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Sales has always been a high burnout profession. These days, with the intense focus on quarterly earnings reports, there is more pressure on sales professionals than ever before. The relentless push for immediate results can leave salespeople exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why they ever got themselves into this business. And it can leave sales organizations with a serious turnover problem.
SPROUT! was written by two long-time sales veterans to help their fellow professionals rediscover enthusiasm for their chosen profession and to help sales organizations retain top talent. Vengel and Wright use a page-turning story to outline a new strategy for sales, one that will make salespeople better able to cope with the inevitable ups and downs and take a more effective, long-term approach.
As the book begins, Marsha Molloy has had it. Once a top pharmaceutical sales representative so crackerjack her nickname was Marsha Money, she's been laid low by a tough economy and just plain exhaustion. The once-hungry top producer has seemingly lost her touch and grown indifferent to a sales culture that appears to value faxes, emails, and cell phone chats instead of the relationship building that had been her forte. An avid gardener on a visit to her local nursery, Marsha runs into Bob Rawlings, the store's new owner and an ex-sales professional himself. They begin to chat, and Marsha mentions her career frustrations. Bob replies that he'd had the same problem, but found that the more he began treating his business like his garden, the better his business grew - and a happier, more relaxed salesman appeared. Marsha is intrigued but puzzled - how could sales be like gardening? Bob takes Marsha under his wing and, with the assistance of several other salespeople he's mentored, teaches her the secrets of his sales garden.
By using the authors' sales garden metaphor to change their whole way of thinking about sales, and by adhering to the easy, practical steps outlined in SPROUT! salespeople can beat the career blues, increase their sales, and sustain themselves for the long term.
SPROUT! was written by two long-time sales veterans to help their fellow professionals rediscover enthusiasm for their chosen profession and to help sales organizations retain top talent. Vengel and Wright use a page-turning story to outline a new strategy for sales, one that will make salespeople better able to cope with the inevitable ups and downs and take a more effective, long-term approach.
As the book begins, Marsha Molloy has had it. Once a top pharmaceutical sales representative so crackerjack her nickname was Marsha Money, she's been laid low by a tough economy and just plain exhaustion. The once-hungry top producer has seemingly lost her touch and grown indifferent to a sales culture that appears to value faxes, emails, and cell phone chats instead of the relationship building that had been her forte. An avid gardener on a visit to her local nursery, Marsha runs into Bob Rawlings, the store's new owner and an ex-sales professional himself. They begin to chat, and Marsha mentions her career frustrations. Bob replies that he'd had the same problem, but found that the more he began treating his business like his garden, the better his business grew - and a happier, more relaxed salesman appeared. Marsha is intrigued but puzzled - how could sales be like gardening? Bob takes Marsha under his wing and, with the assistance of several other salespeople he's mentored, teaches her the secrets of his sales garden.
By using the authors' sales garden metaphor to change their whole way of thinking about sales, and by adhering to the easy, practical steps outlined in SPROUT! salespeople can beat the career blues, increase their sales, and sustain themselves for the long term.
In this practical, provocative and inspiring guide, Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen of public relations powerhouse Fenton Communications offer social change organizations key recommendations for leveraging the untapped power of women for positive change through fundraising, advocacy and the ballot box.
In this new paperback reissue of bestselling and award-winning book (hardcover edition sold 25,000 copies sold; Wall Street Journal Bestseller; Silver Medal Winner Axiom Business Book Awards for Best Business Book Fable), Noah Blumenthal shows workers and managers how abandoning our victim stories and embracing our heroic potential can both increase employee engagement and productivity and accelerate professional success.
In this troubling analysis of recent trends in the workplace, Vanderbilt professor of management and sociology Bruce Barry shows how Americans' increasing willingness to sacrifice basic freedoms while on the job undermines both our productivity as workers and our individual and collective ability to cultivate and participate in a free society.
Physician Bernard Lown tells the extraordinary story of how a group of Soviet and American doctors came together to stop nuclear proliferation and ended up winning the Nobel Peace Prize and influencing the course of history. It is a story that sheds new light on what really drove and still drives the nuclear arms race, the critical importance of citizen involvement in social change efforts, and what Lown terms the epidemic of militarism.
In a world of chaos, how can generative AI help leaders lead?
