Management & Leadership Audiobooks | Business & Economics

Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary

Over the years, thousands of books, articles, studies and theories have been developed on the topic of leadership. People are fascinated by the subject and with how they can become better leaders or rise to leadership-level positions. And yet, despite all this work, a consensus has not emerged with respect to what leadership is, how leaders develop, and perhaps most importantly how to become a more effective leader. The appetite for books that provide answers to these questions is almost insatiable. COMMON PURPOSE will answer these questions. But it will be different from all those leadership books already on the shelf because it will show that common purpose, is the heart and soul of great leadership. Common purpose is a new concept. What is common purpose? It is that rare, almost-palpable experience that happens when a leader coalesces a group, team or community into a creative, dynamic, brave and nearly invincible we. It happens the moment the organizations values, tools, objectives and hopes are internalized in a way that enables people to work tirelessly toward a goal. Years ago, there was a book about the inner game of tennis which changed the way people think about and play sports. Common purpose is the inner game of leadership. Common purpose is rarely achieved. But Kurtzman has observed that when a leader is able to bring it about, the results are outsized, measurable and inspiring. COMMON PURPOSE is a book about leaders, leadership and how to lead. It is based on Kurtzmans recent interviews with more than 50 leaders. It is also based on research on leadership he has conducted over the years beginning at The New York Times, the Harvard Business Review, Booz & Company, during his career as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, his own consulting firm and for groups like Mercer HR, Korn/Ferry International and Heidrick & Struggles.

Joel Kurtzman, Marshall Goldsmith (Author), Marc Cashman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Comebacks: Powerful Lessons from Leaders Who Endured Setbacks and Recaptured Success on Their Terms

In turbulent economic times, when careers are derailed by layoffs and leaders are forced to rewrite their professional plans, readers are hungry for introspection that can enlighten as well as uplift. Comebacks features an all-star cast of business leaders who suffered a public fall from the pinnacle of their careers, often in the midst of extreme media scrutiny. Based on revealing interviews, the ten profiles in the book provide a behind-the-headline glimpse into the lives of seasoned leaders, showing how they drew upon resources, both internal and external, to navigate their way forward and to learn leadership and life lessons that allowed them to excel in future ventures. Together, the ten profiles reveal that all leaders face adversity, but true leaders turn adversity into success--and redefine success through their leadership. High-profile leaders featured include: Jamie Dimon, renowned CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who at the peak of his career with Citigroup was fired as president Former HP Chair Patricia Dunn who, forced to resign after being indicted for corporate espionage charges and while battling cancer, was exonerated from any wrongdoing and now is active in philanthropic work. Former Baxter International CEO Harry Kraemer who, after 22 years at the pharmaceutical firm, had to step down due to poor corporate earnings, is now a highly regarded business professor at Northwestern University Former Ford Motor Company CEO Jacques Nasser who, forced to resign from the automaker after devoting years to the company, has recently landed the coveted position of Chairman of Chairman of BHP Billiton, the worlds largest natural resources company. Former founder and CEO of JetBlue David Neeleman who, asked to step down after a series of weather-related delays in 2007 caused an uproar among passengers and consumers, has moved on to found a new airline in Brazil. Honest and soul-searching, the stories in Comebacks will resonate with readers who are experiencing their own reversal, are disillusioned by career choices, or are exploring other paths aligned with their values and priorities.

Andrea Redmond, Patricia Crisafulli (Author), Jane Jacobs (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Open Innovation Revolution: Essentials, Roadblocks, and Leadership Skills

The innovation role is changing rapidly as companies embrace the open innovation movement, seeking external partners to co-create future products and services. This changes the way companies organize for innovation and it requires a new mindset and new skills; it is no longer enough to just be a good project manager, researcher, engineer or leader. The Open Innovation Revolution is for professionals and companies that want to get a better understanding of open innovation.

Guy Kawasaki, Stefan Lindegaard (Author), Adam Verner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fair Pay, Fair Play: Aligning Executive Performance and Pay

Compensation at the Top will add original intellectual capital to the issues of paying for performance and will bring the alignment research alive with stories, experiences, and perspectives from people who have dealt with these issues for years. The book will feature an original data base, collected for a 25 year period, that will quantify how much total compensation is actually delivered to a CEO for a given level of company performance, revenue size, and industry. The authors are developing this empirical data base across a broad group of companies (i.e., the S&P 1500), representing the Executive Labor Market (ELM), and will report the actual realized pay for given levels of performance. As a result, all constituencies evaluating executive pay will be able to determine, on an analytically-grounded basis, whether pay actions, as well as pay design, are appropriate. The book will also provide real world stories, perspectives, and insights from thought leaders on executive compensation. Interviewees will include compensation committee members, executives, academicians, government leaders, and shareholder activists.

