Career & Growth

This program is read by the author. A candid, intensely funny memoir of ambition, gender, and a grueling decade inside Amazon.com, from the author of Nothing Good Can Come from This. "A unique and brilliant book." —Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks What would you sacrifice for your career? All your free time? Your sense of self-worth? Your sanity? In 2006, Kristi Coulter left her cozy but dull job for a promising new position at the fast-growing Amazon.com, but she never expected the soul-crushing pressure that would come with it. In no time she found the challenge and excitement she'd been craving—along with seven-day workweeks, lifeboat exercises, widespread burnout, and a culture driven largely by fear. But the chase, the visibility, and, let's face it, the stock options proved intoxicating, and so, for twelve years, she stayed—until she no longer recognized the face in the mirror or the mission she'd signed up for. Unsparing, absurd, and wickedly funny, Exit Interview is a rare journey inside the crucible that is Amazon. It is an intimate, surprisingly relatable look at the work life of a driven woman in a world that loves the idea of female ambition but balks at the reality. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Get the best from accelerating social change with the new audiobook from the bestselling author of 2030 and “acclaimed thought leader” (Kirkus), Mauro Guillén. Adam Grant praises how the book "invites us to rethink our careers, our families, and our future plans.” Find out why business leaders and bestselling authors around the world are calling it "sharply relevant and necessary" (William P. Lauder), "insightful and deeply researched" (Richard Florida), and "a must read" (Mohammed A. El-Erian). In today’s world, the acceleration of megatrends – increasing longevity and the explosion of technology among many others – are transforming life as we now know it. In The Perennials, bestselling author of 2030 Mauro Guillén unpacks a sweeping societal shift triggered by demographic and technological transformation. Guillén argues that outmoded terms like Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z have long been used to pigeonhole us into rigid categories and life stages, artificially preventing people from reaching their full potential. A new postgenerational workforce known as “perennials” – individuals who are not pitted against each other either by their age or experience – makes it possible to liberate scores of people from the constraints of the sequential model of life and level the playing field so that everyone has a chance at living a rewarding life. Guillén unveils how this generational revolution will impact young people just entering the workforce as well as those who are living and working longer. This multigenerational revolution is already happening and Mauro Guillén identifies the specific cultural, organizational and policy changes that need to be made in order to switch to a new template and usher in a new era of innovation powered by the perennials. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

An inspiring and personal roadmap to servant leadership In All Pride, No Ego: A Queer Executive's Journey to Living and Leading Authentically, celebrated corporate leader James Fielding delivers an inspirational leadership story told from the perspective of an out and proud LGBTQ+ executive. In the book, you'll explore a call-to-action for authentic servant leadership that encourages people to own their truth and bring out the best in themselves and their communities. The author explains his key decisions and inflection points and highlights how his leadership style, learnings, successes, and failures informed his rise through the rungs of the corporate ladder. You'll also find: ● The importance of becoming and remaining a lifelong learner and constantly curious ● How to control the controllable while leaving space for the possible ● Strategies for employing truthful and inspirational servant leadership An essential resource for managers, executives, directors, and other business leaders, All Pride, No Ego will also earn a place on the bookshelves of young, aspiring leaders seeking practical and impactful strategies for real-world leadership.

In Leading from the Middle, an audio course from Scribd Coach, Gill Bennet provides leadership tools to help leaders thrive in diverse environments and become more effective, inclusive, empathetic leaders. Through this dynamic course, which covers everything from unconscious bias to mental health, language to learning styles, you’ll learn how to build bridges and strengthen relationships by building a deeper understanding of the unique experience and perspectives of those around you, thanks to proven, practical strategies to help you foster an inclusive and collaborative environment. Complete with actionable insights and exercises to help you apply what you’ve learned, Bennet’s expert guidance will give you all the information you need to lead from the middle, with confidence as well as kindness.

