How to foster happier employees for a healthier bottom line

Managers could learn a lot from a message echoed by generations of dairy farmers: "Contented cows give better milk." This book is not, repeat, "not" a management tome. In this fully revised and expanded edition to a book which absolutely, positively makes the case that treating people right is one of the best things any business can do for its bottom line, "Contented Cows Still Give Better Milk" offers sound, practical advice for those who know that their reputation as an employer is as important as bandwidth.Offers updated case studies and new examples from on-site research in a number of real organizations, as well as inspiring examples of companies that know how to do it right . . . and few that didn'tFad-free prescriptive advice informed by the authors' combined four-plus decades of training and consulting with thousands of managers and employees, conducting employee engagement surveys, and translating the attendant learning to management audiences in a form they can appreciate and useCoauthor Bill Catlette's Bottom Line Leadership Seminar has helped thousands of managers become more effective leaders

Direct from the horse's . . . actually cow's mouth, this fully revised and expanded second edition will teach readers that having a focused, engaged, and capably led workforce is one of the best things any organization can do for its bottom line.

Leadership principles from a master of the business turnaround

In "Reinvent," renowned CEO and business leader Fred Hassan explains how to transform a struggling business into a raging success by reinventing the culture, attitude, and behaviors of organizations and people. Leaders who want to change cultures and individuals need a cool head, a clear vision, and a well-refined ability to inspire that change. Here, Hassan explains how a productive organizational culture leads to real success.

The first part of the book focuses on how you, as a leader, can unleash your full powers by learning to be authentic, purposeful, and connected with your organization. The second part of the book focuses on groups, how to lead them, how to be a role model for the effort you expect, and how to keep winning and innovating. Taken together, these principles fuel smarter strategies, more effective execution, and better governance.Features practical, proven guidance appropriate for every business leader in any industryIdeal for corporate executives, managers, team leaders, human resources professionals, board members, and consultantsWritten by a renowned public speaker and former CEO known for turning around struggling companies

Revealing how you can make culture your secret weapon, "Reinvent" is the perfect tool for business leaders in highly competitive industries.

Going Virtual: Distributed Communities in Practice contributes to the understanding of how more subtle kinds of knowledge can be managed in a distributed international environment. It describes academic work in the field of Knowledge Management, with a specific focus on the management of knowledge which cannot be managed by the normal capture-codify-store approach and hopes to answer the question, "what is the nature of the more 'subtle' kind of knowledge and how can it be managed in the distributed environment?"

This book, written by leading experts in the field, is intended for thoughtful leaders, advisors, and academics who want to better understand cutting edge thinking and the latest research on leadership in the complex, highly interconnected organization of today. Unlike most books on the subject, it does not purport to provide simple answers to difficult questions. Rather, it seeks to provide new insights and tools that have only recently become apparent through advances in complexity science-like, for example, the intricate dynamics of emergent leadership as simulated through agent-based modeling (ABM). Complex Systems Leadership Theory is a powerful beginning to what promises to be a deeper, more thoughtful investigation of how and why organizations succeed and what leaders can do to make a difference.

Courtesy, they say, is the shortest distance between two people. So make what you communicate on social media more credible, captivating, compelling, compulsive, stimulating, intriguing, considerate, thought-provoking, exciting, engaging, and entertaining. In Oh, You Behave: Social Media Etiquette for Career and Business Branding Success, Marjorie Janczak, explains how to leverage the power of business etiquette strategically to make a difference in everyday life and for profits.

Oh, You Behave is a unique guide designed to help you navigate the social media etiquette maze. Success in any profession depends on personal relationships. So it's important to make it easy, straightforward, and painless for people to get to know, like, and trust you even-if it is an online encounter. All online communications should be professional and courteous to insure success as a networker in social media. Follow these simple guidelines for ultimate success:

Use social media to attract more opportunities
Build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships
Build a credible image on social media
Attract quality friends by triggering the right emotions
Leverage social media etiquette to get profitably branded

By following these guidelines, you can use social media strategically to get noticed, get clients, and get paid substantially for your expertise.

