Authors:
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: 1998-09-01
Edition: Unabridged

Reviews :

   

Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a "Maze" and look for "Cheese" to nourish them and make them happy.

Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are "little people" -- beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw.

"Cheese" is a metaphor for what you want to have in life -- whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind.

And "The Maze" is where you look for what you want -- the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in.

In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls.

When you come to see "The Handwriting on the Wall," you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success (however you define it) in your work and in your life.

Written for all ages, the story takes less than an hour to listen to, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime....

    Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice--nonanalytical and nonjudgmental, they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "littlepeople," mouse-size humans who have an entirely different relationship with cheese. It's not just sustenance to them; it's their self-image. Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese, and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.

Dr. Johnson, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and many other books, presents this parable to business, church groups, schools, military organizations--anyplace where you find people who may fear or resist change. And although more analytical and skeptical readers may find the tale a little too simplistic, its beauty is that it sums up all natural history in just 94 pages: Things change. They always have changed and always will change. And while there's no single way to deal with change, the consequence of pretending change won't happen is always the same: The cheese runs out. --Lou Schuler...

Authors:
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Sound Ideas
Publication Date: 1994-01-01


Reviews :

    A helpful guide provides proven strategies to eliminate negativity, double efficiency, control emotions, and create one's own future, by the famous entrepreneur and author of Wealth Without Risk. Read by Charles J. Givens. Book available....

Authors:
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: 1989-09-01
Edition: Abridged

Reviews :

    "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" is a comprehensive program based on developing an awareness of how perceptions and assumptions hinder success---in business as well as presonal relationships. Here's an approach that will help broaden your way of thinking and lead to greater opportunities and effective problem solving. Be Pro-Active: Take the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen. Begin With an End in Mind: Start with a clear destination to understand where you are now, where you're going and what you value most. Put First Things First: Manage yourself. Organize and execute around priorities. Think Win/Win: See life as a cooperative, not a comprehensive arena where success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others. Seek First to Understand: Understand then be understood to build the skills of empathetic listening that inspires openness and trust. Synergize: Apply the principles of cooperative creativity and value differences. Renewal: Preserving and enhanving your greatest asset, yourself, by renewing the physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional dimensions of your nature. Stephen R. Covey is the most respected motivator in the business world today. Learn to use his "7 Habits Of Highly Effective People"--and see how they can change your life....

    Anyone who thinks the audiocassette adaptation of Stephen Covey's bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is a shortcut to reading the book has another thing coming. As a preview, the cassette is worth every one of its 90 minutes; as a substitute for the original, it will only leave you wishing for the rest. There's a reason 7 Habits has sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into 32 languages. Serious work has obviously gone into it, and serious change can likely come out of it--but only with constant discipline and steadfast commitment. As the densely packed tape makes immediately clear, this is no quick fix for what's ailing us in our personal and professional lives.

The tape opens to the silky-smooth, overtrained voice of the female narrator, who's responsible for tying together audio clips from actual Covey seminars. Leaving aside the occasional attempts at promoting Covey and his institute, her script does a first-rate job of making sense of Covey's own intense, analogy-rich style of explaining his habits. There's nothing simple about his approach to becoming an effective person. The first three habits alone--which have to do with personal responsibility, leadership, and self-management--could take years to master. Yet the last four are unattainable, the narrator insists, if you can't acquire the personal security--the "inner core," says Covey--that presumably comes from a mastery of the foundation.

Throughout our lessons, Covey's presence is both learned and thoroughly appealing. He drops references to the likes of Socrates, T.S. Eliot, and Robert Frost with the aplomb of an English professor. And his knack for mixing everyday stories with abstract concepts manages to clarify difficult issues while respecting our intelligence. You could argue that the cassette is nothing more than a clever marketing tool for selling another few million copies of the book. But, even at that, it's worth the investment in time and concentration: in the end, we're moved to learn more about integrating all seven habits in our struggle to become better and, yes, more effective people. (Running time: 1.5 hours, one cassette) --Ann Senechal...

Authors: Donald O. Clifton.
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Edition: Abridged

Reviews :

   

"Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer."

-- Peter Drucker

Unfortunately, most of us have little sense of our talents and strengths. Instead, guided by our parents, our teachers, our managers and psychology's fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.

At the heart of Now, Discover Your Strengths, is the Internet-based StrengthsFinder® Profile, the product of a 25-year, multimillion dollar effort to identify the most prevalent human strengths. The program introduces 34 dominant "themes" with thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how they can best be translated into personal and career success.

This audiobook contains a unique identification number that allows you access to the StrengthsFinder® Profile on the Internet. This Web-based interview analyzes your instinctive reactions and immediately presents you with your five most powerful themes. Once you know which themes you lead with, you can leverage them for powerful results for personal development, for management success, and for the success of the organization....

    Effectively managing personnel--as well as one's own behavior--is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success. That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the coauthors' popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated (such as Achiever, Developer, Learner, and Maximizer) and explains how to build a "strengths-based organization" by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

Most original and potentially most revealing, however, is a Web-based interactive component that allows readers to complete a questionnaire developed by the Gallup Organization and instantly discover their own top-five inborn talents. This device provides a personalized window into the authors' management philosophy which, coupled with subsequent advice, places their suggestions into the kind of practical context that's missing from most similar tomes. "You can't lead a strengths revolution if you don't know how to find, name and develop your own," write Buckingham and Clifton. Their book encourages such introspection while providing knowledgeable guidance for applying its lessons. --Howard Rothman...

