Author Speakers to Keynote your Convention or Conference

Our Iceberg is Melting

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Management, Professor/Teacher, Strategy

Our Iceberg is Melting is described as "a simple fable with profound lessons for working and living in an ever changing world." Dr. Kotter draws parallels to a colony of penguins threatened by a decrease in living space and the ever-diminishing market space with which any organization contends. He identifies and clarifies key elements in the change process, thawing out an entire array of change management tools for the reader’s use. For usable content and readability, Dr. Kotter’s latest goes much deeper than just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

James Gilmore

Authenticity

Speaking Topics: Advertising, Branding, Customer Loyalty, Marketing, Retail

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club.

In Authenticity, James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II argue that, to trounce rivals, companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, non-profit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers perception of authenticity by:

· Recognizing how businesses fake it
· Appealing to the five different genres of authenticity
· Charting how to be true to self and what you say you are
· Crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity

Jeffrey Gitomer

The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way

Speaking Topics: Customer Service, Sales Management, Sales Motivation, Sales Training

Jeffrey Gitomer's The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way digs deep into the 9.5 elements that make getting your way happen. By breaking down the elements, the reader will begin to understand, take action, become proficient, and then master the ability to persuade. Because persuasion most often takes place in business, he draws special emphasis to the reader's ability to write and sell persuasively. He brings the Benjamin Franklin quote "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" to the Gitomer level of "You only fail when you decide to quit," and the book ends challenging the reader how to think about excellence and eloquence. From there, it will be up to the reader to take advantage of the blueprint Gitomer provides and harness the power of persuasion.

Jonas Ridderstrale

Re-energizing the Corporation: How Leaders Make Change Happen

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Change Management, Creativity, E-business, E-commerce, Entrepreneurship, Futurist, Globalization, Human Resources, Innovation, International Business, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Technology

Some business books ask why. Others tell you how. Uniquely and powerfully, Re-Energizing The Corporation explains why you must lead change and how to do it.

Jonas Ridderstråle, co-author of the international bestseller Funky Business and one of the world's most influential business gurus, provides a vibrant and energizing take on the world of today and tomorrow.

Re-Energizing The Corporation is built on the groundbreaking 3e leadership model, which makes sense of the three Es of Envisioning, Engaging and Executing. By understanding and following the model, you will be able to create compelling pictures of the future of your organization; build a following of individuals committed to getting the vision into reality; and maximize team performance to deliver on your dream.

Re-energizing the Corporation aims to shake organizations out of their all too common torpor. It will help those leaders who know they need to change to become the surprise-shockers of their industries by re-energizing themselves and their teams.

Joseph Pine

Authenticity

Speaking Topics: Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Growth, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Strategy

Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of these words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? If so, welcome to the club.

In Authenticity, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore and argue that, to trounce rivals, companies must grasp, manage, and excel at rendering authenticity. Through examples from a wide array of industries as well as government, non-profit, education, and religious sectors, the authors show how to manage customers perception of authenticity by:

· Recognizing how businesses fake it
· Appealing to the five different genres of authenticity
· Charting how to be true to self and what you say you are
· Crafting and implementing business strategies for rendering authenticity

Marcus Buckingham

Go Put Your Strengths to Work

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Human Resources, Leadership, Management

Go Put Your Strengths To Work shows you how to take action. It teaches you a simple six-step discipline to make the most of your strengths and neutralize your weaknesses, and how you can stick to this discipline despite the pressures of a company, a boss, or even a spouse pulling you off your strengths path. Beginning with the million-copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world, from business to government to education. Now that the movement is in full swing, Buckingham's new book answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work?

Ram Charan

Know How

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Corporate Governance, Economy, Growth, Management, Leadership

Know How is the breakthrough book that links the skills of people who know what they are doing with the personal and psychological traits of the successful leader. All too often we mistake the appearance of leadership for the real deal. Without a doubt, intelligence, vision, and the ability to communicate are important. But something big is missing: the know-how of running a business—the capacity to take it in the right direction, do the right things, make the right decisions, deliver results, and leave the people and the business better off than they were before. Ram Charan’s insight into the real content of leadership provides you with the eight fundamental skills needed for success in the twenty-first century.

Susan Ershler

Together on Top of the World

Speaking Topics: Adventure, Goal Setting, Inspiration, Motivation, Mountaineer, Peak Performance, Sales Motivation

On May 16, 2002, Phil and Susan Ershler became the first couple in history to scale the fabled Seven Summits of Mt. Everest. Susan was not a mountain climber, but a high-powered executive who had never hiked or climbed until she met Phil at the age of 36. Phil, a professional mountain guide, had climbed his whole life with Crohn's disease, a chronic, debilitating illness. Just before their final summit, Phil was diagnosed with colon cancer, and the resulting surgeries and complications were expected to end his career. This is Susan and Phil's story: a tale of love set in the mountains, a story of triumphant highs and devastating lows in quest of a seemingly impossible dream.

