Career Skills

The power of effective listening is recognised as the essential tool of good management. In this book, Nancy Kline describes how we can achieve this and presents a step-by-step guide that can be used in any situation. Whether you want to have more productive meetings, solve business problems, create bold strategies, or build stronger relationships, this book offers you a new world of possibilities.

Simply Said is the essential handbook for business communication. Do you ever feel as though your message hasn't gotten across? Do details get lost along the way? Have tense situations ever escalated unnecessarily? It all comes down to communication. We all communicate, but few of us do it well. From tough presentations to everyday transactions, there is no scenario that cannot be improved with better communication skills. This book presents an all-encompassing guide to improving your communication.

Want to learn how to make people laugh out loud? How to Make People Laugh is a book that targets regular comedians, such as you and me. It does not try to transform you into a professional comedian. Instead, it puts comedy in the spotlight of everyday life. With this book, you will learn techniques that you can easily incorporate at parties or even in regular banter with friends and colleagues.

At the heart of dealing with difficult people is handling their—and your own—emotions. How do you stay calm in a tough conversation? How do you stay unruffled in the face of passive-aggressive comments? And how do you know if you're difficult to work with? This book explains the research behind our emotional response to awful colleagues and shows how to build the empathy and resilience to make those relationships more productive.

There was a time where skill alone was enough to get you the recognition and the opportunities you deserve, but now, something more is expected of you. Fewer job opportunities mean more and better choices for employers. Job hunters are required to put much more effort into a skill set beyond their specializations. According to Glassdoor, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes, on average. Of those candidates, four to six will get called for an interview, and only one will get the job.

When Bo Seo was 8 years old, he and his family migrated from Korea to Australia. At the time, he did not speak English, and, unsurprisingly, struggled at school. But, then, in fifth grade, something happened to change his life: he discovered competitive debate. Immediately, he was hooked. It turned out, perhaps counterintuitively, that debating was the perfect activity for someone shy and unsure of himself. It became a way for Bo not only to find his voice, but to excel socially and academically. And he’s not the only one.

The ability to listen and communicate effectively are vital skills, enabling us to motivate and influence people in our personal and professional lives. But all too often, we’re our own biggest roadblock. In The Art of Facilitation, Tina Frey Clements teaches you to master the art, (and even science) of facilitation and use it to your advantage. With more than 25 years of experience as a professional communicator, she shares tools and techniques to successfully deliver your message to any audience, from the board room to the classroom.

People - friends, family members, work colleagues, salespeople - lie to us all the time. Daily, hourly, constantly. None of us is immune, and all of us are victims. According to studies by several different researchers, most of us encounter nearly 200 lies a day. Now there’s something we can do about it. Liespotting links three disciplines - facial recognition training, interrogation training, and a comprehensive survey of research in the field - into a specialized body of information developed specifically to help business leaders detect deception....

Many of us have a deep desire to make the world around us a better place. But often our good intentions are undermined by the fear that we are so insignificant in the big scheme of things that nothing we can do will actually help feed the world’s hungry, fix the damage of a Hurricane Katrina, or even get a healthy lunch program up and running in the local school. But extraordinary leaders such as Gandhi and even unlikely social activists such as Bob Geldof most often see themselves as harnessing the forces around them, rather than singlehandedly setting those forces in motion.

Speak your mind effectively! The best, most direct way to convey your intelligence, expertise, professionalism, and personality to other people is through talking to them. But most people have no idea what they sound like. And even if they do, they don’t think they can change it. It’s the Way You Say It is a thorough, nuts-and-bolts guide to becoming aware and taking control of how you communicate with others. Dr. Carol Fleming provides detailed advice and scores of exercises.

The art of speaking can be systematically learned, and if you have the desire, discipline, and determination - not to mention one of the world's greatest presenters as your teacher - you too can become a persuasive and powerful speaker. Tracy reveals time-tested tricks of the trade you can use to present powerfully and speak persuasively, whether in an informal meeting or in front of a large group of people.

In Ask Powerful Questions, Will Wise explains how the questions we traditionally ask are virtually meaningless when it comes to establishing connection. Introducing a set of practical tools for accessing and understanding others by changing the way we ask questions, Will shows how to transform "How are you? I'm fine, thanks" into a conversation that changes not only how you lead, but who you are as a person.

This empowering, inspiring, and actionable guide will turn your communication woes into superpowers. Assertive Confident Communication Skills is your no-nonsense, fun roadmap to mastering assertiveness, nailing body language, and speaking with the kind of confidence that makes people sit up and listen.

Do you find that the harder you work to complete your tasks, the more you end up with unfinished work? Staying focused without losing sight of your end goals can be difficult. But it doesn’t have to be. You want to be successful, right? If you are looking for scientifically proven techniques to help you master your focus, then you really need to listen to this book.

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from your subordinates, from those above you, and from your peers and customers. You're not alone. As Harvard Business School's Linda Hill and manager and executive Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It requires trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey and instead just learn how to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses.

Have you ever been called upon to speak at an event and the mere thought of doing it is giving you sleepless nights? Do you want to learn how to captivate a crowd with ease just like the pros? Are you looking to make your mark in the world of public speaking but have no clue where to begin? Whether you are speaking as the best man at your friend’s wedding, leading a presentation by your team at the next board meeting, or speaking to an audience of eager people, this book is just what you need.

Do you HATE public speaking? Are you TERRIFIED to stand in front of people? When you think of speaking, do you get nervous, anxious, even sweaty? You don’t have to be afraid any longer. It can seem like everyone is a gifted speak when you watch TED talks or compare yourself to skilled co-workers giving presentations. Don't get caught up in comparison. Instead, take action to improve YOUR ability and to overcome your fear. If you struggle when you speak, then you are not alone. Public speaking is the number one fear in America.

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.

Learn conversational agility to think quickly on your feet, be incredibly smooth, funny, and clever - all at once. Goodbye awkward silences! No matter where you lie on the spectrum of awkward to engaging, witty banter is always the end goal - and it should be. Witty banter, and all the steps that lead to it, allows you to disarm and connect with anyone, immediately exit boring small talk mode, and instantly build rapport.

Managers and other employees spend more than 40 percent of their time listening to other people but often do it so poorly that the result is millions of dollars' worth of mistakes, just because most people don't know how to listen. In this new edition of her classic guide to the art of effective listening, Madelyn Burley-Allen tells you how to acquire active, productive listening skills and put them to work for you professionally, socially, and personally.