800-CEO-READ New Releases

Riding the Blue Train

by Bart Sayle and Surinder Kumar

(Penguin USA, 272 Pages)

A groundbreaking management idea that has helped hundreds of companies transform their people and jumpstart their results.

How does a $2 billion company become a $5 billion company in a few years? How do you accelerate business growth and innovation by transforming your people? How do you lead your organization to achieve extraordinary results through inspiration and personal power? All through the power of Breakthrough, the unique program that Bart Sayle and Surinder Kumar has delivered in many companies and to thousands of people to help them achieve dramatic personal, professional and business growth.

They offer a simple but profound message: in order to build your business, you first need to build your people. Instead of imposing a new strategy from the top down, focus on unleashing creativity within your people across the organization. Get everyone excited about a common goal, listen to their best ideas, and focus their energy. When that happens, your people will get off the "red train" of defensiveness, negativity, and anger. Instead, they'll get energized about the future possibilities, think magically, act heroically, and start riding the "blue train" of empowerment, enthusiasm and teamwork. A virtuous cycle of energy, growth and amazing results will follow.

Easier said than done? Riding the Blue Train features dramatic success stories from companies such as P&G, Nike, Visa, Pepsi, and Wrigley, that have applied these principles in the real world.

This is an inspiring book that will change the way people think about corporate culture.

Paths to Power

by Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, Laura G. Singleton

(Harvard Business School Press, 320 Pages)

Who made it to the top of Corporate America in the twentieth century? And what do their experiences mean for the next generation of business leaders? In Paths to Power, Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria, and Laura G. Singleton answer these questions.

The authors explore access to business leadership opportunities—showing how a small group of "insiders" possesses advantages that facilitate a smooth journey to the top while a larger group of "outsiders" faces disadvantages that make their path to leadership positions more difficult. Yet throughout the history of American business, the composition of insiders and outsiders has shifted. Examining data on leader birthplaces, religious affiliation, education, socioeconomic status, race, and gender, Paths to Power explains how the demographics of leadership have changed over the 20th century and how they’re changing now. Further, they discuss the mechanisms of advancement for insiders and outsiders, and show how these mechanisms have also evolved.

Though white men still hold most power positions in business, the authors assert that the gates of access aren’t as static as they seem.

Know-how

by Ram Charan

(Random House Inc, 288 Pages)

The new grand theory of leadership by Ram Charan . . . The breakthrough book that links know-how—the skills of people who know what they are doing— with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader.

How often have you heard someone with a commanding presence deliver a bold vision that turned out to be nothing more than rhetoric and hot air? All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business—the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before.

For well over four decades, Ram Charan has been learning in the most visceral way the underlying reasons why leaders succeed and fail. As one of the most influential advisers to top management teams of leading companies around the world, he has had a front-row seat to observe the cause and effect of leadership practices and behaviors.

Ram Charan’s insight into the real content of leadership provides you with the eight fundamental skills needed for success in the twenty-first century:

• Positioning (and, when necessary, repositioning) your business by zeroing in on the central idea that meets customer needs and makes money
• Connecting the dots by pinpointing patterns of external change ahead of others
• Shaping the way people work together by leading the social system of your business
• Judging people by getting to the truth of a person
• Molding high-energy, high-powered, high-ego people into a working team of leaders in which they equal more than the sum of their parts
• Knowing the destination where you want to take your business by developing goals that balance what the business can become with what it can realistically achieve
• Setting laser-sharp priorities that become the road map for meeting your goals
• Dealing creatively and positively with societal pressures that go beyond the economic value creation activities of your business

Know-How is the missing link of leadership. By showing how the eight know-hows link to, interact with, and reinforce personal and psychological traits, Ram Charan provides a holistic and innovative portrait of successful leaders of the twenty-first century.

Firing Back

by Jeffrey Sonnefeld, Anderw Ward

(Harvard Business School Press, 320 Pages)

Is it possible to rescue your career and restore your reputation after a major professional setback? In an age when we’re bombarded with press accounts of disgraced CEOs, politicians, and celebrities, this question is more important than ever. In Firing Back, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward lay out a novel five-step recovery process: "Fight, not flight" (face the difficult situation), "Recruit others into battle" (enlist the right assistance), "Rebuild heroic stature" (spread the true nature of the adversity), "Prove your mettle" (regain trust and credibility), and "Rediscover the heroic mission" (clear the past and chart the future).

