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Great ideas don't matter if you can't execute—bestselling leadership expert Mark Miller offers a proven, research-based method for creating workplaces where everyone performs at the highest level.

All high performance organizations have one thing in common: execution. The men and women who work there sustain performance at seemingly otherworldly levels of precision, accuracy, and consistency. In the fifth and final book of Mark Miller's High Performance series, he uses his trademark business fable format to show how any organization can cultivate the kind of everyday habits that yield extraordinary results.

Miller tells the story of Blake Brown, a CEO who learns how to help his team to consistently excel at execution from a perhaps unlikely source: his son's high school football coach. The story is fictional, but the principles and practices are very real, derived from years of research led by a team from Stanford University. Miller and his team interviewed leaders and employees from numerous world-class organizations, including the Navy SEALS, Starbucks, Apple, Southwest Airlines, the Seattle Seahawks, Mayo Clinic, Cirque du Soleil, and more. The lessons learned were then field-tested with over seventy businesses employing over 7,000 people. Miller gives you proven tools to release the untapped potential in your people, create a strong competitive advantage, and win not just on game day but every day.

Performance appraisals are used in the overwhelming majority of workplaces. Yet, most organizations that use appraisal-and a similar percentage of givers and receivers of appraisal-are dissatisfied with the process. Many are beginning to deeply question whether appraisal is necessary and consistent with the work culture espoused by progressive organizations. Abolishing Performance Appraisals provides an insightful, well documented look at the flaws of appraisal-including its destructive, unintended effects-and offers practical guidance to organizations that want to move on to more progressive approaches to coaching, feedback, development, and compensation. While many books prescribe cures for appraisal, this is the first to focus exclusively on eliminating appraisal altogether and creating alternative, non-appraisal approaches based upon progressive and healthier assumptions about people. The authors expose and dispel the widely accepted myths and false assumptions that underlie common management strategies surrounding the five key functions of appraisal-coaching, feedback, development, compensation, and legal documentation. They then offer step-by-step practical guidance on implementing alternative non-appraisal strategies that deliver the objectives of each function. And they suggest ways to give supervisors and managers the freedom to choose for themselves the most effective ways of working with people. Filled with real-life examples, resources, tools, and detailed practical advice, Abolishing Performance Appraisals is an entirely fresh and radically different view of performance appraisal and its functions that will help people start over and discover new and more effective approaches.

Performance appraisals are used in the overwhelming majority of workplaces. Yet, most organizations that use appraisal-and a similar percentage of givers and receivers of appraisal-are dissatisfied with the process. Many are beginning to deeply question whether appraisal is necessary and consistent with the work culture espoused by progressive organizations. Abolishing Performance Appraisals provides an insightful, well documented look at the flaws of appraisal-including its destructive, unintended effects-and offers practical guidance to organizations that want to move on to more progressive approaches to coaching, feedback, development, and compensation. While many books prescribe cures for appraisal, this is the first to focus exclusively on eliminating appraisal altogether and creating alternative, non-appraisal approaches based upon progressive and healthier assumptions about people. The authors expose and dispel the widely accepted myths and false assumptions that underlie common management strategies surrounding the five key functions of appraisal-coaching, feedback, development, compensation, and legal documentation. They then offer step-by-step practical guidance on implementing alternative non-appraisal strategies that deliver the objectives of each function. And they suggest ways to give supervisors and managers the freedom to choose for themselves the most effective ways of working with people. Filled with real-life examples, resources, tools, and detailed practical advice, Abolishing Performance Appraisals is an entirely fresh and radically different view of performance appraisal and its functions that will help people start over and discover new and more effective approaches.

If you're like a lot of us, for years you've been making resolutions and promises about becoming physically fit. Despite all your good intentions, though, somehow it never quite goes according to plan. But you can break that cycle.

In Fit at Last, bestselling business author Ken Blanchard and fitness authority Tim Kearin show how Ken, at age seventy-three, finally was able to make lasting improvements in his health and fitness, including dropping over thirty pounds in a year. In each chapter, Ken shares the very personal story of his ups and downs—involving, among other things, a puppy, a Hawaiian tour bus full of widows, and a fifty-year college reunion—while Tim offers expert advice and wisdom gained from over forty years in the fitness industry.