Over the next decade, all leaders will be augmented with some form of generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI. For the best leaders, this will mean dramatic improvement. For mediocre leaders, this will mean persistent confusion, distraction, and pretense. With futureback thinking-looking ten years ahead, then planning backward from future to next to now-this third edition of Leaders Make the Future shows how people can improve their leadership skills while expanding their human perspective.
Now 75 percent revised and expanded with resources from the Institute for the Future, this new edition is organized around ten future leadership skills:
• Augmented futureback curiosity
• Augmented clarity
• Augmented dilemma flipping
• Augmented bio-engaging
• Augmented immersive learning
• Augmented depolarizing
• Augmented commons creating
• Augmented smart mob swarming
• Augmented strength with humility
• Human calming
AI-augmented leadership will be key for any organization to tackle the uncertainty of the future. And by incorporating practical methodologies, ethical guidelines, and innovative leadership practices, this book will help leaders develop their clarity and moderate their certainty.
Over the next decade, all leaders will be augmented with some form of generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI. For the best leaders, this will mean dramatic improvement. For mediocre leaders, this will mean persistent confusion, distraction, and pretense. With futureback thinking-looking ten years ahead, then planning backward from future to next to now-this third edition of Leaders Make the Future shows how people can improve their leadership skills while expanding their human perspective.
Now 75 percent revised and expanded with resources from the Institute for the Future, this new edition is organized around ten future leadership skills:
• Augmented futureback curiosity
• Augmented clarity
• Augmented dilemma flipping
• Augmented bio-engaging
• Augmented immersive learning
• Augmented depolarizing
• Augmented commons creating
• Augmented smart mob swarming
• Augmented strength with humility
• Human calming
AI-augmented leadership will be key for any organization to tackle the uncertainty of the future. And by incorporating practical methodologies, ethical guidelines, and innovative leadership practices, this book will help leaders develop their clarity and moderate their certainty.
Millions of consumers are actively seeking to unlock their potential and looking for businesses that can help. Tara-Nicholle Nelson shows companies how to create a two-way love affair with these “transformational consumers.”
The members of a massive and growing customer group are highly engaged with one subject: changing their own behavior to be healthier, wealthier, and wiser. Unlike the average consumer, these people are eager and excited to connect with businesses-if they'll help them make these very difficult changes. Nelson calls these people “transformational consumers.”
This book helps leaders understand these consumers, learn the business of behavior change, and rethink their products, services, marketing, and companies to meet the demands of this hypergrowth, trillion-dollar-plus transformational consumer market. Through revealing examples and case studies, Nelson details seven shifts that businesses must make to engage transformational consumers: change what you sell, change your business model, change how you define “your customer,” change your marketing, change your metrics, change how you define “the competition,” and change your culture. The companies that successfully reorient to reach and engage transformational consumers will escape the problem of disengagement and will continue to thrive, no matter how many new social media channels, distracting apps, or competitors they face.
The members of a massive and growing customer group are highly engaged with one subject: changing their own behavior to be healthier, wealthier, and wiser. Unlike the average consumer, these people are eager and excited to connect with businesses-if they'll help them make these very difficult changes. Nelson calls these people “transformational consumers.”
This book helps leaders understand these consumers, learn the business of behavior change, and rethink their products, services, marketing, and companies to meet the demands of this hypergrowth, trillion-dollar-plus transformational consumer market. Through revealing examples and case studies, Nelson details seven shifts that businesses must make to engage transformational consumers: change what you sell, change your business model, change how you define “your customer,” change your marketing, change your metrics, change how you define “the competition,” and change your culture. The companies that successfully reorient to reach and engage transformational consumers will escape the problem of disengagement and will continue to thrive, no matter how many new social media channels, distracting apps, or competitors they face.
By bestselling author Ken Blanchard (whose 40+ books have sold over 18 million copies), KNOW CAN DO! tells the story of how a well known author learns to bridge the gap between what we all know-all the advice we've taken in from books, seminars, etc.-and how we actually use that knowledge.
