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| topgrading book: Topgrading (revised PHP edition) Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D., 2024-10-29 Great companies don’t just depend on strategies—they depend on people. The more great people on your team, the more successful your organization will be. But that’s easier said than done. Statistically, half of all employment decisions result in a mishire: The wrong person winds up in the wrong job. But companies that have followed Bradford Smart’s advice in Topgrading have boosted their successful hiring rate to 90 percent or better, giving them an unbeatable competitive advantage. Now Smart has fully revised his 1999 management classic to reintroduce the topgrading concept, which works for companies large and small in any industry. The author spells out his practical approach to finding and managing A-level talent—as well as coaching B players to turn them into A players. He provides intriguing case studies drawn from more than four thousand in-depth interviews. As Smart writes in his introduction, “All organizations, all businesses live or die mostly on their talent, and any manager who fails to topgrade is nuts, or a C player. . . . Those who, way deep down, would sooner see an organization die than nudge an incompetent person out of a job should not read this book... Topgrading is for A players and all those aspiring to be A players.” On the web: http://www.topgrading.com/ |
| topgrading book: Topgrading for Sales Bradford D. Smart, Greg Alexander, 2008 Smart, the author of the bestselling Topgrading, has teamed up with Alexander to teach sales managers how to conduct interviews in order to gain the best talent for their sales force. |
| topgrading book: Topgrading Bradford D. Smart, Geoff Smart, 2007 |
| topgrading book: Topgrading (revised PHP edition) Bradford D. Smart Ph.D., 2005-04-07 Great companies don’t just depend on strategies—they depend on people. The more great people on your team, the more successful your organization will be. But that’s easier said than done. Statistically, half of all employment decisions result in a mishire: The wrong person winds up in the wrong job. But companies that have followed Bradford Smart’s advice in Topgrading have boosted their successful hiring rate to 90 percent or better, giving them an unbeatable competitive advantage. Now Smart has fully revised his 1999 management classic to reintroduce the topgrading concept, which works for companies large and small in any industry. The author spells out his practical approach to finding and managing A-level talent—as well as coaching B players to turn them into A players. He provides intriguing case studies drawn from more than four thousand in-depth interviews. As Smart writes in his introduction, “All organizations, all businesses live or die mostly on their talent, and any manager who fails to topgrade is nuts, or a C player. . . . Those who, way deep down, would sooner see an organization die than nudge an incompetent person out of a job should not read this book... Topgrading is for A players and all those aspiring to be A players.” On the web: http://www.topgrading.com/ |
| topgrading book: Who , 2017 |
| topgrading book: Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner, 2020-12-23 Learn how you can tackle everyday leadership challenges regardless of your title, position, or authority with this insightful resource A book about leadership for people who are not in formal or hierarchical leadership positions, Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership provides readers with a comprehensive and practical approach to addressing leadership challenges, no matter the setting or circumstance. Esteemed scholars and sought-after consultants Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner adapt their trademark The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® framework to today’s more horizontal workplace, showing people that leadership is not about where you are in the organization; it’s about how you behave and what you do. Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership draws on the authors’ deep well of research and practical experience to cover key subjects: The essence of making a difference in any role, setting, or situation The difference between positions of authority and leadership The importance of self-development in leadership development This book is perfectly applicable and accessible for anyone who wants to improve their own leadership potential and who isn’t yet in an official leadership role. Everyday People, Extraordinary Leadership offers authoritative new insights, original case studies and examples, and practical guidance for those individuals who want to make a difference. You supply the will, and this book will supply the way. |
| topgrading book: Change to Strange Daniel M. Cable, 2007-04-26 To achieve sustained competitive advantage, you must create and deliver something that’s valuable, rare, and hard to imitate–and you can’t do that with a run-of-the-mill workforce. Your workforce needs to be strikingly different, obsessively focused on delivering on your unique value proposition. Compared with everyone else’s workforce, your people need to be downright strange! This book is about everything it takes to build a workforce that’s strange and extraordinary enough to execute your most powerful strategies and your unique value proposition. It’s about understanding exactly how your workforce needs to be different...creating an end-to-end Strange Workforce Value Chain...implementing workforce systems that support your unique goals...establishing detailed metrics based on what makes you unique...using those metrics to drive clarity throughout your entire organization, and steer it toward success. If you’re tasked with executing strategy through people, and “balanced scorecards” and “strategy maps” just haven’t been enough, take your next and greatest leap forward: make the Change to Strange. · Why “normal” workforces just won’t cut it anymore Everyone says their people make the difference. Most everyone’s wrong. · Create your strange workforce in four steps Imagine, pinpoint your gaps, prioritize, and act. · What your customers must notice for you to win Link your real performance drivers to specific workforce deliverables. · Rearchitect your workforce to break from the pack Organize to get strategic results from the right people. · Leverage the magic of measurement Implement metrics that work–and keep them working. |
