Power Listening


Book Description

Listening is harder than it looks- but it's the difference between business success and failure. Nothing causes bad decisions in organizations as often as poor listening. But Bernard Ferrari, adviser to some of the nation's most influential executives, believes that such missteps can be avoided and that the skills and habits of good listening can be developed and mastered. He offers a step-by-step process that will help readers become active listeners, able to shape and focus any conversation. Ferrari reveals how to turn a tin ear into a platinum ear. His practical insights include: Good listening is hard work, not a passive activity Good listening means asking questions, challenging all assumptions, and understanding the context of every interaction Good listening results in a new clarity of focus, greater efficiency, and an increased likelihood of making better decisions Good listening can be the difference between a long career and a short one




Applied Empathy


Book Description

Michael Ventura, entrepreneur and CEO of award-winning strategy and design firm Sub Rosa, shares “how to unlock our ability to design solutions, spark innovation, and solve tough challenges with empathy at the center” (Arianna Huffington). Having built his career working with iconic brands and institutions such as General Electric, Google, Nike, Warby Parker, and also The United Nations and the Obama Administration, Michael Ventura offers entrepreneurs and executives a radical new business book and way forward. Empathy is not about being nice. It’s not about pity or sympathy either. It’s about understanding—your consumers, your colleagues, and yourself—and it’s a direct path to powerful leadership. As such, Applied Empathy presents real strategies, based on Sub Rosa’s design work and the popular class Ventura and his team have taught at Princeton University, on how to make lasting connections and evolve your business internally (your employees, culture, and product/services) as well as externally (your brand, consumers, and value). “The most neglected fact in business is we’re all human. Michael Ventura makes a powerful argument that empathy is the secret sauce of 21st century business. The more digital we get, the more empathy we need” (Chip Conley, New York Times bestselling author of Emotional Equation). For leaders of all levels, this groundbreaking guide lays the foundation to establish a diverse, inventive, and driven team that can meet the challenges of today’s ever-evolving marketplace. If you want to connect to the people you work with, you have to understand them first.




The Compassionate Geek


Book Description

Note: There is a newer version of this book available. Please look up ISBN 978-0983660736. A real-world, plain-language how-to guide for delivering amazing customer service to end-users. Now in its second edition, The Compassionate Geek was written by tech people for tech people. There are no frills, just best practices and ideas that actually work! Filled with practical tips, best practices, and real-world techniques, The Compassionate Geek is a quick read with equally fast results. Here's what you'll find: Best practices for communicating with email, including examples The four intrinsic qualities of great service providers Best practices for communicating using chat and texting Ten tips for being a good listener Two practical ways to keep your emotions in check A flow chart for handling user calls What to do when the user is wrong How to work with the different generations in the workplace All of the information is presented in a straightforward style that you can understand and use right away. There's nothing "foo-foo," just down-to-earth tips and best practices learned from years of working with IT pros and end-users.




How to Be an Even Better Listener


Book Description

Providing guidance and advice on the challenging art of listening, this book responds directly to the expressed learning needs of hospice and palliative care volunteers regarding their communication skills in end-of-life care. Listening can be mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting, often highlighted in books about hospice and palliative care but never taking the spotlight. This accessible companion provides hospice and palliative care workers with a variety of helpful insights and suggestions drawn from a solid base of current theoretical concepts and clinical research. With personal reflections on being listened to, the guide includes strategies for becoming a more effective listener, as well as exploring the challenges of listening, the need for self-care and spiritual and ethical considerations. By expanding their own capacity for empathy, compassion and understanding the wider narrative of illness, hospice and palliative care volunteers will become even better listeners in their essential roles.




