In our typically fast-paced life in the 21st century it is not uncommon for people to feel a loss of direction, purpose and meaning. It would seem that deeper and more fundamental questions about our existence and the significance of our efforts and busy lives are seldom asked and contemplated. In many areas and at different levels there also appears to be a vacuum in inspirational leadership. Instead of waiting and hoping for others to rise to the challenges of our time, however, we can reflect on our own leadership and commit to grow as inspirational leaders ourselves. How well do we lead our own lives, our own families? How do we ensure that our own flame of inspiration remains strong? Do we have the ability to inspire others? Leadership thoughts attempts to open up perspectives, stimulate thinking and inspire attitudes and behaviour that would help to unlock the best in us - especially in the context of the workplace and the challenges that we face as a nation. It will be appreciated by students of life in general, by those who regard themselves as experienced but not complete leaders, as well as aspirant leaders who are eager to lay the right foundations for their leadership challenges in future.

The purpose of Creating Knowledge Based Healthcare Organizations is to bring together some high quality concepts closely related to how knowledge management can be utilized in healthcare. It includes the methodologies, systems, and approaches needed to create and manage knowledge in various types of healthcare organizations. Futhermore, it has a global flavour, as we discuss knowledge management approaches in healthcare organizations throughout the world. For the first time, it is possible to have so many of the concepts, tools, and techniques relevant to knowledge management in healthcare in this one volume so that the reader can understand all the components required to utilize knowledge.

It has been with you as long as you can remember. The familiar daydream that comes to you when your mind wanders. The persistent feeling you are meant to experience something, contribute something, create something. The glimpse of clarity you experience when you get in touch with that intangible something that excites, engages and inspires you.
THIS is YOUR DREAM. Have you noticed how it keeps nudging you? How it taps you on the shoulder from time to time? How it sometimes stops you in your tracks because it shines more brightly than your everyday life?
Your DREAM, that spark inside of you, wants, and deserves, your attention. And the world deserves--and needs--for you to go for your DREAM.
Since you have a dream anyway--why not just Dream Big Little dreams and BIG DREAMS require the same amount of energy. So you might as well DREAM BIG
I promise you--If you DREAM it and you GO FOR IT--you will have it. In fact, I believe so much in your ability to have your dreams come true, I DARE YOU to DREAM BIG
In fact, I DOUBLE DARE YOU
DREAM BIG I DARE YOU. . .Better Yet. . .I DOUBLE DARE YOU gives you a fool proof system for engaging your BIG DREAM and turning it into reality. All you have to do is take the DARE.
Now is your time. Go ahead. Take the dare.
"At the intersection of your greatest beliefs and your grandest dreams, fueled by your relentless passion, is where your magic happens."

Game Plans for Success is a journey into the minds of ten top current and former NFL head coaches. These ten great coaches reveal their management philosophies and strategies, showing how what happens on the sidelines and in the locker room parallels what goes on in offices and boardrooms. Their finely tuned business skills and management techniques are transferable to every industry and profession - powerful tools that can be put to immediate use by anyone, sports fan or not. Game Plans for Success includes the insights of NFL head coaches Tom Coughlin, Mike Ditka, Joe Gibbs, Bud Grant, Dennis Green, Chuck Noll, George Seifert, Marty Schottenheimer, Norv Turner, and Bill Walsh. Among them, the group has eighteen Super Bowl appearances and thirteen Super Bowl victories. Four of the featured coaches - Ditka, Grant, Noll, and Walsh - are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

How do we define the nature of our business, gather everything that we know about it, and then centralize our information in one, easily accessed place within the organization? Breslin and McGann call such knowledge our ways of working and the place where it will be found a business knowledge repository. All of a company's accumulated operations data, its manuals and procedures, its records of compliance with myriad regulations, its audits, disaster recovery plans--are essential information that today's management needs at its fingertips, and information that tomorroW's management must be sure can easily be found. Breslin and McGann show clearly and comprehensively how business knowledge repositories can be established and maintained, what should go into them and how to get it out, who should have access, and all of the other details that management needs to make the most of this valuable resource and means of doing business. An essential study and guide for management at upper levels in all types of organizations, both public and private.