Power is not working—for women, for men, or for the world. We don’t need to remake women. We need to remake power. New York Times bestselling authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman are on a mission to reclaim power for women. In the wake of sweeping changes in the way we work, the veteran journalists challenge pre­conceived notions of what power is and what it’s good for, along with the insidious, mostly hidden structures of the status quo that hold women back. What started as a straightforward examination of best practices has become a manifesto for a new form of power, a distinctly female version that is already emerging in workplaces, in politics, and on the home front. It’s a version that is more appealing to women (and most men as well). It offers women a blueprint for shaping their own professional futures, maximizing their impact for the benefit of others, and experiencing the real joy that comes from taking the reins and influencing outcomes. Writing from their own lived experiences, Kay and Shipman interviewed dozens of women of all ages, races, and backgrounds around the world, as well as cutting-edge academic researchers. Taken together, these per­spectives offer a clear-eyed and hopeful redesign of the workplace and our relationships at home, one that puts women in a remade and modernized seat of power. And now is exactly the right moment for women to step into their power. What’s at stake is much greater than the next job; it’s about the need for a new vision of what power can be, for a new code that focuses not simply on hierarchy, on having power over others, but also on purpose, on what power can achieve. Both a prescription for societal change and a pro-fessional guidebook for individual women, The Power Code shows you how to leverage the power you already have, find new sources of power in yourself and your community, and remodel your workplace and your home-life to produce less ego, more joy, and maximum impact.

The Washington Post sportswriter and New York Times bestselling author of the “fascinating” (The Wall Street Journal) The Real All Americans presents a love letter to the extraordinary coaches and athletes she has covered over the years and the actionable principles of excellence they embody. Sportswriter Sally Jenkins has spent her entire adult life observing and writing about great coaches and athletes. With her engaging and expert prose, she has helped shape the way we view these talented sports icons. But somewhere along the line, she realized, they had begun to shape her. Now, she presents the astonishing inner qualities in these same people that pushed them to overcome pressure, elevate their performances, and discover champion identities. Based on years of observing, interviewing, and analyzing elite coaches and playmakers, such as Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning, Michael Phelps, and more, Jenkins reveals the seven principles behind success: -Conditioning -Practice -Discipline -Candor -Culture -Resilience -Intention Discover how you can apply these same principles to your life and become your own champion. Colorful, inspirational, and accessible, The Right Call is the one stop shop for anyone wanting to learn how to effectively elevate themselves to greatness.

A groundbreaking guide to breaking free from the thoughts, habits, jobs, relationships, and even business models that prevent us from achieving our full potential. Almost everyone feels stuck in some way. Whether you’re muddling through a midlife crisis, wrestling writer’s block, trapped in a thankless job, or trying to remedy a fraying friendship, the resulting emotion is usually a mix of anxiety, uncertainty, fear, anger, and numbness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Anatomy of a Breakthrough is the roadmap we all need to escape our inertia and flourish in the face of friction. Adam Alter has spent the past two decades studying how people become stuck and how they free themselves to thrive. Here he reveals the formula he and other researchers have uncovered. The solution rests on a process that he calls a friction audit—a systematic procedure that uncovers why a person or organization is stuck, and then suggests a path to progress. The friction audit states that people and organizations get unstuck when they overcome three sources of friction: HEART (unhelpful emotions); HEAD (unhelpful patterns of thought); and HABIT (unhelpful behaviors). Despite the ubiquity of friction, there are many great “unstickers” hidden in plain sight among us and Alter shines a light on some exceptional stories to share their valuable lessons with us. He tells us about the sub-elite swimmer who unstuck himself twice to win two Olympic gold medals, the actor who faced countless rejections before gaining worldwide fame, the renowned painter who became paralyzed and had to relearn to paint with a brush strapped to his wrist, and Alter’s own story of getting unstuck from a college degree that made him deeply unhappy. Artfully weaving together scientific studies, anecdotes, and interviews, Alter teaches us that getting stuck is a feature rather than a glitch on the road to thriving, but with the right tweaks and corrections we can reach even our loftiest targets.

"Using stories and examples, David Moinina Sengeh presents seven principles for radical inclusion that are AS ACTIONABLE AS THEY ARE POWERFUL." ―Brené Brown From an inspiring young global leader—"A MASTER CLASS IN INNOVATION" (Kwame Alexander) for anyone who wants to make the world a better place. The first title from Melinda French Gates’s Moment of Lift Books As the newly appointed minister of education in Sierra Leone, David Moinina Sengeh assumed that the administration he served—not to mention his family and friends—shared his conviction that all girls belong in the classroom. He was shocked to learn that many of those closest to him, including a member of his own family, were against lifting a long-standing policy banning pregnant girls from school. Radical Inclusion is the dramatic narrative of Sengeh’s drive to guarantee pregnant girls’ right to an education. His story functions as a parable that can help us all advocate for change by reimagining the systems that perpetuate exclusion. The specifics of his efforts in Sierra Leone are captivating, and the lessons Sengeh shares are universal. In addition to the candid account of his quest for reform, he offers stories and perspective from other parts of his life, drawing on his experiences encountering racial profiling as a Harvard student, developing cutting-edge prosthetic limbs at MIT, and working to combat algorithmic bias as a data scientist. Sengeh offers listners a road map for pursuing radical inclusion in their own lives and work—from identifying exclusions, to building coalitions and adapting to a new normal. His audiobook is essential reading for modern leaders or anyone who hopes to help unleash the power of a world that is truly, radically inclusive. A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

