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Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale





    • Paperback: 218 pages
    • Publisher: Fireside; First Fireside edition (March 12, 2003)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0743234804
    • ISBN-13: 978-0743234801


From getAbstract.com

  • How negative thoughts produce anxiety, fear, doubt and worry
  • How to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts
  • How to use prayer to improve your life
  • How to heal your mind, body and spirit by combining science and religious faith
If you are looking for a guide to faith-based self-improvement, this book is, well, the bible. In one of the earliest contemporary self-help books, famed clergyman Norman Vincent Peale explains how you can overcome any obstacle, internal or external, through the dynamic combination of the "science of faith" with psychological counseling and modern medicine. He teaches you how to banish the negative thoughts that cause fear and failure, and replace them with "the power of positive thinking." In this warm, faith-based book, first published 1952, he teaches readers his approach to solving problems and accepting yourself. He advocates using the New Testament and prayer to attain peace, happiness, love and success. The catch is, you must be one of the faithful to take full advantage of Peale’s Christian teachings. His classic bestseller is more than a warm, if slightly quaint, self-help book. It’s a cultural icon, filled with old-time religion and practical examples. getAbstract recommends it as a touchstone in this genre. If you want to walk this path, Peale got here first. In fact, many of today’s self-development bestsellers have their roots in this book.


Product Description

Faith in yourself makes good things happen to you. This classic guide to self-esteem and success will help you learn how to: break the worry habit; get other people to like you; avoid "the jitters" in your daily work; believe in yourself and everything you do; develop the power to reach your goals, and so much more.

From the Publisher

Translated into fifteen languages with more than 7 million copies sold, The Power of Positive Thinking is unparalleled in its extraordinary capacity for restoring the faltering faith of millions. In this insightful program, Dr. Peale offers the essence of his profound method for mastering the problems of everyday living. You will learn: How to eliminate that most devastating handicap---self doubt How to free yourself from worry, stress and resentment How to climb above problems to visualize solutions and then attain them Simple prayerful exercises that you can do every day, through-out the day, to reinforce your new-found habit of happiness Eliminating all the negative thoughts that prevent you from achieving happiness and success, The Power of Positive Thinking is an inspiring program that will help you create a positive change in your life. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From the Inside Flap

Faith in yourself makes good things happen to you. This classic guide to self-esteem and success will help you learn how to: break the worry habit; get other people to like you; avoid "the jitters" in your daily work; believe in yourself and everything you do; develop the power to reach your goals, and so much more.

About the Author

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale is an author, columnist, radio and TV commentator



Firnando Chau Review

Monday, December 24, 2007

Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) by Ram Charan (Hardcover - Dec 21, 2007)

  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Jossey-Bass (December 21, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0787985597
  • ISBN-13: 978-0787985592

Review

"…cool-headed guide on how to identify and retain leaders and to get succession right". (Securities & Investment Review, April 2008)

Product Description

Learn how top companies solve the problem of leadership succession from corporate America's leading consultant.A serious crisis looms in American management today. More and more CEOs are failing; there remains an acute shortage of capable replacements. The true dilemma in leadership is the stagnant state of corporate leadership development. Because companies fail to hone their unit managers' leadership abilities, they are never able to fill their succession pipelines. With unit managers stagnating, companies have difficulty executing at every level, compounding the crisis. In I>Leaders at All Levels, bestselling author Ram Charan shows how top companies approach leadership development as a core competency, recognizing that an adaptable leadership pool is a competitive advantage, and focusing their attention on bringing out the best in the leaders they have.
Charan reveals exactly what's wrong with corporate leadership development and tells how to make it right. He explains the concept of a leadership "gene pool" and shows how companies can discover just what "DNA" they need to succeed. He also details how to uncover the hidden leaders in a company, when and where to bring in fresh talent, how to coach, measure, and reward leadership, and much more. For CEOs, directors, and anyone involved in leadership development, Leaders at All Levels is an eye-opening guide on how to get succession right.

