Harvard Business School's Michael Roberto draws on powerful decision-making case studies from every walk of life, showing how to promote honest, constructive dissent and skepticism; use it to improve decisions; and align organizations behind those decisions. Learn from disasters like the Space Shuttle Columbia and JFK's Bay of Pigs Invasion, from successes like Sid Caesar and Bill Parcells, from George W. Bush's decision-making after 9/11. Roberto complements his compelling case studies with extensive new research on executive decisionmaking. Discover how to test and probe a management team; when 'yes' means 'yes' and when it doesn't; and how to build real consensus that leads to action. Gain important new insights into managing teams, mitigating risk, promoting corporate ethics, and much more.

One of the nation's premier talent agents and career advisors shows you how to catapult your career and your life forward with three key communication strategies—Authority, Warmth, and Energy. A self-empowerment guide to achieving your fullest professional and personal potential, Don’t Take YES for An Answer explains why positive feedback limits personal and professional growth and then teaches you how to embrace hard truths and critical feedback to escape mediocrity and break away from the pack. To stand out, to attract the attention of those who can raise your profile, to protect yourself during lean times, or to gain the interest of future employers, you must harness three critical communication traits that human beings respond to most: AWE: A—Authority. W—Warmth. E—Energy. When all else is equal—education, work ethic, intelligence, experience, ambition—the single biggest factor in winning business, promotions, friendships, or followers hinges on our ability to communicate and connect. Mastering AWE gives you an unparalleled advantage over the competition, no matter your field. Herz, who has represented and coached dozens of sports, media, and entertainment leaders over the course of nearly three decades, delivers a step-by-step program that helps you understand and hone your AWE skills. Packed with inspiring success stories, grounded in the latest social psychology and scientific research, and featuring "insider" anecdotes from some of the most popular entrepreneurs and professionals in broadcasting, sports, and the corporate world—many personally coached by Herz—Don’t Take YES for An Answer provides invaluable suggestions and practical techniques for “upping” your AWE in every aspect of your life.

Revised edition of the author's Why great leaders don't take yes for an answer, published in 2005.

‘NO’ is RJ’s least favorite word . . . and he tries his best to convince his dad, his mom, and his teacher to turn “No” into “Maybe” or “We’ll see” or “Later” or “I’ll think about it.” Author Julia Cook helps K-6 readers laugh and learn along with RJ as he understands the benefits of demonstrating the social skills of accepting “No” for an answer and disagreeing appropriately. Tips for parents and educators on how to teach and encourage kids to use these skills are included in the book. I Just Don’t Like the Sound of NO! is another in the BEST ME I Can Be! series of books from the Boys Town Press that teach children social skills.

"In 1974 I told the man in the dole office that had verbally gripped my balls and my life, that I would look after my family myself. There was no way on this earth that I would go cap in hand to him or anyone like him ever again."

George Kohlrieser—an international leadership professor, consultant, and veteran hostage negotiator—explains that it is only by openly facing conflict that we can truly progress through the most difficult business challenges. In this provocative book, he reveals how the proven techniques and psychological insights used in hostage negotiation can be applied successfully to any personal or business relationship. Step by step, he outlines the seven key factors that anyone can use to remove the blocks that stand in the way of resolving tough problems and shows how business leaders, in particular, can develop and access the skills they need to create trust and a positive mind-set in their companies.

Problems remain hidden in organizations for a number of reasons, including fear, organizational complexity, gatekeepers who insulate leaders from problems that are coming up, and finally, an overemphasis on formal analysis in place of intuition and observation. This book lays out the key skills and capabilities required to ensure that problems do not remain hidden in your organization. It explains how leaders can become effective problem finders, unearthing problems before they destroy an organization. The book explains how leaders can become an anthropologist, going out and observe how employees, customers, and suppliers actually behave. It then goes on to present how they can circumvent the gatekeepers, so they can go directly to the source to see and hear the raw data; hunt for patterns, including refining your individual and collective pattern recognition capability; "connect the dots" among issues that may initially seem unrelated, but in fact, have a great deal in common; give front-line employees training in a communication technique; encourage useful mistakes, including create a "Red Pencil Award"; and watch the game film, where leaders reflect systematically on their own organization's conduct and performance, as well as on the behavior and performance of competitors.

