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Title: What Great Service Leaders Know and Do: Creating Breakthroughs in Service Firms

Author: Leonard A. Schlesinger, James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr.

Narrator: Wayne Shepherd

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-05-15

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

Entire service businesses have been built around the ideas of Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger, pioneers in the world of service. Now they test their ideas against the actual experiences of successful and unsuccessful practitioners as well as against demands of the future in a book service leaders around the world will use as a guide for years to come.

The authors cover every aspect of optimal service leadership: the best hiring, training, and workplace organization practices; the creation of operating strategies around areas such as facility design, capacity planning, queue management, and more; the use - and misuse - of technology in delivering top-level service; and practices that can transform loyal customers into "owners".

Looking ahead, the authors describe the world of great service leaders in which "both/and" thinking replaces trade-offs. It's a world in which new ideas will be tested against the sine qua non of the "service trifecta" - wins for employees, customers, and investors. And it's a world in which the best leaders admit that they don't have the answers and create organizations that learn, innovate, "sense and respond", operate with fluid boundaries, and seek and achieve repeated strategic success.

Using examples of dozens of companies in a wide variety of industries, such as Apollo Hospitals, Châteauform, Starbucks, Amazon, Disney, Progressive Insurance, the Dallas Mavericks, Whole Foods, IKEA, and many others, the authors present a narrative of remarkable successes, unnecessary failures, and future promise.

Members Reviews:

A must read!

A must read for anyone in a leadership role in a service organization

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Title: SET for Inclusion

Subtitle: An Underlying Methodology for Achieving Your Inclusion Dividend

Author: Mark Kaplan, Mason Donovan

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-19-15

Publisher: Bibliomotion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

One of the biggest challenges for organizations over the past 40 years has been integrating inclusiveness into practical, day-to-day leadership. In the authors' first book, The Inclusion Dividend, they made the case for inclusive leadership as a measurable asset to an organization; it shows up in the bottom line and in other measurable results. In SET for Inclusion, Donovan and Kaplan take that one step further by guiding leaders through the application of a framework to lead inclusively.

The authors discuss the current research on unconscious bias and insider-outsider dynamics and focus on how to translate that current research into best practice for leaders. SET for Inclusion follows the stories of three diverse characters in a large modern organization - a top executive, a middle manager, and an individual contributor. Each of these characters is working to make inclusiveness real, to provide tangible benefits for them as individuals and for the organization. These characters and their stories reflect the authors' 45 years of experience in working with middle- and senior-level managers in a variety of Fortune 1000 companies. The characters' experiences, going from self-awareness to action, will be very familiar to leaders in large domestic and global organizations. They will provide an important, step-by-step template for leaders who are interested in creating and leveraging diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

Editorial Reviews:

SET for Inclusion provides a very realistic methodology for instilling diversity and inclusion concepts into everyday work life decisions. (Lisa Barnum, director, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity, the Aerospace Corporation)

Critic Reviews:

"Whether you sit in the C-Suite, are in the world of middle management, or are an individual contributor, SET for Inclusion illustrates how easily you can own inclusion in your work space." (Amy Goldstein, senior director, J. Crew)

Members Reviews:

I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking practical tools for immediately ...

Probably the most difficult thing to understand when it comes to effectively leveraging diversity and inclusion to improve business results is how to implement actions that actually make a difference. SET for Inclusion, by applying a very simple decision-making model, provides the reader with a clear understanding of the awareness AND actions necessary to create greater inclusion. By following three fictitious, yet realistic, characters at varying levels of seniority in a company (C-suite executive, middle manager, and individual contributor), Donovan and Kaplan provide a simple roadmap for understanding the process necessary to interrupt unconscious bias in decision-making and take action for lasting change. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking practical tools for immediately increasing inclusion in any organization.

Concrete, doable actions make inclusiveness a reality -- this book shows how!

Donovan and Kaplan have done it again! This book is exactly what it claims to be -- the rare, practical "D&I" book that gives corporate leaders and employees concrete, doable actions to leverage diversity by making inclusiveness a reality.

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Title: The Ignorant Maestro

Subtitle: How Great Leaders Inspire Unpredictable Brilliance

Author: Itay Talgam

Narrator: Joseph Rochlitz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-19-15

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

"Choosing ignorance might seem a terrible quality to exhibit in your workplace - a sure path down the stairs and out the corporate door. But stick with me here and see how it leads you upward. You'll understand why great leaders embrace ignorance and use it to elevate their people to new heights of achievement."

