The skills, tactics, and best practices for success are ever-evolving. At the corporate level, Jack Stack discusses the new principles of management where empowerment is handed to all employees; authors John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen detail ways to cultivate both types of “driven” employees. In Zillow Talk, learn how new concepts are influencing the real estate market, while Just Listen author Mark Goulston explains how to create better communication. Finally, enjoy a return to 20th-century glamour with The Last Swan.
Just Listen
Mark Goulston M.D.
AMACOM; 2010, 2015
256 pp.
THE PLOT It’s frustrating indeed when communication feels barricaded. When logic, urging, yelling, whining, and cajoling fails, it’s time to track a new direction to making your own voice heard.
THE MEAT A 2010 bestseller, Goulston’s book, just released in paperback, offers not only time-tested techniques, but draws upon his experience as a hostage negotiator to create effective communication. From first impression to final persuasion, the powerful techniques found here will go a long way to creating the total “buy-in.”
THE TWIST There are ways to take people from a resistive stance to a willingness to assist. More than the art of persuasion, Just Listen presents ways to become a better communicator, both as a speaker as well as a listener.
Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate
Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries
Grand Central Publishing; 2015
288 pp.
THE PLOT From advertising a home to doing a remodel, the nation’s number one real estate website company offers complete details on how to avoid “outdated truisms” and embrace the new rules of home buying and selling.
THE MEAT Highly entertaining, Zillow’s CEO and chief economist have combined to pen this book. Calling on a wealth of information gleaned from proprietary data, statisticians, and data scientists, the book is filled with amusing anecdotes as it demystifies questions about 21st-century real estate investment.
THE TWIST Buy near Starbucks? Remodel the kitchen or bathroom? Call a home “cute?” These (among others) are decisions which can influence a home’s value. Within these pages is a well-researched solution about capitalizing on a home’s value.
The Great Game of Business, Expanded and Updated: The Only Sensible Way to Run a Company
Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham
Crown Business; 2013
384 pp.
THE PLOT Popularly called “transparency,” open-book management allows individuals in all echelons of a company to join the decision-making process. The dictatorial-style of rule is no longer; input today comes from all levels of a company’s staff.
THE MEAT The employer’s dilemma ranges from employee motivation to retention. Evolved from old-school thinking, today’s concept allows employees to become more than workers in a descending hierarchy but rather individuals with a shared interest in the company’s success.
THE TWIST In the digital age, both white and blue collar workers have learned to expect to be part of the decision-making process. Increasingly important in the age-diversified workplace, the productive results speak volumes for this management technique.
The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value
John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen
Portfolio; 2014
256 pp.
THE PLOT The common link between self-made billionaires such as Mark Cuban, T. Boone Pickens, and Sara Blakely are explored in this book, which presents the mind-set needed to increase a company’s value by recognizing undervalued talent.
THE MEAT Defining the difference between producers and performers, the authors show how performers excel in defined areas of their job, while producers (often neglected) use imagination and vision to vault a company forward.
THE TWIST In the battle between judgment and imagination, sometimes the latter is the better road travelled. Recognizing these traits inherent to the producer-type has many times shown to prove the difference between success and mega-success.
Marella Agnelli: The Last Swan
Marella Agnelli and Marella Caracciolo Chia
Rizzoli; 2014
304 pp.
THE PLOT Born a princess, the exquisite life of Marella Agnelli caused author Truman Capote to write, “If Babe Paley and Marella Agnelli were both in Tiffany’s window, Marella would be more expensive.”
THE MEAT Parts biographical and other autobiographical, enjoy a vicarious trip into the fairy-tale like world of one of the twentieth century’s most cultured individuals. Embark on a vicarious trip of elegance and glamour as you visit Agnelli’s houses and gardens from such notable places as Turin, Rome, Milan, and New York.
THE TWIST The rarified air of the jet-set circuit unfolds in the pages of this coffee table book. More than that, exquisite taste and luxury are revealed in a life lived in rarely seen beauty, often-times referred to as “paradise.”
