Books published by Berrett-Koehler

Tapping the potential of the changing workforce, consumer base, and citizenry requires a leadership approach that resonates with our country's growing diversity. In Salsa, Soul, and Spirit, Juana Bordas shows how incorporating Latino, African American, and American Indian approaches to leadership into the mainstream has the potential to strengthen leadership practice and inspire today's ethnically rich workforce. Bordas identifies eight core leadership principles common to all three cultures, principles deeply rooted in each culture's values and developed under the most trying conditions. Using a lively blend of personal reflections, interviews with leaders from each community, historical background, and insightful analysis, she shows how these principles developed and illustrates the creative ways they've been put into practice in these communities as well as in some forward-looking companies. Bordas brings these principles together into a multicultural leadership model that offers a more flexible and inclusive way to lead and a new vision of the role of the leader in the organization. In this revised edition, Bordas updates all of the data and extends the focus of the work to millennials the future leaders by adding exclusive chapters and content dealing with the migration of this generation into the workforce. Recently released census statistics show great growth in populations of color in this nation, and immigration continues at a rapid pace, making the book more relevant now than when the first edition was published.

Martin Davidson makes the bold claim that millions, maybe billions, of dollars in diversity training are being wasted. Attrition statistics show a revolving door for women and minorities, but companies are still recruiting and promoting employees as they've always done. As Chief Diversity Officer at the Darden School of Business (University of Virginia) and as a consultant with top Fortune 100 firms like AT&T and Merrill Lynch, Martin Davidson has found a better way: stop forcing diversity on people as a goal in and of itself, a matter of percentages and head counts, and instead use it strategically, creating business improvement strategies that draw on employees' different strengths. Make cultivating difference a core competency and enjoy the improvements in innovation, marketing, and business execution that are the natural result. Stop focusing on a narrow band of superficially diverse groups, and welcome deeper differences in lifestyles, economic backgrounds, and viewpoints.Davidson calls this new way "Leveraging Difference," which sees diversity NOT as a problem to be solved, but as an opportunity to make better business strategies. Net result: diversity that really moves the organization forward, not just another training program that changes little.

In recent decades, corporate PR departments and business books like Good to Great promised a new era of value-based leadership, but as recent events have shown, actual corporate behavior still follows the old "whatever you can get away with" standard. But Laurie Bassi and her co-authors have news: the "bad boy" days are over. As a result of a convergence of forces, ranging from the explosion of online information-sharing to the emergence of the ethical consumer and arrival of civic-minded Millennials, we're in a new era, which they dub "the Worthiness Era." To succeed, businesses must now prove to consumers, employees, and investors that they have earned their respect-that they are good company.For the first time, Bassi, a noted economist, has the research to prove that good behavior is good business. The authors have compiled a groundbreaking "Good Company Index" that directly ties business results to stakeholder relationships. Not only do the authors have the hard evidence to prove that good behavior pays, they have used the principles of the index at their own investment firm to delivery market-beating results. Finally, the authors provide senior executives with the principles and tools to adapt to the new road rules for business.

Navigating life's challenges on your own isn't just lonely, it is also counterproductive to personal growth and development. Whether you are looking to develop your leadership skills or to grow as a person, you need long-term feedback, support, and encouragement. For the past thirty-five years Bill George and Doug Baker have found this in what they call a True North Group, a small, diverse collection of individuals who meet on a regular basis to explore their lives and develop their self-awareness, self-compassion, authenticity, and EQ. Unlike a typical affinity group such as a book club or prayer group, the purpose of True North groups is to help its members succeed in their work and in their lives by providing a consistent environment in which personal development is not just possible, but the aim. In this desperately needed new book George and Baker have uncovered a new secret to success in work and life. They demonstrate why these small groups are the vital link to both leadership and personal development, and adapting an established five-stage team-building format, show exactly how to form a new group or transform an existing group into a True North Group. They provide a wealth of practical resources, including advice on selecting members, suggested topics for the first twelve meetings, techniques to evaluate group satisfaction, and much more. For the millions of people who are searching for greater meaning and intimacy in their lives, this book will help them to grow as leaders and as human beings and to stay on course to their True North.

Many people assume prosperity only means wealth or luxury, but true prosperity is something more. It's about defining your own version of success not your parents' or your boss's or your friend's or the media's one that works specifically for you. It's about striking the right, sustainable balance between work, wealth, and lifestyle.Ethan Willis and Randy Garn, founders of Prosper, the largest provider of individual coaching for personal finance and entrepreneurship in the US. explain how to achieve true prosperity through three steps. First, they help you define it in detail: what does your happy life look, feel, smell, sound and taste like? Arm yourself with your own personal vision of success that paints a clear picture of the life you want to lead. Then, they show you how to find it. How much money do you need to live your version of a truly happy life? They show how to begin by focusing on what you have, not on what you do not, you'll be surprised what you find. Discover how to leverage your passions, experience, and expertise to generate the income you require. And then you have to live it: stay true to that picture and sustain it. Don't get distracted by the lure of accumulating wealth if it means sacrificing your true vision of prosperity. Once you have achieved this balance you will have found your Prosperity Zone.