Following through on your efforts to get fit requires leadership—personal leadership. Early on, Ken realized the same concepts he'd been using for years to help people lead organizations also could help him stick to his program. Here, you'll learn how Ken and Tim applied the Situational Leadership II approach to set SMART goals, diagnose Ken's progress in each of the six core areas of fitness, and match them with the leadership styles necessary to get Ken to the next level in each area.

Certainly there is a wealth of excellent fitness advice here—but ultimately, this is a book about commitment. People don't fail because they don't know what to do—they fail because they just don't do it. Using the tools in this book, you'll be able to move from simply being interested in fitness to making a lasting commitment—one that will add a spring to your step, a smile to your face, and years to your life.

If you’re like a lot of us, for years you’ve been making resolutions and promises about becoming physically fit. Despite all your good intentions, though, somehow it never quite goes according to plan. But you can break that cycle. In Fit at Last, bestselling business author Ken Blanchard and fitness authority Tim Kearin show how Ken, at age seventy-three, finally was able to make lasting improvements in his health and fitness, including dropping over thirty pounds in a year. In each chapter, Ken shares the very personal story of his ups and downs—involving, among other things, a puppy, a Hawaiian tour bus full of widows, and a fifty-year college reunion—while Tim offers expert advice and wisdom gained from over forty years in the fitness industry. Following through on your efforts to get fit requires leadership—personal leadership. Early on, Ken realized the same concepts he’d been using for years to help people lead organizations also could help him stick to his program. Here, you’ll learn how Ken and Tim applied the Situational Leadership II approach to set SMART goals, diagnose Ken’s progress in each of the six core areas of fitness, and match them with the leadership styles necessary to get Ken to the next level in each area. Certainly there is a wealth of excellent fitness advice here—but ultimately, this is a book about commitment. People don’t fail because they don’t know what to do—they fail because they just don’t do it. Using the tools in this book, you’ll be able to move from simply being interested in fitness to making a lasting commitment—one that will add a spring to your step, a smile to your face, and years to your life.

Whether you're the new kid in a cubicle, the boss in the executive suite, or self-employed, you have huge potential for greater productivity and fulfillment. Even very high performers in excellent organizations—large and small, for profit and nonprofit—report that 30 to 40 percent of their talent is untapped. Imagine what lies waiting for you.

Take Charge of Your Talent details three keys to develop and enjoy your abilities. You'll discover new ways to identify your aspirations and opportunities, power past obstacles, and translate your intentions into results. Finally, you'll create a personal brand with enduring career assets that will multiply the payoffs for yourself and your organization.

Whether you’re the new kid in a cubicle, the boss in the executive suite, or self-employed, you have huge potential for greater productivity and fulfillment. Even very high performers in excellent organizations—large and small, for profit and nonprofit—report that 30 to 40 percent of their talent is untapped. Imagine what lies waiting for you. Take Charge of Your Talent details three keys to develop and enjoy your abilities. You’ll discover new ways to identify your aspirations and opportunities, power past obstacles, and translate your intentions into results. Finally, you’ll create a personal brand with enduring career assets that will multiply the payoffs for yourself and your organization. “This inspiring book will teach you how to unlock your gifts and release your power and potential.” —Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Great Leaders Grow “This wonderfully practical and inspiring book is based on a belief I cherish: that all humans are creative and have talent.” —Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science and So Far From Home “Maruska and Perry’s book shows how we can harness our talents in ways that expand our horizons, ramp up our ability to bring out our best, and energize those around us in the same way. Indispensable.” —Michael Ray, professor emeritus, Stanford Business School, coauthor of Creativity in Business, and author of The Highest Goal

Just like the lonely princess in the fairy tale who was reluctant to lock lips with a warty frog and transform him into a handsome prince, something stops many of us short of attaining our dreams. Our negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes can threaten to keep us from achieving all that we're capable of. Here bestselling author and speaker Brian Tracy and his daughter, therapist Christina Tracy Stein, provide a set of practical, proven strategies anyone can use to turn those negative frogs into positive princes.