In today's fast-paced business environment, frequent feedback and “course correction” is absolutely vital. But about the only time most managers offer employees feedback is during scheduled (and generally infrequent) performance appraisals, which tend to be stiff, formal, and-whether intentionally or not-adversarial, and therefore ineffective. Formula 2+2 offers a simple yet powerful approach to revolutionizing feedback conversations. It details the five secrets of effective feedback:
• Timeliness
• Balance
• Focus
• Specificity
• Follow-up
Formula 2+2 shows how to foster a culture of continuous feedback which increases the effectiveness of the manager, protects the spirit and dignity of employees, and provides a systematic approach to reinforcing and improving employee performance.
• Timeliness
• Balance
• Focus
• Specificity
• Follow-up
Formula 2+2 shows how to foster a culture of continuous feedback which increases the effectiveness of the manager, protects the spirit and dignity of employees, and provides a systematic approach to reinforcing and improving employee performance.
Appreciative Intelligence provides a new answer to what enables successful people to dream up their extraordinary and innovative ideas; why employees, partners, colleagues, investors, and other stakeholders join them on the path to their goals, and how they achieve these goals despite obstacles and challenges. It is not simple optimism. People with appreciative intelligence are realistic and action oriented--they have the ability not just to identify positive potential, but to devise a course of action to take advantage of it.
Drawing on their own original research and recent discoveries in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, Thatchenkery and Metzker outline the evidence for appreciative intelligence, detail its specific characteristics, and show how you can develop this skill and use it in your own life and work. They show how the most successful leaders are able to spread appreciative intelligence throughout an organization, and they offer tools and exercises you can use to increase your own level of appreciative intelligence and so become more creative, resilient, successful, and personally fulfilled.
Drawing on their own original research and recent discoveries in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, Thatchenkery and Metzker outline the evidence for appreciative intelligence, detail its specific characteristics, and show how you can develop this skill and use it in your own life and work. They show how the most successful leaders are able to spread appreciative intelligence throughout an organization, and they offer tools and exercises you can use to increase your own level of appreciative intelligence and so become more creative, resilient, successful, and personally fulfilled.
Many of today's business leaders champion learning as essential to business success, backing their belief with massive investments in Training and Development (T&D). In fact, T&D investments reach $56 billion per year in the U.S. alone. In this era of unprecedented opportunity, the time is right for T&D to become a full-fledged "player" in the world of business.
At issue, the authors contend, is T&D's inability to seize this opportunity and deliver unmistakable value to its most influential customers-the exectuvies who pay for trainiing services but are unable to see clear business value being returned on their companies' training investments. The authors also contend that T&D must alter the traditional precepts that keep it "separate form the business" and "out of the loop" strategically.
Van Adelsberg and Trolley suggest that the key to delivering unmistakable business value lies in transforming T&D-in spirit and in practice-from a funciton to a business. The authors draw on their experiences working inside Moore Corporation, DuPont, Mellon Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Texas Instruments, and other top businesses to illustrate how "Running Training Like a Business":
1. Eliminates the many hidden costs of training;
2. Re-focuses T&D from delivering training content to addressing business issues;
3. Makes T&D a full stategic partner in business decision making;
4. Ensures that training measurement is "baked in, not bolted on";
5. Improves the effectiveness and efficiency of internal and/or external T&D organizations.
Trolley and van Adelsberg lead the reader through a proven four-step process for transforming traditional training organizations into training enterprises capable of delivering unmistakable value, quarter after quarter and year after year.
At issue, the authors contend, is T&D's inability to seize this opportunity and deliver unmistakable value to its most influential customers-the exectuvies who pay for trainiing services but are unable to see clear business value being returned on their companies' training investments. The authors also contend that T&D must alter the traditional precepts that keep it "separate form the business" and "out of the loop" strategically.
Van Adelsberg and Trolley suggest that the key to delivering unmistakable business value lies in transforming T&D-in spirit and in practice-from a funciton to a business. The authors draw on their experiences working inside Moore Corporation, DuPont, Mellon Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Texas Instruments, and other top businesses to illustrate how "Running Training Like a Business":
1. Eliminates the many hidden costs of training;
2. Re-focuses T&D from delivering training content to addressing business issues;
3. Makes T&D a full stategic partner in business decision making;
4. Ensures that training measurement is "baked in, not bolted on";
5. Improves the effectiveness and efficiency of internal and/or external T&D organizations.
Trolley and van Adelsberg lead the reader through a proven four-step process for transforming traditional training organizations into training enterprises capable of delivering unmistakable value, quarter after quarter and year after year.