A conductor in front of his orchestra is an iconic symbol of leadership - but what does a true maestro actually do to enable the right sort of cooperation among his players, leading to an excellent performance? If you think his primary job is making sure the musicians play the right notes, prepare to be surprised.

For 20 years, in addition to conducting orchestras around the world, Itay Talgam has been a "conductor of people" for companies large and small, for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies as well as start-up entrepreneurs and beyond. Drawing on his decades of experience on the podium, he teaches nonmusicians how conducting really works and how the conductor's art can help leaders in any field.

In his lectures (including an acclaimed TED talk) and now in this audiobook, Talgam shows why imposing your vision on your people is likely to backfire. Great conductors may know in advance how they want a piece to be played, but they make room for the creativity and passion of their musicians. They respect the gap between the baton and the instruments. They focus more on listening than on speaking. And they embrace their own ignorance, knowing that others may have better ideas than the conductor can imagine.

Talgam explores the nuances of leadership by describing the distinctive styles of six world-famous conductors: the commanding Riccardo Muti; the fatherly and passionate Arturo Toscanini; the calm Richard Strauss; the guru-like Herbert von Karajan; the dancing Carlos Kleiber; and the master of dialogue, Leonard Bernstein.

Members Reviews:

Be that maestro!

You have 70 employees, a pressing deadline, famous competitors and hundreds of difficult clients waiting for the product just in front of you. What is your best strategy: to rule by precise orders and thinly veiled threats? To let every member flow creatively under your benevolent leadership? Would you lead by creative inspiration, by ruthless autocracy, by carefully engineered tactics or by your charm alone? You have to make a choice because you're the conductor now, at least for the next 220 pages: What will it be tonight, total freedom or total control?

A little bit of both, of course.

Itay Talgam writes beautifully, with an eloquent prose and timely anecdotes that are so rare in management books. His analysis of the 6-types of leadership, as illustrated by six famous conductors, is illuminating and should be required reading for business students and struggling politicians, for veteran managers and aspiring leaders. But above all this is a thought-provoking story about Empowerment, this tricky process that only truly great leaders learned to master. Itay Talgam is the ideal mentor for it -- funny, erudite, brilliant and immensely inspiring.

There are good and bad surprises

There are good and bad surprises. It was written with a much bigger reader circle in mind and would allow the book to be grouped under 'leadership', among other business and management books.

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Title: Start with Why: End with How

Author: Benjamin Chapin

Narrator: Jay Prichard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-15

Publisher: Benjamin Chapin

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

Are you a leader or a boss?

Leaders and bosses are two very different kinds of management styles. Leaders can make a statement about a task needing done and people will jump to volunteer while a boss will beg and plead their co-workers to get something accomplished. Leadership skills can be taught and acquired so you can lead your team efficiently.

Leadership = Profits

When you have excellent leadership in place at your company, profits are going to go up. Teams are made of people and when a leader can effectively lead, the results are amazing. Customers will be taken care of and clients will be signing contracts left and right when real leadership is in place over teams of employees. The reason for this is because of the trickle down affect. The excellent leadership causes the employees to be happy and content which in turn reaches the customers.

By the end of this book you are going to be ready to become a leader. Start down the road of leadership and building excellent customer relationships through employees today. You have the power to shape the future of your company and it starts with picking up your copy of this book!

Members Reviews:

Terrific book that can be applied to more than

a person's job. There's a lot of great information in this book that could not only be applied at the workplace but towards life in general. Indeed it's true, especially at work, that a person reacts to the way they're treated whether it be negatively or positively.

Either at work or at home, YES, what you do matters. Nobody wants to feel as if they're just a cog in the wheel. People are the ones that make a company great. And leaders are born every day. I can relate this to a few people I know as well as their employees and employers. I think this book would be beneficial to many people. I wish this had been a longer audiobook. It leads into the next book "Directional Thinking: 10 Steps to Positive Thinking." Important information.

Jay Prichard is a wonderfully upbeat narrator. His pacing and pauses are perfect. He speaks clearly and in a positive way which makes this a great listen. I look forward to the next book.

Audiobook received in exchange for an honest review.

