Career Skills

As our ability to pay attention in a world of distractions vanishes, it's no wonder that our ability to be heard and understood - to convey our messages - is also threatened. Whether working with our teams and customers or communicating with our families and friends, it is increasingly difficult to break through the digital devices that get in the way of communication.

One of the best-known motivational guides in history, Dale Carnegie’s groundbreaking book has sold tens of millions of copies, been translated into almost every known language, and has helped countless people succeed.

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies - neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist.

In Joel's Schwartzberg's 10-plus years as a strategic communications trainer, the biggest obstacle he's come across - one that connects directly to nervousness, stammering, rambling, and epic fail - is that most speakers and writers don't have a point. They typically have just a title, a theme, a topic, an idea, an assertion, a catchphrase, or even something much less. This book shows you how to identify your point, leverage it, stick to it, and sell it and how to train others to identify and successfully make their own points.

Create office efficiency and business productivity with this helpful book. Eliminate the Chaos at Work increases your business productivity and peace of mind by showing you how to create streamlined information systems, processes, and workflows. Laura's proven 25 techniques are easy to implement, realistic, and results-oriented. Using these techniques, you can take control over your time and information to create workable systems built to reflect how you think and process information.

Your management interview is coming up. Nail it! You've worked hard to move your way up the corporate ladder. Now that you have a chance to be a manager or an executive, the pressure is on to show your superiors you have what it takes. Your work and your work ethic are strong, but past performance isn't enough to win you the job. Your new position depends on your ability to answer a new set of questions… Author Lavie Margolin has worked with hundreds of hiring managers, so he knows both the questions and the answers. While you're used to questions about yourself and your work, next-level ...

After two decades as a behavior analyst in the FBI, Robin Dreeke knows a thing or two about sizing people up. He's navigated complex situations that range from handling Russian spies to navigating the internal politics at the Bureau. Through that experience, he was forced to develop a knack for reading people - their intentions, their capabilities, their desires and their fears. In Sizing People Up, Dreeke shares his simple, six-step system that helps you predict anyone's future behavior based on their words, goals, patterns of action, and the situation at hand.

Whether you're trying to communicate your business idea to an investor, encourage your children to embrace your moral values, or break an addiction to endless web surfing - if you lack the skill of influence, you will be unable to convince yourself or anyone else. The human mind is like a titanium lock. If you communicate poorly - through endless talking, inattentive listening, or over-the-top pressure - it's like spinning the numbers on the lock over and over uselessly. But if you develop the key skills of influence, it's like knowing the exact combination to that lock.

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan isn’t one to avoid arguments. He relishes them as the lifeblood of democracy and the only surefire way to establish the truth. Arguments help us solve problems, uncover new ideas we might not have considered, and nudge our disagreements toward mutual understanding. A good argument, made in good faith, has intrinsic value—and can also simply be fun.

Step Up, Lead Boldly, Influence with Purpose. What separates ordinary individuals from extraordinary leaders? It’s not just talent or intelligence, it’s the ability to take ownership, inspire others, and lead with confidence in any situation. In The Dynamic Leader, David Cloninger delivers a powerful, action-driven guide for aspiring leaders, young professionals, and entrepreneurs who are ready to take their leadership skills to the next level. Whether you’re leading a team, launching a business, or stepping into leadership for the first time, this book gives you the tools to lead with impact.

Help! I Work with People is not a book about leadership theory, but rather a handbook on how to connect with people and influence them for good. With his signature transparent and relatable storytelling, Chad Veach uses modern research and biblical principles to encourage you to lean into your leadership potential regardless of your level of influence or experience. In short and easily digestible chapters, he addresses the three phases of becoming a quality leader: learning to lead the hardest person you will ever be in charge of-yourself and more.

From the time we learn to speak, we're told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it--and your obligation. Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she developed a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor. Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly.

The coauthors of the New York Times best-selling Difficult Conversations take on the toughest topic of all: How we see ourselves. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen have spent the past 15 years working with corporations, nonprofits, governments, and families to determine what helps us learn and what gets in our way. In Thanks for the Feedback, they explain why receiving feedback is so crucial yet so challenging. They blend the latest insights from neuroscience and psychology with practical, hard-headed advice.

We're trying to get something done that really matters to us. To do this we need to work with others. But these others include people we don't agree with or like or trust, so working with them seems impossible - like collaborating with the enemy. What can we do?

The best and the brightest use advisors and experts. Whether in business, sports, entertainment, academia, or politics—expert help is a fundamental enabler of success. That means that the demand for expert advice will grow and the competition will increase for such help. This isn't a matter of "certificates" and "universities," it's a matter of specific skill and behavioral sets that create a trusting bond and reliance. Trusted advisors are beyond coaches—they are comprehensive resources and supporters.

You just landed your first IT consulting job—or maybe you’ve been doing this for years but feel stuck in your career. Either way, this is your chance to level up as a technology consultant. Whether you're just starting your IT consultant career or looking to transition into leadership, this practical guide gives you the consulting skills, tools, and mindset to succeed in a competitive consulting job. The book focuses on the essential skills that all successful consultants share, from soft skills like trust-building and communication to the mindset and habits that drive long-term success...

Nationally recognized communication expert, keynote speaker and trainer and best-selling author Debra Fine reveals the techniques and strategies anyone can use to make small talk—in any situation. With practical advice and conversation cheat sheets, The Fine Art of Small Talk will help you learn to feel more comfortable in any type of social situation.

In Exactly What to Say: For Real Estate Agents, Phil M. Jones, Chris Smith, and Jimmy Mackin provide 30 Magic Words to help with the most common, critical, and difficult conversations real estate agents have today. If you are open-minded to a better way of selling, this book is for you. Imagine what it is going to feel like knowing exactly what to say when it matters the most.

Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every listener will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.

Business communications expert Phil Harkins helps Fortune 500 companies drive growth and increase productivity with his proven strategies. Now, this updated edition of his communications classic provides the insight and expertise you need to seize the competitive edge in your own industry.