A leader’s level of influence is determined by their ability to engage and inspire others into action. Unfortunately, most leaders do not know how to engage others. They do not realize that by purposefully sharing their real life experiences, deep connections can be forged with audiences. In Hooked, communication experts Gabrielle Dolan and Yamini Naidu explore the powerful skill of “business storytelling.” By providing the necessary framework for crafting and delivering effective business stories, the authors demonstrate not only how people can increase their leadership presence, but also how they can get their colleagues and customers to act.

In Generation Me, Jean M. Twenge, PhD, uses vast research and examples to describe Generation Me, or those born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, in an effort to make it understandable to others. Twenge uses 12 studies and data from 1.3 million Americans to show that Generation Me is a generation that is self-important, values independence, wants to make a difference, and finds fulfillment in helping others. That being said, Generation Me’ers also want to do things on their own terms and in their own way with the ultimate goal of being able to follow their own dreams. While Generation Me has unprecedented freedoms, they also feel increased competition and tend to blame others for their problems. As a result, Generation Me is a generation that is often anxious and depressed.

Arun Motianey believes that the last 125 years constitute the “age of the SuperCycle,” a period of rolling booms and busts in the global production pipeline. Hopes of price stability spur price movements that begin in the commodity sector, travel through the manufacturing sector, and end up on household balance sheets in consumption economies. In SuperCycles, Motianey delves into the past to examine the workings of the global economy and build a case for his theory. He provides a comprehensive overview of the theory, three possible scenarios for the future (deflation, inflation, and stagflation), and some salient investment tips for a world in which the SuperCycle reigns supreme. He encourages analysis of historical trends and information, detailed investment planning, and smart policy work. However, he warns that the future will not be an easy one and that it is best to start preparing now.

As a renowned communication professional, Dr. Frank I. Luntz often finds himself in conversations with some of America’s greatest businessmen, politicians, entertainers, and athletes. It is through these unique opportunities that Luntz comes to recognize nine discernible personality traits that are common amongst the most successful “winners” and how they are conveyed through language. Drawing from dozens of interviews and recollecting numerous stories, Win is Luntz’ account of these characteristics and the part each plays in building a success story—one in which an individual recognizes a weakness or deficiency in the human experience and then offers a solution to fill the void.

In Healthcare Strategic Planning, Alan M. Zuckerman explores the latest research and step-by-step processes involved in strategic planning. Strategic planning is an invaluable management tool that helps healthcare organizations thrive in an era of uncertainty, dynamic environments, and changing market conditions. The book provides realistic, workable advice and expert insights to aid healthcare institutions in addressing short-term issues, achieving long-term goals, and managing difficulties that arise during the strategic planning process.

The rapid aging of the American workforce, together with other demographic trends, means that the competition to attract and retain top employees is fiercer than ever before. But smart companies recognize that there is vast untapped potential in the talent pool of the special needs population. In Dive In, disability experts and consultants Nadine Vogel and Cindy Brown explain how to recruit, train, accommodate, and support both adults with disabilities and those who have children or family members with special needs—without burdensome expenditures or disruption. Most importantly, the authors reveal the reasons why these employees stand out for their productivity, creativity, and loyalty.

Acquiring success in business and even in life can be very difficult. While some people seem to just naturally fall into being successful, there are others who must work at it, especially if they come from a simple background in which their access to capital and other helpful resources is limited. In Three Simple Steps, Trevor Blake offers three primary steps that a person must take in order to achieve success. Blake offers tools to climb out of the “quicksand” of life that seems to pull people down and interfere with their ability to work toward and achieve the level of success that they desire.

In The Snowball Effect, Andy Bounds describes how important it is to create successful communications that lead to significant time savings, increased productivity, and strengthened relationships. In business, effective communications lead to individuals enjoying work more, writing winning proposals, getting job interviews, persuading others to say “yes” when it matters most, initiating meetings that generate actions, and saving significant time by eliminating or limiting lengthy meetings and decluttering email inboxes. For people to improve communications and make the changes permanent, they need to first build a foundation, like that of a snowball’s core, then add techniques one at a time, as if making a snowball.

In the early pages of inGenius, Tina Seelig explains that the book’s title is derived from the Latin word “ingenium,” meaning “natural capacity” or “innate talent.” This is fitting, as everything Seelig explores strives to show individuals how to harness their own inherent potential for innovation. Unlike physical resources, creativity is always in limitless supply, so long as a person knows how to tap into his or her deep reserves. Seelig draws upon more than a decade’s worth of experience teaching courses on creativity to illustrate the roadblocks and wrong turns commonly found while searching for creative problem solving. Along the way, she provides countless examples of innovative thinking from some of today’s most successful, respected, and influential mavericks in the business world and entertainment industry.

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In The Power of Latino Leadership, Juana Bordas argues that the characteristics embodied by U.S. Latinos ideally suit the demands of 21st-century leadership. Latinos’ long history as a multicultural people, along with their more recent history of struggle for equality and economic justice in the United States, has created unique strengths. The resulting Latino culture values and celebrates each individual, alongside community solidarity. Their immigrant spirit and religious foundations have generated a hopeful, inclusive, and hard-working ethos. Leaders who understand these traits and who lead honestly and humbly will make the most of the Latino way of leadership. They will help build a more inclusive, just, and humane society.