Robin A. Ferracone (Author), Christine Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

Win at Work!: The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution

Far too often we find ourselves frustrated with conflict at work. After years of seeing clients struggling to free themselves from destructive conflict, Diane developed The Working Circle, a step-by-step process that helps everyone in business resolve conflict in a non-confrontational, creative, collaborative way. We often find ourselves facing complex business questions about independence, moral values, face-saving, goal-setting, and leadership. Win at Work! offers real-life examples of people at pivotal points in their careers. It will reveal how you can move around the roadblocks that can sometimes stop you in your tracks. Win at Work! also helps those of us who are uncomfortable with conflict, giving them the tools that do not use confrontation and for those who just dont know what to do in the face of conflict at work, it provides language and process for a relatively painless resolution.

Diane Katz (Author), Kimberly Far (Narrator)

Audiobook

Winning Across Global Markets: How Nokia Creates Strategic Advantage in a Fast-Changing World

Winning Across Global Markets examines how 145-year old Nokia grew from a small paper mill in Finland to a multinational telecommunications leader. Why are Nokia's globalization lessons so critical across industries and worldwide? While most large multinational companies enjoy inherent advantages in which their home base/country/flagship location often accounts for 30 - 50% of their revenues, small- multinationals like Nokia who have a home base market that generates less than 1% of its revenues are the exception in the global business world. To such a company, global advantage based on local success is a matter of life and death. To established industry leaders in the U.S., Europe and Japan, Winning Across Global Markets provides a roadmap for how to develop, capture and sustain competitive advantage. To ambitious challengers in emerging economies, it offers a guideline on how to topple the giants. Based on Steinbocks exclusive access to and interviews with all chief/senior executives of Nokia from the CEO and chairman to the technology and design chiefs, as well as the regional directors, Winning Across Global Markets reveals the remarkable story of Nokias resilience and endurance in todays ever-changing world.

Dan Steinbock (Author), John Allen Nelson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Executing Your Business Transformation: How to Engage Sweeping Change Without Killing Yourself Or Yo

Based on their work across companies in the automobile, agriculture, and technology industries, the authors outline 11 lessons learned in the process of working in and with organizations in the process of transformation. These lessons are: The customer is always right except when they are not: deals with customer-facing issues What got you here may kill you there: Letting go of what made you good is hard. Execute on unconventional wisdom: debunk best practices and use of unconventional wisdom as an antidote for me too thinking. Who melted my cheese?: examines how the heat and pressure of mergers and acquisitions impacts transformation. HR stands for Human Resources not Hiring Requisitions: brings to light the central role of HR in transformation and why this is the biggest missing piece There is no strategy if nobody knows what to do: provides insight into how smart sounding, unintelligible presentations dont add up to effective action and what to do about it Consultants are not and excuse for not knowing what you want: provides information on the use of consultants and how to get a sound return on consulting Yesterdays leadership skills may prevent tomorrows success: delves into the sticky situation of what happens when we find the enemy and it is us. Dont let analysts run your business: how do you get the street satisfied, the organization transformed, and keep your job? Spin is over-rated for creating value: examines the effect of complete and utter candor in the face of merger where the spin is replaced with unvarnished truth. Merger is not a four letter word: how to address mergers in order to prevent the typical loss of value experienced in most company marriages.

Andrew Cole, Dave Johnson, Mark Morgan, Mark Morgan, Rob Johnson (Author), Bruce Lorie (Narrator)

Audiobook

The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results

This revision of the popular guide for leaders in new roles has been updated with three new chapters and three new appendices, including sample 100 day action plans. Updates to the previous bestseller include: Applying social media to onboarding. Changing the emphasis of the communication chapter to downplay sequential, programmatic communication campaigns and play up the need for a dynamic, iterative and interactive approach to conversations across a network of multiple stakeholders and a wide variety of media and social media. Taking a BRAVE new approach to culture and context. Strengthening the chapter on how to engage hearts and minds in the new culture. Adding in explicit guidance on how to assess and manage the business and internal political context and then cross that with a BRAVE approach to assessing culture - looking at Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, and the work Environment. Updating downloadable forms. Updating existing and adding downloadable forms reflecting our current thinking Updating the stories, examples, hot tips and questions to illustrate key points New appendices include: Incorporating new thinking on crisis management. Adding a new appendix on a 100-Hour Action Plan for crisis situations. This iterative approach to crisis management has already been adopted and deployed by the American Red Cross and has enabled them to significantly improve their disaster response timeframe by achieving results in the second day that typically had not been seen until the sixth day. Providing advice for the new leaders boss. Adding an appendix on Onboarding the New Leader with advice for the new leaders boss drawn from the Onboarding book which you published in 2009. Including sample 100-Day Action Plans. Adding an appendix with sample 100-Day Action Plans to serve as examples

