Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book Yes!  50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini. Review includes lessons from the book about how to be persuasive.
Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive a so-so title for Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini’s first-rate book. Each chapter is limited to four to five pages and each gives the latest in what cognitive theory is teaching us about how to be persuasive. The book is rich, just like chocolate cake. Here are some lessons the authors include:

Learn about social proof. We do what others do, and our actions gravitate toward the majority. The book gives the example of people were taking wood from the Petrified Forest. The Park Service tried to stop the practice by telling visitors that many of them were doing this and it should stop all the forest would be gone. What happened? More people took more pieces. After all, everyone else was doing it. So the Park Service put up a sign saying that a few were ruining it for the many. Visitors stop taking so many souvenirs and the park is preserved.

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The following is a list of the bestselling paperback business books as ranked by the New York Times on August 25.

1. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. How and why certain products and ideas become fads.

2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. A new edition of the author’s principles for solving problems.

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Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book It’s Our Ship: The No Nonsense Guide to Leadership by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff.  Standard book on how to manage transforms to inspiration for HR to fight corporate bureaucracy.

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Amazon.com updates its list of bestselling business books hourly. Here is a snapshot of what books were hot this morning — Monday, August 18.

1. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson. Following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, the author, a homeless mountaineer, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. The author has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan” and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.

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Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book It Takes More Than a Carrot and a Stick: Practical Ways for Getting Along with People You Can’t Avoid at Work by Wess Roberts, Ph.D. Book explains faultfinders, or the self-righteous employees, and how employers can handle those employees.
Wess Roberts, Ph.D., divides It Takes More Than A Carrot And A Stick into several very short chapters, each with a type of employee you just can’t stand but whom you can’t avoid. We wanted to tell you a little bit about one of them, called “faultfinders.”

Faultfinders

Roberts calls faultfinders the self-righteous. Here’s his description: read more…

BusinessWeek ranks business books that are the most recent bestsellers and provides a short summary.

1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. Author Ferriss isn’t shy about tooting his own horn: He says he “speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in kickboxing, and an actor in a hit television series in Hong Kong.” Is this the sort of person you really want to be taking advice from? Anyway, Ferris offers recommendations and resources for everything from eliminating wasted time to oursourcing your job and getting cheap airfare. Discover your dreams and live them!

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Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book Say It Right the First Time by Loretta Malandro. Review describes Malandro’s tips for how to manage  and communicate emotionally charged people.

In Say It Right the First Time Malandro talks about how to have hard conversations and improve your motivational techniques by improving communication. The section on dealing with emotionally charged people is terrific, so we wanted to pass a little of it on.

Stop discussing content; switch to process

Malandro’s first advice about how to deal with someone who’s emotionally charged is to understand that there’s the story on the surface but there’s also a story beneath the surface. When you suggest going to a Chinese restaurant and your spouse blows up in anger, chances are it’s not because she’s tired of going to the same Chinese restaurant. There’s no difference with employees. Her advice: Don’t act on your first reaction, which is to strike back. Instead, stop discussing the content — the Chinese restaurant or the new reporting system or the reorganization or whatever — and start talking about the process — how you’re communicating with each other. read more…

The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the New York Times on August 4.

1. When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change by Mohamed El-Erian. Investing advice for a time of global economic change.

2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferris. Because life isn’t all about work.

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