From the Inside Flap

Leaders at All Levels
"Crisis may be an overused word, but it's a fair description of the state of leadership in today's corporations. CEOs are failing sooner, and falling harder, leaving companies in turmoil. At all levels, companies are short on the quantity and quality of leaders they need."—From the Introduction
In Leaders at All Levels, Ram Charan addresses a pressing problem—a shortfall of leaders prepared to face today's complex business challenges. When so many companies struggle to find successors for their top jobs, and when so many leaders rise to the top only to fail shortly after getting there, you know there's something wrong with our leadership development practices.
In this book, Ram Charan presents a radical and controversial remedy for the crisis in leadership: the Apprenticeship Model. This new approach to succession and to leadership development makes it a hands-on activity for leaders and their bosses. People with the talent for leadership get stiff challenges hand-picked for them. Their bosses play a crucial role in accelerating their development. HR gets a new job, as trustee of the Apprenticeship system. Leaders at all levels develop faster and better, and boards have better choices when it comes time to choose the next CEO.
New but not untested, this approach works because it is based on Charan's keen insights into how great business leaders actually develop. Having worked closely with many successful leaders over several decades, Charan concluded that:
  • Leaders are different from other people
  • Leaders develop their talent through practice and self-correction
Filled with down-to-earth advice and real-world examples, Leaders at All Levels gives you the tools you need to create an enduring legacy of leadership excellence. It also gives individual leaders a road map for taking charge of their own growth.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Leaders at All Levels
"Ram Charan's wisdom and experience come through in the profound insights that underlie this simple approach to building a better leadership pool. Any company concerned about its bench strength should follow this original and practical approach to developing leaders."
—Chad Holliday, chairman and CEO, DuPont
"Trusted by the cream of corporate leadership worldwide, Ram Charan uniquely blends the human reality of ultimately having to choose less-than-perfect leaders (a challenge all boards face) with a practical approach, for identifying and nurturing exceptional leaders."—Bob Lane, chairman and CEO, Deere & Company
"Leaders at All Levels is a practical and no-nonsense approach to building the talent pool which will differentiate your organization, now and in the future. Ram has distilled his decades of work with top CEOs and organizations, so the reader doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. It's all about the people."
—John Koster, M.D., president and CEO, Providence Health
"Ram Charan has mentored more leaders than anyone in the last two decades. Leaders at All Levels allows each of us to be his apprentice and to learn from him how to lead and to build leadership. The book is a marvelous mix of insight, experience, and wisdom. It will shape leadership succession for years to come." —Dave Ulrich, professor, University of Michigan Business School and coauthor of Why the Bottom Line ISN'T
"The one single thing that will make or break a company's growth and success today, tomorrow, and the day after that is the quality of leaders it can produce and keep. Ram Charan is without a doubt the go-to person on this subject. This is a must-read."—Bill Conaty, former senior vice president of human resources, General Electric

About the Author

The Author
Ram Charan is a world-renowned advisor to business leaders and corporate boards, a bestselling author, and an award-winning teacher. He is the author or coauthor of fourteen books including Know-How, What the CEO Wants You to Know, Boards that Deliver, and the New York Times best-seller Execution.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (Hardcover - Feb 1, 2007)

  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Gallup Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 159562015X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1595620156



From the Inside Flap

ABOUT STRENGTHSFINDERIn 1998, the Father of Strengths Psychology, Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. (1924-2003), along with Tom Rath and a team of scientists at The Gallup Organization, created the online StrengthsFinder assessment. In 2001, they included the first edition of StrengthsFinder with the bestseller Now, Discover Your Strengths. In 2004, the assessment's name was formally changed to "Clifton StrengthsFinder" in honor of its chief designer.
In 2007, building on the initial assessment and language from StrengthsFinder 1.0, Rath and Gallup scientists released a new edition of the assessment, program, and website, dubbed "StrengthsFinder 2.0." Rooted in more than 40 years of research, this assessment has helped millions discover and develop their natural talents.