Carl Schramm

Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Innovation

In this easy-to-understand breakdown of modern economics, Carl Schramm dispels the myth that there is only one type of capitalism, documenting four different varieties of capitalism, some “Good” and some “Bad” for growth. The authors identify the conditions that characterize Good Capitalism—the right blend of entrepreneurial and established firms, which can vary among countries—as well as the features of Bad Capitalism. They examine how countries catching up to the United States can move faster toward the economic frontier, while laying out the need for the United States itself to stick to and reinforce the recipe for growth that has enabled it to be the leading economic force in the world. This path breaking book is a must read for anyone who cares about global growth and how to ensure America’s economic future.

Cheryl Cran

The Control Freak Revolution: Make Your Most Maddening Behaviors Work for Your Company and to Your Advantage

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Business Excellence, Change Management, Communication, Leadership, Management, Personal Growth, Women's Issues

Leaders in business are typically criticized as control freaks. The Control Freak Revolution shows you that being a control freak is actually a good thing, and why CEOs look for leaders who can use control to increase employee and team effectiveness. Also included are telling insights and anecdotes from real CEOs and famous leaders such as Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, and Rudy Guiliani, who have used control to their advantage. With The Control Freak Revolution, any leader at any level can learn how to be a positive control freak who creates positive results.

David Weinberger

Everything is Miscellaneous

Speaking Topics: Communication, E-business, Internet/Web Marketing, Technology

In Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger insists that "we have to get rid of the idea that there's a best way of organizing the world." Building on his earlier works' discussions of the Internet-driven shift in power to users and consumers, Weinberger notes that "our homespun ways of maintaining order are going to break—they're already breaking—in the digital world." Today's avalanche of fresh information, Weinberger writes, requires relinquishing control of how we organize pretty much everything; he envisions an ever-changing array of "useful, powerful and beautiful ways to make sense of our world." The book's call to embrace complexity will influence thinking about "the newly miscellanized world."

Dr. Bruce Weinstein

Life Principles

Speaking Topics: Ethics/Values, Leadership, Management, Sales Management

In this inspiring, practical, and highly readable tribute to doing the right thing, nationally recognized ethics expert Dr. Bruce Weinstein explores how every religion expresses the five principles of ethics, and how to apply them to our own lives. Q&A sections present ethical conflicts in real-life situations and offer solutions to common problems. Life Principles also provides guidance for times when values conflict and seem to pull us in opposite directions. Find out your "ethics IQ" by taking the simple test provided—and then increase your score by making the five simple "Life Principles" part of your life.

Dr. Mehmet Oz

You on a Diet

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Fitness, Lifestyles, Nutrition, Wellness

Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of You on a Diet. Loaded with biology lessons, tests, tips, and eating plans, the diet book created by Drs. Roizen and Oz delves deeply into body chemistry. This information-packed follow-up to You: The Owner's Manual has a great deal of helpful advice about good eating habits, exercise, and ways of reprogramming the body to follow healthier regimes.

Flip Flippen

The Flip Side

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Diversity, Education, Leadership, Motivation, Psychology

Flip Flippen is the most influential man you've never heard of. This personable Texan is the founder of The Flippen Group, one of the fastest-growing corporate and personal training companies in America. Flip Side offers great advice for everyone, but particularly appealing to those who are taking stock of what they want to do with the rest of their lives. When we learn how to identify our "personal constraints" and take the necessary steps to correct self-limiting behaviors, we will experience a dramatic surge in productivity, achieve things we have only dreamed of, and find greater happiness overall. Flippen has created a simple process to help readers find their greatest constraint (the results may be surprising!) and build a plan to help "flip" that weakness into a newfound strength.

Jack Welch

Winning

Speaking Topics: CEO, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Technology, Author/Writer

Jack Welch, author and business man, knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits.

Jackie Freiberg

Boom! 7 Choices for blowing the doors off business-as-usual

Speaking Topics: Advertising, Author/Writer, Branding, Consumer Trends, Customer Loyalty, Motivation, Sales Motivation, Team Building

In front of you are seven choices waiting to be made. Whether you are the leader or those being lead, these choices will determine the quality of your life and the significance of your contribution to the world in which you work.

In BOOM the Freiberg's have distilled 20 years of collective wisdom into 7 essential choices that cause culture, service, success, and business to BOOM

James J. Cramer

Real Money

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Business Motivation, Financial Markets, Investing, Television Media

Jim Cramer, author of Real Money. How do we find hot stocks without getting burned? How do we fatten our portfolios and stay financially healthy? Former hedge-fund manager and longtime Wall Street commentator Jim Cramer explains how to invest wisely in chaotic times, and he does so in plain English in a style that is as much fun as investing is-or should be, when it's done right.

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, E-business, E-commerce, Marketing

The Eisenberg brothers call the principles behind their marketing consultancy "Persuasion Architecture." Observing that one message no longer fits every audience, they break down broad consumer patterns into groups of consumers, and then create a plan to guide each type to the point of sale. Although 20th-century advertising was based on the Pavlovian model of instilling a desired reaction to stimuli, like the dog that expected dinner whenever a bell rang, the Eisenbergs say that increasing media fragmentation prevents advertisers from creating that sort of conditioned response today. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is a modern crash course in cutting through the noise to create real marketing results.