You're Not Listening


Book Description

When was the last time you listened to someone, or someone really listened to you? "If you’re like most people, you don’t listen as often or as well as you’d like. There’s no one better qualified than a talented journalist to introduce you to the right mindset and skillset—and this book does it with science and humor." -Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take **Hand picked by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink for Next Big Ideas Club** "An essential book for our times." -Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone At work, we’re taught to lead the conversation. On social media, we shape our personal narratives. At parties, we talk over one another. So do our politicians. We’re not listening. And no one is listening to us. Despite living in a world where technology allows constant digital communication and opportunities to connect, it seems no one is really listening or even knows how. And it’s making us lonelier, more isolated, and less tolerant than ever before. A listener by trade, New York Times contributor Kate Murphy wanted to know how we got here. In this always illuminating and often humorous deep dive, Murphy explains why we’re not listening, what it’s doing to us, and how we can reverse the trend. She makes accessible the psychology, neuroscience, and sociology of listening while also introducing us to some of the best listeners out there (including a CIA agent, focus group moderator, bartender, radio producer, and top furniture salesman). Equal parts cultural observation, scientific exploration, and rousing call to action that's full of practical advice, You're Not Listening is to listening what Susan Cain's Quiet was to introversion. It’s time to stop talking and start listening.




Every Conversation Counts


Book Description

"You are one conversation away from changing your life. We all crave connection. We were never meant to live alone or communicate only in 'likes' and retweets. In Every Conversation Counts, TV host and human connection keynote speaker Riaz Meghji digs deep into the dangers of isolation and loneliness, our social pandemic, that have been brought into sharp relief by the coronavirus crisis. He tackles a uniquely modern question: why are we so connected, and yet so alone--and how can we reconnect? Sharing personal insights from powerful interviews and years of on-air experience, Meghji offers 5 simple habits for building extraordinary relationships. He explains how to spark authentic conversations, win trust, create new business, and collaborate effectively. Meghji points a way forward to a better future--one in which we express genuine curiosity about others, listen with our whole hearts, show up as our authentic selves, and make every conversation count"--




Mindful Listening (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)


Book Description

Become a mindful listener at work. Listening is a critical skill that leaders and managers often take for granted. By learning to listen mindfully, you can keep your employees more engaged, foster the discovery of new ideas, and hear what you need to hear in a discussion rather than what you expect to hear. The book will teach you what great listeners do, how to stay fully present in challenging conversations, and how empathic listening can help others learn and grow. This volume includes the work of: Peter Bregman Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins How to be human at work. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.




Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen


Book Description

When Howard B. Wigglebottom starts feeling sad about always getting into trouble at school for not listening, he decides to change his ways.




HBR Guide to Collaborative Teams (HBR Guide Series)


Book Description

Break down the barriers to effective collaboration. For cross-functional projects to work, you need to bring together diverse ideas and resources from across your organization. But office politics, conflicting objectives, and lack of clear authority can get in the way. The HBR Guide to Collaborative Teams provides practical tips and advice to help you collaborate more effectively. Whether you're leading your own direct reports or building a talented group from disparate parts of your organization, you'll discover how to align others' goals and skills so you can solve problems as a team and deliver great results. You'll learn to: Develop a shared purpose Bust departmental silos Lead employees who don't report to you Overcome conflict and turf wars Prevent collaborative overload and fatigue Use the right tools for virtual information sharing Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.




Deep Listening


Book Description

Over 55% of your day is spent listening; yet only 2% of us have been trained in how to listen. What is poor listening costing you? Do you rush from meeting to meeting, your head buried in the last conversation you had, without time to think of the next? Or feel frustrated with unproductive discussions where the loudest in the room adds limited insight and drowns out everyone else? We usually think of these situations as communication problems; that we have not spoken our needs correctly or clearly. Yet, conflict, chaos and confusion are the costs of not listening. Many communication and listening books say the most important person in a conversation is the speaker - not true! This pocket-sized guide will help you to reconnect with your innate gift of deep listening, to create the right space to listen to yourself before you listen to others. You'll learn to listen beyond the words that are spoken, to add context and meaning and listen in to what's not being said. Deep Listening will help you move from confusion and conflict to thoughtful, insightful and powerful discussions that will transform not just your work, but your whole life.