There is a force in our everyday lives that we aren't even aware of—and it's so powerful it threatens to derail otherwise promising careers and lives: microstress. It's the hidden epidemic of small moments of anxiety that infiltrate both our work and personal lives. Because each individual microstress is so small, it doesn't trigger the normal stress response in our brains to help us deal with it. Instead, the microstress just embeds in our minds, accumulating along with scores of other microstresses, day-to-day and week-to-week. The long-term effect is devastating: microstress invisibly weighs us down, damages our physical and emotional health, and contributes to a decline in our overall well-being. The good news is that once you learn about microstress, you can fight back. Drawing on fresh research, Rob Cross and Karen Dillon will teach you how to recognize and manage the most common forms of microstress, and even remove some from your life. Compelling interviews with high achievers who've endured their share of microstress bring to life best practices that show you how to build resilience against microstress, and ultimately how to find purpose in your everyday life, using it as an antidote to your own microstress.

Mauricio Umansky, real estate mogul, longtime fan favorite of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and star of his own Netflix series Buying Beverly Hills inspires budding entrepreneurs and self-starters of all backgrounds with tips and strategies to find success at work and at home. After more than twenty years in the cutthroat real estate business, Mauricio Umansky has seen and heard it all. Now, he’s ready to share everything he’s learned throughout the highs and lows of his illustrious career in this part memoir, part leadership manifesto. From the challenges of his childhood to outgrowing his father’s textile company and falling out with his brother-in-law Rick Hilton, while also raising a family and maintaining a strong marriage for over twenty-five years, Umansky has plenty of advice and lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and self-starters across all industries. By outlining his fundamental principles of success, Umansky will embolden those who are ready to work hard and are prepared to meet adversity head on, which requires endless stamina, grit, and determination. Each chapter will center around a specific piece of wisdom and offer insightful takeaways including: How to Play Hard and Work Harder, How to Find Your Professional and Personal Passions, How to be an Innovator Not an Imitator, The Art of the Sell, The Benefits of Remaining Positive, How to Achieve Balance, and so much more. Umansky’s journey has been anything but boring. It’s been unpredictable, exhilarating, and emotionally and physically demanding at times. In The Dealmaker, he imparts his hard-earned knowledge, along with strategies he’s taught himself, for anyone and everyone looking to build their own fruitful career and to find the happiness we all seek in life. Welcome to his exclusive and exciting world.

Reclaim control of your workday with a proven time-saving method. Life is busier than ever before. We are working longer hours to keep up with longer to-do lists. Yet we’re experiencing more stress and seem to fall further and further behind. Our so-called leisure time is punctuated with interruptions, constantly pulling us back to work. We are led to believe we can prioritize our way out of this, but prioritization is broken. In Workday Warrior, productivity expert Ann Gomez presents a fresh approach that smashes today’s time challenges: too many priorities, too many interruptions, and too much complexity. We don’t need more willpower, discipline, or hours in our day. Instead, we need a straightforward approach to help us reclaim our time and upgrade our work habits. We need to concentrate our priori ties, protect our time, and simplify our work to amplify our results. This book will help you become a Workday Warrior. Find more time in your day, play at a higher level, and feel more in control of your time. Your work (and life!) will never be the same.

The ultimate guide to mastering change and successfully reinventing how you live, work, and lead “Filled with useful ideas for rethinking your next steps.” —Adam Grant The profound disruptions of recent years have sparked a collective reckoning. We reprioritized our lives, and reordered how we envisioned the future. Businesses were forced to pivot, while leaders scrambled to rethink their roles. There has been an unprecedented global reset. But in truth, almost everyone goes through this kind of reappraisal at least once in their life—and probably more often than that. Whatever the catalyst, it prompts in us the urgent need to pivot, to ask the question: What’s next—and how do I get there? In Next!, bestselling author and journalist Joanne Lipman distills hundreds of personal interviews along with the latest scientific research to answer just this question. Through irresistible storytelling, she takes us inside successful career reinventions (ad executive to bestselling novelist; stay-at-home mom to CEO) and astonishing business transformations (wait until you hear what Play-Doh and Viagra have in common). From the laboratories of neuroscientists to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, to the frontlines of the social justice movement, Lipman explores how and why these transformations succeed. At its heart, Next! offers a thrilling argument: by harnessing the science and understanding the process, we can better understand how to reinvent that new career, change the direction of our lives, or inspire innovation in our organizations. This book provides a toolkit that shows how to make meaningful transitions—large or small—and to figure out for ourselves what’s Next!