Too often, people remain chained to their pasts simply because they are afraid of the pain that comes with change. In Why Wait to Be Great?, Terry Hawkins, CEO of People in Progress Global, offers straightforward methods to help people overcome their painful pasts by breaking bad habits and replacing them with positive ones to create professional and personal success. Through the fictional characters of Flipman and Pitman, Hawkins demonstrates how everyone has the choice to be happy and fulfilled no matter what their circumstances may be.

A company’s sales compensation plan represents one of its most significant drivers of performance and growth. Nevertheless, too often senior executives fail to recognize critical incongruities between sales strategies and the organization’s greater goals. In What Your CEO Needs to Know About Sales Compensation, Mark Donnolo identifies the four major competencies and 16 related disciplines that direct a company’s “Revenue Roadmap” and enables profitable growth. He shares insights from a range of experts from C-level executives from Fortune 1000 companies to the “foot soldiers” on the front lines of sales. The book concludes with a set of six “Report Cards” for measuring the effectiveness of sales compensation programs.


 

Many people are frustrated with their work. They feel their talents are untapped and consequently they are unable to move forward in their careers. While professional coaching could help, it is a luxury too expensive for the majority of people. In Take Charge of Your Talent, Don Maruska and Jay Perry make talent development easy and accessible to people of all backgrounds. By combining their years of professional experience as CEOs and professional coaches, they offer three keys and various exercises to help people not only unlock their talents but elevate their work performances and overall satisfaction if life.

In How to Present, certified speaking professional Michelle Bowden demystifies the art of delivering a clear and compelling message to which the target audience responds positively. She breaks the process into three phases: analysis, design, and delivery. Presentations fall flat when presenters focus on what they have to say, without addressing what the audience wants and needs to hear. They fail to convince when they are unclear on where their audience is, where they want them to be, and how to get them there. Bowden explains how to understand an audience, how to structure a message to reach it, and how to deliver the message in a confident, consistent manner. She debunks persistent myths about public speaking, substituting sound advice about warming up mind, body, and voice, so that every presentation produces positive results.

When seeking the best plan for running a company, management theories abound. Many organizations work with consultants and adopt one management methodology after another, but fail to derive the expected benefits. After spending over 30 years in management consulting and in management roles at Fortune 100 companies, Karen Phelan came to the realization that many popular management theories are wrong. In I’m Sorry I Broke Your Company, Phelan tries to debunk conventional business wisdom and offers alternatives to theories that do not work.

In Managing Projects, Lou Russell employs a four-phase project management model: define, plan, manage, and review, to illustrate the nuts and bolts of project management. She prefaces the discussion with a review of the relevant terminology, distinguishing between tasks, projects, and processes. She then devotes a chapter to each of the four phases, followed by chapters dealing with the problems of change associated with projects and the basics of a project management office (PMO) for coordinating multiple projects. The book closes with a review of the basic principles of project management, including a list of ten important principles to keep in mind on any project.

Resilience is defined as the ability to persevere and adapt when faced with challenges—being able to bend with pressure instead of breaking under it. Beyond adaptability, resilience also manifests as the ability to let go and learn to grow when mistakes are made. In Resilience, Liggy Webb provides fundamental strategies that can help people navigate the challenges they face in their lives. She discusses ten strategies for developing resilience with helpful tips and techniques for tackling difficult circumstances. The book is filled with real-life examples of people who have faced down dire circumstances, often beyond their control, and bounced back—sometimes happier and healthier than before.

Outlaw by Trent Leyshan is for salespeople who are trying to navigate the ever-changing commercial world with fewer resources and more demands on their time. Changing technology and consumers have led to major changes in sales strategies, but many salespeople have not evolved to meet today’s new challenges. Those who recognize the need to change often do not have the tools necessary to bring about that change. Sales leaders, or outlaws, have mastered the techniques and tools needed to succeed in today’s sales environment.

In a culture flush with social media sound bites and email blasts, many business leaders and entrepreneurs have forgotten the most innate and powerful means of connecting with other people: telling stories. The power of storytelling lies in its ability to take data and analysis and distill it into a form that is easily understood, remembered, and shared. While data is important in building credibility and justifying decisions, its importance is often exaggerated. And, while data may convince people that something is true, a well-told story is what makes the data resonate with people’s emotions and drives them to action. In Power Stories, Valerie Khoo demonstrates how entrepreneurs can use this subtle and underutilized marketing tool to build an arsenal of eight power stories that can influence customers, attract loyal employees, promote media attention, persuade investors, and build an unforgettable brand.

In Go Mobile, Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner offer insights into the relatively new world of mobile marketing. While it can seem daunting to learn about apps, 2D codes, and location-based marketing, these mobile terms are actually not difficult to understand and can be easily implemented in most businesses’ marketing plans. The authors break down the technology associated with mobile marketing and give step-by-step plans that any marketing team or small business can quickly implement.