Breslin and McGann show that once an organization's knowledge of itself is formulated into its ways of working, its so-called object orientation makes it easily maintained. The repository approach to organizing and consolidating knowledge makes it possible for all of its potential users to access it easily, without having to go to one source for one thing they need and to another for another thing, a tedious and costly procedure in many organizations that have allowed their information and knowledge resources to not only grow but become duplicated as well. The repository approach also makes it possible for management to organize and access information by job functions, and to make it available to employees more easily in training situations. Regulators and auditors are also more easily served. As a result, CFOs will find their annual audit and various compliance fees considerably reduced. Breslin and McGann's book is thus a blueprint for the creation of knowledge repositories and a discussion of how graphical communication between information systems creators and their client end users can be made to flow smoothly and efficiently.

Power and influence are key processes in organizations, and anyone wanting to learn how to lead or manage organizations effectively must first understand the dynamics associated with such processes. One interesting but not surprising fact about knowledge in this area is that scientific theory and empirical research are not new, having first appeared about 50 years ago. However, the rate of knowledge advancement in this domain has not been rapid, and there is still much to learn about organizational power and influence processes. Thus, this fifth volume in Research in Management is devoted to highlighting new theoretical and empirical perspectives that advance the frontiers of knowledge about power and influence in organizations.The chapters of this volume are all related to power and influence, albeit conceptualized somewhat differently and dealing with different substantive domains. However, that these chapters represent interesting and important contributions to knowledge concerning power and influence in organizations, and that each should spark future research that will further enhance the field.

CEO EXCELLENCE, by McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller and Vikram Malhotra is a unique and timely business book which will draw on 25 years of research and interviews with top leaders of some of the world's most respected companies. The resulting book will demonstrate that while the role of CEO is unique within every organisation, it is surprisingly similar across companies even in disparate industries. Furthermore, the best CEOs approach their role with distinct mindsets and practices. This book is about truly world class leadership, showing how the best CEOs think, adapt and approach challenges (never more relevant than in this extraordinary time). It will show why a brilliant CEO can have such an immense impact, and demonstrate how to model yourself and your performance on the very best - so that your turn to lead comes sooner, and is more successful.

Attitudes Aren't Free: Thinking Deeply about Diversity in the US Armed Forces emerged from a vision to collect essays from the brightest voices of experts across the range of contentious social issues to catalyze productive discussions between military members of all ranks and services. Forty-nine experts contributed to the following 29 chapters writing on the primary themes of religious expression, homosexuality, gender, race, and ethics. Chapters appearing in this volume passed the scrutiny of a double-blind peer-review by one or more referees from the board of reviewers. The chapters are largely written in a colloquial, intellectual op-ed fashion and capture a "snapshot" of the current discussions regarding a particular topic of interest to uniformed personnel, policy makers, and senior leaders. Each section seeks to frame the spectrum of perspectives captured within the current debates and lines of argument. Authors were specifically asked not to address all sides of the issue, but rather to produce a well-reasoned argument explaining why they believe their well-known position on an issue is in the best interests of the military members and make specific recommendations about how best to address the policy issues from their perspective. The volume is arranged in four primary sections by theme: Religious Expression, Homosexuality, Race and Gender, and Social Policy Perspectives. Within each section, readers will find multiple chapters-each embracing a different perspective surrounding the section's theme. Thus, because of the unbalanced nature of many of the individual chapters, it is critically important that readers focus on the entire spectrum of perspectives presented within a section to ensure they have the context necessary to frame any single perspective. Diversity of opinion has been the hallmark of the United States since its dramatic birth in 1776 and has continued unfettered through today where we now have developed the most innovative and effective military the world has ever known. Thus, it is imperative that we continue to reflect upon the diversity of ideas about how best to formulate the "right" social policy to ensure our service members can most effectively execute their missions.