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the world. But in our workplaces, anxiety has been a hidden problem—there in plain sight but ignored. Until now. The Anxious Achiever is a book with a mission: to normalize anxiety and leadership. As leadership expert and self-proclaimed anxious achiever Morra Aarons-Mele argues, anxiety is built into the very nature of leadership. It can—and should—be harnessed into a force for good. Inspired by the popular podcast of the same name, The Anxious Achiever is filled with personal stories, research-based insights into mental health, and lots of practical advice. You'll learn how to: figure out your own anxiety profile so that you can recognize and avoid common thought traps and triggers; confront bad habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms; resist perfectionism, manage social anxiety, and set boundaries to prevent burnout; deal with feedback, criticism, and impostor syndrome; and model—and communicate—healthy behavior as a leader. Whether you're experiencing anxiety for the first time or have been battling it for years, The Anxious Achiever will help you turn your stress and worries into a source of strength for yourself, your career, and the people you lead.

You Are a Badass meets Grit in this powerhouse guide to overcoming your fear and finding the confidence within—from Christie’s ambassador and author of the “insightful, inspiring” (New York Journal of Books) The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You. “How do I become more confident?” is the question Lydia Fenet hears almost every time she speaks to women across the country. Navigating a two-decade career at the world’s leading auction house while raising three children, Lydia had her own journey of learning self-assurance. Through stories of overcoming challenges in both her work and personal lives, she demonstrates that confidence isn’t something that only some people are born with; rather, it’s inside every one of us, waiting to be claimed. Claim Your Confidence offers case studies, insights, and advice on how to: - Harness the Power of Positivity - Slam Your Imposter Syndrome - Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable - Grow Your Mindset And more! From building up the courage to do what scares you the most to persisting when all you want to do is give up, get ready to claim your confidence and get the life you want.

New York Times bestselling author Jonah Berger’s cutting-edge research reveals how six types of words can increase your impact in every area of life: from persuading others and building stronger relationships, to boosting creativity and motivating teams. Almost everything we do involves words. Words are how we persuade, communicate, and connect. They’re how leaders lead, salespeople sell, and parents parent. They’re how teachers teach, policymakers govern, and doctors explain. Even our private thoughts rely on language. But certain words are more impactful than others. They’re better at changing minds, engaging audiences, and driving action. What are these magic words, and how can we take advantage of their power? In Magic Words, internationally bestselling author Jonah Berger gives you an inside look at the new science of language and how you can use it. Technological advances in machine learning, computational linguistics, and natural language processing, combined with the digitization of everything from cover letters to conversations, have yielded unprecedented insights. Learn how salespeople convince clients, lawyers persuade juries, and storytellers captivate audiences; how teachers get kids to help and service representatives increase customer satisfaction; how startup founders secure funding, musicians make hits, and psychologists identified a Shakespearean manuscript without ever reading a play. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook. This book is designed for anyone who wants to increase their impact. It provides a powerful toolkit and actionable techniques that can lead to extraordinary results. Whether you’re trying to persuade a client, motivate a team, or get a whole organization to see things differently, this book will show you how to leverage the power of magic words.

The Wall Street Journal Bestseller Read by the author. For so many entrepreneurs, running a small business ended up looking different than they imagined. They’re stressed, discouraged, and not confident in their plan for growth. In How to Grow Your Small Business, Donald Miller gives entrepreneurs a 6-step plan to grow their businesses so they produce dependable, predictable results. Using the exact steps you’ll learn in this book, Donald Miller grew his small business from four employees working out of a basement to a 15 million dollar operation, increasing revenue sixfold in just six years. As Miller grew his own business from the ground up, he realized nobody had put together a simple, step-by-step playbook for growing a business. That book didn’t exist. Until now. In this book, you’ll learn the 6 steps to grow a successful small business and create a playbook to implement them- your Flight Plan. When you have a completed Flight Plan in hand, you can stop drowning in the details and spend more time doing the things you truly love- in your business and your life. In How to Grow Your Small Business, you’ll learn how to: Cast a vision for your company that includes three economic priorities Clarify your marketing message Install a sales framework that makes your customers the hero Optimize your product offering Run a management and productivity playbook that aligns your entire team. Use 5 checking accounts to manage your cash flow If you’re ready to experience freedom, flexibility, and growth for your business, How to Grow Your Small Business is the book you’ve been waiting for. Graphics and worksheets are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