Tracy and Stein present a step-by-step plan that addresses the root causes of negativity, helps you uncover blocks that have become mental obstacles, and shows how you can transform them into stepping-stones to achieve your fullest potential. The book distills, in an accessible and immediately useful form, what Tracy has presented in more than 5,000 talks and seminars with more than five million people in fifty-eight countries and what Stein has learned through thousands of hours of counseling people from all walks of life.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” the authors quote Shakespeare. The many powerful techniques and exercises in this book will help you change your mindset so that you discover something worthwhile in every person and experience, however difficult and challenging they might seem at first. You'll learn how to develop unshakable self-confidence, become your best self, and begin living an extraordinary life.

Just like the lonely princess in the fairy tale who was reluctant to lock lips with a warty frog and transform him into a handsome prince, something stops many of us short of attaining our dreams. Our negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes can threaten to keep us from achieving all that we’re capable of. Here bestselling author and speaker Brian Tracy and his daughter, therapist Christina Tracy Stein, provide a set of practical, proven strategies anyone can use to turn those negative frogs into positive princes. Tracy and Stein present a step-by-step plan that addresses the root causes of negativity, helps you uncover blocks that have become mental obstacles, and shows how you can transform them into stepping-stones to achieve your fullest potential. The book distills, in an accessible and immediately useful form, what Tracy has presented in more than 5,000 talks and seminars with more than five million people in fifty-eight countries and what Stein has learned through thousands of hours of counseling people from all walks of life. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” the authors quote Shakespeare. The many powerful techniques and exercises in this book will help you change your mindset so that you discover something worthwhile in every person and experience, however difficult and challenging they might seem at first. You’ll learn how to develop unshakable self-confidence, become your best self, and begin living an extraordinary life.

The future of work is here. You can no longer survive by copying and pasting old office techniques into a digital environment; it's exhausting, unproductive, and unsuccessful. There is a better way! Are you ready to rethink everything you know about how remote works?

Drawing on their years of experience working at remote companies DuckDuckGo and Automattic, plus dozens of interviews with leading experts, Ali Greene and Tamara Sanderson have written the ultimate playbook for managing remote teams.

This book addresses challenges such as communicating effectively (with fewer meetings!), eliminating frustration over what tools to use, establishing team norms, and focusing on getting things done. You will learn how to work best remotely and create a workplace designed for freedom, flexibility, and focus.

For decades, we've planned our lives around our work. Now it's time to intentionally design work to fit our lives.

The future of work is here. You can no longer survive by copying and pasting old office techniques into a digital environment; it's exhausting, unproductive, and unsuccessful. There is a better way! Are you ready to rethink everything you know about how remote works?

Drawing on their years of experience working at remote companies DuckDuckGo and Automattic, plus dozens of interviews with leading experts, Ali Greene and Tamara Sanderson have written the ultimate playbook for managing remote teams.

This book addresses challenges such as communicating effectively (with fewer meetings!), eliminating frustration over what tools to use, establishing team norms, and focusing on getting things done. You will learn how to work best remotely and create a workplace designed for freedom, flexibility, and focus.

For decades, we've planned our lives around our work. Now it's time to intentionally design work to fit our lives.

This is the first book to describe in detail the principles of Outward Bound, told through the stories of former instructors and graduates who show how to apply them to create healthier, more effective teams, organizations, and communities.

For nearly six decades Outward Bound USA's education programs have shaped the lives of tens of thousands of participants. Strangers are put in an unfamiliar and unpredictable setting, where to succeed they must develop a sense of teamwork, resilience, self-confidence, and a focus on the greater good. But, Mark Brown asks, isn't the modern world just as unpredictable and challenging as any mountain or desert? He shows how the same principles that bind people together in the natural world work just as well in cities, companies, and communities.

This book explores the concept of Expeditionary Leadership through the stories of people such as third-generation business steward Laura Kohler, the Home Depot cofounder Arthur Blank, and former United States Senator Mark Udall, whose lives were touched by Outward Bound and who then went on to make a positive difference in the world. They show how each of us can, in our own way, use the Outward Bound philosophy to bravely face the wild unknowns in our daily lives.