In response to the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, central banks have used all available instruments in their monetary policy tool-kit to avoid financial market disruptions and a collapse in real economic activities. These actions have expanded the size of their balance sheets and altered the composition of the asset-side. This edited book highlights how these assets are managed, providing an intellectual and practical contribution to an under-researched field of central bank responsibilities. It first reviews the sources and uses of domestic and international assets and how they complement-or possibly conflict with-the implementation of monetary policy goals. Next, the book examines the asset management mandate in a balance sheet context before turning to the investment decision-making process from strategic and tactical asset allocation to investment strategies, risk management, governance, reporting and control. Finally, it presents new developments in the field of managing assets at central banks. The individual chapters are written by central bankers, academics, and representatives from International Financial Institutions, each representing a particular aspect of the asset management practice. Practical and powerful insights from a hall of fame of investors, central bankers and scholars, are packed into this one volume. If you could have only one book on central bank asset management, this would be it. -Peter R. Fisher, Clinical Professor, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth Jacob Bjorheim draws on his long experience in sovereign asset management to pull together a rich collection of insights from a broad range of expertise. Asset management at central banks has evolved and expanded considerably over the past decade. This book is a timely source of information and guidance. -Guy Debelle, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia Central bank balance sheets have grown at a tremendous pace over the last decade and a half. Drawing on contributions from scholars and experienced central bankers from around the world, this timely and insightful book sheds light on how central banks are, and should be, managing their growing balance sheets. -Kjell G. Nyborg, Chaired Professor of Finance, University of Zurich, Author of Collateral Frameworks: The Open Secret of Central Banks Central banks and monetary authorities are charged with, and being held accountable for, managing portfolios of foreign currency assets of unprecedented size. The essays in this admirable book, written by some of the worlds most highly experienced officials, cover the full range of why and how this is currently being done and how new developments are affecting old practices. Interesting conceptually and immensely useful practically. -William White, Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, former Head of the Monetary and Economic Department with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and chairman of the Economic and Development Review Committee at the OECD An excellent and timely review of modern international reserve management, which ought to be read by everyone working with, or simply interested in, international asset management and finance as well as monetary and economic policy. The spectrum of authors is broad and their combined insight is very valuable. -Tom A. Fearnley, Investment Director, Norwegian Ministry of Finance With "Asset Management at Central Banks and Monetary Authorities", Jacob Bjorheim has achieved an editorial tour de force. The book assembles the insightful views of the leading experts in the field, both from an academic and practitioners' perspective. It bridges the gap between the macroeconomics of central banks and the financial management of their reserves. A must read to understand how central banks are special in the group of institutional investors. -Eric Bouye, Head of Asset Allocation and Quantitative Strategies, Treasury Department, The World Bank The balance sheet is a large and important toolbox for any central bank and specifically the foreign exchange reserves constitute one the more powerful of these tools. This book provides excellent insight in the various perspectives of managing reserves at a central bank. -Heidi Elmer, Director of Markets Department, Severiges Riksbank The world of international reserves has changed since the global financial crisis. In this volume, Jacob Bjorheim has assembled a stellar cast of experts to explain how and what that means for reserves management. With chapter authors like Andrew Ang, Jennifer Johnson-Calari, Robert McCauley, Ravi Menon, Simon Potter and Philip Turner, it is a book that every reserve manager must read. -Eli Remolona, Professor of Finance and Director of Central Banking, Asia School of Business in collaboration with MIT Sloan Jacob Bjorheim has succeeded in bringing together a first-class team of experts, and organising their contributions in an articulated journey from the central banks' policy mandate to their asset management practices. An indispensable post-crisis update of the subject and a a required reading for anyone professionally involved with central bank's asset management, or simply curious about a topic benefitting otherwise from limited research. -Louis de Montpellier, Former Global Head, Official Institutions Group, SSGA, and former Deputy Head, Banking Department, Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Basel At last, a book that shares with a wider audience, deep insight in a unique, challenging and ethical approach of asset management developed and implemented in the secretive world of central banks. If you wonder how to manage funds that stand ready for use at short notice in times of stress then this book is for you. Two features make it such a valuable read and a must-have reference: First, the very comprehensive list of themes covered from a rich diversity of angles. Second, the very impressive list of prominent institutions and authors that have contributed and shared their analysis and practical approaches of the issues presented. What is better than to get the information directly from first-hand practitioners, experts and managers themselves in their own words? -Jean-Pierre Matt, Former Head of Financial Analysis at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and founder of Quanteis This book holds the promise to become the go-to guide for anyone wishing to learn more about the management of official foreign exchange reserves. Central bankers in particular, but also those providing services to central banks, will find benefit from the broad scope in subject matter and varied perspectives being presented. I am yet to see a compendium on official reserve management with similar reach in subject matter. -Leon Myburgh, Former Head Financial Markets Department, South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Pretoria This is an immensely timely book at a time when central bank operations, and their balance sheets, remain "larger for longer". Following the Financial Crisis 10 years ago, and with the Covid-19 Recession about to break, central bank balance sheets are at the forefront of the authorities' response to economic issues as never before. Yet the management of their now large-scale assets remains a little known and little studied area. The authors of this book combine extensive technical and practical experience, and their observations will fill an important gap in the literature at a critical time. -Freyr Hermannsson, Former Head of Treasury, Central Bank of Iceland, Reykjavik

