Business Social Development

After all, life is a series of popularity contests. The choices other people make about you determine your health, wealth, and happiness. And decades of research prove that people choose who they like. They vote for them, they buy from them, they marry them, and they spend precious time with them. The good news is that you can arm yourself for the contest and win life’s battles for preference. How? By being likeable. T

Kathleen Kelly Janus, a lecturer at the Stanford University Program on Social Entrepreneurship and the founder of the successful social enterprise Spark, set out to investigate what makes a startup succeed or fail. She surveyed more than 200 high-performing social entrepreneurs and interviewed dozens of founders. Social Startup Success shares her findings for the legions of entrepreneurs working for social good, revealing how the best organizations get over the revenue hump.

Whether on the job or at home, we've all yearned for a way to simplify our lives and become more organized. In A Simpler Way, authors Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers use the latest scientific research to develop new structures to help us become more cooperative, creative, and free. By simplifying our individual worlds, Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers explain that we will inevitably increase our self-assurance, resulting in a continuous cycle of creativity, accomplishment, and learning.

Ever wish that you could have a "do over" after a conversation at work? Do you often find yourself regretting what you've said to a coworker - or kicking yourself for not saying something better, stronger, or more precise? If so, you're like most people, and in Comebacks at Work, management professor and consultant Kathleen Kelley Reardon, Ph.D., provides the tips and tools you need to know what to say - and how to say it better - next time.

Janice Kaplan is back to tackle another big, mysterious influence in all our lives: luck. And this time she's joined on her journey by coauthor Dr. Barnaby Marsh, a renowned academic who guides her exploration. Together they uncover the unexpected, little-understood science behind what we call "luck", proving that many seemingly random events are actually under your - and everyone's - control. They examine the factors that made stars like Harrison Ford and Jonathan Groff so successful, and learn the real secrets that made Kate Spade and Warby Parker into global brands.

As home life and work life become increasingly integrated in contemporary life, success (or failure) in either has an undeniable effect on the other. And while the profound events that began the 21st century have intensified the desire to focus on what matters most to us, there is still often a substantial gap between what we say matters most and the way we actually spend our time and money. Our credit-card and checking-account statements may clearly reflect this. But it is possible to keep both areas moving forward in positive ways.

Alastair Campbell knows all about winning. As Tony Blair's chief spokesman and strategist, he helped guide his party to victory in three successive elections, and he's fascinated by what it takes to succeed. How do sportsmen excel, entrepreneurs thrive, or individuals achieve the ambitions? Is their ability to win innate?

Communication is a very important aspect of life. We use it for a large portion of our daily activities and without it nobody gets very far in life. It's like the moment you visit a foreign country. When you don't know the language and everything seems alien and unknown, you begin to appreciate your native language. Communication requires our daily practice & development as it falls into our careers, our relationships, our financial lives, and our very happiness.

Do you want to become an exceptional nonprofit leader? You have a vision, you have a mission, and you have a burning desire to do good in the world. But that’s it. Starting a nonprofit seemed like the right thing to do but it hasn’t turned out to be that simple. Your skills are in driving social change, not in managing people, finding donors, and all the administrative headaches that come with running a business. But it’s ok. All of these challenges are solvable and shouldn’t hold you back from fulfilling your purpose.

Do you want to be more confident, know how to communicate with anyone in any situation, command attention and improve your charisma? Here’s The People Skills Guide - the ultimate guide to exude confidence and supercharge your social skills, fast and with ease!

Think about the things that give your life depth, focus, and meaning: deeply satisfying relationships with plenty of give and take, physical health and emotional wellbeing, passion projects, self-esteem, and self-respect. Bold people have these things. Bold people recognize what’s holding them back—and it's almost always a fear of failure. They train to overcome their fears, they embrace the 10% Target, and they create everyday, life-long habits to get what they want. Bigger, Better, Bolder brings listeners one step closer to boldness, one chapter at a time.

Being deprived of gathering has revealed just how important it is to us; to connect with others, collaborate, share ideas and create moving, life-affirming experiences. At a time when coming together is more crucial than ever, Priya Parker sets forth a human-centred approach to gathering that can help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences in their lives, large and small, for work and for play.

Why do we so often fail to connect when speaking with business colleagues, family members, or friends? Wouldn't you like to make yourself heard and understood in all of your relationships? Using vivid examples, easy-to-learn techniques, and practical exercises for becoming a better listener and making yourself heard and understood, Dale Carnegie will show you how it's done, even in difficult situations.

The New York Times best-selling authors of Switch and Made to Stick explore why certain brief experiences can jolt, elevate and change us - and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember 20 years later? What if a doctor or nurse knew how to orchestrate moments that would bring more comfort to patients?

Do you understand who you really are? Or how others really see you? We all know people with a stunning lack of self-awareness - but how often do we consider whether we might have the same problem? Research shows that self-awareness is the meta-skill of the 21st century - the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. Unfortunately we are remarkably poor judges of ourselves and how we come across, and it's rare to get candid, objective feedback from colleagues, employees, and even friends and family.

Communicating with Mastery provides listeners with a rich treasure trove of frameworks and tools for leadership communication as developed and taught over the past decade at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Designed for the business leader on the go, it provides you quick access to helpful approaches to vexing communication problems leaders face today in speaking and writing to various audiences.

You want to make better decisions. You want to be right more of the time professionally and personally. However, being more right consistently is a hard problem because the world is such a complex, evolving place. How do you navigate this complexity? Mental models are decision-making tools that guide our perception of the world and our behaviour in it. They help us understand life, make decisions and solve problems. The best models help us make intelligent investments, develop groundbreaking technologies and even travel to outer space.

Author Harvey Reese, a successful new-product developer, consultant, and licensing agent, reveals his proven step-by-step process for formulating an idea that manufacturers are willing to pay for. He gives you the nuts and bolts information on patents, negotiating the deal, and the licensing process. Filled with examples of successful, well-known licensing ventures, How to License your Million Dollar Idea has all the information and motivation you need to grow your idea into a fortune.

Carol Fleming wants to show you that small talk is not as “small” as you might think. It’s the foundation of every relationship, professional and personal. It is the sound of people reaching out to each other, searching for similarities, shared interests, goodwill, connections, and friendship. And it’s something we all do every day with people we know. It’s just the one little bit about strangers that throws some people off. Graceful social conversation can be learned, even by those requiring the smallest of baby steps.

Jeffrey Gitomer's The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way digs deep into the 9.5 elements that make persuasion, and getting your way, happen. By breaking down the elements, the listener will begin to understand, take action, become proficient, and then master the ability to persuade. Because persuasion occurs in so many different areas of life and business, Gitomer leads the listener from mental readiness to the principles of getting your way and the power that persuasion offers.