In an era of economic stress, rapid change, and social networking, customers are distracted, disgruntled, and harder to please than ever. Picky, Fickle, Vocal, Wired, and Vain - they have very little tolerance for error and are ready to spread the word quickly over the internet when things go wrong. If a company's customer service doesn't adapt to these new conditions, they will get burned by bloggers and viral videos that can severely damage their reputation. This book describes exactly what today's customers expect and how to give it to them. In Wired and Dangerous, Bell and Patterson provide a tested formula for restoring balance to the customer relationship by establishing what they call "Service Calm". The three steps to Service Calm sound simple, but they draw on sophisticated psychological principles and are profound in application: 1) Deal with Self, 2) Deal with Customer, 3) Deal with Context.

China succeeded Japan as the world's second largest economy in 2010 many predict it will grow to be larger than the United States by 2020. Three decades ago, China was a rural economy with barely any exports. The rise of China presents the United States with a "Sputnik Moment," in the words of President Obama. Will we rise to the challenge as we did during the space race, or will we rationalize and scapegoat our way to explaining why we can't compete?Ann Lee provides an unvarnished assessment of China's political economy and governance structure, analyzing the sources of China's success and identifying lessons that can be applied by other governments regardless of ideology. As a Chinese-American who emigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong at the age of seven, Lee is uniquely situated to help Americans understand how China sees its own society and how to adapt some Chinese practices to benefit the U. S. For example, the Chinese economy is designed to make the kind of unproductive and unrestrained financial speculation that has devastated much of the West impossible. Aspiring Chinese politicians have to pass tests to prove their competency to govern. The Chinese homicide rate is a fifth of what it is in the U.S. While not blind to China's shortcomings, Lee argues that rather than demonizing China, a more productive use of time and resources is to learn from this rising power in order to maximize the talent of millions of people.

Belva Davis recounts her remarkable journey from Monroe, Louisiana, up through the black radio industry in Oakland to become an award-winning news anchor known as the Walter Cronkite of the Bay Area.Never in My Wildest Dreams is a memoir with a message. Raised in a dysfunctional family in Louisiana and the San Francisco Bay area, Belva Davis rose through the black radio industry, became the first black female reporter west of the Mississippi with her hiring at KPIX, and eventually anchored KQED's "Evening Edition," the station's nightly news show. Overcoming personal and career obstacles, Davis reported on some of the era's most explosive stories, including the rise and fall of the Black Panthers, the Jonestown massacre, and the Moscone/Milk murders. The book also recounts Davis's interviews with world leaders, including Fidel Castro and three U.S. presidents.

Built to Love is a practical how-to guide for companies, detailing steps to create products that illicit emotions that provide value to customers, regardless of whether the products are physical products, services, technologies, software, systems, or brands.Using a combination of industry-based research and laboratory experiments, the authors demonstrate that customers will richly pay for products that authentically provide emotional fulfillment. They uncover the science behind successful products that create an avid and loyal following, and they present evidence that product emotions increase a product's success in the marketplace as well as a firm's success in the stock market (even when the economy is down!). Then, using analytical and practical tools, the authors show how to analyze customers' emotional needs and translate those needs into features that galvanize those customers. Throughout, the book uses revealing case studies that show how to energize customers in both consumer and business-to-business worlds.

While there are the major situations that have been getting mass media attention such as Maddoff's vast Ponzi scheme, the gutting of America's retirement funds, massive job layoffs, extensive home foreclosures and the whole Wall Street financial meltdown, it is the minor ways in which trust is broken each and every day that can be more insidious, because they are unintentional, accumulative, and often go unaddressed. In fact, the current ecomonic collapse, when looked at more closesly, is a result of many accumulative minor betrayals. When added up there was a major melt down impacting our entire country and the world. This is a powerful example of the impact of accumulative betrayal and confirms the authors' over 17 years of research and practice: Minor unintentional forms of betrayal are the most pervasive in eroding working relationships, and ultimately, society.Betrayal is a natural element of relationships and human nature. It is going to occur. We are going to experience it. The book gives the reader permission to be human. It identifies betrayal as an opportunity for renewal instead of just a cause for destruction, and guides the reader through four core ideas: Trust is built and broken daily, When trust breaks down, relationships do not have to be history. Renewal is a function of taking responsibility. Courage and compassion are partners in the process of healing and renewal.When let down or even betrayed, people naturally respond with judgment, criticism and blame. This reflects the natural tendency to pull back, contract and to protect oneself. Responsibility is replaced with apathy and the cycle of distrust is fed. Courage and compassion are partners in the healing process because we need both in order to renew. It takes courage to not be overrun by our fear and compassion to give ourselves and others the benefit of the doubt. This new work acknowledges the critical need for rebuilding trust and provides practical guidance on rebuilding trust, healing and renewal.

There's nothing easy about apology. The news is filled with examples of leaders apologizing, needing to apologize, or failing miserably at the attempt. And certainly we all have occasion to apologize ourselves maybe more often than we realize. But we don't need more apologies, says John Kador we need better ones. Too many people just go through the motions, missing out on the power of apology to restore strained relationships, create possibilities for growth, and generate better outcomes for all. Effective Apology challenges you to think about the fundamental value and importance of apology as it delivers detailed advice for making an apology that truly heals and renews. Kador explores the Five Rs of apology: Recognize the wrong and the person harmed, accept moral Responsibility for your actions, express Remorse, provide meaningful Restitution, and offer assurance that the offense will not be Repeated. Making apology work in the real world when and how to apologize, in what medium, and how to make it stick is made clear through over seventy examples of good and bad apologies drawn from the news, popular culture, and the experiences of Kador, his clients, and his friends. The willingness to apologize signals strength, character, and integrity. Effective leadership is impossible without effective apology. John Kador shows how to craft and deliver a confident apology that will defuse resentment, reduce litigation, create goodwill, and transform a relationship ruptured by mistrust and disappointment into something stronger and more durable than it ever was before.

So many of us are beset by anxiety, depression, loneliness, and spiritual malaise, tense and unhappy despite our gadgets and goodies. Michael Schuler, leader of the nation's largest Unitarian Universalist congregation, says it's because, urged on by an aggressively materialist culture, we too often opt for short-term gratification and long-term denial. In this thoughtful and deeply honest book, he helps us find a life path that leads to treasures of perennial value: a beautiful and healthy earth home, enduring relationships, strong communities, work that contributes to the common good, and play that restores our bodies and lifts our souls. Deconstructing the assumption that consumption, stimulation, and constant motion comprise the good life, Schuler urges the wholesale embrace of sustainability as both an operational principle and a life-sustaining core value. His book presents sustainability as a coherent frame of reference that can ground us spiritually, heal us internally, and deepen our relationships. Schuler identifies four behavioral principles for living sustainably Pay Attention, Stay Put, Exercise Patience, and Practice Prudence and shows how to apply them in our daily lives. He uses stories from his own life to illuminate the rewards and challenges of sustainable living and shares insights from environmentalists, social commentators, writers, poets, businesspeople, and spiritual leaders.

Most of us don't use our yesterdays very well. With our cultural obsession with "living in the moment," we neglect to engage in creative reflection on our personal histories. In The Power Of Your Past, John Schuster systematically demonstrates that our pasts are the biggest, most accessible, and most under-utilized of resources for anyone wanting to make positive changes. In contrast to other more technical, spiritual, or therapeutic guides that address working with one's past, he offers a balanced, practical and accessible approach through an actionable three-phase model: Recalling, Reclaiming, and Recasting. He provides exercises that link past events to achieving sounder interpretations and illustrates the process with inspiring histories of those who have experienced transformative results through embracing their own professional and personal pasts.Schuster provides insight, encouragement, and steps for essential professional and personal development. Readers who follow this model will make progress in careers short on heart and meaning, overcome obstacles that other methods can't address, and make decisions based on their truth, not the "versions" of truth they have inherited and not fully examined. They will enjoy the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that all they need to grow insight, courage and persistence are the ingredients is already within.

We all want to live a life without regrets, but few of us succeed. Marc Muchnick, bestselling coauthor of The Leadership Pill, outlines thirty simple yet potentially life-changing actions that anyone can take to avoid regret and thereby live a happier, more meaningful life.   Whenever we do something we wish we hadn''t—or don''t do something we wish we had—we vow it won''t happen again. But do we ask ourselves why it happened in the first place?   Because we become prisoners of habit and circumstance, we take people in our lives for granted and fail to be true to ourselves. We stop growing and learning, become self-absorbed and judgmental, and lose touch with our innate goodness. Inspired by his final conversation with a dying friend, Marc Muchnick’s No More Regrets! is specifically designed to help you avoid these pitfalls.   Just one or two of the thirty ways to greater happiness and meaning outlined here could potentially change your life. Muchnick’s suggestions are straightforward, thoughtful, and easy to implement—often just a matter of shifting perspective and seeing the world differently. No More Regrets! will show you how to live in a way that allows you to confidently move forward rather than constantly look back.

Ever-expanding landfills, ocean gyres filled with floating plastic mush, endangered wildlife. Our garbage has become a massive and exponentially growing problem in modern society. Eco-entrepreneur Tom Szaky explores why this crisis exists and explains how can we solve it by eliminating the very idea of garbage. To outsmart waste, he says, we first have to understand it, then change how we create it, and finally rethink what we do with it. By mimicking nature and focusing on the value inherent in our by-products, we can transform the waste we can’t avoid creating from useless trash to a useful resource. Szaky demonstrates that there is value in every kind of garbage, from used chewing gum to juice pouches to cigarette butts. After reading this mind-expanding book, you will never think about garbage the same way again.