*A "Next Big Idea Club" Must-Read Book for January* *AS HEARD ON ARMCHAIR EXPERT WITH DAX SHEPARD* Rediscover your ability to pay attention with this groundbreaking new approach from "the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking" (Cal Newport). We spend an average of just 47 seconds on any screen before shifting our attention. It takes 25 minutes to bring our attention back to a task after an interruption. And we interrupt ourselves more than we're interrupted by others. In Attention Span, psychologist Gloria Mark reveals these and more surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention. She shows how much of what we think we know is wrong, including insights such as: Why multitasking hurts rather than helps productivity How social media and modern entertainment amplify our short attention spans What drains our mental resources and how to refuel them The four types of attention that we experience every day and how to recognize themWhile the concept of “flow” has previously been considered the ideal state of focus, Dr. Mark offers a new framework to help explain how our brains function in the digital world: kinetic attention. This book reveals how we can take control, not only to find more success in our careers, but also to find health and wellness in our everyday lives. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

“An inspiring blueprint to overcome challenges—and thrive” (Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of Thrive Global), on how to turn other’s and your own doubt into rocket fuel to achieve your dreams, from entrepreneur, CEO, and healthcare investor Surbhi Sarna. The very qualities that make you an outlier are, in fact, your strengths. Or so Surbhi Sarna discovered after a teenage cancer scare inspired her to reimagine healthcare, founding a medical start-up to detect early ovarian cancer. In Without a Doubt, she shares how she proved the doubters wrong. As a young, brown woman without a medical degree or Ivy-league or Silicon Valley contacts—and who had felt different throughout her life—she was often overlooked and underrated. Undeterred, Sarna used the naysayers as ammunition to help her surpass expectations—and achieve her dreams. Without a Doubt is her powerful story of becoming a leader without an MBA, networking without a network, and raising funds when she didn't know a single venture capitalist, teaching you how to do the same. Sarna led an all-star team to develop a life-saving medical device, sold her business for $275 million, and became a partner at Y Combinator, one of the most successful venture firms in the world. Using her own experience, she shows you how to face setbacks, not let impossible standards get in the way, lead empathetically, empower others to think differently, and how to convince the right people to help you accomplish your goals. Without a Doubt reveals that your power lies in recognizing the qualities that make you different and leveraging them to pursue your dreams.

This program is read by and contains archival audio of the author from MSNBC, BBC Question Time, Oxford Union, and other sources. Win Every Argument shows how anyone can communicate with confidence, rise above the tit-for-tats on social media, and triumph in a successful and productive debate in the real world. 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. Arguments are everywhere—and especially given the fierce debates we’re all embroiled in today, everyone wants to win. In this riveting guide to the art of argument and rhetoric, Hasan shows you how. As a journalist, anchor, and interviewer who has clashed with politicians, generals, spy chiefs, and celebrities from across the world, Hasan reveals his tricks of the trade for the first time. Whether you are making a presentation at work or debating current political issues with a friend, Mehdi Hasan will teach you how to sharpen your speaking skills to make the winning case. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