| topgrading book: The Ideal Team Player Patrick M. Lencioni, 2016-04-25 In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players. Whether you’re a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling. |
| topgrading book: The Power of People Skills Trevor Throness, 2017-08-21 The Power of People Skills is the eye-opening, invaluable, definitive guide to achieving success in your organization. Excellent! —Marshall Goldsmith People are the problem. They're always the problem. If a business person goes home frustrated, if they talk with their significant other about it, if they lay awake at night stewing about it, inevitably the problem is some person at work—a colleague, subordinate, or boss. Handling people issues is every leader's major headache. It's what takes up the majority of their time and—more important—the bulk of their head space. Every leader can and must develop this most important of all management skills. The Power of People Skills will teach you that there's one primary difference between a great culture and a poor one: a great culture insists on having star players in every key seat, and a poor culture tolerates under performers. In this powerful book, you will learn how to: Make the people decisions that can double your results, relieve your stress, and cause team morale to soar. Attract and retain the very best talent. Deal with difficult people problems in an objective and kind way. Overcome the reluctance we all share to confront under performers. Permanently solve the problems causing most of your stress. |
| topgrading book: The Most Dangerous Business Book You'll Ever Read Gregory Hartley, Maryann Karinch, 2011-02-17 Hone your professional approach to a razor's edge using lessons from military and civilian intelligence The Most Dangerous Business Book You'll Ever Read brings expertise from military and civilian intelligence operations into your business life. It lays out hard-hitting interpersonal skills to raise your level of professional effectiveness and vanquish your competition. The Most Dangerous Business Book You'll Ever Read features former Army interrogator Gregory Hartley's unique system of profiling, formula for persuasion, and framework for establishing expertise quickly. Gregory makes his system concrete with case studies, tables, diagrams, and more. Question like a Polygrapher Sort Personalities like a Profiler Close a Deal like a Hostage Negotiator Interview like an Interrogator Network like a Spy Research like an Intelligence Analyst Decide like a SEAL Team-Build like Special Ops Take your career focus to the next level. Discover the skills they don't teach in business school with The Most Dangerous Business Book You'll Ever Read. |
| topgrading book: The Smart Interviewer Bradford D. Smart, 1989-10-02 The Smart Interviewer In 20 years of specializing in interviews, management psychologist Brad Smart has successfully interviewed more than 4,000 candidates for selection or promotion, trained over 3,000 hiring managers in how to interview, and counseled thousands on how to manage their careers. The Smart Interviewer is a culmination of this vast experience. In it, Smart shares with you the secrets to successful interviewing. Written in a most readable style and featuring humorous cartoons, this book will immediately help you improve your interviewing effectiveness. You'll learn: * How to build excellent rapport * How to apply the TORC Technique for motivating the interviewee to be totally candid and reveal negatives * How to conduct productive reference calls * How to correctly interpret an interviewee's responses * How to prepare for an interview, how much time to take during an interview, how to focus your questions in ways that will reveal whether the interviewee meets your organization's needs or not--plus the latest hiring legalities you should be aware of The Smart Interviewer will help you avoid costly mishires and mispromotions and give you strategies and tools to hire productive, high-caliber employees that meet your company's needs. |
| topgrading book: Making the Number Greg Alexander, Aaron Bartels, Mike Drapeau, 2008-10-16 The essential tool kit to achieve breakthrough sales performance improvements. Numbers don’t lie: 40 percent of all salespeople miss their targets each year. How can sales managers ensure their teams are doing everything possible? The key lies in benchmarking, which is not new for finance or manufacturing but rarely gets applied to sales. Making the Number will teach executives to embrace data-driven decision making and rely less on gut instinct. Comparing a sales force to those of relevant peers leads to many opportunities to improve performance. The authors take readers through their five-step methodology for sales benchmarking, showing how to select metrics; gather, compute, and compare internal and external data; and then actually use the data. Making the Number includes case studies of sales benchmarking in action. For example, find out how Discover Financial Services plays David to the Goliaths of MasterCard and Visa. Whether you’re a sales rep, a manager, or a CEO, this book will show you a better way to make your number. |