Great Companion to Directional Thinking

Any additional comments?

It seems that Start with Why... is either a section of or an additional tool to Directional Thinking by the same author. I find these shorts (each about an hour) very helpful in my business life. I think that they could pertain to a boss or an employee.

The premise show basics tools to as how or why you think the way you do about your position. If one has a negative outlook on his/her job, one should try approaching from a different angle.

For example, if you are an employer and you need things to be accomplished by others during the day. If you must cajole, beg and plead for your employees to do the task. Likely, you are not going to feel very good about yourself or your position.

Taking a different approach to the same situation may impact you and your staff in a positive way. Letting employees know what needs to be done and getting down and starting to do the job with them may make them more positive about their position and respect the boss more as well.

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Title: Your Leadership Story

Subtitle: Use Your Story to Energize, Inspire, and Motivate

Author: Tim Tobin

Narrator: Wayne Shepherd

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-15

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

Stories have power. They move people in a way that facts and figures can't. Many leaders use stories as a tool, but leadership development expert Tim Tobin says most have no idea what tale their own leadership is telling. He shows how, by thinking of your career as a narrative - with a plot, characters, and an arc - you can increase your awareness of yourself as a leader and become more effective, insightful, and inspiring.

Using story as both a metaphor and a process for self-development, Tobin offers activities and questions that help you better understand your own leadership and how others perceive it. What is the plot of your leadership story - your overall goals and purpose? Who are the main characters and what roles do they play? How have the settings of your story influenced it? What are the conflicts that you need to resolve to move toward the ending you intend?

But you have to share your story to make it an effective leadership tool. Tobin gives detailed advice on framing your message, finding ways to communicate it, and understanding the role others play in furthering that message.

If you don't tell your leadership story, other people will - and it may not be the story you want told. Taking control of your leadership story enables you to more consciously shape the impact you have in the world. You'll be better equipped to make decisions, choose actions that tell the story you want to tell, make stronger connections to those you lead, and ensure that you become the kind of leader you want to be.

Members Reviews:

Personalized Leadership Development

You know how important it is to write down your goals and how thereâs tons of data to suggest it increases your chances of achieving them? This book is like that for the individual leader. I consider myself a student of leaders and leadership and, as a result, I read a lot of leadership books. I can honestly say this one was a pleasant surprise and not similar to anything I have read before. The beauty of the strategy here is that it doesnât tell you how to be a leader. It doesnât tell you how to change. It doesnât provide a blueprint that may or may not be right for you (as so many books/programs do). What the author does is compel the reader to not just think about what kind of leader they want to be, but walks the reader through a series of self-reflection and learning exercises. In a clever manner the author helps the reader record this information and reflections in the book itself. Through this process the reader not only is forced to reflect on the leadership good and bad of themselves and others, but also build a roadmap that is truly personal. Who will this book benefit? In my opinion, as a seasoned leader, I would recommend to anyone from a soon-to-be leader, to an experienced one. I found the book caused me to reflect and think about my own leadership history, and ways to improve, in a manner I havenât been compelled to in quite some time.

Leadership Portrait - worth a read

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this book is worth ten thousand leadership studies. As a consultant and as a faculty member who teachers working professional about organizational leadership - I can confidently say that Dr. Tobin's book offers new insight into our leadership practices.

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Title: Getting Digital Marketing Right

Subtitle: A Simplified Process for Business Growth, Goal Attainment, and Powerful Marketing

Author: David J. Bradley

Narrator: David J. Bradley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-06-15

Publisher: David J. Bradley

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

You need your business to grow and meet its goals over the next 12 months. You may have tried different marketing and sales tactics and met with different consultants, agencies, and potential hires. Still, there's still no clear answer.

How can you maximize your return and meet your business goals, all while on a limited budget? If we had a corporate level, multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, this might be easy. But we aren't in that position.

It takes just two things for powerful marketing. First of all you need to know how to turn your digital presence into something useful, like leads or customers. To do this you need a digital sales funnel in place from top to bottom.

These are the six stages of the digital sales funnel:

Stage one: generate demand

Stage two: capture quality leads

Stage three: nurture leads

Stage four: convert leads into customers

Stage five: close, deliver, and satisfy

Stage six: referrals and follow-up

But that alone doesn't mean much unless there's a clear purpose. To have a purpose, we need a strategy.