Joel Zeff

Make The Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative and Productive Work Life

Speaking Topics: Breakout/ Workshop, Business, Motivation, Change Management, Communication, Creativity, Emcees, Entertainment, Humor, Innovation, Marketing, Team Building

In Make the Right Choice, Joel Zeff uses his humor and improvisation perspective to teach managers and employees how to make the right choices to be engaged, to be a more effective communicator, have fun, and create a positive and successful environment at work. Through his whimsical outlook, he helps managers and employees understand their responsibility to make the choice to be happy, passionate, creative, and more productive. We all have choices. Some choices are better than others. Joel shows us that we each have the ability to take initiative and make the right choice.

John Wood

Leaving Microsoft to Change the Worldr

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education, Inspiration, Philanthropy

In 1998, John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft when he took a vacation that changed his life. What began as a hiking holiday in Nepal became a spiritual journey, and then a mission: to change the world one book and one child at a time by setting up libraries in the developing world. He was soon driven to leave his career with only a loose vision of the change he wanted to bring to the world. John created Room to Read, an organization that has created a network of over 3,900 schools and libraries throughout rural and poor communities in Asia and Africa. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World is a poignant account of the unlikely marriage between Microsoft business practices and the world of non-profits, and the worldwide success it has brought.

Kevin Freiberg

Loral Langemeier

The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing
Speaking Topics: Finance

The Millionaire Maker’s Guide can teach you how to take control of your assets and generate new income, profit from non-traditional investments, use real estate and private equity to accelerate wealth, balance your risks with an even bigger reward, and earn more money than you even thought possible! No matter what your current income or financial situation, anyone can become a millionaire using the step-by-step instructions found in Loral Langemeier's new book.

Muhammad Yunus

Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Business Can Transform Our Lives

Speaking Topics: Economy, Finance, Human Rights, International Affairs, Small Business, Visionaries, Women's Issues

The Nobel Peace Prize winner outlines his vision for a new business model that combines the power of free markets with the quest for a more humane world--and tells the inspiring stories of companies that are doing this work today. Traditional capitalism cannot solve problems like inequality and poverty, because it is hampered by a narrow view of human nature in which people are one-dimensional beings concerned only with profit. Welcome to the world of social business, where the creative vision of the entrepreneur is applied to today's most serious problems: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, and protecting the planet. Creating a World Without Poverty tells the stories of the earliest examples of social businesses, including Yunus'own Grameen Bank. It reveals the next phase in a hopeful economic and social revolution that is already under way--and in the worldwide effort to eliminate poverty by unleashing the productive energy of ever human being.

Patrick Lencioni

Three Signs of a Miserable Job

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Organizational Skills, Leadership, Team Developement

Patrick Lencioni, renowned business consultant and bestselling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, is on a critical mission: create widespread job satisfaction in a world full of workplace misery. His latest book, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees), tells the inspiring tale a high-flying, but deeply dissatisfied Chief Executive Officer who ditches the power and perks for career bliss as the manager of a pizzeria! In this unusual and inspiring story, Lencioni convincingly demonstrates how career happiness (or misery) is the direct result of the manager--employee relationship. Patrick Lencioni took the time to tell us about his life-long "obsession" with job misery, shatter some myths about workplace satisfaction and offer some real advice on how to turn that daily grind into daily fulfillment.

Suze Orman

Women & Money

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Celebrity, Finance, Financial Markets, Personal Growth

Suze Orman investigates the complicated, dysfunctional relationship women have with money in her latest book, Women and Money. With her signature mix of insight, compassion, and practical advice, she equips women with the financial knowledge and emotional awareness to overcome the blocks that have kept them from making more out of the money they make. At the center of the book is “The Save Yourself Plan.” This five-month program delivers genuine long-term financial security. But what’s at stake is far bigger than money itself: It’s about every woman’s sense of who she is and what she deserves, and why it all begins with the decision to save yourself.

Warren Greshes

The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

Speaking Topics: Change Management, Customer Service, Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation, Sales Motivation

The Best Damn Sales Book Ever is about what successful salespeople do to be successful. What makes it unique to other sales books is that it starts at the very beginning of the process with the single biggest differentiator between the successful and unsuccessful salesperson: self-motivation. This book, whose information comes from Greshes’ 35 years of experience in sales along with 20 years experience speaking to sales groups on three continents, will show you how to: increase your sales, increase your income and become more successful in your life, career and business.

Anil K. Gupta

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage

Speaking Topics: Innovation, Management, Organizational Development, Strategy

The twin forces of ideological change and technology revolution make globalization the single most important issue facing companies today. To stay competitive in the worldwide marketplace, business executives must lead their companies in developing and sustaining the ongoing efforts to globalize their organizations.

Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K. Gupta are two of the most distinguished experts in the field of globalization. In The Quest for Global Dominance they present the lessons from their ten-year research study of more than one hundred global corporations. Drawing from this rich knowledge base-- which includes large-scale surveys, case studies, and in-depth discussions with several hundred executives-- the authors make the compelling case that every industry must be considered a global industry and every business a knowledge business.

Ken Blanchard

The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business

Speaking Topics: CEO, Change Management, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Team Building, Time Management

In The One Minute Entrepreneur, Ken Blanchard (coauthor of the #1 bestselling business classic The One Minute Manager) tells the inspiring story of one man’s challenges in creating his own business. Through a powerful and engaging narrative, we confront many of the typical problems all entrepreneurs face in starting up their business, from finding new sources of revenue to securing the commitment of their people and the loyalty of their customers. More important, we learn the secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur, including how to build a firm foundation, how to ensure a steady cash flow, and how to create legendary service. In addition, the book offers invaluable advice, delivered through One Minute Insights, from such entrepreneurs and thinkers as Sheldon Bowles, Peter Drucker, Michael Gerber, and Charlie “Tremendous” Jones.

Today, in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge in U.S. history, four out of five small businesses continue to fail. The One Minute Entrepreneur offers businesspeople and would-be entrepreneurs a treasure trove of wisdom on how to think, act, and succeed in creating and sustaining a business, no matter what their industry.

Tim Sanders

Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference

Speaking Topics: Communication, Consumer Trends, Corporate Culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Loyalty, Leadership, Marketing, Motivation, Networking, Sales Motivation

Today, customers, employees, and investors are demanding that companies focus on their social responsibilities—not just their bottom lines. Sixty-five percent of American consumers say they would change to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality are equal; 66 percent of recent college graduates will not work for companies with poor social values. And more than sixty million people are willing to pay a premium for socially and environmentally responsible products. Businesses that do not take this revolution into account are putting their companies at risk.

In the first part of Saving the World at Work, Tim Sanders argues that the revolution is already underway, changing the business landscape as it relates to customer loyalty and the war for talent. In part two, he offers concrete suggestions on how all of us can help our companies buy and live locally, become “greener” in their day-to-day operations, and give back to their communities.

Drawing on extensive interviews with hundreds of employees and CEOs, and illuminated by countless stories of people who are making a difference in the workplace and in the world, Sanders offers practical advice every individual and company can use to make the world a better place now and in the future.

Vijay Govindarajan

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage

Speaking Topics: Economy, Global Business, Globalization, International Business, Organizational Development, Professor/Teacher, Strategy

The twin forces of ideological change and technology revolution make globalization the single most important issue facing companies today. To stay competitive in the worldwide marketplace, business executives must lead their companies in developing and sustaining the ongoing efforts to globalize their organizations.

Dr. Michael Roizen

You on a Diet

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Fitness, Lifestyles, Nutrition, Wellness

Dr. Michael Roizen, co-author of You on a Diet. Loaded with biology lessons, tests, tips, and eating plans, the diet book created by Drs. Roizen and Oz delves deeply into body chemistry. This information-packed follow-up to You: The Owner's Manual has a great deal of helpful advice about good eating habits, exercise, and ways of reprogramming the body to follow healthier regimes.

Mark Sanborn

You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader

Speaking Topics: Business Motivation
Change Management, Customer Service, Leadership, Sales Motivation, Team Building

The latest leadership development tool by Mark Sanborn, You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader is essential for any organization. Everyone has the ability to make a difference, and to have an impact on corporate culture regardless of their title. Mark's book powerfully motivates, inspires, and gives the right answers to the question "What am I going to do to make a positive difference?" This book provides thoughtful principles, illustrated with terrific examples, of what great leaders do to be successful, and is a must-read for people at any level within an organization who want to achieve their professional and personal potential.

Andrew Cohen

Follow the Other Hand

Speaking Topics: Advertising, Branding, Creativity, Innovation, Marketing, Sales Motivation

Andrew Cohen lets the reader behind the curtain in this smart business fable, Follow the Other Hand. He explores the fundamentals of strategy and innovation in a novel and refreshing way. Cohen tells the story of a family-owned olive oil importing business as he unravels the mysteries of modern-day business sleight-of-hand. Everyone, from entry-level to CEOs will profit from these Magic Lessons, which demonstrate in a uniquely impressive and memorable way five key actionable behavior changes that will immediately help an organization or enterprise grow. And they are all fun tricks that will not only amaze one's associates, but help everyone think innovatively about their jobs.

Behnam Tabrizi

Rapid Transformation: A 90-day Plan for Fast and Effective Change

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Business Excellence, Change Management, Corporate Culture, Human Resources, Organizational Development, Professor/Teacher, Sales Motivation, Team Building

Profound organizational transformation takes years and, in most cases is unsuccessful, right? Not according to change expert Behnam Tabrizi. In Rapid Transformation: A 90-Day Plan for Fast and Effective Change, Tabrizi shows you how to accomplish successful transformational change in your firm in just 90 days.