Powerful and practical case history do's and don'ts for executives who've made it?and for those on the way up. From work with over 200 organizations internationally this practical book highlights lessons learned across key business disciplines, and provides a "doing it Differently" section in the 63 modules.

Criminal masterminds like Bernie Madoff and stage magicians like David Copperfield have relied upon carefully crafted "artful dodges" to deceive their target audiences over the years and achieve their desired results-fraud or entertainment. Now, "Identity Theft Secrets" peels back the curtainof mystery that allows criminals to steal our most precious resources-our financial assets and reputation.

Minimize your vulnerabilities and maximize your defenses using the strategies provided by author and expert Dale Penn, who comes to the subject with a unique background in insurance and risk-management training as well as personal experience fighting financial crime. You can protect your family, your business, and your credit rating through thoughtful, effective preparation. With clarityand vivid detail, "Identity Theft Secrets" willexplain how you can identify and secure the privateinformation that thieves want most;

isolate areas of your life or business that need enhanced privacy protection; close personal security loopholes that are still leaving you vulnerable; secure the wireless technology devices that you depend on most; create a plan to safeguard or restore your most valued private information and maintain a personal information safety zone; navigate the Internet without the constant fear of malicious attacks.

Learn to protect yourself, your business, and your loved ones from painful financial fraud; "Identity Theft Secrets" will show you how.

""Dale Penn demystifies identity theft. This bookis not just an easy read; it is a must read ""
-Deborah Call, Associate Dean,
USC School of Law

The ever-present challenge for leaders is how to get more done with less time, money, and stress. The Vitality Imperative answers that challenge and gives leaders a reliable and actionable road map for creating and sustaining a humane and lasting approach to the thorniest challenges and opportunities modern organizations face. The Vitality Imperative will teach: - 7 key promises that connected leaders make to ignite and sustain vitality - Self-evident principles to provoke new thought and action - Engaging examples of these principles in action - Personal and team practices to test the principles and cultivate personal and organizational effectiveness. Based on over 25 years of research and application in Fortune 500 organizations on six continents around the?world, this book describes how connected leadershipTM builds a working culture of energized high performance, characterized by community, contribution, and choice. The Vitality Imperative is about return-on-effort. It's about leading organizations in ways that produce great results and are deeply satisfying for both employees and shareholders.