Learn to Develop a Strategy with Five Steps:

1. Where are you today?

2. Finding your ideal

3. Mapping out your plan

4. Getting your hands dirty

5. Recap and review

Have you noticed we didn't say you have to know how to do popular digital-marketing tactics? Search-engine optimization has backlinks to build and keywords to optimize for. Email lists have to be set up, connected to your website, and segmented based on the audience. Your website...well, that might need to be coded from the ground up again.

But we aren't going to worry about that. It isn't our job to know how to build a website or do SEO or any of that. It's our job to set a strategy to decide what we need or don't need and have others deliver the technical work.

Members Reviews:

Amazing, Simple and to the point

Would you consider the audio edition of Getting Digital Marketing Right to be better than the print version?

I think the print version will allow better use a handbook

What was one of the most memorable moments of Getting Digital Marketing Right?

The 20/80 rule and the exercises Bradley has readers do while reading

Any additional comments?

This book is very hands on and straight to the point. Do you need digital marketing? YES, every successful business does. This book will get you there

GREAT book, a little boring to listen to

What did you love best about Getting Digital Marketing Right?

This has some of the best, packed information on digital marketing of any book I have listened to. It sounds a little boring to listen to at first, but I have not listened to a more compact, potent digital marketing book and can't recommend it enough.

Not only did I listen to it twice, but I bought a version for another team member as well who has loved it.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

A little more dynamic as a speaker would be good, but the information is delivered fine if you get used to the delivery

Great Resource - Not so great Narration

There is a lot of great information here. Complex things made simple and packed with excellent perspective and insights. I just wish the author had hired someone to do the narration.

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Title: Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us

Subtitle: How to Create Innovation and Opportunity Everywhere

Author: Paul B. Brown

Narrator: Erik Synnestvedt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-05-15

Publisher: Bibliomotion, Inc

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

Today when the competition, technology, and the economy are evolving faster than ever before, organizations and the people like us who work in them need a proven approach to help us adapt - and succeed. The key, according to Paul B. Brown, is to think like an entrepreneur, no matter what your position or industry. What works for the most successful entrepreneurs will work for us, Brown argues, whether we want to stay employed working for someone else or are thinking of going off on our own.

Based on extensive research, Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us reveals the best practices of the most successful entrepreneurs, those who are adept at continually innovating and seeing opportunity where others do not. They do that by following a rigid approach. For example: They never start with a new idea, but by trying to solve a market need. Financing is an afterthought. They get started with the resources at hand (not only does that allow them to move quickly, if things don't work out, they are not out much). Perfect is the enemy of good, it is much more important to get out into the marketplace with a prototype than to keep fiddling with what you have.

In short, the entrepreneurial mindset is a protection against economic uncertainty, and Brown's goal is to spread that thinking to individuals and large organizations alike. Though of course we wont all start or run our own companies, we need to learn to think like entrepreneurs so that when uncertainty hits, as it will again and again, individuals and companies will be better prepared to not only survive but win.

Critic Reviews:

"Browns writing style is focused and succinct, much like the process he describes, and his advice is truly insightful. Anyone looking to start a business or expand a current one should take a page from this outstanding book." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Good information-a lot of filler

Found the information to be very good and valuable. It did feel like the author was trying to fill a word count or a page requirement. Throughout the book he would start describing something & would say "we'll get to that shortly." It got annoying after a while. Good info though & would recommend to someone wanting advice on starting their business.

Worth a few reads

I really enjoyed listening to this book and it has given me loads of advice and knowledge.

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Title: Make It Matter

Subtitle: How Managers Can Motivate by Creating Meaning

Author: Scott Mautz

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-27-15

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

How many people find senses of purpose in their jobs? Unfortunately studies show that most do not. Their bodies may put in long hours, but their hearts and minds never punch in. And that's a terrible dilemma for organizations trying to motivate their workforces to do more with less.

Make It Matter is the antidote to crisis levels of disengagement. This upbeat, original book shows how meaning-rich workplaces connect, inspire, and catapult employees into new realms of productivity and well-being.