Tabrizi's 90-day transformational model comprises three main phases, each lasting 30 days. The model enables you to analyze your company's specific challenge, develop a new course of action, and carry out the plan. Moreover, you apply the model in parallel with the normal workings of your organization so you don't have to put your company on hold for the sake of the change effort.

With its detailed recipe and insightful stories from actual corporate reinventions, this book defies long-held assumptions about change and provides a practical and immediately actionable guide.

Bob Greene

The Best Life Diet

Speaking Topics:Celebrity, Healthcare, Wellness

From the bestselling author Bob Greene, The Best Life Diet is a lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Bob's plan is easily tailored to an array of tastes, lifestyles, and activity levels, acts as your personal trainer and private nutritionist. Just open the book and let Bob help you get started down the path toward your best possible life. What sets Bob apart from all the other experts who claim to have plans that work is that he admits that weight loss is difficult. By acknowledging that it is not simple laziness but a complicated web of social rituals, cultural expectations, and habits that drives people to gain weight, Greene is able to attack the problem of weight loss realistically and offer not a short-lived, quick-fix formula, but a long-term program that accounts for the challenges and constraints of the real world.

Brooke A. Masters

Spoiling for a Fight

Speaking Topics:National Politics, Economy, Author/Writer

Brooke A. Masters's examination of the New York State attorney general's seven years in office is timely, given Spitzer's prosecutions of powerful financial industries and his candidacy in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Even if Spitzer fails in his bid for the governorship, the book is worthy of study because it clearly explains the complicated, unsavory practices of insurance companies, mutual funds, Wall Street brokerages and the New York Stock Exchange. The author also skillfully places Spitzer in the context of previous reformers within government. She shows, too, how philosophical differences between state and federal regulators over the past 100 years set the stage for the crusading Spitzer.

Bruce Hoffman

Inside Terrorism

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Terrorism/Homeland Security

Bruce Hoffman, the director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, has written a clear summary of some of the major historical trends in international terrorism. He makes careful distinctions between the motivations that drive political (or ethno-nationalist) terrorism and religious terrorism, and he also shows why the rise of religious terrorism, coupled with the increased availability of weapons of mass destruction, may foretell an era of even greater violence. Inside Terrorism is a valuable work and a “must read”, at least for anyone who wants to understand how we can respond to international acts of terror.

Bruce Tulgan

It's Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Communication, Demographics, Diversity, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Generation X, Workforce

Managing people is harder and more high-pressure today than ever before. There's no room for downtime, waste, or inefficiency. And employees have become high maintenance. Not only are they more likely to disagree openly and push back, but they also won't work hard for vague promises of long-term rewards. They look to you—their immediate boss—to help them get what they need and want at work.

If you are like most managers, you take a hands-off approach. You "empower" employees by leaving them alone, unless they really need you. After all, you don't want to "micromanage" them and don't have the time to hold every employee's hand. Of course, problems always come up and often snowball into bigger problems.

In It's Okay to Be the Boss, Bruce Tulgan puts his finger on the biggest problem in corporate America— an undermanagement epidemic —and offers another way. His step-by-step guide to becoming the manager employees need challenges bosses everywhere to spell out expectations, tell employees exactly what to do and how to do it, monitor and measure performance constantly, and correct failure quickly and reward success even more quickly. Now that's how you set employees up for success and help them earn what they need. Tulgan opens our eyes to the undisciplined workplace that is overwhelming managers and frustrating workers and invites bosses everywhere to accept the responsibility of managing people. His message: It's okay to be the boss. Be a great one!

Bryan Eisenberg

C.K. Prahalad

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramids

Speaking Topics:Author/Writer, Leadership, Management, Strategy

The Bottom of the Pyramid belongs at the top of the reading list for business people, academics, and experts pursuing the elusive goal of sustainable growth in the developing world. C. K. Prahalad writes with uncommon insight about consumer needs in poor societies and opportunities for the private sector to serve important public purposes while enhancing its own bottom line. If you are looking for fresh thinking about emerging markets, your search is ended.

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Pay It Forward

Speaking Topics Author/Writer, Breakout/Workshop, Coaching/Mentoring, Empowerment Skills, Inspiration, Motivation, Personal Growth, Social Trends, Success Stories, Team Building

An ordinary boy engineers a secular miracle in Catherine Hyde's winning second novel, Pay It Forward, set in small-town 1990s California. Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney, the son of Arlene, a single mom working two jobs, and Ricky, a deadbeat absentee dad, does not seem well-positioned to revolutionize the world. But when Trevor's social studies teacher, Reuben St. Clair, gives the class an extra-credit assignment, challenging his students to design a plan to change society, Trevor decides to start a goodwill chain. To begin, he helps out three people, telling each of them that instead of paying him back, they must "pay it forward" by helping three others. Her theme that one person can make a difference may be sentimental, but for once, that's a virtue.