In Connecting Organizational Silos, Frank Leistner presents a full-featured guide for organizations interested in using social media. His argument is simple: as it becomes easier for people to interact virtually, the value of effectively moving knowledge through an organization increases. Leistner outlines basics like social media analytics, the mobilization of various departments, and social network dynamics, and he explains why social media is here to stay. Leistner also explores the concept of enterprise social networks (ESNs) and how the future of social media platform technologies will affect both users and organizations in the coming years.

As Craig Storti explains in Speaking of India, India will continue to play a greater role in the global business market. Businesses will continue to outsource more than information technology (IT) or call centers overseas to India; instead, they will outsource tasks such as business process outsourcing (BPO), aspects of banking and financial services, insurance operations, legal services, mortgage services, television digitization, editing, and airline reservations. With about two million Indian workers in the United States, and Indians owning more than 3,000 companies in California alone, individuals must learn to overcome many culture differences in order to achieve successful Indian-Western partnerships and joint ventures.

Irv Rothman describes Out-Executing the Competition as “chapters about evolution,” both professional and personal. By being open to lifelong learning, Rothman experienced a paradigm-shifting moment concerning business models that shaped his entire career. The principle of customer-centric business models created by employees was the foundation of a series of successful business ventures. Once considered radical business philosophies, listening to customers and empowering employees are now fundamental practices required to sustain business success. In addition, Rothman’s life lessons show that business success is a product of hard work, being smart, acting prudently, taking calculated risks, adapting to innovations, and planning ahead. By applying business axioms consistently, value can be delivered reliably, market fluctuations can be responded to nimbly, and core business strengths can be leveraged to out-execute the competition.

The Bully-Free Workplace

In many organizations some employees behave in ways that are extremely damaging to their co-workers. These bullies wreak havoc in organizations. Their damaging behavior leads to emotional, physical, and financial challenges for the employees they target. For organizations, these problems often lead to losing productive employees and can result in lawsuits. In extreme cases, bullying can lead to homicide or suicide. In The Bully-Free Workplace, authors Gary Namie and Ruth F. Namie inform executives that the best solution to eradicate bullies from the workforce is to implement a formal policy, such as the Namie Blueprint process—a process that defines standards of appropriate behavior and holds people accountable for that conduct. When organizations draw a line in the sand clearly illustrating what behavior is unacceptable they can put an end to bullying.

The Science of Serendipity

The Science of Serendipity by Matt Kingdon shows large, complex organizations how to open the door to the kind of creative thinking that leads to commercial success. With a focus on the twin concepts of serendipity and innovation, Kingdon explains how established businesses can shake off the rust, dodge bureaucratic pitfalls, and find new directions while boosting their bottom lines. Kingdon, cofounder of ?WhatIf! Innovation Partners, cites abundant examples drawn from his company’s experiences working with different corporate clients. After considering what qualities a corporate innovator must have, Kingdon discusses specific techniques and strategies for every stage of the process, from an initial idea to a successful launch. His emphasis is always on the concrete and practical: how to test an idea, sell it to the hierarchy, and bring it to market.

Rice Wine with the Minister

In Rice Wine with the Minister, Andrew and Nada Kakabadse organize their wealth of personal experience in the global marketplace into a logical structure of steps that the global executive can take to succeed in today’s business world. The predominant themes of the text are the ubiquitousness of globalization and the critical importance of cultural sensitivity for effective leadership. Replete with examples of multinational organizations’ successes and failures around the globe, this text elucidates abstract concepts and distills them into practical applications. No area of the globe is overlooked, and the authors work hard to compare and contrast global cultures, highlighting the challenges of conducting business in a world that is both homogeneous and heterogeneous.

The Principles of Ethical Intelligence

There are five simple principles of ethical intelligence that all leaders must follow:

1. Do No Harm. This is inspired by the classic oath taken by doctors and other healthcare professionals. While there are some situations in which doing harm is unavoidable, individuals are obligated to reduce the amount of harm that is done to a person or a company.

2. Make Things Better. This is tied to the belief that improving one’s own life is the key to improving the lives of others. The message of this principle ties with something that frequent air travelers are quite familiar with: the idea of securing one’s own oxygen mask first during cabin decompression. With their own mask secured, people can better assist others who may be struggling.

3. Respect Others. In addition to respecting legal rights, leaders must also be respectful of people by following the golden rule: “Treat others as you wish to be treated.” Telling others the truth, and keeping their confidential information a secret, is the path to true respect.

4. Be Fair. Being Fair means giving others what is due to them. This can be broken down into three main prongs: rectifying injustice, disciplining people proportionally, and spreading scarce resources around in an equitable way.

5. Be Loving. This can also be thought of as being compassionate toward others. This fifth and final principle can be compared to a can of WD-40 lubricant. While not absolutely necessary, the idea of compassion “makes things flow better.” In some ways, Being Loving is the most important of the five principles. While it may not be necessary in the business world, compassion toward others can help people more fully embrace the other four principles of ethical intelligence. Being Loving is more of an ideal than an ethical requirement, but it is an ideal that Weinstein believes leaders must aspire to.


This article is based on the book "Ethical Intelligence" by Bruce Weinstein, PhD. The book summary is available online at Business Book Summaries.