George B. Bradt, Jayme A. Check, Jorge E. Pedraza (Author), Danny Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers are Transforming Business Together

Since its debut, E-commerce has been centered on the transaction. Now, we are entering the era of Pre-Commerce where customers make their own decision to buy or support a brand before the transaction. The Pre-Commerce Company explains how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers go about making their purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves, and why they choose to support certain brands above others. It shows what executives must do to re-create the way their companies and interact with and learn from their customers, employees, and competitors. It includes exclusive interviews and anecdotes Pearson has conducted or experienced with numerous influential C-suite executives including Michael Dell, Sally Susman (CCO of Pfizer), Lee Scott (former CEO of Wal-Mart), Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce.com), Paul von Autenreid (CIO, Bristol Myers Squibb) and others. Offers a step-by-step process for leaders to apply this knowledge to begin transforming their companies, right now Explores the concept of 'Pre-commerce'--thatthe customer's decision decision-making happens well before a transaction takes place Shows how to build internal employee networks and how to tackle the pre-commerce infrastructure Pearson reveals that the best ideas are often free and the technology needed is rarely a cost-issue. Instead, it's a matter of the top executive deciding to adopt a new way of engaging directly with its customers.

Bob Pearson, Mark Addicks (Author), John Allen Nelson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Engagement Equation: Leadership Strategies for an Inspired Workforce

While organizations are keen to maximize the contribution of each individual toward corporate imperatives and metrics, individual employees need to find purpose and satisfaction in their work. The authors engagement model focuses on individuals contribution to the company's success and personal satisfaction in their role. Impacting Engagement advocates that aligning employees values, goals, and aspirations with those of the organization is the best method for achieving the sustainable employee engagement required for an organization to thrive. This book is designed to move beyond the high-level numbers to provide you with a framework that will help you start moving the needle on engagement. The authors recommendations for increasing engagement include: Measure less while acting more, Drive alignment with strategy Pay attention to culture, and Redefine career The Engagement Equation offers leaders the strategies needed to end disengagement in their teams and make a difference in their employers quest for sustainable business success.

Christopher Rice, Fraser Marlow, Mary Ann Masarech (Author), Margaret Strom (Narrator)

Audiobook

Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-making in a Confused and Troubled World

Managers and leaders are buried beneath an avalanche of data and obligations made possible by our interconnected world. In the 38 countries where AT Kearney operates, this has caused leadership and decision-making strategies sto be tymied and delayed. As a result, people (and organizations) everywhere are feeling disoriented, bewildered, and even paralyzed. The causes range from the proliferation of product choice to the relentless 'information smog' of 24/7 always-on email and social media. The results include not just overload, but a degraded ability to think and act decisively. This book sets out the four guiding principles that will lead us out from under the avalanche and into a more productive future: simplify, decrease, innovate, and plan.

Mukesh Ambani, Paul A. Laudicina (Author), Tristan Morris (Narrator)

Audiobook

It's All About Who You Hire, How They Lead...and Other Essential Advice from a Self-Made Leader

American business leader, entrepreneur, and noted philanthropist Morton Mandel shares lessons he gleaned from co-founding and leading, along with his brothersJack and Joe, Premier Industrial Corporation, a major industrial parts and electronic components manufacturer and distributor. Now for readers everywhere who are interested in studying leadership development, Its All About Who describes Mandels approach to finding, recruiting and cultivating A players.In his book, Mandel shares his fine-tuned set of practices to develop leaders that have proven to deliver dramatically better results. Containing sixteen core sections, Its All About Who covers key strategic topics from Building a Rich, Deep, and Ethical Culture to Killing Yourself for Your Customer to Using Business Ideas in the Social Sector.What makes Mandel unique is his selflessness in pursuing a life of purpose. Mandel has lived in two worlds: the world of profit and the world of social impact. Even as chairman and CEO of a New York Stock Exchange company for more than three decades, he spent as much as a third of his time in the social sector. Mandel has personally founded more than a dozen non-profit organizations.His deep-seated passion is evident in the mission of his Foundation: To invest in people with the values, ability and passion to change the world.

John Byrne, Morton Mandel (Author), Bob Souer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Management & Leadership Audiobooks in Business & Economics