About the Author

Tom Rath has written four bestsellers in the last decade, which have sold millions of copies and made more than 100 appearances on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list. He currently leads Gallup's workplace research and leadership consulting business around the world. Tom and his family live in Washington DC.
Tom's latest New York Times bestseller, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements (co-authored with Jim Harter), is based on a global study of what differentiates people who are thriving from those who are not. This book also features Gallup's new Wellbeing Finder program, enabling readers to measure, manage, and improve their Wellbeing over time.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The 33 Strategies of War (Joost Elffers Books) by Robert Greene (Paperback - Dec 14, 2007

  • Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 14, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0143112783
  • ISBN-13: 978-0143112785




From Publishers Weekly

As in his bestselling The 48 Laws of Power, Greene puts a modern spin on wisdom that has stood the test of history, only this time his role model is Sun Tzu rather than Machiavelli. The argument is fairly standard: despite our most noble intentions, "aggressive impulses that are impossible to ignore or repress" make military combat a fitting metaphor for getting ahead in life. Greene's advice covers everything from steeling one's mind for battle to specific defensive and offensive tactics—notably, the final section on "dirty" warfare is one of the book's longest. Historical lessons are outlined and interpreted, with amplifying quotations crammed into the margins. Not all of the examples are drawn from the battlefield; in one section, Greene skips nimbly from Lyndon Johnson's tenacity to Julius Caesar's decisiveness, from Joan Crawford's refusal to compromise to Ted Williams's competitive drive. Alfred Hitchcock, he says, embodies "the detached-Buddha tactic" of appearing uninvolved while remaining in total control. The diversity of subject matter compensates for occasional lapses into stilted warriorese ("arm yourself with prudence, and never completely lay down your arms, not even for friends"). For those willing to embrace its martial conceit, Greene's compendium offers inspiration and entertainment in equal measure. (Jan. 23) 
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Greene and "producer" Joost Elffers are the Machiavellians who brought us The 48 Laws of Power (1998) and The Art of Seduction (2001), and their latest book similarly purports to distill the profundities of history for personal gain. Unapologetically premised on Hobbesian "all that is social is war" bromides, this account collects parables of strategic success and error from a diverse cast of military and nonmilitary historical figures. Its lessons are presented self-help-book style in chapters titled "Maneuver Them into Weakness" and "Seem to Work for the Interests of Others While Furthering Your Own" and flanked by a withering barrage of reiterative marginalia. Most books this cynical (and this repetitive) need a sense of humor to be readable, something this book apparently lacks. Its quasi-spiritual tone, though perhaps increasing its attractiveness to the impressionable, is also trying at times. But those readers who push through to the end (or flip ahead) will find a curiously contemporary section on modern terrorism cloaking a surprisingly specific commentary on al-Qaeda and antiterrorism strategy. Politics by other means? Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Strategies for winning the subtle social game of everyday life-from the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction


Robert Greene's first two groundbreaking guides, The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction, espouse profound, timeless lessons from events in history to help readers vanquish an enemy or ensnare an unsuspecting victim. Now, with The 33 Strategies of War, Greene has crafted an important new addition to this ruthlessly unique series. Structured in Greene's trademark style, The 33 Strategies of War is a brilliant distillation of the strategies of battle that can help us gain mastery in the modern world. It is the I Ching of conflict, the contemporary companion to Sun-tzu's Art of War.

About the Author

Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction, has a degree in classical studies.
Joost Elffers is the producer of the bestselling The 48 Laws of Power and The Art of Seduction.