From training the first Peace Corps volunteers to partnering with thousands of educational institutions and corporations, Outward Bound has helped build the self-confidence and character of participants who have gone on to live richer, more fulfilling, and successful lives. Outward Bound internationally operates in thirty-three countries and impacts nearly a quarter of a million people annually.

This is the first book to describe in detail the principles of Outward Bound, told through the stories of former instructors and graduates who show how to apply them to create healthier, more effective teams, organizations, and communities.

For nearly six decades Outward Bound USA's education programs have shaped the lives of tens of thousands of participants. Strangers are put in an unfamiliar and unpredictable setting, where to succeed they must develop a sense of teamwork, resilience, self-confidence, and a focus on the greater good. But, Mark Brown asks, isn't the modern world just as unpredictable and challenging as any mountain or desert? He shows how the same principles that bind people together in the natural world work just as well in cities, companies, and communities.

This book explores the concept of Expeditionary Leadership through the stories of people such as third-generation business steward Laura Kohler, the Home Depot cofounder Arthur Blank, and former United States Senator Mark Udall, whose lives were touched by Outward Bound and who then went on to make a positive difference in the world. They show how each of us can, in our own way, use the Outward Bound philosophy to bravely face the wild unknowns in our daily lives.

From training the first Peace Corps volunteers to partnering with thousands of educational institutions and corporations, Outward Bound has helped build the self-confidence and character of participants who have gone on to live richer, more fulfilling, and successful lives. Outward Bound internationally operates in thirty-three countries and impacts nearly a quarter of a million people annually.

As leaders, how we are is as important as what we do. The second edition of this leadership classic, updated with new chapters, shows how to master the inner and outer work needed to build relationships that unleash the transformational creative potential in everyone.

We need to expand beyond top-down, one-dimensional leadership models and find alternatives that are more fluid and inclusive and that harness the possibility of many rather than relying on the power of one. This is exactly what Karen and Henry Kimsey-House provide in this groundbreaking book. Co-Active Leadership is a deeply collaborative approach, which is why the first of its five dimensions is leading from within: self-leadership. Leaders must be fully present and live lives of integrity, openheartedness, and self-awareness if they are to make the kind of conscious, creative choices Co-Active Leadership demands.

Each of the remaining four dimensions work together holistically. Depending on the situation, you may lead from the front, offering guidance and inspiration; from behind, supporting and encouraging others; from beside, partnering with and supporting other members of your team; or from the field, drawing on insights and wisdom available beyond the rational mind.

This edition includes two new chapters, one offering new ways to utilize the Co-Active Leadership Model and another that goes deeply into the Co-Active philosophy. Co-Active Leadership celebrates and honors different expressions of leadership. It invites all of us to share our expertise and allows collaborative solutions to emerge that would never have been possible otherwise.

As leaders, how we are is as important as what we do. The second edition of this leadership classic, updated with new chapters, shows how to master the inner and outer work needed to build relationships that unleash the transformational creative potential in everyone.

We need to expand beyond top-down, one-dimensional leadership models and find alternatives that are more fluid and inclusive and that harness the possibility of many rather than relying on the power of one. This is exactly what Karen and Henry Kimsey-House provide in this groundbreaking book. Co-Active Leadership is a deeply collaborative approach, which is why the first of its five dimensions is leading from within: self-leadership. Leaders must be fully present and live lives of integrity, openheartedness, and self-awareness if they are to make the kind of conscious, creative choices Co-Active Leadership demands.

Each of the remaining four dimensions work together holistically. Depending on the situation, you may lead from the front, offering guidance and inspiration; from behind, supporting and encouraging others; from beside, partnering with and supporting other members of your team; or from the field, drawing on insights and wisdom available beyond the rational mind.

This edition includes two new chapters, one offering new ways to utilize the Co-Active Leadership Model and another that goes deeply into the Co-Active philosophy. Co-Active Leadership celebrates and honors different expressions of leadership. It invites all of us to share our expertise and allows collaborative solutions to emerge that would never have been possible otherwise.

Four innovation experts from the startup world, large enterprises, nonprofits, and academia come together to reveal the secret of uncovering authentic demand to build successful innovations.