Putting "social" in social media and networking is exactly what Marjorie Janczak teaches you in her newest book, Social Media Etiquette for Career and Business Branding Success. Marjorie shows you exactly how to be who you are and shine through with social media. The best part of all is all of her information is based on her personal journey through the social media maze. Standing head and shoulders above others Marjorie's information is a must have for anyone who wants to succeed. There is no hype in her book. Rather, it's all great information that is as good as it gets. Get it today.

-Kathleen Gage The Street Smarts Marketer www.kathleengage.com

Today's managers and leaders are faced with paralyzing challenges. There is never enough time or resources to get everything accomplished, and every organization is constantly being pulled in multiple directions. Every decision has consequences—some immediate, some longer-term. Add to these challenges the politics of corporate culture, where issues of power, influence, and authority are constantly in play. Whether you are a CEO, business owner, department head, team leader, or in any other managerial position, you need to learn how to navigate these treacherous shoals—to be flexible and decisive, supportive and commanding, tactical and strategic. In this fascinating analysis of business life, James Lucas identifies over a dozen fundamental paradoxes of leadership and demonstrates how the greatest leaders embrace, rather than avoid, them. From exercise authority and share power to encourage cooperation and encourage conflict, Lucas shows readers how to pursue seemingly incompatible goals simultaneously and thrive in a world of ambiguity. Whether you are formally in charge or find yourself in a position of de facto influence, this book will open your mind to new ways of solving problems, overcoming inertia, and turning uncertainty into opportunity. For more information and resources, please visit www.paradoxbasedleadership.com. Today's leaders are faced with paralyzing challenges. There is never enough of anything to get everything accomplished. Every decision has consequences—some immediate, some longer-term, all serious. Every organization is constantly being pulled in multiple directions, and our frustration can swell as we see value in all of them. One authority instructs us to take charge, while another tells us to empower our employees. We're instructed to challenge our people with high expectations, and to allow for human error; to tightly align our organizations, and to open them organizations up to all possibilities. We face one crippling dilemma after another. Are we going to do A or B? The answer is yes, we're going to do it all. We're going to have high expectations and high tolerance; strong leadership that takes a back seat; crisp alignment with anarchic creativity. Whether you are a CEO, division or department head, team leader, or entrepreneur, you're going to learn how to navigate these treacherous shoals—to be flexible and decisive, supportive and commanding, tactical and strategic. For more information and resources, please visit www.paradoxbasedleadership.com. Great leaders understand that leadership is a both/and, not an either/or game. In this groundbreaking book, James Lucas demonstrates how to pursue seemingly incompatible goals and thrive in a world of ambiguity. You'll see that, while a paradox seems to require irreconcilable actions, it is only an apparent contradiction. The value comes from seeing through the illusion. You will explore twenty fundamental paradoxes of leadership, culture, talent management, and strategy. You'll learn how to embrace, rather than avoid, these unavoidable paradoxes, examine both sides find practical techniques for avoiding common pitfalls, and ultimately discover creative solutions that reconcile apparently conflicting priorities. Whether you are formally in charge or find yourself in a position of de facto influence anywhere in your organization, this book will open your mind to new ways of thinking and allow you to turn uncertainty into opportunity. You've always sensed that these paradoxes were there. With this book, you'll be able to bring them into the light and make them work for you.

FOCUSED LEADERSHIP is not your typical leadership book. It is an entertaining and anecdote-filled "What You Can Do Today to Become a Better Leader" book on leadership. FOCUSED LEADERSHIP is filled with stimulating and inspiring personal anecdotes which epitomize the leadership approach shaped, refined and utilized by Earl Cobb as he attained over thirty years of amazingly successful and rewarding results. The book clearly and uniquely articulates "what you can do," "what you will gain" and "what you will avoid" by incorporating Earl's nuggets of wisdom into your own leadership approach. Earl Cobb is an American "rags-to-riches" success story. Aggressively climbing the corporate ladder and volunteering to serve the communities in which he has lived, has afforded Earl the opportunity to accumulate trailblazing leadership experience, insights and success. His ability to reach deep within and his willingness to share his lessons learned with others is what make this book a unique treasure.