Chris Widener

The Angel Inside: Michelangelo's Secrets For Following Your Passion and Finding the Work You Love
Speaking Topics: Balance, Leadership, Motivation, Peak Performance, Team Building

The break-out business parable that’s already sold more than 70,000 copies, The Angel Inside tells the story of a young man searching for meaning in his work and finding it in an unlikely place: the life and art of Michelangelo.
According to legend, when a young boy asked the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo why he was working so hard hitting the block of marble that would eventually become his greatest sculpture, David, the artist replied, “Young man, there is an angel inside this rock, and I am setting him free.” In The Angel Inside, the renowned consultant and career coach Chris Widener uses Michelangelo’s words to explore the hidden potential that exists within us all.

Dave Ulrich

Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value

Speaking Topics: Business Excellence, Change Management, Coaching/Mentoring, Corporate Culture, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Team Building, Change

Your company’s brands hold intangible value and differentiate your firm from rivals. So does your leadership brand—a shared identity among your organization’s leaders that differentiates what they can do from what your rivals’ leaders can do. —In Leadership Brand, Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood show how branded leadership delivers unique value for firms’ investors, customers, and employees—elevating market value and creating a sharp competitive edge.

The authors present a six-step process for creating leadership brand in your organization. A wealth of tools helps you differentiate your firm’s leaders from those of rivals, craft a unified identity among them, and articulate a unique statement of your brand. Additional chapters and tools show you how to assess and measure your leadership brand, where to invest in the brand, which practices instill the brand, and how to communicate the brand to your many stakeholders.

With its compelling new model and hands-on approach, this book helps you clarify what makes your leaders unique—and use your leadership brand to leave rivals far behind.

Deborah Norville

Thank You Power

Speaking Topics: Celebrity, Inspiration, Journalist, Media, Television Media

Thank You. Can such small words hold life changing power? Yes!

Deborah Norville's groundbreaking and persuasive book argues that gratitude is the secret key to unlocking your full life potential. Rooted in science, presented from a spiritual perspective, Thank You Power details the surprising life improvements that can stem from the practice of gratitude.

Dianna Booher

The Voice of Authority

Speaking Topics: Communication, Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Negotiation, Presentation Skills, Conflict Management, Letter Writing, Life Balance, Productivity, Sales

Dianna Booher has helped thousands of people to develop communication skills. In The Voice of Authority, she now distills years of experience and research into 10 key strategies that will help you elevate your communication to the next level. By examining specific styles that work and don't work, you'll learn how to speak like a leader in every situation. Ten rules including “be clear, be consistent, be thorough, and demonstrate confidence”-give you the language to communicate at your best with colleagues, bosses, and clients.

Gary Hamel

The Future of Management

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Creativity, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Strategy, Creativity/Innovation

What fuels long-term business success? Not operational excellence, technology breakthroughs, or new business models, but management innovation—new ways of mobilizing talent, allocating resources, and formulating strategies. Through history, management innovation has enabled companies to cross new performance thresholds and build enduring advantages.

In The Future of Management, Gary Hamel argues that organizations need management innovation now more than ever. Why? The management paradigm of the last century—centered on control and efficiency—no longer suffices in a world where adaptability and creativity drive business success. To thrive in the future, companies must reinvent management.

Hamel explains how to turn your company into a serial management innovator.

Geoffrey Moore

Dealing with Darwin

Speaking Topics: Innovation, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Technology

Illustrating his arguments with more than one hundred examples and a full-length case study based on his unprecedented access to Cisco Systems, Moore shows businesses how to meet today’s Darwinian challenges, whether they’re producing commodity products or customized services. For companies whose competitive differentiation to the marketplace is still effective, he demonstrates how innovations in execution can help boost productivity, whether a company is competing in a growth market, a mature market, or even a declining market. For companies in danger of succumbing to competitive pressures, he shows how to overcome inertia by engaging the entire corporate community in an unceasing commitment to innovate and evolve. For any business competing in today's eat-or-be-eaten economic jungle, this groundbreaking guide shows not only how to survive, but also thrive.

Ivan Misner

Truth or Delusion?: Busting Networking’s Biggest Myths

Speaking Topics:Marketing, Networking

Many books teach the "who / what / where / why / how" of professional networking. Truth or Delusion separates the reality from the fantasy by presenting Truths and Delusions about networking and then shows why they are either real or fakes. For example: Delusion: The best way to ensure referral success is to treat your referral sources by the "Golden Rule." Treat them the way you would want to be treated. Truth: The best way is to treat your referral sources the way THEY want to be treated. The referral process is more about emotion than facts. Find out how your referral sources want to be treated and how they would like you to treat their referrals.

Jack Uldrich

Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies

Speaking Topics: Business Motivation, Emerging Technology, Futurist, Innovation, Leadership, Science, Technology

Technology and the economy are changing fast today-so fast it's almost impossible to keep up with them. And businesses that don't keep up are in danger of being left far behind. Uldrich shows that not only is technology growing today-it's growing exponentially. Advances in computers, bandwidth, nanotechnology, and other fields show explosive change that offers great opportunities, as well as great risks. To succeed, businesspeople need to become Exponential Executives, willing and able to recognize opportunities and take their businesses into a bold new world.