From one of the founding executives of FedEx comes the first full inside story of how Fed Ex came to be one of the world's most successful, innovative, and admired companies. Frock reveals the details of how the company was conceived, launched, and kept afloat despite incredible obstacles.
Part Alice in Wonderland and part business fable, this creatively illustrated work about the adventures of a new hire's introduction to the fantastical company of Zenobia (and its elusive Room 133A) helps business leaders and entrepreneurs find energy in risk, opportunity in the unknown, and possibility in the people all around them-to believe in something that is not yet there.
Most consultants are content to solve problems. Extraordinary consultants alter the culture of the client organization itself, changing the way the organization operates. Keith Merron shows that the most powerful tool for making a real difference is the consultant's inner stance--the attitudes, assumptions, beliefs, goals, and strategies that underlie the consulting practice. In other words, it is the inner qualities of the consultant that differentiate a great consultant from the rest of the pack.
Consulting Mastery explores the deep inner shift required to become an extraordinary consultant. Through vivid examples, Merron contrasts the goals, strategies, and tactics used by most consultants with those used by masterful consultants to reveal the qualities and characteristics that will help you make the biggest difference with your clients.
If you yearn to have a bigger impact on your client organizations, or even on the world as a whole, Consulting Mastery shows how to transform yourself from a problem solver to an empowering partner. Following a natural flow of learning, it details the conceptual foundation of consulting mastery, provides a vision of mastery in action, and outlines a clear path to attaining mastery in oneself.
Consulting Mastery explores the deep inner shift required to become an extraordinary consultant. Through vivid examples, Merron contrasts the goals, strategies, and tactics used by most consultants with those used by masterful consultants to reveal the qualities and characteristics that will help you make the biggest difference with your clients.
If you yearn to have a bigger impact on your client organizations, or even on the world as a whole, Consulting Mastery shows how to transform yourself from a problem solver to an empowering partner. Following a natural flow of learning, it details the conceptual foundation of consulting mastery, provides a vision of mastery in action, and outlines a clear path to attaining mastery in oneself.
The boss/subordinate relationship is an age-old problem cited in almost every management book and on-the-job survey as an area rife with dishonesty and inefficiency. All too often, subordinates spin the truth for those above while bosses fail to establish the conditions required for subordinates to tell it to them straight. The end result is warped communication, corrupt internal politics, illusionary teamwork, pass-the-buck accountability, and personal dispiriting-and the company is always the big loser.
Don't Kill the Bosses! reveals the "trap" created when people fail to differentiate between the positives of hierarchical structure and the negatives of hierarchical relationships. Far from being opposed to hierarchy, the authors believe strongly that an accurate and cleanly defined organization chart is vital. But they show how to implement an alternative model of hierarchy: two-sided accountability. Drawing on case studies from their consulting practice, Culbert and Ullmen show how this new model leads to a freer flow of information, more creative problem-solving, and quicker response to changing conditions.
Unlike other books that acknowledge boss/subordinate relationships as a systematic, continuing problem and offer skill development suggestions for dealing with it, Don't Kill the Bosses! tells how to think about the problem in a way that will enable readers to understand the steps they need to take to change things. It diagnoses what's missing in boss/subordinate relationships, connects what's wrong with them to personal and organizational outcomes, and defines the whole new mentality required to make them work successfully.
Don't Kill the Bosses! reveals the "trap" created when people fail to differentiate between the positives of hierarchical structure and the negatives of hierarchical relationships. Far from being opposed to hierarchy, the authors believe strongly that an accurate and cleanly defined organization chart is vital. But they show how to implement an alternative model of hierarchy: two-sided accountability. Drawing on case studies from their consulting practice, Culbert and Ullmen show how this new model leads to a freer flow of information, more creative problem-solving, and quicker response to changing conditions.
Unlike other books that acknowledge boss/subordinate relationships as a systematic, continuing problem and offer skill development suggestions for dealing with it, Don't Kill the Bosses! tells how to think about the problem in a way that will enable readers to understand the steps they need to take to change things. It diagnoses what's missing in boss/subordinate relationships, connects what's wrong with them to personal and organizational outcomes, and defines the whole new mentality required to make them work successfully.