This darkly exuberant debut novel—by turns a fierce, funny coming-of-age story and a teasing work of literary suspense—traces the precipitous rise and fall of a teenage impresario at the zenith of the New York club scene. Matthew Acciaccatura of Teaneck, New Jersey, begins his freshman year at NYU in the fall of 1995 with one goal in mind: to become cool. A former high school outcast, used to lumbering the hallways alone in oversize turtlenecks, Matt seems an unlikely candidate for such a transformation. Yet by dint of effort he lands the coveted position of promoter at one of the hottest clubs in New York in the heyday of rave music and Ecstasy. However, as “Magic” Matt rises to fame, portents of tragedy begin to appear, literally in the margins of the story. Footnotes from one Dr. Hans Mannheim, an imprisoned German academic obsessed with Matt’s dangerous trajectory, suggest that Matt is not as in control of his destiny as he might appear…. A gorgeously written archetypal tale of self-discovery (and self-deception) and a love letter to the enduring possibilities of New York City, The Answer Is Always Yes will keep readers guessing until its explosive climax.

Modern culture’s worship of “how-to” pragmatism has turned us into instruments of efficiency and commerce—but we’re doing more and more about things that mean less and less. We constantly ask “how? and still struggle to find purpose and act on what matters. Instead of acting on what we know to be of importance, we wait for bosses to change, we seek the latest fad, we invest in one more degree. Asking how keeps us safe—instead of being led by our hearts into uncharted territory, we keep our heads down and stick to the rules. But we are gaining the world and losing our souls. Peter Block puts the “how-to” craze in perspective and presents a guide to the difficult and life-granting journey of bringing what we know is of personal value into an indifferent or even hostile corporate and cultural landscape. He raises our awareness of the trade-offs we’ve made in the name of practicality and expediency, and offers hope for a way of life in which we’re motivated not by what “works,” but by the things that truly matter in life—idealism, intimacy, depth and engagement.

This book will put an end to the overflow of body/mind/spirit books. After this book, there is no need to read anything else about how to find your true destiny or your inner truth/child/man/woman/guardian angel. Or how to fight for your rights, how to achieve success or how to make sure all your wishes are granted. Or how to win the game called life. How to take it? How to be? The answer is here. Don't take it, leave it. Don't take it personally. Don't take it at all. The fight is over, the search is over. No more loss or victory, no searching or finding. You're serene and fulfilled at last. Nothing can disturb or mislead you any more. Actually, there is nothing to discover, there is no lightness or enlightenment at all. You, by yourself, built this dark room around yourself. You are covered by yourself, you are sitting in yourself. You, by yourself, cannot see anything but yourself. This dark room is actually you and nothing more. Come out. Look around. Let the sunshine in. And then, in broad daylight, you can see that the darkness didn't really exist. The cover around you, yourself, was just a myth, just a story you were told by yourself and others. It was not real thing. It was just an imaginary, though useful, tool in society. There's nothing to do and there's no need to do anything anyway. If you leave your 'self' out, there's no one who can get hurt. If you're not there, no one can harm you, hurt you or insult you. That's how simple it is. The book includes quotes from Laozi, the Taoist sage, and some themes come from Buddhist scriptures, although these are not worded in the traditional way, to avoid unnecessary resistance from people who don't like any religion at all. It's not an ordinary self-help book. You will not find any demands or commandments, any rules or restrictions in this book. No tasks, no exercises, no to-do lists, nothing to compete or complete. How to be. The short answer is simple: Don't take anything personally. If anyone wants a longer answer, they should read the book.