Anchored in original research and decades of scholarly studies across fields, this book is packed with engrossing stories and first-hand accounts from humbled CEOs and executives from firms as esteemed as GE, The Home Depot, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Staples, and Hewlett-Packard, Firing Back offers a clear plan for any businessperson who needs to recover from career setbacks and reclaim lost prestige and reputation. The authors also identify common barriers to recovery that even seasoned executives can fall prey to, and explain how to surmount them.

True North

by Bill George, Peter Sims

(Jossey-Bass, 280 Pages)

Book Description
Based on research and first-person interviews with 125 of the top leaders in business, Bill George--the highly respected former CEO of Medtronic and current Harvard Business School professor--and coauthor Peter Sims, describe how anyone can become an authentic leader. In this leadership tour de force, George presents many surprising conclusions as to what makes a great leader, some of which are actually contrary to previous research. The book presents a concrete and comprehensive program for leadership success, showing readers how to create their own Personal Leadership Development Plan centered on five key areas:

• Knowing your authentic self
• Orienting your moral compass
• Understanding your motivations
• Building your support team
• Staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life

Personal, original, and illuminating stories from Warren Bennis, Sir Adrian Cadbury, George Schultz (former U.S. secretary of state), Charles Schwab, John Whitehead (Cochairman, Goldman Sachs), Anne Mulcahy (CEO, Xerox), Howard Shultz (CEO, Starbucks), Dan Vasella (CEO, Novartis), John Brennan (Chairman, Vanguard), Carol Tome (CFO, Home Depot), Donna Dubinsky (CEO/cofounder, Palm), Alan Horn (President, Warner Brothers), Ann Moore (CEO, Time, Inc.) and many others illustrate the transitions that shape the type of leaders who will thrive in the 21st century.

Bill George (Cambridge, MA) has spent over 30 years in executive leadership positions at Litton, Honeywell, and Medtronic. As CEO of Medtronic, he built the company into the world's leading medical technology company as its market capitalization increased from $1.1 billion to $60 billion. Since 2004, he has been a professor at the Harvard Business School. His 2004 book Authentic Leadership was a BusinessWeek bestseller. Peter Sims (San Francisco, CA) cofounded the London office of Summit Partners, a leading global investment firm, and led the establishment of Leadership Perspectives at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that is one of its most sought after courses.

White Hat Leadership

by T. R. Warren

(Gibbs Smith, 160 Pages)

White Hat Leadership offers the skills to tap into the best of people, use every ounce they offer to the company, and to encourage them to communicate, collaborate, and innovate at all levels of the organization. Technology means business moves faster, and high-speed innovation must spring from anywhere in the organization at any time. Employees must feel empowered and engaged to innovate! White Hat Leadership shows how to create self-managed teams that accomplish more than single leader teams, foster environments that encourage independent thinking and action, and ultimately have higher levels of productivity. True leaders motivate others better, accomplish more, work to achieve the best outcome for all, and feel better about themselves and their successes.

Through years of observation and experience in his work with such organizations as MSN.com, the United Nations, American Airlines, and the U.S. Department of Education, Warren understands the practices that will motivate employees to work at the highest level of productivity and personal well-being. His principles include concrete strategies so that you can start implementing change and seeing results immediately. Your employees-and your bottom line-will thank you. T.R. Warren leads a consulting consortium under the name T.R. Warren Associates. He is Senior Consultant for Extreme Arts & Sciences, a consulting company with emphasis on financial institutions. Warren is regarded as an international expert on executive leadership principles, interpersonal and organizational communication, media relations, and crisis communication. Over the span of years, his client list has included Microsoft, the United Nations, and a myriad of financial institutions large and small. In high demand as a lecturer, he has spoken to groups in the states and seven foreign countries.