| topgrading book: Lead from the Core Jay Steinfeld, 2021-11-30 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Jay Steinfeld, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and the founder and CEO of Blinds.com (acquired by Home Depot), never planned to create the biggest online window blinds retailer in the world. Against all odds to succeed, Steinfeld’s journey in business included failed acquisitions, partnerships gone wrong, perpetual self-doubt, deaths in his family, budget-limited guerilla marketing, corporate buy-outs, brutal market competition, and a complete disruption of industry leaders, including Amazon and big-box retailers. To build something meaningful like Steinfeld, you need to do more than dream about it. You need to Lead from the Core. Learn Steinfeld’s “Four Es”—a set of guiding principles that help overcome any obstacle to your organization’s success: Evolve Continuously, Experiment Without Fear of Failure, Express Yourself, and Enjoy the Ride. In these pages, you’ll also learn specific, actionable tactics, including: How to start a business with little money and experience Ways to avoid the early failure that plagues many businesses Strategies to scale beyond the startup phase Exactly how to communicate with boards and investors Proven lessons to attract potential acquirers of your company Told with humor and heart, Lead from the Core is not just a roadmap to make your company a resounding success. It’s a masterclass for leaders looking to prevent costly business mistakes, no matter where you are in your journey. |
| topgrading book: Self-Hypnosis Demystified Adam Burke, 2012-09-12 Self-hypnosis can be a simple yet powerful tool for self-transformation. In this comprehensive guide to making sense of the mysteries of your mind, research psychologist Adam Burke explores how to integrate self-hypnosis into your daily life for a newly engaged outlook with heightened control of your mind and destiny. |
| topgrading book: Power Score Geoff Smart, Randy Street, Alan Foster, 2015-06-16 ghSMART, the bestselling team behind Who: The A Method for Hiring, returns with a breakthrough formula for how the best leaders and teams deliver results. “ghSMART is the world’s top firm for helping leaders hire talented teams and run them at full power. Nothing is more important.”—Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of Mojo and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There “The most useful book about leadership.” That is what we hope you and your team will say after finishing Power Score. Is your team running at full power? Only 10 percent of leaders run their teams at full power. The formula you are about to learn is based on the most extensive research of its kind, spanning more than 15,000 careers with over 9 million data points. The idea has been battle-tested for more than two decades by leaders in every major industry. It works. Successful leadership starts with three key questions: 1. Priorities—Do we have the right priorities? (Only 24 percent of leaders do.) 2. Who—Do we have the right people on the team? (Only 14 percent of leaders do.) 3. Relationships—Do we have the right relationships that deliver results? (Only 47 percent of leaders do.) Learn how to calculate your team’s Power Score, and how to improve each of the three key areas of leadership. Learn what to do, and what not do, from compelling statistics and inspiring stories of those leaders who have succeeded and those who have failed. You may be surprised how easy it is to read this little book. And you may be even more surprised by how fast this approach will boost your team’s results. When you dial up your team’s Power Score, you will make a greater impact as a leader, help your team earn more money for your cause (whatever your cause may be), and enjoy greater career success. Praise for Power Score “Shaking distrust out of an organization is hard. But the payoff is immense. Bravo to Smart, Street and Foster for sharing their ideas about how to make that happen.”—Forbes “[Power Score] offers insights on improving in each dimension and inspiration. It’s written briskly, in a question-and-answer format that keeps ideas clear and concise. The book’s a winner and maybe you will be too if you try its approach.”—The Globe and Mail “The power score is the secret sauce that gives the group the information needed to fix problems. The authors provide plenty of guidance presented in an accessible Q&A format.”—Success “I wouldn’t be surprised if Power Score became the new go-to guide for leadership. Effective teams are key in everything from healthcare to business to government to nonprofits, and this book will help organizations change the conversation about getting results.”—Atul Gawande, New York Times bestselling author of Being Mortal and The Checklist Manifesto “Smart, Street, and Foster have turned more than twenty years of research on leadership into a practical, systematic approach for getting results.”—Frederick W. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of FedEx Corporation “My entire team applied the principles of Power Score and has enjoyed explosive growth as a result. Even better, I am having more fun as a leader than ever before.”—Jeff Booth, chief executive officer and founder of BuildDirect |
| topgrading book: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Verne Harnish, 2023-09-20 A Detailed Roadmap for Companies at Various Stages of Development on How to Get to the Next Level. Leaders and employees of growing firms want ideas and tools they can implement immediately to improve some aspect of their business. Verne Harnish, serial entrepreneur, advisor, and venture investor, brings to business leaders the fundamentals that produce real wealth—the same habits that typified American business magnate John D. Rockefeller’s disciplined approach to business. Harnish masterfully intertwines the legendary business philosophy of Rockefeller with lessons to be learned from ten extraordinary organizations. Aiming to empower present-day business leaders, this remarkably successful book includes invaluable lessons from real-world case studies. A treasure trove of practical situations teeming with insights and actionable recommendations, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits will help you unlock the secrets to scaling up your enterprise while simultaneously sidestepping the pitfalls that plague new ventures. From seasoned industry titans to ambitious start-up founders, anyone can swiftly implement these teachings for immediate impact. |
