Business Development Skills

You can go after the job you want...and get it! You can take the job you have...and improve it! You can take any situation you're in...and make it work for you!

In today's fast-paced networked economy, professionals must work harder than ever to maintain and improve their business skills and knowledge. But technical mastery of one's discipline is not enough, assert professional advisors David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford. The key to professional success, they argue, is the ability to earn the trust and confidence of clients. In this 20th anniversary edition, Maister, Green, and Galford enrich our understanding of today's society and illustrate how to be effective communicators in a digital world.

Whether you are a new player or a seasoned veteran, Secrets to Winning at Office Politics can help you increase your personal power without compromising your integrity or taking advantage of others. This smart, practical guide shows you how to stop wasting energy on things you can't change and start taking steps to get what you want.

Brian Tracy, the world's leading authority on success and personal achievement, gives you his proven principles and step-by-step tips for raising your self-esteem and improving your life. This audiobook is based on his seminar program that has dramatically improved the income and lives of over one million graduates. It is based on proven principles drawn from psychology, religion, philosophy, business, economics, politics, history, and metaphysics.

Talking to people about your designs might seem like a basic skill, but it can be difficult to do well. In many cases, how you communicate with stakeholders, clients, and other non-designers may be more important than the designs themselves. Because if you can't get their support, your work will never see the light of day - no matter how good it is. This practical guide focuses on principles, tactics, and actionable methods for presenting your designs.

Conversationally Speaking has become the most popular book in the world teaching conversation skills. Millions of people have used it to learn the secrets of effective communication. This revised edition provides more ways to improve your conversation skills by giving you strategies that work for starting conversations, asking questions that promote interaction, interesting people in what you have to say, listening so that others will be encouraged to talk, avoiding rejection-producing behavior, handling criticism constructively, and more.

Ever felt tongue-tied in conversations? You're not alone. Many of us struggle to express ourselves, connect with others, or handle tricky discussions. But imagine being able to chat confidently with anyone, anywhere. Picture yourself resolving conflicts effortlessly, building stronger relationships, and feeling heard and understood. This book is your roadmap to becoming a conversation master. Inside, you'll discover five simple yet powerful rules that will transform the way you communicate.

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Renowned five-time TED Talk speaker and author Julian Treasure reveals how to speak so that people listen - and how to listen so that people feel heard. As this leading sound expert demonstrates via interviews with world-class speakers, professional performers, and CEOs at the tops of their fields, the secret lies in developing simple habits that can transform our communication skills, the quality of our relationships, and our impact in the world.

Written by award-winning broadcaster Mishal Husain, The Skills will inspire, motivate, champion and encourage women to reach their potential by focusing on practical skills that make a difference. Gathering together advice for women of all ages, whether they are new graduates, working mothers or women seeking a career change, The Skills explains how to present yourself to maximum effect, in person and online, how to prepare for big moments and plan for long-term goals, how to gain confidence and authority and how to navigate the ups and downs of a long working life and build resilience.

Whether you are looking to position yourself as an industry expert, extend your sphere of influence, or gain the support and backing of vital constituencies, The 7 Principles of Public Speaking will give you the tools you need to achieve your goal.

Strategic thinking has become a core competency for business leaders globally. Overused and under-defined, the term is often used interchangeably with other strategic management terms. This book delineates and defines strategic thinking as an advanced, conceptual cognitive capability, focusing on the nonlinear, divergent, a-rational, and informal nature of strategic thinking. This unique and practical book is an original primer of how successful strategists learn to think strategically.

In the perennial favorite Boundaries, Anne Katherine introduced the concept and importance of personal limits. In Where to Draw the Line, she takes the next step with a practical guide to establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries in a wide range of situations. With every encounter, we either demonstrate that we'll protect what we value, or that we'll give ourselves away. Healthy boundaries preserve our integrity. Unlike defenses, which isolate us from our true selves and from those we love, boundaries filter out harm.

Using the exact steps you’ll learn in this book, Donald Miller grew his small business from four employees working out of a basement to a 15 million dollar operation, increasing revenue sixfold in just six years. As Miller grew his own business from the ground up, he realized nobody had put together a simple, step-by-step playbook for growing a business. That book didn’t exist. Until now. In this book, you’ll learn the 6 steps to grow a successful small business and create a playbook to implement them—your Flight Plan.

Communication is essential in a healthy organization. But all too often when we interact with people - especially those who report to us - we simply tell them what we think they need to know. This shuts them down. To generate bold new ideas, to avoid disastrous mistakes, to develop agility and flexibility, we need to practice Humble Inquiry. Ed Schein defines Humble Inquiry as "the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person."

Managing up helps you build the sort of relationships that foster more communication, collaboration, cooperation, and understanding between people at different levels of power, with a variety of perspectives and skills. Managing Up is your personal manual for building this vital skill so you can begin building your best future. Real-world strategies give you a set of actionable steps, supplemented by expert advice from a top leadership consultant that helps you get on track to advancement.

Whether you're trying to communicate your business idea to an investor, encourage your children to embrace your moral values, or break an addiction to endless web surfing - if you lack the skill of influence, you will be unable to convince yourself or anyone else. The human mind is like a titanium lock. If you communicate poorly - through endless talking, inattentive listening, or over-the-top pressure - it's like spinning the numbers on the lock over and over uselessly. But if you develop the key skills of influence, it's like knowing the exact combination to that lock.

One third to one half of Americans are introverts in a culture that celebrates - even enforces - an ideal of extroversion and a cult of personality. Political leaders are charismatic, celebrities bask in the spotlight, and authority figures are assertive. It is no surprise that a quiet revolution has begun to emerge among the invisible half of the population, asserting that they are just as powerful in their own unique ways. The Irresistible Introvert embodies the spirit of this revival and breaks down the myth that charisma is reserved for extroverts only.

Janine Driver was trained as a lie-detection expert for the ATF, FBI, and the CIA. Driver - who is known in professional circles as "the Lyin' Tamer" and has demonstrated her world-renowned expertise on such programs as The Today Show, The Dr. Oz Show, and Nancy Grace - now offers listeners essential tools that will enable them to detect deceptions, recognize a liar, and ultimately improve their lives.

Since taking over TED in the early 2000s, Chris Anderson has shown how carefully crafted short talks can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, spreading knowledge, and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience's worldview. Done right, a talk is more powerful than anything in written form.

The most successful women are often not the most talented, the most gifted, or even the most experienced. What these women have is a knack for communicating that opens doors and gives them influence. Gleaning from powerful research, best-selling author and life strategist Valorie Burton unearths practical insights you can put to work in your life immediately.