The Taboos of Leadership

by Smith, Anthony F

(Jossey-Bass, 192 Pages)

Most leaders who make it to the top possess characteristics that are all too human: they have politically incorrect attitudes, are conflicted, and play politics to get their way. Written by leading management consultant Anthony F. Smith, The Taboos of Leadership reveals the rarely discussed realities of leadership—the secrets that leaders just cannot admit to publicly for fear of losing power, self-respect, or even their jobs. This revelatory book will help both leaders and followers achieve real understanding and co-create a two-way street culture of openness, trust, and improved performance in their organizations.

The Taboos of Leadership discloses ten guarded secrets that leaders can’t discuss, even with their closest constituents, including: charisma shouldn’t make a difference . . . but it does; women make better leaders . . . when that’s what they really want to do; blatant self-interest is dangerous . . . in followers, not leaders; thou shalt not play favorites with friends and family . . . except when it makes a lot of sense; and more.

Salsa, Soul, and Spirit

by Juana Bordas

(Berrett-Kohler, 200 Pages)

Tapping the potential of the changing workforce, consumer base, and citizenry requires a leadership approach that resonates with our country’s growing diversity. In Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, Juana Bordas shows how incorporating Latino, African American, and American Indian approaches to leadership into the mainstream has the potential to strengthen leadership practices and inspire today’s ethnically rich workforce. Bordas identifies eight core leadership principles common to all three cultures, principles deeply rooted in each culture’s values and developed under the most trying conditions. Using a lively blend of personal reflections, interviews, and historical background, she shows how these principles developed and illustrates the creative ways they’ve been put into practice in these communities (and some forward-looking companies). Bordas brings these principles together into a multicultural leadership model that offers a more flexible and inclusive way to lead and a new vision of the role of the leader in the organization. Multicultural leadership resonates with many cultures and encourages diverse people to actively engage. In a globalized economy, success for leaders in the future will rest on their ability to shift to a multicultural approach. Salsa, Soul, and Spirit provides conceptual and practical guidelines for beginning that process.

Achieve Leadership Genius

by Susan Fowler, Drea Zigarmi, Richard I. Lyles

(Pearson P T R, 336 Pages)

LEADERSHIP IS NOT A "ONE SIZE FITS ALL" PURSUIT... DIFFERENT SCENARIOS REQUIRE DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES...

• How to lead individuals, teams, organizations, alliances, and above all, yourself
• The five crucial leadership practices that work no matter who you’re leading
• How to handle the unique issues that arise in every leadership context and situation

What does it really take to become a great leader? Commitment, hard work...and a framework for leading that gives you clarity when there's chaos all around you.

That framework exists. It's called Contextual Leadership. This book will help you master it, and put it to work. You'll discover high-level and "micro"-level techniques you need to achieve breakthrough effectiveness. You'll practice them, internalize them, make them yours.

This book draws on more than forty years of research, and the extraordinary personal experience of three renowned leadership consultants.

Its techniques are tested. Proven. They're not a quick fix. But, as thousands of leaders can tell you, they work.

Hundreds and hundreds of leadership books have been published over the years. Almost all of them treat leadership as if "one size fits all": as if leadership skills were "one trick pony" skills that can be applied across any circumstance. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Leadership genius depends on your ability to recognize the setting you are leading in. Are you leading a team? Leading one person? Leading yourself? Leading an entire organization? Leading an alliance? Who, what, when, and where you lead determines how you should lead.

This book presents a detailed, practical, and skill-based framework any leader can use to become dramatically more effective.

Another aspect of leadership genius is realizing that within each setting, or context, a leader must also be able to adapt to a wide variety of scenarios. The authors show you how to bring your best to bear in any circumstance, and in every facet of the leadership process: envisioning, initiation, and implementation.

From start to finish, this book addresses both the high level and 'micro' skills that define leadership genius—guiding readers systematically through assessing their current behaviors and moving toward excellence.

