The leading Harvard professor shows how we can all become better at conversation – and why this will help us all thrive

Conversation is at the heart of our relationships and our decision-making. From meeting a colleague to saying goodnight to our loved ones, our days are filled with verbal communication -- but the science of everyday conversation is little known. We may spend time thinking about difficult exchanges, but research shows that there’s room to improve seemingly easy interactions too.

In Talk, Harvard professor Alison Wood Brooks shows how simple changes in how we communicate can enhance our relationships, our performance at work and our lives; who we talk to affects our happiness; and how to talk across differences. Her original research, based on thousands of conversations from sales calls to speed dating, provides fascinating insights - for instance, the way that certain questions affect dating success, and the role of jokes in reaching leadership positions.

Learning to converse even a little more effectively can make a big difference. Through her original TALK framework – Topics, Asking, Levity and Kindness – Wood Brooks will give you the tools that her MBA students say transforms their lives. Bringing together psychology, linguistics, sociology and neuroscience, Talk will show how we can use science to help us enrich our lives, one conversation at a time.

Unlock your full potential and tackle life's challenges head-on with this practical workbook, guiding you through transformative exercises to boost your confidence and embrace every opportunity with self-assurance.

Feel more self-assured with this step-by-step workbook to help you overcome uncertainty and approach every situation with confidence. Life can be challenging, and it's normal to feel unsure of yourself sometimes. But when low self-confidence becomes a regular occurrence and you start avoiding certain situations because of it, it's time to find a strategy to start believing in yourself.

The Confidence Workbook contains practical tips, thoughtful advice and guided exercises to help you overcome self-doubt. Based on trusted mindfulness techniques, this workbook will fill you with the assurance you need to become your own cheerleader and focus on the things you really like about the person in the mirror.

Inside this book, you will find:

• A friendly and supportive approach, allowing you to calmly complete the exercises at your own pace
• Actionable advice for boosting your self-confidence and acting more assertively
• Tips on how to practise mindfulness and self-care
• Exercises grounded in research-supported cognitive behavioural therapy techniques

How do you lead a fulfilling life? That profound question animates this book of inspiration and insight from world-class business strategist and bestselling author of The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen. After beating a heart attack, advanced-stage cancer and a stroke in three successive years, the world-renowned innovation expert and author of one of the best selling and most influential business books of all time - The Innovator's Dilemma - Clayton M. Christensen delivered a short but powerful speech to the Harvard Business School graduating class. He presented a set of personal guidelines that have helped him find meaning and happiness in his life - a challenge even the brightest and most motivated of students find daunting. Akin to The Last Lecture in its revelatory perspective following life-altering events, that speech subsequently became a hugely popular article in the Harvard Business Review and is now a groundbreaking book, putting forth a series of questions and models for success that have long been applied in the world of business, but also can be used to find cogent answers to pressing life questions: How can I be sure that I'll find satisfaction in my career? How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse, my family and my close friends become enduring sources of happiness? How can I avoid compromising my integrity (and stay out of jail)? How Will You Measure Your Life? is a highly original, surprising book from a singular business figure. It's a book sure to inspire and educate readers - companies and individuals, students of business, mid-career professionals, and even parents - the world over.

A Best Book of 2020: The Washington Post * NPR * Chicago Tribune * Smithsonian A "remarkable" (Los Angeles Times), "seductive" (The Wall Street Journal) debut from the new cohost of Radiolab, Why Fish Don't Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and--possibly--even murder. "At one point, Miller dives into the ocean into a school of fish...comes up for air, and realizes she's in love. That's how I felt: Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten." --The New York Times Book Review David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake--which sent more than a thousand discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life's work was shattered. Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish that he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool--a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet. Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don't Exist is a wondrous fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner get your back up?

You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people.

Originally published in Swedish in 2014 as Omgiven Av Idioter, Erikon’s Surrounded by Idiots is already an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, of which over 750,000 copies have been sold in Sweden alone. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way(s) we speak and share information.

Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication and advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or indeed shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and influence those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension.

And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!

A personal code for living a better, happier, more successful kind of life.

A legendary performance coach shares his simple, proven, and fun methods for cultivating motivation and keeping it. To be productive and optimistic about our personal and professional lives, we want to feel that we can understand and influence what is happening around us today, and that we have a reliable insight into what will happen tomorrow. We also require a rich, supportive, and secure social life. As more of us work remotely and the frequency of our in-person contact decreases, this desire for connection and trust has only become more important; the social drive is so strong that our body temperature drops when we feel excluded. To satisfy our psychological needs in today's professional world, we must pursue them consciously and purposefully-but unfortunately, most of us don't know how to do so effectively. Instead, we waste our time on ineffective coping strategies that often make us feel even worse. The true solution to becoming happier, healthier, and more productive is to become intrinsically motivated: To stop wasting time on activities that don't really contribute to our careers or our company's success, eschew the dog-eat-dog culture of modern business, and find ways to take pleasure in what we do-and to do it well. Motivation by Stefan Falk is a comprehensive guide to achieving this goal. Filled with methods and techniques he developed at McKinsey & Company and through 25 years as a senior executive and performance coach working with elite athletes, top executives, special operators in the armed forces, and leaders from all walks of life, this book will revolutionize your approach to success at work and beyond. Published as Intrinsic Motivation in the United States.