Uldrich takes you on an amazing journey through eight emerging technologies transforming our world: Computers, Data storage, Bandwidth, Software development, Gene sequencing, Robotics, Nanotechnology and The advance of knowledge itself

Using nontechnical language and examples drawn from around the globe, Uldrich portrays an emerging world of supercomputers, nanobots, and other fantastic devices. He also reveals fifty key strategies for managers and organizations to get ahead of these developments-by jumping the curve.

Jack Uldrich

Green Investing: A Guide to Making Money through Environment Friendly Stocks

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Business Motivation, Emerging Technology, Futurist, Innovation, Leadership, Science, Technology

You can make money and be socially responsible. In Green Investing, Jack Uldrich profiles 100 of the world's leading green companies and offers readers a model portfolio for investing in clean, sustainable products. If you want to save the planet and make money, Green Investing is the book for you.

James Kouzes

The Leadership Challenge

Speaking Topics: Leadership, Management, Organizational Development

The most trusted resource on becoming a leader is now updated and revised for a new generation.

This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and twenty years in print. It is the gold standard for research-based leadership, and the premier resource on becoming a leader. This new edition, with streamlined text, more international and business examples, and a graphic redesign, is more readable and accessible than ever before. The Leadership Challenge, Fourth Edition, has been extensively updated with the latest research and case studies, and offers inspiring new stories of real people achieving extraordinary results. The authors' central theme remains the same and is more relevant today than ever: "Leadership is Everyones Business." Their "five practices" and "ten commitments" have been proven by hundreds of thousands of dedicated, successful leaders. This edition, with almost one-third new material, emphasizes the global community and refocuses on business leaders.

James Ray

Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You

Speaking Topics: Author/Writer, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Motivation, Personal Growth, Work/Life Balance

Harmonic Wealth will propel you to where you want to go. This practical, results-based book will help you to push beyond your self-imposed limitations and show you how to get past all the reasons you think you can't have what you want.

The result of more than twenty years of study and practical application by World Thought Leader James Ray's Harmonic Wealth is based on extensive study of ancient wisdom traditions, cutting-edge findings in quantum physics and other scientific fields, not to mention years of hands-on, hard-won experience.

If you've been having trouble with the Law of Attraction, you'll quickly learn the missing keys. Harmonic Wealth will reveal the formula for success in the Five Pillars: financial, relational, mental, physical, and spiritual. You'll see why having anything less than success in all of Five Pillars will never bring you true wealth, and you'll learn how to go 3 for 3, how to have your thoughts, feelings, and actions working together in complete alignment. With these factors firing together, you'll create everything you desire and deserve.

Harmonic Wealth encourages you to get real and get creative about how to achieve your goals and then walks you step by step through the blueprint for their attainment. Stop playing it safe. Stop living in fear. Start living in harmony right now, and know that everything you want is within your reach.

Jim Loehr

The Power of Story

Speaking Topics: Business Motivation, Change Management, Goal Setting, Leadership, Management, Peak Performance, Personal Growth, Work/Life Balance, Performance Improvement

In The Power of Story, the bestselling coauthor of The Power of Full Engagement examines the way we tell stories about ourselves to ourselves and, most importantly, the way we can change those stories to transform our business and personal lives. All of us continually tell ourselves stories that profoundly effect how others see us and we see ourselves, stories of success or failure, power or victimhood; about our work, our relationships, our health; about what we want and what we're capable of achieving. Yet few of us even recognize what our stories are, or that we can transform our very destinies by changing the stories we tell. For decades, at the Human Performance Institute, Dr. Jim Loehr has been examining the power of story to increase engagement and productivity, and top Fortune 500 companies have paid millions to send employees to his program, in which he applies the principles and methods that he now offers here.

Jim Rogers

A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market

Speaking Topics: Economy, Finance, Futurist, International Business, Investing

If the twentieth century was the American century, then the twenty-first century belongs to China. Now the one and only Jim Rogers shows how any investor can get in on the ground floor of “the greatest economic boom since England’s Industrial Revolution.”

In this indispensable new book, one of the world’s most successful investors, Jim Rogers, brings his unerring investment acumen to bear on this huge and unruly land now being opened to the world and exploding in potential.

Joan Borysenko

Your Soul's Compass: What Is Spiritual Guidance?

Speaking Topics: Balance, Breakout/Workshop, Nutrition, Personal Growth, Stress Management, Wellness, Women's Issues

Why am I here? What does a life worth living look like? What is the higher intelligence trying to express through me? In this time of global change and uncertainty, of spiritual indirection, Americans are asking these age-old questions with renewed curiosity. There’s a thirst for meaning and purpose—a dawning realization that happiness isn’t a commodity that can be bought with a gold card. Fulfillment and joy arise naturally from creative and compassionate action-- from the understanding that all life is interconnected and guided by a higher intelligence. Our personal choices make a difference, and when they are spiritually inspired even the smallest action serves a larger whole. Sacred texts ranging from the Torah to the New Testament, the Tao Te Ching to the Buddhist scriptures, the Vedantas to the Koran, speak of making life-enhancing choices where a force greater than the individual flows through us and informs our thoughts and actions. This book focuses on the three classic aspects of living such a spiritually guided life: (1) alignment: maintaining a direct and personal connection to the Source of our Being; (2) discernment: distinguishing the movement of Spirit in our lives from our own wants, fears and social conditioning; and (3) action: making our best, most inspired contribution to the evolution of life.

Joe Calloway

Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today

Speaking Topics: Branding, Change Management, Customer Service, Leadership, Motivation

Showing off is a good thing. Showing off is a mindset. Showing off is about living life and doing work in a way that creates joy, jazz, and a kick in our lives and in the lives of those around us. This is a business book for almost everyone–from executives and managers to receptionists and sales clerks. Here’s the key: success is an inside job. After 26 years of studying and working with top performers, Joe Calloway shares the key factors in creating success–without pulling any punches. Work Like You’re Showing Off! isn’t for sissies; it’s a tough, realistic approach to getting the most out of life by giving more to others.

Jorge Castaneda

Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants

Speaking Topics: Globalization, International Affairs

A fascinating and revealing look at the United States' largest, most controversial group of immigrants, by Mexico's former foreign minister In the wake of the massive, nationwide rally in support of immigrant rights in May 2006, which drew a record number of participants, one thing has become clear: in the United States today, no domestic issue sparks as much public debate or is as politicized as immigration, with the spotlight focused on Mexican immigrants above all others.

In Ex Mex, former Mexican foreign minister and well-known scholar Jorge G. Castañeda draws on his experience in both capacities to dispel some of the most widely held and mistaken ideas about the United States' largest immigrant population. Through Castañeda, we learn who the newest generation of immigrants from Mexico is, why they've chosen to live in the United States, where they work, and what they ultimately hope to achieve. Castañeda also offers an insider's account of the intricate and secret negotiations that took place between Mexico and the United States in 2001-2--contradicting some of the official versions published here--and the unilateral actions that were taken by his government to improve the conditions of Mexican migrants when talks between the two countries became stalemated.

This timely and authoritative book will be required reading for the debates about immigration that will soon be part of the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Joseph Stiglitz

Making Globalization Work

Speaking Topics: Economy, Financial Markets, Futurist, Globalization

Author Joseph Stiglitz puts forward radical new ways of dealing with the crippling indebtedness of developing countries, a new system of global reserves to overcome international financial instability, and an economically incentives framework for dealing with energy pollutions which create global warming and which threaten us on a planetary scale. He argues convincingly for the reform of global institutions such as the UN, the IMF and the World Bank to make them truly capable of responding to the problems of our age and shows why treating developing countries more fairly is not only morally right, but because it increases global public goods, is ultimately to the advantage of the developed world too.

Larry Kahaner

AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War

Speaking Topics: Business, Media, Author/Writer

Larry Kahaner, best-selling author of AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War. Here's today's puzzler: Name a Russian innovation that whips most everything America and Western Europe throws against it, has astounding firepower, and is unaffected by heat, cold, and sand. (No, it's not Maria Sharapova.) Need more hints? It's easily transported, and its familiar silhouette has made it a must-have fashion accessory certifying the rebel status of figures from the anonymous Viet Cong to Osama bin Laden. Give up? It's the Kalashnikov assault rifle, also known as the AK.

Lynne Cox

Grayson

Speaking Topics: Adventure, Environment, Goal Setting, Motivation, Peak Performance, Success Stories

When Lynne Cox was 17 years old, training for a long-distance swim, she had an unusual experience that stayed with her for over 30 years. This memoir details a morning swim off the coast of California that took an unexpected turn: returning to shore, she discovered that she was being followed by a baby gray whale that had been separated from its mother. As Cox developed a rapport with the whale, she took on the responsibility of staying with it at sea until its mother returned. The combination of her inspirational experience with her observations on life ("If I try, if I believe, if I work toward something... the impossible isn't impossible at all") appeals to readers of all ages.

Michael Gelb

Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor

Speaker Topics: Creativity, Leadership, Organizational Development, Performance

Thomas Edison is the greatest innovator in American history. Edison’s focus on practical accomplishment set the stage for America’s global leadership in innovation. Now, for the first time ever, Innovate Like Edison translates the best practices of this supreme American inventor into contemporary terms to help today’s leaders harness their own innovative potential.

With their unique insight and expertise, Michael Gelb and Sarah Miller Caldicott introduce a carefully researched, easy-to-apply system of five success secrets inspired by the creative methods of Edison himself. Presented in a step-by-step fashion, Innovate Like Edison provides the tools and strategies you need to compete and win in the business world and in everyday life. Whether you’re an amateur or an executive, Innovate Like Edison is an indispensable tool that will enable you to revamp and revitalize your own creative genius and thrive in today’s culture of innovation.