• DEVELOP THE ATTRIBUTES OF LEADERSHIP GENIUS
  Skillfully respond to what the context and circumstances demand of you as a leader
• MOVE BEYOND THE LEADERSHIP "QUICK FIX"
  Discover a solid, proven framework for becoming a contextual leader
• MASTER THE FIVE CONTEXTS OF LEADERSHIP
  Lead yourself... lead one-to-one... lead teams, organizations, and alliances
• MASTER THE SKILLS OF ALL FIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
  Prepare, envision, initiate, assess, and respond
• LEVERAGE YOUR LEADERSHIP SUCCESS; MOVE FROM INDIVIDUAL TO ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE
  A new view of leadership and its imperatives

Unlock Behavior, Unleash Profits:

by Leslie Wilk Braksick

(McGraw-Hill, 320 Pages)

It's not enough to have brilliant strategies, efficient processes, and agile people. It's what these people do and don't do that builds success or failure. Backed by 50 years of scientific research, Fortune 500 thought leader Leslie Braksick has revised and updated her landmark book, which provides powerful tools to help you, whether you're an executive, entrepreneur, or manager in any field to unlock behavior and unprecedented profits.

About the Author

Leslie Wilk Braksick, Ph.D. is cofounder, president, and CEO of The Continuous Learning Group, Inc. (CLG), a leader in strategy execution and performance improvement consulting. CLG has a large roster of Fortune 500 clients

What Really Matters

by

(Yale University Press, 320 Pages)

The fundamental question in business and in personal life is the same: What really matters? In this book one of America’s most widely admired business leaders distills a lifetime of experience, including failures as well as successes, to reveal his answers. John Pepper, president, CEO, and chairman of Procter & Gamble for a combined 16 years, underscores the importance of continuous change, innovation, and renewal as prerequisites for growth and sound leadership. In What Really Matters he suggests that a preparedness to alter perspective, rethink assumptions, or change course is central not only to understanding customer needs and keeping costs under control but also to developing talent, organizing global businesses, and supporting communities. While he discusses specific business tactics, he notes that they all center on fundamental tenets: listen to and respect the customer, engender personal accountability and passionate ownership, encourage diversity, and create a vibrant, trusting institution that incorporates employees and their families. In his own years as an executive, Pepper has demonstrated that a profitable business can create and sustain a culture that shapes—and is shaped by—ethical behavior. His profoundly important advice and counsel belong in the lexicon and practice of every leader.

Voice Of Authority

by Dianna Booher

(McGraw-Hill, 208 Pages)

One of the world's leading communication experts helps readers find their leadership voice

Dianna Booher has helped thousands of people to develop communication skills. Now she distills years of experience and research into 10 key strategies that will help you elevate your communication to the next level. By examining specific styles that work and don't work, you'll learn how to speak like a leader in every situation. Ten rules including “be clear, be consistent, be thorough, and demonstrate confidence”-give you the language to communicate at your best with colleagues, bosses, and clients.

Deciding Who Leads

by Joseph Daniel McCool

(Davies-Black Pub, 232 Pages)

Executive Stamina

by Marty Seldman, Joshua Seldman

(John Wiley & Sons Inc, 240 Pages)

Experienced executive and fitness coaches introduce a revolutionary system for peak executive performance.

Executive Stamina combines the wisdom and methodology of the very best executive coaching with the cutting-edge training techniques of world-class endurance athletes. This holistic approach uses practical tips and tools to help executives maximize their career potential, maintain their physical health, and stay aligned with their personal values. Readers will better manage their productivity, time, and energy to achieve peak professional performance. Having personally coached more than 1,500 executives, Dr. Seldman reveals all the success factors, derailment factors, and tradeoffs on the fast-paced executive career track, helping today's executives achieve more and live better.

Marty Seldman, PhD (Berkeley, CA) is one of the world's most experienced and successful executive coaches and President of Seldman Executive Development Programs. Joshua Seldman (Berkeley, CA) is a highly respected cycling and fitness coach and a successful endurance athlete

Uniting The Virtual Workforce

by Edward Baker, Richard R. Reilly Ph.D., Karen Sobel Lojeski

(Cliff Notes, 208 Pages)

High Performance with High Integrity

by Ben W. Heineman Jr.