| topgrading book: Topgrading, 3rd Edition Bradford D. Smart Ph.D., 2012-08-16 “BRAD HELPED US DEVELOP THE TOOLS TO PICK A-PLAYER LEADERS AT GE.” —JACK WELCH Great companies, large and small, rise or fall because of their talent; the more high performers on your team, the more successful your organization will be. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Research shows that only about 25% of all new hires turn out to be high performers. But companies that have used Brad Smart’s Topgrading system over the past two decades have boosted their hiring success rates dramatically—sometimes even to 90%. Three huge problems account for the typical poor results in hiring: dishonesty (via deceptive résumés), incomplete information (via shallow interviews), and lack of verifiability (via biased references). Topgrading shows how to solve all three problems. Instead of hiring by your gut reactions to résumés and interviews, you can start using a scientifically honed process that compels candidates to be totally honest. Smart, one of the world’s foremost experts on hiring, has personally helped hundreds of companies double, triple, or even quadruple their hiring success rates. His clients have ranged from global giants such as General Electric and Honeywell to midsize and small businesses in every field imaginable, and to not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association. And hundreds of thousands of readers have applied the lessons and tools of the first two editions of Topgrading. The Topgrading system makes hiring easier, faster, and more successful than any other process. And it works at every level, from the front lines to senior management. For the first time in seven years, Smart has fully revised and updated Topgrading with many new tools, techniques, and case studies. This edition now features 40 companies of all sizes, across a wide range of industries and home countries. It’s the most advanced and useful version of Topgrading ever. The third edition includes: Simplified Topgrading methods for entry-level jobs. The new Topgrading Snapshot, which screens out weak candidates in just 15 seconds. The latest version of the acclaimed Topgrading Interview script. Case studies from 35 companies not featured in any previous edition. Many additional innovations created by Topgraders. Topgrading isn’t just about hiring and promoting—it’s also about developing talent. It enables leaders to reward their A Players, coach their Bs to become As, and weed out the Cs who are beyond improvement. Many great leaders know that Topgrading works. Find out how it can help your company gain a big competitive advantage. |
| topgrading book: Amazon Unbound Brad Stone, 2022-05-10 Portrait of the growth of tech company Amazon and the evolution of its billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos. |
| topgrading book: Rhythm Patrick Thean, 2014-02-25 From USA Today & Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author! Want to achieve breakthroughs and get exceptional results? Discover the system that successful growth companies have used to achieve their results. All growing companies encounter ceilings of complexity, usually when they hit certain employee or revenue milestones. In order to burst through ceiling after ceiling and innovate with growth, a company must develop a reliable system that prompts leaders to be proactive and pivot when the need arises. You also need to learn simple systems to empower everyone in your company to become and stay focused, aligned, and accountable. In Rhythm, you’ll discover all this and more, including: • How to identify potential setbacks and avoid them; • Think-Plan-Do rhythm to fire up and maintain great execution; • The inside scoop from growth companies showing you how they turned their potential setbacks into opportunities; • Practical tools that you can use immediately; • The habits you should start building to achieve your own breakthroughs. Patrick Thean’s process applies to any growing business and ensures that your organization gets into the habit of achieving success, week after week, quarter after quarter, year after year. Get your copy now and start leading your business towards successful growth today! |
| topgrading book: The Manager's Handbook Alex Maccaw, 2021-08-16 This handbook is the practical guide to becoming a great manager. It covers all the major topics including hiring, coaching, feedback, one-on-ones, and decision making. It also covers some of softer, but equally important, topics like conflict resolution and mental health. Great management changes lives. In fact, it's one of the most single overlooked pieces of leverage in the world. Great managers are remembered like great teachers, inspirations who help others soar. That's why it's such a shame management training is so often overlooked. Successful individual-contributors are rewarded with a 'promotion' into management and then, more often than not, left to sink or swim. If you're a new manager, this book will shine a friendly light on the road ahead. And if you're an old dog, perhaps it'll teach you a trick or two. This handbook was written by Alex MacCaw and stress-tested at a company called Clearbit. |
