blueprint for a new moral capitalism, and explores in detail how, if guided by these principles, capitalism is really the only system with the potential to reduce global poverty and tyranny and address the needs and aspirations of individuals, societies, and nations.
Based on principles developed by the Caux Round Table, an international network of senior business executives from such companies as 3M, Canon, NEC, Bankers Trust, Shell, Prudential, and dozens of other companies
Provides practical guidelines for corporate social responsibility through the Caux Round Table's Seven General Principles for Business
The world is drifting without a clear plan for its economic development. Communism is dead, but in the wake of Enron and similar scandals, many see capitalism as amoral and too easily abused. A blueprint for progress is needed and Moral Capitalism provides one.
Moral Capitalism is based on principles developed by the Caux Round Table, an extraordinary international network of top business executives who believe that business can-and must-weigh both profit and principle. Caux Round Table's global chair, Stephen Young, argues that the ethical standards inherent in capitalism have been compromised by cultural values inimical to capitalism's essentially egalitarian, rational spirit, and distorted by the short-sighted dog-eat-dog doctrines of social Darwinism into what he calls brute capitalism. He demonstrates how the Caux Round Table's Seven General Principles for Business can serve as a blueprint for a new moral capitalism, and explores in detail how, if guided by these principles, capitalism is really the only system with the potential to reduce global poverty and tyranny and address the needs and aspirations of individuals, societies, and nations.
The workplace is a "blink" world-studies confirm that people form opinions of one another within the first seven seconds of meeting. To help business readers both re-master the lost skills of in-person communication and prepare for the coming visual tech revolution, Carol Kinsey Goman shows how to accurately decode the body language of others, and how to use your own body language in the workplace to help build trust and credibility with customers, colleagues and clients.