Authors: Stephen R. Covey.
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Covey
Publication Date: 2001-10-01
Edition: 4 Cassettes

Reviews :

    Covey's revolutionary program, based on his national bestselling book, is designed to break patterns of self-defeating behavior and replace old patterns with a principle-centered approach to problem-solving. 4 cassettes....

Authors:
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Random House Audio
Publication Date: 1997-06-01


Reviews :

    Rick Pitino is the hottest coach in America. Famous for his remarkable successes with the basketball teams he has trained, Pitino is a widely admired master at transforming lackluster, underachieving players into lean, competitive winners. Off the court, Pitino has taken his message to the corporate world, each year teaching thousands of people in companies across the America how to apply his wildly successful coaching strategies to business. Now, in Success Is a Choice, Pitino is ready to let everyone see what his players and those in his seminars have been exposed to for years: the warmth, humor, and road-tested motivational techniques that will help them to develop mental toughness, enhance their self-esteem, and learn how they can exceed their own potential. No matter how you spend your time--in business, teams, classrooms, or just everyday living--Success Is a Choice will be your own personal coach, urging you on to achieve peak performance.



How does Pitino motivate people? There's no question that he has immense personal charisma and superb coaching strategies. Yet what sets him apart--and makes him the envy of his colleagues--is his ability to spur his people on to achieve far more than is expected of them. His core belief, honed through his coaching in a variety of situations for over twenty years, is that everyone can achieve things they never thought possible. He maintains that most of us continually undersell ourselves, routinely settle for less than we deserve, and grow conditioned to thinking that we can't attain the goals we set for ourselves. Beginning with the four elements crucial to any achievement--Togetherness, Esteem, Attitude, and Mental Toughness (TEAM)--Pitino systematically overturns this negative conditioning and replaces it with ten concrete steps to building a winning life. This remarkable author, with a terrifically compelling message, will make Success Is a Choice one of the biggest business/self-improvement audiobooks of the year....

    Wildly successful hoops coach Rick Pitino takes a time-out from the rigors of the NBA to outline his approach and techniques for motivating individuals. The paperback edition contains an all-new foreword written since Pitino's departure from the Kentucky Wildcats and the 1997 national championship season. His plan for excellence in all aspects of life, including sports and business, is more than goal achievement; this is the guidebook for goal overachievement! Pitino presents 10 crucial steps for success, drawing examples from his 20-plus years in the basketball trenches to inspire readers....

Authors: Roy H. Williams.
Paperback, 128 pages
Publisher: Bard Press
Publication Date: 2002-10-25


Reviews :

    A richly multifaceted tale overflowing with essential lessons for business and for life....

Authors: John C. Maxwell.
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: 2000-09-12


Reviews :

   

In the spirit of his best-selling The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John Maxwell offers thoughts on proven leadership qualities and crucial issues that affect leadership success. These basic principles of success can be applied to business and private life, helping anyone reach their full potential. Twenty-one powerful statements help leaders maximize their assets and overcome their weaknesses, encouraging them to lead with their hearts as well as their minds. Daily readings include sections which help readers integrate and apply each day's material.

...

    John C. Maxwell's The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader's Day is actually 21 weeks' worth of bite-sized daily lessons on leadership, based on biblical principles and the figures who embody them. Maxwell, the popular author of more than two dozen books on personal and leadership development, has always based his teachings on scriptural tenets. This time, he turns more explicitly to the Bible to illustrate principles such as effectiveness, influence, empowerment, sacrifice, and timing, which he introduced in a well-received earlier book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Readings for the first four days of each week incorporate: a theme ("People teach what they know, but they reproduce what they are"); a tale that brings a relevant individual (such as Jesus, Moses, Esther, and Solomon) into the discourse on it; interpretations that shape the pertinent factors into a practical contemporary lesson; and a question to ponder that both personalizes and extends the message ("If you reproduced yourself in another leader, would you be pleased with the result?"). Each fifth day, Maxwell presents suggestions, including a specific prayer, to use in putting the ideas into practice. Maxwell's exclusively biblical approach will not be for everyone, but his points are universal in nature and generally on target. Any reader should be able to draw ideas and inspiration from them, and those who have made the Bible a part of their lives will likely find his vision particularly substantial and satisfying. --Howard Rothman ...

Authors: David Allen.
Audio Cassette, pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Edition: Abridged

Reviews :

   

In today's world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday's methods for staying on top just don't work.

Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that "time management" is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; "setting priorities" isn't relevant when your email is down; "procrastination solutions" won't help if your goals aren't clear.

Allen's premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity and unleash our creative potential. He teaches us how to:

Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box empty

Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations

Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed

Feel fine about what you're not doing

From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work -- and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen's entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down....

    With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, "flow," "mind like water," and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you'd almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance.

Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-do's clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists--all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you're working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organized, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed "the personal productivity guru," suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech saber known as the cell phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.)

As whole-life-organizing systems go, Allen's is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can't junk, The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant "in-basket"

That's where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen's system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen's ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there's anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It's commonsense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment; Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belabored, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to soccer moms (who we all know are more organized than most CEOs to start with). --Timothy Murphy...

Authors: Stephen R. Covey.
Audio Cassette, 90 pages
Publisher: Covey
Publication Date: 2001-10-01


Reviews :

   

This program will help you:

* Develop a personal mission statement that will help you lead and govern your life according to your deepest priorities;
* Effectively meet life's day-to-day challenges by focusing on your long-term vision, purpose, and sense of meaning;
* Avoid diversions and distractions that don't contribute to your life's mission, vision, and goals;
* Begin tasks and responsibilities (personal, family, work) with the end in mind;
* Become the powerful, creative force of your life, and influence for good in the lives of others....