| topgrading book: The High-Speed Company Jason Jennings, Laurence Haughton, 2015-03-17 The only way to ensure your company’s success is to change faster on the inside than the world is changing on the outside No one knows the ins and outs of successful companies better than bestselling author Jason Jennings. Back in 2001, with It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small, It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow, Jennings proved that speed was the ultimate competitive advantage. But in 2015, companies of all sizes still struggle to adapt quickly. They know it’s crucial to their future but need help to get everyone implementing speed and urgency at all levels. Jennings and his researchers have spent years up close and personal with thousands of organizations around the world—figuring out what makes them successful in both the short and long term. He understands the real challenges that keep more than eleven thousand CEOs, business owners, and executives up at night. And he knows how the best of the best combine speed and growth to deliver five times the average returns to shareholders. The High-Speed Company reveals the unique practices of businesses that have proven records of urgency and growth. The key distinction is that they’ve created extraordinary cultures with a strong purpose, more trust, and relentless follow-through. These companies burn less energy, beat the competition, and have a lot of fun along the way. Jennings shows how you can implement the same strategies that have made companies such as CoBank, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Grainger, Henry Schein, Google, and Johnson & Johnson great, including: • Encouraging employees to make the right moves without hesitation. J.M. Smucker has done this well by creating five guiding principles that employees at every level can apply to faster individual decision making. • Doing more to constantly innovate and bring in new customers. Besides spending more than $2 billion on research and development, Procter & Gamble sends its senior executives to the homes of families who use their products in one hundred different countries, to learn their stories and connect with them, gaining fresh insights for new products. • Being transparent about management decisions. Sonic Corp. knows this is the best way to drive trust and engagement with both employees and customers. Breathe easier. Handle any hurdle. Get things done faster. That’s the way of the high-speed company . . . and Jennings shows you how to build and sustain your own. |
| topgrading book: Talent Tyler Cowen, Daniel Gross, 2022-05-17 The art and science of talent search: how to spot, assess, woo, and retain highly talented people. How do you find talent with a creative spark? To what extent can you predict human creativity, or is human creativity something irreducible before our eyes, perhaps to be spotted or glimpsed by intuition, but unique each time it appears? Obsessed with these questions, renowned economist Tyler Cowen and venture capitalist and entrepreneur Daniel Gross set out to study the art and science of finding talent at the highest level: the people with the creativity, drive, and insight to transform an organization and make everyone around them better. Cowen and Gross guide the reader through the major scientific research areas relevant for talent search, including how to conduct an interview, how much to weight intelligence, how to judge personality and match personality traits to jobs, how to evaluate talent in online interactions such as Zoom calls, why talented women are still undervalued and how to spot them, how to understand the special talents in people who have disabilities or supposed disabilities, and how to use delegated scouts to find talent. Talent appreciation is an art, but it is an art you can improve through study and experience. Identifying underrated, brilliant individuals is one of the simplest ways to give yourself an organizational edge, and this is the book that will show you how to do that. Talent is both for people searching for talent and for those who wish to be searched for, found, and discovered. |
| topgrading book: The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan George B. Bradt, Jayme A. Check, Jorge E. Pedraza, 2009-03-16 The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan, and the included downloadable forms, has proven itself to be a valuable resource for new leaders in any organization. This revision includes 40% new material and updates -- including new and updated downloadable forms -- with new chapters on: * A new chapter on POSITIONING yourself for a leadership role * A new chapter on what to do AFTER THE FIRST 100 DAYS * A new chapter on getting PROMOTED FROM WITHIN and what to do then |
| topgrading book: How to Win in the Chess Openings I.A. Horowitz, 2012-11-14 A beginner-friendly study of chess openings and how you can use your first moves to your advantage Are you feeling frustrated that you’re losing your chess game in the first few moves? Do you want to learn the best strategies for a checkmate? In this accessible book, chess master I. A. Horowitz details how to step up your chess game. He outlines the principles and concepts of opening play, discussing the popular attack and defense openings—including the queen’s gambit, the Sicilian defense, the French defense, and many more— and breaks down their individual moves and grand plans. He also shows the tactical forte of each move and how it ties up with the overall strategical idea. Perfect for people who just learned the rules of chess or more advanced players who want to gain some strategy, How to Win in the Chess Openings will give you the tools you need to win your next game. |