If you're relying on luck to maximize your real estate value, then you're making a serious mistake. With "True Net Cash Flow," you can eliminate the guesswork and consistently make educated, highly profitable real estate investment choices.

Investment gurus Dan Ahmad and Jim Files offer the ultimate resource for real estate investors and the professionals who help them. With more than fifty-five years of combined experience in the tax, financial, and business industries, Ahmad and Files guide you step by step through the real estate investment process and help you establish specific goals, manage your expectations, and outline your responsibilities as investors. You'll learn how to:

Increase net income Preserve current equity Reduce taxes paid on sale Minimize management responsibilities Find a better way to name a replacement property in forty-five days Improve the quality of owned property

With this expert guide, you can simplify your life and make owning real estate less complicated and potentially more rewarding. Take your next step toward enhancing the financial strength of your real estate holdings and achieve long-term financial success with "True Net Cash Flow"

Portfolio management is an ongoing process of constructing portfolios that balances an investor's objectives with the portfolio manager's expectations about the future. This dynamic process provides the payoff for investors. Portfolio management evaluates individual assets or investments by their contribution to the risk and return of an investor's portfolio rather than in isolation. This is called the portfolio perspective. Thus, by constructing a diversified portfolio, a portfolio manager can reduce risk for a given level of expected return, compared to investing in an individual asset or security. According to modern portfolio theory (MPT), investors who do not follow a portfolio perspective bear risk that is not rewarded with greater expected return. Portfolio diversification works best when financial markets are operating normally compared to periods of market turmoil such as the 2007-2008 financial crisis. During periods of turmoil, correlations tend to increase thus reducing the benefits of diversification. Portfolio management today emerges as a dynamic process, which continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The purpose of Portfolio Theory and Management is to take readers from the foundations of portfolio management with the contributions of financial pioneers up to the latest trends emerging within the context of special topics. The book includes discussions of portfolio theory and management both before and after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This volume provides a critical reflection of what worked and what did not work viewed from the perspective of the recent financial crisis. Further, the book is not restricted to the U.S. market but takes a more global focus by highlighting cross-country differences and practices. This 30-chapter book consists of seven sections. These chapters are: (1) portfolio theory and asset pricing, (2) the investment policy statement and fiduciary duties, (3) asset allocation and portfolio construction, (4) risk management, (V) portfolio execution, monitoring, and rebalancing, (6) evaluating and reporting portfolio performance, and (7) special topics.

Thinkivity is a dynamic new way of thinking for harnessing the power of creativity within organizations seeking an enterprise-wide roadmap for change. In addition to building internal processes for continuous improvement, it is an effective, convincing guide for enabling deeper and more meaningful connections with a company's key customers. With the second book of her Rx for Business series, Sandra Evans introduces the revolutionary Thinkivity continuum, an internal workflow system that builds a strong bridge between the internal processes of a business and the external relationships with customers, partners, and services. Drawing on her experiences of more than two decades as a manager and change agent for some of the most dynamic corporations in the United States, Evans has created a pragmatic and well-thought-out model for using creative thinking to connect a company's vision with its customers' most urgent needs. Beginning with designing the structure for an actionable strategic vision and mission, this essential guide then provides careful instruction for building the capabilities within an organization necessary to meet those goals. Complete with case studies and graphics to support and illustrate Evans's innovative process, Thinkivity is a pioneering system that enables performance breakthroughs for companies of any size.

"I believe that David has struck upon the foundational benchmark of service for the next business generation. It is a true master that can impart knowledge in an entertaining fashion. This book is the valuable resource for any proactive success-minded leader that intends on exceeding expectations." -Dr. Julian L. Evans "A fresh look at putting the customer at the heart of marketing. It's an enjoyable look at creating an experience that customers will associate positively with your product or service." -Dr. Diane Troyer, president, Cy-Fair College "The key to success for any business is customer satisfaction, and this little book gets to the essence of how to take care of customers in an entertaining, memorable, and effective manner. It is a valuable tool for all of us that are striving to earn loyal customers." -Darcy Mingoia, president, Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce