Self Help

A game-changing model for giving effective feedback to peers, employees, or even your boss–without offending or demotivating.

How are you supposed to tell someone that they’re not meeting expectations without crushing their spirit? Regular feedback, when delivered skillfully, can turn average performers into the hardest workers and stars into superstars. Yet many see it as an awkward chore: Recent studies have revealed 37% of managers dread giving feedback, and 65% of employees wish their managers gave more feedback.

This trail-blazing new model eliminates the guesswork. Dr. Therese Huston, the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Seattle University, discovered that the key to being listened to is to listen. First, find out what kind of feedback an employee wants most: appreciation, coaching, or evaluation. If they crave one, they’ll be more receptive once their need has been satisfied. Then Huston lays out counterintuitive strategies for delivering each type of feedback successfully, including:

Start by saying your good intentions out loud: it may feel unnecessary, but it makes all the difference.
Side with the person, not the problem: a bad habit or behavior is probably less entrenched than you think.
Give reports a chance to correct inaccurate feedback: they want an opportunity to talk more than they want you to be a good talker.

This handbook will make a once-stressful ordeal feel natural, and, by greasing the wheels of regular feedback conversations, help managers improve performance, trust, and mutual understanding.

Presenting twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity into all human endeavors, The Art of Possibility is the dynamic product of an extraordinary partnership.

The Art of Possibility combines Benjamin Zander’s experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and his talent as a teacher and communicator with psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander’s genius for designing innovative paradigms for personal and professional fulfillment. The authors’ harmoniously interwoven perspectives provide a deep sense of the powerful role that the notion of possibility can play in every aspect of life.

Through uplifting stories, parables, and personal anecdotes, the Zanders invite us to become passionate communicators, leaders, and performers whose lives radiate possibility into the world.

Should I move in with this person? Should I quit my job? When is the “right time” to have another child? All these life-altering questions at the juncture of money and love can be overwhelming. Often, we answer them either by staying overly rational or by only listening to our – at times fickle – hearts. Hardly ever, when faced with daunting questions, do we have the keys to combine both head and heart in a balanced and fulfilling way.

Labor economist and Stanford Professor Emerita Myra Strober and social innovation leader Abby Davisson know that in our daily lives money and love are interdependent. Whereas most decision-making guides focus only on one or the other, Money and Love shows us and our loved ones how to consider them jointly using the original, step-by-step 5Cs method:

– CLARIFY: Consider what you want vs. don’t through self-reflection.
– COMMUNICATE: Include input from those who will be impacted by your decisions in your decision-making process.
– CHOICES: Broaden your perspectives to open up your options.
– CHECK IN: Ask around for advice, guidance, and resources.
– CONSEQUENCES: Consider the effects of your decisions and how that may impact all aspects of your life.

At a time when we are experiencing the most significant shift in work-life balance in decades – marked by remote work, the Great Reshuffle, and a mass reconfiguring of family dynamics and social/professional networks – Strober and Davisson’s framework offers simple and effective steps to empower readers to make the best strategic decisions without having to sacrifice their careers or personal lives.

How often do you feel joy―a truly pure, unadulterated experience of ease, bliss, and happiness? In childhood, our joy arises in the moment, spontaneous and free. But as we become adults, we’re faced with the pressure of increased responsibilities, endless demands, and a barrage of breaking news. And along the way, we forget how to be present in our own lives.

In Soul Shift, Rachel Macy Stafford offers us a practical, inclusive guide to navigating a culture of distraction and depletion to find our way back to what delights our heart, makes us feel alive, and brings us peace. She illuminates how to embody the practice of presence, where we return home to our authentic selves and the joy found only in the here and now.

Like a wise, empathetic friend, Stafford accompanies you on a wondrous exploration of self-discovery. She walks you through a symbolic botanical garden made up of eight areas designed to help you practice: presence, worthiness, letting go of perfection, self-kindness, authenticity, forgiveness, looking after yourself, and cultivating your gifts.

Soul Shift helps you rediscover the joy inside you at a pace that is natural, with an approach that is gentle and practical exercises that are easy to follow.