What if the greatest salespeople on the planet are the opposite of who you think they are? Everyone sells, every day. It’s why the most successful people are better than most at selling themselves, their ideas, or their products and services. Yet when people hear the word sales they think of an overly confident, articulate extrovert (at best) or a pushy, know-it-all huckster (at worst). Because of these misperceptions, when we find ourselves in a situation where we need to sell, we feel compelled to put on the persona of a “good salesperson.” But there’s a disconnect between who we think good salespeople are and who they actually are. In any room, they’re not the most self-confident, they’re the most self-aware. They’re not the most sociable, they’re the most socially aware. And they don’t succeed in spite of obstacles, they succeed because of obstacles. Colin Coggins and Garrett Brown sought out some of the most successful people from all walks of life, including CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, trial lawyers, professional athletes, agents, military leaders, artists, engineers, and countless others in hopes of understanding why these people are so extraordinary. Colin and Garrett found that, as different as all these incredible people were, they all had an eerily similar approach to selling. It didn’t matter if they were perceived as optimists or pessimists, logical or emotional, introverted or extroverted, jovial or stoic—they were all unsold on what it meant to sell and unsold on who people expected them to be. The Unsold Mindset reveals a counterintuitive approach not just to selling but to life. It’s a journey toward an entirely new mindset—the greatest sellers on the planet aren’t successful because of what they do, they’re successful because of what they think. Being a good person and a good salesperson aren’t mutually exclusive. The Unsold Mindset will change the way you think about selling and the way you think about yourself. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Includes an audiobook-exclusive interview with the author! Make achieving your goals and finding success possible with this one-of-a-kind guide by Robert Irvine, popular host of Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible.  Audio book includes exclusive bonus audio content! Robert Irvine knows a thing or two about business. For over 200 episodes of Food Network’s hit show Restaurant: Impossible, he’s helped failing entrepreneurs make the necessary changes to reverse course and transform their businesses from the brink of collapse to sustainable enterprises. And he doesn’t just talk a good game; Irvine is a successful entrepreneur himself with a family of companies to his credit, from frozen foods and liquor to protein bars, restaurants, a traveling live show, and a namesake foundation that gives back to America’s veterans and first responders. Now Irvine is sharing the success secrets he has learned along the way so he can help others thrive. As he says in the book: “I’ve always wanted to write this book, and now I finally have enough hindsight to analyze the moves that transformed me from an aspiring entrepreneur to a successful one.” In this book, you will: Learn how to stop micromanaging. Understand what really motivates you, how to be accountable, and how to manage ego. Foster the traits of authenticity and trust into your culture. Change your mindset around technology and social media. EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT WITH ROBERT IRVINE: Listen in on a conversation between Robert Irvine and co-author Matt Tuthill, in which they discuss the origins of Overcoming Impossible and delve deeper into several topics from the book, including:  Why employers need to trust their employees totally, and how to build that trust. Why it’s essential to admit mistakes—and have a sense of humor about them. How ego can destroy otherwise great businesses. How accepting seed funding from family and friends can sink your business before it even opens. The value of haters—how they can motivate you and what they can teach you. Why it is essential that you hire people that can outshine you. A’s should never hire B’s. They should always be on the hunt for the A-plus.

A Living Now Book Awards Gold Medalist, Social Activism/Charity A practical, shame-free guide for navigating conversations across our differences at a time of rapid social change. In the current period of social and political unrest, conversations about identity are becoming more frequent and more difficult. On subjects like critical race theory, gender equity in the workplace, and LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms, many of us are understandably fearful of saying the wrong thing. That fear can sometimes prevent us from speaking up at all, depriving people from marginalized groups of support and stalling progress toward a more just and inclusive society. Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow, founders of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, are here to show potential allies that these conversations don’t have to be so overwhelming. Through stories drawn from contexts as varied as social media posts, dinner party conversations, and workplace disputes, they offer seven user-friendly principles that teach skills such as how to avoid common conversational pitfalls, engage in respectful disagreement, offer authentic apologies, and better support people in our lives who experience bias. Research-backed, accessible, and uplifting, Say the Right Thing charts a pathway out of cancel culture toward more meaningful and empathetic dialogue on issues of identity. It also gives us the practical tools to do good in our spheres of influence. Whether managing diverse teams at work, navigating issues of inclusion at college, or challenging biased comments at a family barbecue, Yoshino and Glasgow help us move from unconsciously hurting people to consciously helping them.

How do the principles of global espionage apply to building and growing a business? In Company Rules, Or Everything I Know About Business I Learned From the CIA, Mike Baker shares the nine make-or-break tactics that he mastered during his tenure with the Central Intelligence Agency and details how he used them to succeed in the private sector. These exclusive rules, once only accessible to the intelligence community, are laid out step-by-step and can be put into practice on your own terms. Leaving behind a life of international intrigue, Baker took on a new venture when he met a “pipe-smoking British fraud investigator” by the name of Mike Comer who was launching an ambitious startup, Maxima, in London’s West End. While Baker didn’t know the first thing about fraud investigation at the time, he realized that he could use what he learned in his CIA training to help bring the startup to prominence. While at Maxima, Baker recognized that success in business is dependent upon information-gathering, and as he notes, “Whoever has the best intelligence…wins.” From the Company Rules like Know Your Risk Appetite and Immediately Admit Your Mistakes, to Define Your Mission and Identify and Resolve Threats, Baker demonstrates that the business world isn't as unlike the spy world as one might think. Baker lays out the nine Company Rules clearly and precisely, intermixing them with accounts of riveting adventures from his time in the private sector. The tactical rules can be applied to any start-up, growing, or established business. Company Rules, Or Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the CIA is full of valuable insight for entrepreneurs and managers alike who are seeking a structured method to build a foundation for success.