| topgrading book: Write to the Top Deborah Dumaine, 2004-07-20 The Write to the Top process helps you write clear, reader-centered documents that drive action and get results. Productivity—it’s vital to corporate and personal success. Yet business people spend countless hours deciphering vague and rambling written messages. The results: information overload, sluggish operations, delayed decisions, and plummeting morale. Quality—when you receive a business document, e-mail, letter, report, or proposal, do you immediately know what it’s about? Do you know what you’re supposed to do about it? When you send messages, do your readers act on them? They quickly will, if you use the proven Write to the Top process. Put The Six Steps to Reader-Centered Writing® to work to help you • sell your ideas or services more effectively • write up to twice as fast and save time for your busy readers, too • break through writer’s block • target your readers’ needs • demonstrate your leadership in writing • design documents for visual impact and easier navigation • improve your ability to think strategically, propose solutions, and speed up decision making |
| topgrading book: For What It's Worth Les Gold, 2013-06-13 Businesses these days talk a lot about figuring out what the customer wants. Well, here’s your first lesson: the customer doesn’t know what he wants. This book is going to show you how to convince him he wants the thing you’re selling. Les Gold has been in business since age twelve, when he started selling used golf clubs from his dad’s basement. Now he owns Detroit’s biggest pawnshop, American Jewelry and Loan, and is the star of the hit reality TV show Hardcore Pawn. As a third-generation pawnbroker, Gold grew up in the business, dealing with customers who could be unruly and violent as often as they were friendly. He became good at selling just about anything and at buying items for what they were worth. Although he started at his family’s small pawnshop, he has now expanded into a fifty-thousand-square-foot former bowling alley, making a thousand deals a day. On any given day, he could be taking a vintage car in to pawn or chasing down a thief who’s just stolen a gold chain from the store. No business school in the world can teach you as much about buying, selling, negotiating, managing employees, dealing with customers, advertising, tracking trends, and predicting the economy’s ups and downs. In this entertaining, honest book, Gold takes you inside some of his weirdest, wackiest deals and steals. From the monkey his dad once took in to pawn to the deal Gold made for a stripper pole, he has no boundaries for what he considers to be part of his business—and neither should you. You will learn: How to tell an emotional story when you’re selling—and take emotion out of the transaction when you’re buying Why judging your customers before you know them can kill a potential deal How to deal with risk, both mental and physical How to communicate with employees (even if they’re your own kids) Why investing in relationships with your community is time well spent Why your business should never be limited by what others tell you it should be No place in the world prepares you better for the working world than a pawnshop, and Les Gold takes you inside his shop to share what he’s learned from fifty-five years in the most interesting job in the world. |
| topgrading book: The Gum Thief Douglas Coupland, 2011-01-15 Douglas Coupland's inventive novel-think Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?-is the story of an extraordinary epistolary relationship between Roger and Bethany, two very different, but strangely connected, aisles associates at Staples. Watch as their lives unfold alongside Roger's work-in-progress, the oddly titled Glove Pond. A raucous tale of four academics, two malfunctioning marriages, and one rotten dinner party, Roger's opus is a Cheever-style novella gone horribly wrong. But as key characters migrate into and out of its pages, Glove Pond becomes an anchor of Roger's unsettled-and unsettling-life.Coupland electrifies us on every page of this witty, wise, and unforgettable novel. Love, death, and eternal friendship can all transpire where we least expect them...and even after tragedy seems to have wiped your human slate clean, stories can slowly rebuild you. |
| topgrading book: Scaling Up Verne Harnish, 2014 Winner of the International Book Awards for General Business Winner of the Readers' Favorite International Book Award for Non-Fiction Business It's been over a decade since Verne Harnish's best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) is the first major revision of this business classic which details practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. This book is written so everyone -- from frontline employees to senior executives -- can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits ChecklistTM, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully -- many to $10 million, $100 million, and $1 billion and beyond - while enjoying the climb |
| topgrading book: Relationship Economics David Nour, 2011-02-08 A revised and updated guide to bridging relationship creation with relationship capitalization Relationship Economics isn't about taking advantage of friends or coworkers to get ahead. It's about prioritizing and maximizing a unique return on strategic relationships to fuel unprecedented growth. Based on the author's global speaking and consulting engagements, Relationship Economics reveals that success comes from investing in people for extraordinary returns. This revised and updated version explains the three major types of relationships personal, functional, and strategic and how to focus each to fuel enterprise growth. It introduces new concepts in relationship management, including the exchange of Relationship Currency®, the accumulation of Reputation Capital®, and the building of Professional Net Worth®. These are the fundamental measures of business relationship, and once you understand them, you'll be able to turn your contacts into better executions, performance, and results. David Nour is the definitive expert on strategic relationships. He has captured practical, pragmatic, and timely insights in Relationship Economics and has been a valuable resource to my sales transformation efforts. RANDY SEIDL, Senior VP, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, Americas, HP Although many understand the importance of relationships, the quantifiable and strategic values of relationships are often underemphasized. David Nour has done just that in??Relationship Economics.?? CRAIG LEMASTERS, President and CEO, Assurant Solutions If a man is judged by the company he keeps, David Nour's Relationship Economics provides a systematic approach to building value in that judgment. The concepts reach well beyond networking to building lasting and productive relationships. DENNIS SADLOWSKI, former president and CEO, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. |
