Showing results by narrator "John Gregory St. John" in All Categories

The best leaders know how to communicate clearly and persuasively. How do you stack up? If you read (or listen to) nothing else on communicating effectively, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you express your ideas with clarity and impact—no matter what the situation.

At 22, Dan Brown came to the Bronx's P.S. 85 as an eager, fresh-faced teacher. Unbeknownst to him, his assigned class, 4-217, was the designated "dumping ground" for all fourth-grade problem cases, and his students would prove to be more challenging than he could ever anticipate. Intent on being a caring, dedicated teacher but confronted with unruly children, absent parents, and a failing administration, Dan was pushed to the limit time and again: he found himself screaming with rage, punching his fist through a blackboard out of sheer frustration, often just wanting to give up and walk away.

The proven model that offers powerful and elegant strategies for leaders. How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing uses compelling, contemporary examples to show how more complex thinking is the key to better leadership. Leaders who understand what's going on around them see what they need to do to achieve the results they want. 

Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds. If you read (or listen) to nothing else on building better teams, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you assemble and steer teams that get results.

In Food, Genes, and Culture, renowned ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan shows why the perfect diet for one person could be disastrous for another. If your ancestors were herders in Northern Europe, milk might well provide you with important nutrients, whereas if you’re Native American, you have a higher likelihood of lactose intolerance. If your roots lie in the Greek islands, the acclaimed Mediterranean diet might save your heart; if not, all that olive oil could just give you stomach cramps.

No one says losing weight is easy, but Matt Hoover is here to tell you that if he can do it, you can, too. Matt began gaining weight in college, depressed after failing to achieve the high standards he had set for his wrestling career. By the time he reached 340 pounds he had given up on college, wrestling, and his first marriage. When he was cast on NBC's The Biggest Loser, he had no idea how much his life (or his waist size) was about to change.

Business leaders know that the key to competitive success is smart management of scarce resources. That's why companies allocate their financial capital so carefully. But capital today is cheap and abundant, no longer a source of advantage. The truly scarce resources now are the time, the talent, and the energy of the people in your organization - resources that are too often squandered.

This book is both a lesson in true grit and determination, but its goal is one that is attainable. Andy isn't a sporting superstar, he holds down a nine-to-five job and all the pressures that go with it; he isn’t blessed with speed and talent; there are no multi-million pound sponsorship deals; yet this remarkable "common man" is inspiring in a way that some of today’s sporting superstars have forgotten how to be.

Sheila Ramos’s story mirrors the lives of millions of Americans who have lost their homes since the beginning of the housing crisis in 2007. The Great American Foreclosure Story details with clarity and empathy the road that led Ramos and so many like her toward financial ruin. Alongside Ramos’s story are additional investigations documenting the systematic failures at banks, mortgage servicers, and government watchdogs that have exacerbated the country’s most severe foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression.

Teams are the principle building blocks of the strategy of successful organizations. The focus of your organization may be on service, quality, cost, value, speed, efficiency, performance, or any other similar goals, but teams remain the central methodology of most organizations across sectors. Vertical teams and horizontal teams can transcend organizational silos and boundaries if properly focused and supported. Building collaborative teams can improve the client experience. 

 From a dysfunctional family who turn their mother's wake into a full-blown riot, to funeral crashers looking for free meals, to a horse-drawn hearse taking the dearly departed for the ride of their afterlife, these accounts from actual undertakers will have you laughing, thinking, and gasping in disbelief. A literal graveyard of wild coincidences, slapstick humor, and touching moments, Over Our Dead Bodies explores the lighter side of the dead, the living, and the lone undertaker who has to make it all go as planned - even if it doesn't. 

The politics of the 1950s revolved around two primary leaders, one Republican and one Democrat both moderate, and both willing to compromise to move the nation forward. The Republican leader was President Dwight Eisenhower. His two administrations changed American politics. Ike’s desire to be president of all the people, to run his administration down the middle of the road, to be a modern” Republican, set the stage for what the Republican Party would be for decades to come.

Three men and a woman come together in Crook House, a grand old mansion out of Hollywood's golden age. Illicit treasure awaits them in the great house - but along the way they must confront the unfinished business of the past and the comic chaos of the present. Join Rita, her old friend Peter, his lover Nick and Sam the hustler in an unsettling adventure that calls up America's favorite obsessions with fortune, fame and living happily ever after.

Drugs, Adultery, Bribery, Homosexuality, corruption - and the Supreme Court?!? Your high school history teachers never gave you a book like this one! Secret Lives of the Supreme Court features outrageous and uncensored profiles of America’s most legendary justices - complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts.

Forests cover Ansalon. Under the legendary Silvanos, the elves of Krynn begin to tame the wilds and raise their crystal cities. But as the Elderwild Kaganos journeys toward a mystical encounter high in the mountains, he knows that, for his tribe, the woodlands must remain their eternal home. As centuries pass and Dragonwars rage, the tribe of Kaganos battles encroaching humans and the minions of the Dark Queen, aided by a potent lgacy guided by revered pathfinders.... Until the wild elves stand upon the brink of the deadliest challenge of all - a challenge that marks a choice between annihilation and survival.

An exploration of the cultural impact of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, the Piet of music, and its enigmatic composer. In the first book ever to explore Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, music and literary critic Thomas Larson tells the story of the prodigal composer, his seminal masterpiece and its fascinating history as America's secular hymn for grieving our dead.

This is the prophecy given by the god Reorx to Verden Leafglow, a reformed green dragon rejected by Takhisis, the queen of villainy. For good measure, Reorx tells the dragon to give the hero a helping hand.

Years before September 11, our enemy warned us - and we weren't listening. We are being warned today - by enemies like Iran, North Korea, and radicals and terrorists across the globe - but we are still not listening. Sounding the alarm is best-selling author Jed Babbin (former deputy undersecretary of defense), who exposes the demagogues, dictators, and death squads openly threatening America - with potentially devastating consequences, if we aren't alert to the danger.

In a time of war, a princess of Qualinost and an elite band of warriors sail forth to rescue their contrymen from the collapsing Ergoth Empire. Their journey goes awry when a strange mist engulfs Princess Vixa's ship and transports them to a phantom island. Who are the mysterious masters who imprison them in their undersea city? No soul has encountered the fabled Dargonesti or visited the city of pearl marble that rises from the sea floor - and lived to tell the tale.

Brandjam, the follow-up to the groundbreaking best-seller Emotional Branding, presents a powerful new concept from renowned designer and business guru Mark Gobe. The Brandjam concept is about innovation, intuition, and risk. Gobe explains how design is the "instrument" companies can use for jazzing up a brand - how design puts the face on the brand and creates an irresistible message that connects buyers to the product in a visceral way.