(Harvard Business School Press, 125 Pages)

Product Description
Our free-market capitalist system is the world's greatest driver of prosperity, but it has a dark side. Under intense pressure to make the numbers, executives and employees face temptation to cut corners, fudge accounts, or worse. And in today's unforgiving environment, such lapses can be catastrophic. Fines and settlements have amounted to billions of dollars. Careers and companies have imploded.

In High Performance with High Integrity, Ben Heineman argues that there is only one way for companies to avoid such failures: CEOs must create a culture of integrity through exemplary leadership, transparency, incentives, and processes, not just rules and penalties. Heineman, GE's chief legal officer and a member of both Jack Welch's and Jeff Immelt's senior management teams for nearly twenty years, reveals crucial "performance with integrity" principles and practices that you can begin applying immediately, and shows how you can drive performance by integrating integrity systems and processes deep into company operations.

Concise and insightful, this book provides a much-needed corporate blueprint for doing well while doing good in the high-pressure global economy.

From our new Memo to the CEO series--solutions-focused advice from today's leading practitioners.

About the Author

Ben W. Heineman Jr., is Distinguished Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on the Legal Profession and a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He was GE's Senior Vice President-General Counsel from 1987 to 2003 and Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs from 2004 until his retirement at the end of 2005.

Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic

by Leonard L. Berry, Kent D. Seltman

(McGraw-Hill, 256 Pages)

The first inside look at one of the world's most admired organizations, and the management practices that have made it great.

With annual earnings exceeding $6 billion, the Mayo Clinic isn't just one of the world's most successful health care facilities, but one of its most successful businesses. In Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic, service business guru Leonard L. Berry explains how "Putting the needs of the patient first" is more than just the Clinic's motto, but an operating principle that guides every management decision. More importantly, he shows how to apply that principle to expand your business's customer base and earn fierce, undivided customer loyalty.

The New Gold Standard

by Rhodes, Joseph Michelli Ph.D.

(McGraw-Hill, 224 Pages)

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The name says it all. When it comes to quality, style, and unsurpassed service, this international company has set the gold standard for delivering the highest level of customer experience-which companies in all industries strive to meet. Now, for the first time, this world-class luxury hotel group has given bestselling author Joseph Michelli unprecedented access to their executives, staff, and award-winning Leadership Center training facilities. You'll discover the five key principles behind The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company's unparalleled success and customer service innovations for which they are famous. For executives and managers at all levels, this book is pure gold.

Good Is Not Enough

by Keith R. Wyche

(Portfolio, 256 Pages)

A no-nonsense guide for minorities in business who want to make it to senior management

In recent decades, corporate America has gotten better at recruiting minority talent. But despite their education and hard work, too many African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans still find unique obstacles on the path to senior management. And there are too few minority mentors available to help them understand and overcome these challenges.

Keith R. Wyche, a division president at a Fortune 500 company, is the perfect mentor for ambitious minority businesspeople at all levels. His book is filled with thought-provoking insights and practical advice based on his own experiences and those of the many people he has counseled. He discusses the importance of:

• Understanding corporate culture—and the impact it has on your career

• Being visible—because you can’t get ahead if nobody knows who you are

• Staying current—why minorities must be continuous learners

Good Is Not Enough also includes anecdotes from prominent CEOs such as Ken Chenault of American Express, Richard Parsons of Time Warner, and Aylwin Lewis of Kmart.

Equipped to Lead

by Dan J. Sanders, Galen Walters

(McGraw-Hill, 224 Pages)

Product Description

Unless you manage a hook-and-ladder company, your workday shouldn't be spent putting out fires. Yet leaders often spend most of their time running from crisis to crisis.

In his groundbreaking New York Times bestseller Built to Serve, United Supermarkets CEO Dan Sanders showed how putting profi ts before people encourages organizational chaos, saps motivation, stifles innovation, and undercuts competitiveness. He also unveiled a revolutionary peoplecentered business model championed by United and challenged other business leaders to put the human factor first.

In this follow-up to that inspirational bestseller, Dan and coauthor Galen Walters provide the tools needed to put the people-first model to work in your company. You’ll master the 4Ps critical to long-term success: People, Process, Partners, and Performance. And you will create an organization that puts front-line people before bottom-line profits, allowing you and your organization to profit more than you ever thought possible.