Gender equity can't happen without racial equity. We need Shared Sisterhood. Bias persists in organizations and society. Despite efforts that have been made in the last few decades, gender and racioethnic equity still hasn't been achieved. What's worse, Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Latina women are being held back more than their White counterparts. Professor Tina Opie first started Shared Sisterhood as a movement to drive gender and racial equity in organizations. Since then, she and professor Beth A. Livingston have worked together to spread the word to leaders across organizations, with thousands of followers joining the cause. In this book, they explain how to use vulnerability, trust, empathy, and risk-taking to build Shared Sisterhood and break down three key parts of the process: 1. Dig into your own assumptions around racioethnicity, gender, and power 2. Bridge the divide between women of all backgrounds through authentic relationships 3. Advance all women across the organization and beyond Balancing a mix of history, research, and real-life examples—including the authors' own experiences—this book encourages everyone to join Shared Sisterhood and advance equity for all.

Ladies, leadership, and legacy! Like gravity, sowing and reaping is a natural law of life—you simply reap what you sow. It naturally plays and pays out, until it DOESN’T. Time and again, history has shown that until society learns and positively changes from the past with its deeply-rooted thought patterns and norms, we are condemned to repeat its many trappings, stereotypes, and shortcomings. Never Get Their Coffee is a call to action and underscores the glass ceiling disparities of gender equity in the marketplace. However, its focus fixates on helping shape societal strides in fueling fearless leadership, and its mission is in inspiring faith and tenacity of the human spirit to dream a dream, sow a thought, reap an action...a habit...a character...and ultimately to discover one’s destiny. Woods’ challenge for all her readers is that death is no respecter of persons—stop apologizing for success, aim high, dream deeply, and start living your divine calling. Become doers of destiny.

Inside every company is a portfolio of game-changing new ventures waiting to be unleashed. It's become accepted wisdom that established companies can't build and scale new ventures the way startups can—after all, startups are lean and agile, while incumbents are too big, slow, and inflexible. But that's nonsense, and it's time to challenge that idea. In The Unicorn Within, Linda Yates, the founder and CEO of Silicon Valley–based Mach49, the world's leading growth incubator for the Global 1000, argues that to thrive, companies can and must harness their power—their ideas, talent, data, cash, resources, channels, and customers—to build a portfolio of game-changing ventures and beat the startups at their own game. In this all-in-one guide, Yates lays out a comprehensive twelve-week program, proven in scores of the world's largest companies, for doing all of the above: building a team and finding customer pain points; creating new products or services; developing a rigorous business and execution plan; and launching, accelerating, and scaling each venture. And then doing it again and again. She also shares a blueprint for building your own incubator and accelerator—your own growth engine—along with providing a robust, repeatable, and scalable process that also addresses the complexities and often paralyzing constraints of corporate bureaucracy. Best of all, Yates offers a guide relevant to everyone, from the growth-minded C-suite senior executive to the ambitious, creative intrapreneur, as she covers everything from selecting your new-venture team to creating a new-venture board—the senior executives who become the venture's internal VCs, helping to remove institutional friction and ensuring that every venture can reach escape velocity and thrive. Focused 100% on execution, the book is filled with methods, assessments, tools, scripts, and agendas illustrating every step. The Unicorn Within provides everything even the most established company needs to create high-growth new ventures that deliver compelling new products and services—and stay perpetually competitive in the face of relentless change.

Two pioneering researchers identify key causes of workplace burnout and reveal what managers can do to promote increased productivity and health. Citing a wealth of research data and drawing on illustrative anecdotes, The Burnout Challenge shows how organizations can change to promote sustainable productivity. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter provide useful tools for identifying the signs of employee burnout, most often exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. They also advise managers on assembling and interpreting worker self-evaluation surveys, which can reveal workplace problems and potential solutions. And when it comes to implementing change, Maslach and Leiter offer practical, evidence-driven guidance. The key, they argue, is to begin with less-taxing changes that employees nonetheless find meaningful, seeding the ground for more thorough reforms in the future. Experts estimate that more than $500 billion and 550 million workhours are lost annually to on-the-job stress, much of it caused by dysfunctional work environments. As priorities and policies shift across workplaces, The Burnout Challenge provides pragmatic, creative, and cost-effective solutions to improve employee efficiency, health, and happiness.