From AudioFile

The classical scholar and author says that war occurs in five contexts--when we execute it individually, with an army of some kind, from an offensive position, from a defensive position, and through unconventional, or dirty, means. The suggestions and ideas behind this lesson are thoroughly illustrated with concise historical vignettes. Deftly balancing theory and practice, the author asks listeners to examine their options for handling conflict, understand the meaning of their past experiences, and commit themselves fully to a mature and appropriate response to conflict. He has an impressive understanding of the psychological and organizational challenges in warfare. Don Leslie gives a softly intimate reading that sounds aptly erudite but not overly intense. Pacing himself steadily, he organizes the thick sentences and dense ideas with finesse. T.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine--Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Do the Right Thing by James F. Parker

Do the Right Thing: How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal Customers and Large Profits by James F. Parker (Hardcover - Nov 30, 2007)


  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall; 1 edition (November 30, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0132343347
  • ISBN-13: 978-0132343343


From the Back Cover

The #1 Principle of Sustainable Business Success Is Simpler Than You Think

Do the Right Thing is about how any company can stay true to its soul. Jim Parker’s deep and abiding belief in the power of people and culture in building a business of lasting worth is evident everywhere; so too is his humility and selflessness as a leader--his stories are not about his own achievements, which are many, but those of the people he led, one of the great success stories of our time.”
--Sean Moriarty, CEO, Ticketmaster

Do the Right Thing offers insightful views into the culture, leadership, and decisions that build great companies the right way. A must read for my management team. THIS BOOK ROCKS.”
--Kent Taylor, Founder and Chairman, Texas Roadhouse Restaurants

“The book is a fun read filled with memorable stories that get at the heart of what it takes to lead in a way that simultaneously satisfies employees, customers, and shareholders. Jim Parker plays the role of eloquent detective and ferrets out the interweaving parts that distributed leadership, culture, values, and teamwork play as the underlying layers of a company’s success. This is a book about heroes at all levels and the environment needed to create those heroes. A must-read for today’s leaders.”
--Professor Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center,
Sloan School of Management

“You’ll laugh and cry reading Jim’s book, and probably won’t be able to put it down. It will forever change the way you view the employees in your organization.”
--Beverly K. Carmichael, Member, Board of Directors,
Society for Human Resource Management

People matter most.
You know that. But most companies would rather slash costs, cut headcount, replace well-paid employees with lower-paid employees or outsourced workers, and reduce customer service. No wonder so many fail–while others focused on doing the right thing remain profitable and growth oriented for decades. James F. Parker shows why “doing the right thing” isn’t just naïve “feel-goodism:” it’s the most powerful rule for business success. Parker’s stories won’t just convince you: They’ll move you. Naïve? No way. In this book, Southwest Airlines’ former CEO proves why doing what’s right is the #1 rule of business success. James F. Parker tells how after 9/11, Southwest made three pivotal decisions: no layoffs, no pay cuts, and no-hassle refunds for any customer wanting them. The result: Southwest remained profitable and its revenue passenger miles for 4Q01 held steady while the rest of its industry nearly collapsed...and Southwest’s market cap soon exceeded all its major competitors combined. These pivotal decisions grew naturally from Southwest’s culture of mutual respect and trust. Parker offers deeply personal insights into that culture, revealing how those same principles are used by other people and organizations, showing you that it’s really not that hard to Do The Right Thing!
  • Why doing what’s right is the surest way to optimize and sustain value
  • Putting people first...honestly, for real
  • Finding great leaders at every level of the organization
  • Hiring for attitude, training for skills
  • Achieving unprecedented levels of teamwork (and fun!)

About the Author

James F. Parker served as CEO and vice chairman of the board of Southwest Airlines from June 2001 through July 2004, three of the airline industry’s most challenging years. During Parker’s tenure as CEO, Southwest Airlines was named one of America’s three most admired companies, one of America’s 100 best corporate citizens, one of the world’s most socially responsible companies, and worldwide airline of the year. Parker’s proudest accomplishment, however, comes from the fact that Southwest was the only major airline to protect the jobs of all its employees, while also remaining profitable after 9/11. He is a member of the MIT Leadership Center Advisory Council at the MIT Sloan School of Management. A lawyer by trade, he spent fifteen years as General Counsel of Southwest Airlines before being selected to lead the company. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Texas Roadhouse, Inc.