Books on innovation mostly focus on how to nurture innovative cultures and brainstorm ideas. The Heart of Innovation is the first popular book to concretely delve into what innovations really are and how to create them. Many attempts at innovation fail because customers turn out to be indifferent. The key to success is to uncover unmet authentic demand; what customers cannot be indifferent to. Through fresh case studies, ranging from how SoulCycle revolutionized the fitness industry, to how IBM built an $8 billion business on the Web, to a single mother ending abuse in a slum in Africa, The Heart of Innovation explores how authentic demand is often hidden or taken for granted.

The first half of the book explores cases where people accidentally found their way to meeting an unmet authentic demand-or failed to. The second half of the book provides a field guide to methodically identifying and building products, services, and businesses around authentic demand.

At Georgia Tech, IBM, and elsewhere, the authors have worked with scores of startups and large companies, developing a unique methodology that unpacks the black box of authentic demand and shows innovators how to search for it, recognize it, and create situations for their customers that catalyze it. They explore the differences, and different challenges, to the three types of innovation-incremental improvement, company transformation, and radical formative innovation.

Authors Chanoff, Furst, Sabbah, and Wegman take innovators and people who work with them on a new journey through innovation. Their fresh case studies, from IBM's entry to the Web, to a single mother in a slum in Kenya, make The Heart of Innovation as obsessively readable as it is informative.

If customers are already pulling your innovation from your hands, you don't need this book. Otherwise, reach for The Heart of Innovation.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Today's Best Procurement Practices

"Acquisition Management is a great book for those in the government acquisition business. It is complete and well documented. I was especially impressed with the format which makes it valuable for training people new to the acquisition field and as a reference to those with more experience."
Brig. Gen. James C. Dever, Jr.
USAF (Ret.)
Formerly, DCS Contracting and Manufacturing, Air Force Systems Command

Whether you're a contractor or government personnel, one thing is for sure: The federal procurement process is undergoing a major overhaul. And, to be successful, you must master a host of new methods, rules, and requirements. New from Management Concepts, Acquisition Management is the first step-by-step guide to the government's new strategies and methods for procurement.

This new, streamlined acquisition process adopts the best practices of the business world to boost cost-efficiency and reduce the time from contract development to delivery. Acquisition Management prepares you fully to understand and apply these new acquisition techniques, teaching you how to manage contract risk and work more effectively as a member of a multi-functional team.

Key Features
• Reviews acquisition principles to help you develop a basis for decision-making
• Gives you step-by-step guidance for every phase of the process, from solicitation to closeout
• Places the procurement process in a risk management context to help you troubleshoot problems and ensure success
• Outlines the roles and tasks of major players in the process to help you work more effectively as part of the contracting team
• Presents pertinent information from the FAR at each applicable point in the acquisition process

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Today's Best Procurement Practices

"Acquisition Management is a great book for those in the government acquisition business. It is complete and well documented. I was especially impressed with the format which makes it valuable for training people new to the acquisition field and as a reference to those with more experience."
Brig. Gen. James C. Dever, Jr.
USAF (Ret.)
Formerly, DCS Contracting and Manufacturing, Air Force Systems Command

Whether you're a contractor or government personnel, one thing is for sure: The federal procurement process is undergoing a major overhaul. And, to be successful, you must master a host of new methods, rules, and requirements. New from Management Concepts, Acquisition Management is the first step-by-step guide to the government's new strategies and methods for procurement.

This new, streamlined acquisition process adopts the best practices of the business world to boost cost-efficiency and reduce the time from contract development to delivery. Acquisition Management prepares you fully to understand and apply these new acquisition techniques, teaching you how to manage contract risk and work more effectively as a member of a multi-functional team.

Key Features
• Reviews acquisition principles to help you develop a basis for decision-making
• Gives you step-by-step guidance for every phase of the process, from solicitation to closeout
• Places the procurement process in a risk management context to help you troubleshoot problems and ensure success
• Outlines the roles and tasks of major players in the process to help you work more effectively as part of the contracting team
• Presents pertinent information from the FAR at each applicable point in the acquisition process