Not only does the book make a convincing case for change, but it also explains how to become the kind of business where people love to work and the kind of manager for whom people love to work. Insightful research findings, stories, and guidelines help readers create:

Critic Reviews:

Scott Mautz is one of the most effective and inspiring leaders Ive ever known. I thought he was just a born leader until I read this book. Then I realized just how intentional his approach was. Yours can be too. In Make It Matter he shares an astounding conceptand provides 35+ powerful toolsfor creating motivation, fulfillment, and peak performance that sustains. (Paul Smith, author, Lead with a Story and Parenting with a Story.)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Lead

Subtitle: Strategic Management and Leadership for Innovators and Solopreneurs

Author: Ric Thompson

Narrator: L. David Harris

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-23-15

Publisher: Healthy Wealthy nWise Press

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

Thinking back to all the jobs you've had in your life, you've probably had your fair share of managers. Some of them were probably the typical managers from hell. Hopefully there were a few good ones in there too.

What was the difference between the good managers and the, um...not so good managers?

In Lead: Strategic Management and Leadership for Innovators and Solopreneurs, best-selling author Ric Thompson will help guide you on your way to becoming the former rather than the later.

Managing your business is more than simply hiring people and making sure they do their jobs. Truth is if you hire well, whether it's employees or a part-time VA, you won't need to make sure they're doing their jobs. Management is about seeing the big picture and being the person to make sure all the facets of an operation are moving together efficiently.

If you are ready to take your business to the next level and blow past the competition, effective management is the key to making that goal a reality. This book will give you a step-by-step, 21-day plan to put the systems in place so your business can run smoothly, and you can focus on what you're best at.

You will learn:

Members Reviews:

Take your business to the next level!

Rising above the competition and taking your business to the next level are challenging tasks. Making these goals a reality requires effective management. This book is a great resource for learning just that â managing financials, people, and systems. You will learn how to optimize everything in your business process so you can maximize profits. The author begins by helping you determine your current âmanagement scoreâ and then dives right into effectively managing your money. Youâll learn basics of financial management and bookkeeping as well as how to surround yourself with financial professionals to keep you on track. Financial statements and analyzing âthe numbersâ is also included.

There is a tremendous section on building your team including everything from what to outsource, hiring employees, and interviewing for the right team members. The final section on managing your systems is chock full of relevant and useful information. The author does a great job of covering what systems are important to your business as well as analyzing metrics and protecting your assets.

If you desire to win out over the competition as you grow your business, this book is for you!

Read it and find out why.

Ric Thompson goes through the various stages of development in the book's subject in a very concise manner. There is minimal amount of pages dedicated to case studies to pad out the book. He goes through all the steps, and fills in more than enough information to cover all that's needed for learning this subject. In this book, Ric discusses the traits that a team leader needs to develop and display in order to build a high performance team. He also introduces team development and also leadership without authority and informal power. The required steps of analyzing, communicating and building a supporting coalition are illustrated as well as power for personal effectiveness in leading and motivating. Concepts are clear and the overall approach is useful. I Recommend reading the book both for personal interest as well as increasing personal leadership skills.

Need to read

A must read.

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Title: The Scorecard Solution

Subtitle: Measure What Matters and Drive Sustainable Growth

Author: Dan E. King

Narrator: Don Hagen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-26-14

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Business, Leadership

Publisher's Summary:

Simply "making the numbers" is no longer enough to remain competitive. In today's high-pressure environment, organizations need to overachieve. That level of success requires a clear and objective view of the business - because even the most courageous leader can't steer a ship in the dark. Is the enterprise Agile? Resilient? Vulnerable? Or Lagging? The Scorecard Solution provides the answer. The audiobook introduces a data-centric tool - the Organizational Prowess Scorecard™ - that precisely measures the capabilities needed for sustainable growth. Analyzing the dimensions of talent, strategy, and execution produces a baseline score, and shines a light on the performance gaps that hold a business back. With the facts in hand, readers then learn how to:

Organizations that maintain the status quo will be left in the dust. The Scorecard Solution helps companies chart a course for rapid change - and outperform the competition every time.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Critic Reviews:

"King's experience in business transformation and hyper-growth environments brings a level of credibility to his writing that is refreshing. The pragmatic and straightforward approach, supported by case studies, helps the reader understand what derails growth and what it takes for leadership teams to build the requisite capabilities to outperform their peer group." (Larry Mohl, CEO, Jamstir, Inc., and Founding Principal of Performance Inspired, Inc., coauthor of Wall Street Journal best-seller Networking Is Dead)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]