| topgrading book: More Money Than God Sebastian Mallaby, 2011-05-03 Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-find managers have emerged as the stars of twenty-first century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. This is the inside story of their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, their explosive battles with central banks in the 1980s and 1990s, and finally their role in the financial crisis of 2007-9. Hedge funds reward risk takers, so they tend to attract larger-than-life personalities. Jim Simons began life as a code-breaker and mathematician, co-authoring a paper on theoretical geometry that led to breakthroughs in string theory. Ken Griffin started out trading convertible bonds from his Harvard dorm room. Paul Tudor Jones happily declared that a 1929-style crash would be 'total rock-and-roll' for him. Michael Steinhardt was capable of reducing underlings to sobs. 'All I want to do is kill myself,' one said. 'Can I watch?' Steinhardt responded. A saga of riches and rich egos, this is also a history of discovery. Drawing on insights from mathematics, economics and psychology to crack the mysteries of the market, hedge funds have transformed the world, spawning new markets in exotic financial instruments and rewriting the rules of capitalism. And while major banks, brokers, home lenders, insurers and money market funds failed or were bailed out during the crisis of 2007-9, the hedge-fund industry survived the test, proving that money can be successfully managed without taxpayer safety nets. Anybody pondering fixes to the financial system could usefully start here: the future of finance lies in the history of hedge funds. |
| topgrading book: The Effective Manager Mark Horstman, 2016-06-17 The how-to guide for exceptional management from the bottom up The Effective Manager is a hands-on practical guide to great management at every level. Written by the man behind Manager Tools, the world's number-one business podcast, this book distills the author's 25 years of management training expertise into clear, actionable steps to start taking today. First, you'll identify what effective management actually looks like: can you get the job done at a high level? Do you attract and retain top talent without burning them out? Then you'll dig into the four critical behaviors that make a manager great, and learn how to adjust your own behavior to be the leader your team needs. You'll learn the four major tools that should be a part of every manager's repertoire, how to use them, and even how to introduce them to the team in a productive, non-disruptive way. Most management books are written for CEOs and geared toward improving corporate management, but this book is expressly aimed at managers of any level—with a behavioral framework designed to be tailored to your team's specific needs. Understand your team's strengths, weaknesses, and goals in a meaningful way Stop limiting feedback to when something goes wrong Motivate your people to continuous improvement Spread the work around and let people stretch their skills Effective managers are good at the job and good at people. The key is combining those skills to foster your team's development, get better and better results, and maintain a culture of positive productivity. The Effective Manager shows you how to turn good into great with clear, actionable, expert guidance. |
| topgrading book: Results Faster Tony Jeary, 2017-02 In seven life-changing chapters, packed with three powerful lessons each, you'll discover not only how to get better results, but also how to get them at a strategically accelerated rate. |
| topgrading book: Why Smart Executives Fail Sydney Finkelstein, 2004-05-25 Bob Pittman and AOL Time Warner. Jean Marie Messier and Vivendi. Jill Barad and Mattel. Dennis Kozlowski and Tyco. It's an all too common scenario. A great company breaks from the pack; the analysts are in love; the smiling CEO appears on the cover of Fortune. Two years later, the company is in flames, the pension plan is bleeding, the stock is worthless. What goes wrong in these cases? Usually it seems that top management made some incredibly stupid mistakes. But the people responsible are almost always remarkably intelligent and usually have terrific track records. Just as puzzling as the fact that brilliant managers can make bad mistakes is the way they so often magnify the damage. Once a company has made a serious mis-step, it often seems as though it can't do anything right. How does this happen? Instead of rectifying their mistakes, why do business leaders regularly make them worse? To answer these questions, Sydney Finkelstein has carried out the largest research project ever devoted to corporate mistakes and failures. In WHY SMART EXECUTIVES FAIL, he and his research team uncover-with startling clarity and unassailable documentation-the causes regularly responsible for major business breakdowns. He relates the stories of great business disasters and demonstrates that there are specific, identifiable ways in which many businesses regularly make themselves vulnerable to failure. The result is a truly indispensable, practical, must-read book that explains the mechanics of business failure, how to avoid them, and what to do if they happen. |