Read by the author. LEARN THE RECIPE FOR STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS For the first time ever, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, Candace Nelson, is sharing the recipe for success in her new book, Sweet Success. She will walk you through the steps she took to build a globally beloved brand, so you can do it too. Although she deals in frosting, there’s no sugarcoating here. Candace pushes back the kitchen door to reveal mistakes, misses, and lessons learned the hard way. Readers will learn how to: Obtain the key ingredients to any successful business Craft the mindset of an entrepreneur Learn the secret recipe for packaging a product for profit Turn kitchen experiments into top selling products Cultivate a community of brand evangelists Step into a personal brand to amplify the business Know where to put marketing dollars most effectively And much more.   In a time of unprecedented disruption and innovation, people are rethinking career and professional purpose. It’s never been a better time to start a business. Sweet Success dispels the myth that entrepreneurship is reserved for an elite few and is a must-read for anyone with a passion needing a place to start or a push along the way. At a career crossroads, instead of going to business school like her peers, Candace Nelson reflected on what she really wanted to do—and did what nobody, including Candace herself, would have expected. She poured her passion and life savings into creating the world’s first cupcake bakery. Today, Sprinkles Cupcakes and its Cupcake ATMs have become a globally recognized brand, celebration mainstay, and inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere.

Finally, a new kind of business startup book—packed full of  practical advice plus essential  legal information you really need but don’t get in business school or anywhere else! David J. Muchow is a thirty-year business expert, serial entrepreneur, corporate lawyer, and inventor who can help you build a successful startup business. This unique guide, which focuses on both the business and legal aspects of startups, is a must-have for every aspiring entrepreneur, small business owner, startup incubator, student, and business and law schools. In 7 Secret Keys to Startup Success, you will learn: - How to cut legal expenses and manage lawyers - How to fire employees and partners without getting sued - Patent, trademark and copyright strategies and tricks - How to raise money without SEC problems - How to avoid the financial “Valley of Death” - What “to do” but also “what not to do" to avoid “startup suicide”.   The book reveals key mistakes that can kill businesses. For example, blogging about your new products can prevent getting a patent. And giving away too much equity and picking the wrong partners can be fatal. You must avoid these mistakes to survive as a business. Other books focus on generalities such as “motivation” and miss these dangerous traps. Muchow, who teaches law, business and entrepreneurship at Georgetown, illustrates the 7 Secret Keys with fun and exciting examples, such as how Ivanka Trump was sued for trademark infringement over her Hettie Sandal design and Oprah Winfrey’s battle to protect her intellectual property for O Magazine. 7 Secret Keys to Startup Success is like having both an expert attorney and a consultant by your side every step of the way on your startup’s journey to success!

In a society which promises that great things come from hard work, Keith Boykin counters that great things come from quitting. Boykin writes that quitting “is for anyone” — quitting your job, your city, your relationship, and anything else that doesn’t serve you. At twenty-seven years old, Boykin left behind a lucrative law career to work for the Clinton administration in the White House. But when his skills were underutilized, he quit his prestigious post after two years. Boykin soon went on to write the New York Times best seller Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies, and Denial in Black America, an examination of race and sexual orientation in the Black community. Since then, Boykin has quit a string of jobs, careers, organizations, and residences in pursuit of the autonomy and purpose that he eventually achieved. To him, nothing is more important than personal freedom: not money, not the veneer of success, and certainly not goals that other people have for his life. Quitting means change. And change is the first step on the path to freedom. Cut to 2021, and Boykin is cheering on the 47 million Americans who left their jobs — for many a good reason — in what has become known as the Great Resignation. This new wave of “quitters” may not be quitting the White House, as Boykin did. Instead, it’s about quitting jobs that he considers to be eternal “preplanned treadmills” rather than valued ways of life. In this candid memoir, Keith Boykin takes you on a roller-coaster ride of successes and failures that ultimately leads to a meaningful existence beyond “the identity of your employment.” Quitting: Why I Left My Job to Live a Life of Freedom is the bold encouragement that will push you toward making changes to live life on your terms.