| topgrading book: Product-Led Growth Bush Wes, 2019-05 Product-Led Growth is about helping your customers experience the ongoing value your product provides. It is a critical step in successful product design and this book shows you how it's done. - Nir Eyal, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of Hooked |
| topgrading book: Loving Each Other Leo F. Buscaglia, 1984 Presents alternatives and suggested behaviors that contribute to loving each other. |
| topgrading book: The Leader Launchpad Howard M. Shore, 2020-08-04 Howard has distilled his vast experience, identified the key levers for acceleration, and conveyed them through real-life stories that are interesting and illuminating. Brad Smart, author; president and CEO, Topgrading[„[ Inc. Sooner or later, every business owner finds themselves working too much in the business rather than on the business. Despite working harder than ever, they know their organization could be growing faster and generating greater profits. To stimulate the traction and significant growth that leaders seek, they need strategies to create and sustain a successful business as well as ways to break through the invisible barriers that prevent forward movement. In The Leader Launchpad, growth expert and master business accelerator Howard M. Shore offers a five-step, clear-cut, actionable plan to help leaders feel in control of their professional destiny. Packed with practical information, The Leader Launchpad includes profit-actualizing and scale-enhancing systems for: [€[ Identifying mindsets essential to creating great companies [€[ Recognizing the crucial steps to increase employee engagement [€[ Developing a strategy that leads to faster growth and higher profitability [€[ Aligning teams with priorities to significantly impact results [€[ Ensuring the right people are in the right seats doing the right thing [€[ Building a culture of accountability Engaging and compelling, The Leader Launchpad is a must-read for any leadership team looking to create a massively successful and enjoyable business. |
| topgrading book: People-Centered Performance Scott Patchin, 2019-08-25 Honest Conversations Lead to Thoughtful Actions and Improved Performance For years, Scott Patchin has been equipping leaders with the critical skills to build healthy teams that achieve great results. As a guide on hundreds of these journeys, several questions have emerged as the critical barriers to a successful leadership journey: Why is it so hard for some leaders to follow through on easy-to-understand principles? While making an effort to build collaboration in teams and honesty between people, what might be simultaneously eroding it? What actions will have the greatest return in building a collaborative, healthy, and high performing team? Scott answers these questions in People-Centered Performance, and challenges leaders to step back and do some of the important internal work so that they are leading from a place of clear beliefs and self-awareness to see the barriers that will derail their success. This is the beginning of the Honest Culture Journey, and Scott is your passionate and committed guide. |
| topgrading book: Physics for Rock Stars Christine McKinley, 2014-06-03 From the host of the History channel’s Brad Meltzer’s Decoded: the laws of the universe like you’ve never experienced them before. This approachable book explains the world of physics with clarity, humor, and a dash of adventure. Physics for Rock Stars is not a weighty treatise on science, but a personal tour of physics from a quirky friend. Anyone who’s ever wondered why nature abhors a vacuum, what causes magnetic attraction, or how to jump off a moving train or do a perfect stage dive will find answers and a few laughs too. No equations, numbers, or tricky concepts—just an inspiring and comical romp through the basics of physics and the beauty of the organized universe. |
| topgrading book: Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times Stephen R. Covey, Breck England, Bob Whitman, 2009 If there is one thing that is certain in business, it is uncertainty. Still, there are great organizations that perform consistently and with excellence, regardless of the conditions. This practical book is about getting predictable results in good times and bad by applying four key principles. |
| topgrading book: Louder than Words Todd Henry, 2015-08-11 The next step in personal effectiveness, by the acclaimed author of The Accidental Creative and Die Empty. There has never been a better time to build an audience around your idea or product. But with so many people and companies clamoring for attention, it’s also more challenging than ever to do work that deeply resonates with the marketplace and creates true and lasting impact. According to Todd Henry, the key to standing apart from the noise is to find your unique voice. Those who identify and develop their voices will gain more attention and wield more influence. But first they have to identify what they truly stand for, develop a compelling vision, and become masters of expressing their ideas in whatever media they choose. Henry offers strategies, exercises, and true stories that illustrate the five attributes of resonant work: • Authenticity: Uncover the narratives that are at the core of your personal and professional identity. • Uniqueness: Identify what makes your work distinct from that of others, and learn to creatively package and present your message. • Consonance: Cultivate internal consistency and harmony in your work. • Empathy: Listen to your audience’s aspirations and struggles to make your message more compelling. • Timing: Learn how to coordinate your work with ideas that already have cultural momentum. Making your work speak is a life-long process of trial, error, and realignment. Henry’s book will help readers build a body of work that resonates deeply and achieves lasting impact. |
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