Leaders! Do you have days when you feel like you're communicating with toddlers rather than adults in the workplace?Are you tired of dealing with sulking, tantrums, personality clashes and poor performance?If you are not getting the results you need as a high-performance leader, this book is for you.In it, you will learn a new approach to communication that will radically improve your leadership effectiveness.Communication is the KING of the so-called "soft" skills that are essential in the modern workplace. Yet most of us have had little or no training in how to communicate effectively, particularly under pressure.We haven't been taught the FOUNDATIONS of GREAT communication.In Soft is the New Hard: How to Communicate Effectively Under Pressure, communications and soft-skills specialist, Leah Mether, gives you the complete solution: a step-by-step process that underpins communication and lays the foundations for success.Mether's proven strategies will help you:· defuse conflict· manage yourself under pressure· inspire individuals and teams to action· influence decisions and outcomes· lead your team through change, restructure or transition· deliver difficult messages· communicate clearly in an emergency or crisisNo-one is a perfect communicator, everyone can improve. And with this book, Mether shows you how.

Readers of Alan Blinder's regular Business Week column appreciate his concise, thought-provoking opinions and his eloquent prose. In Hard Heads, Soft Hearts he brings to life the inner workings of America's economy and in so doing explains what's wrong and how to fix it.

A peculiar feature of our country today, says Michael Barone, is that we seem to produce incompetent eighteen-year-olds but remarkably competent thirty-year-olds. Indeed, American students lag behind their peers in other nations, but America remains on the leading edge economically, scientifically, technologically, and militarily. The reason for this paradox, explains Barone in this brilliant essay, is that “from ages six to eighteen Americans live mostly in what I call Soft America—the parts of our country where there is little competition and accountability. But from ages eighteen to thirty Americans live mostly in Hard America—the parts of American life subject to competition and accountability.” While Soft America coddles, Hard America plays for keeps. Educators, for example, protect children from the rigors of testing, ban dodgeball, and promote just about any student who shows up. But most adults quickly figure out that how they do depends on what they produce. Barone sweeps readers along, showing how we came to the current divide—for things weren’t always this way. In fact, no part of our society is all Hard or all Soft, and the boundary between Hard America and Soft America often moves back and forth. Barone also shows where America is headed—or should be headed. We don’t want to subject kindergartners to the rigors of the Marine Corps or leave old people uncared for. But Soft America lives off the productivity, creativity, and competence of Hard America, and we have the luxury of keeping part of our society Soft only if we keep most of it Hard. Hard America, Soft America reveals: • How the American situation is unique: In Europe, schooling is competitive and demanding, but adult life is Soft, with generous welfare benefits, short work hours, long vacations, and state pensions • How the American military has reclaimed the Hard goals and programs it abandoned in the Vietnam era • How Hardness drives America’s economy—an economy that businesses and economists nearly destroyed in the 1970s by spurning competition • How America’s schools have failed because they are bastions of Softness—but how they are finally showing signs of Hardening • The benefits of Softness: How government programs like Social Security were necessary in what was a harsh and unforgiving America • Hard America, Soft America is a stunningly original and provocative work of social commentary from one of this country’s most respected political analysts.

If it is possible for a book to be healing, spiritual, smart, and sexy at the same time, then this is it. From Bestselling author and creator of the Man Whisperer Multimedia Series comes the new book Soft is the New Power by Deya "Direct" Smith. What if everything you thought you understood about communicating with men was wrong? Would you be willing to re-calibrate your thinking to possess the love and life you desire? Do you realize that you have an innate power to attract amazing relationships through your ability to communicate using a soft and strategic strategy? Smith shows readers how to return to the organic softness that is feminine power. Many women are losing themselves in an effort to keep up with the male-dominated workplace and the new-age approaches to dating and relationships. Too many successful and ambitious career driven women for various reasons tend to use masculine or hard energy to survive or succeed, and as a result, not only are they exhausted, but they become hardened in communications. Smith encourages readers to take a stronger, yet softer position to gain what you want. Women have an innate power to attract amazing relationships through initiative, understanding and acceptance, coupled with the ability to approach life with a soft touch. Knowing how and when to turn on your power, does not negate the need to play hard ball when necessary, but it definitely gives you an advantage in work, play and at home. God made us the softer sex for a reason. Use it to your advantage! This book will help you to: Identify and embrace your feminine power and emotional intelligence; Appreciate that being soft does not make you weak it makes you wise; Maximize your soft power to attract and develop personal and professional relationships; Give yourself permission to succeed and win like a woman and not like a man; Become a 'Man Whisperer' and learn the art of speaking to a man's heart. PRAISES FOR SOFT IS THE NEW POWER: "The Man Whisperer" has created a powerful new guide. Soft is the New Power is a book that will speak to the soul of many women. Our generation has been taught that in order to achieve and succeed, we needed to deny our feminine powers. Miss Deya Direct dismisses this BS and tells the truth! We need to bring all of ourselves to rule the world from the boardroom to the bedroom. Deya presents the keys to feminine power and success. If you want to rock your mission with woman-power, then this book is for you. I will definitely be sharing it with my life coaching clients and speaking audiences." - Abiola Abrams, ESSENCE advice columnist and founder of SacredBombshell.com "Ben & I have been married for almost 16 years...and I must say because of what Deya's book "Soft Is the New Power" is talking about every woman should go out and get it...because it's a key ingredient in that if a woman gets a hold to it she can run the world - really!" - Jewel Tankard, Star of Bravo's Thicker Than Water, Author of Millionairess Lifestyle Understanding the Price and the Process "Deya "Direct" Smith has been the resident "Man Whisperer" for the Single Wives Club, and has helped us to manifest our soft power, in her much-anticipated new book "Soft is the New Power," I am excited that women everywhere will finally get the tools they need to realize that you don't have to be masculine because you can win like a woman, being fly & feminine!" - Koereyelle Dubose, Founder of The Single Wives Club "Today's woman is stronger. She is a survivor. She is more prepared and better equipped than ever before to be a BOSS! But during this transformation some of our women have lost their, sweet, sensitive, nurturing side. You can have your respect and adoration in every aspect of your life, but you can't be all soft and you can't be all powerful. Deya teaches us in her new book, "Soft Is the New Power" how to be both at the same time." - Steven James Dixon, Founder of LoveCapacity.com"

With engaging photos and patterned text, books in this series are perfect for introducing emergent readers to the topic of opposites. In Hard and Soft readers are shown fun and familiar examples of hard and soft things and quized on their ability to identify things that are hard or soft. A focus on high-frequency and decodeable words and strong photo-to-text matching makes this a perfect book for early readers to enjoy.

Change isn’t going anywhere. Learn how to manage it. We live in a wild world of volatility, unpredictability, chaos, and ambiguity, with change seemingly as the only constant. Change can be difficult. It often induces resistance, panic, and fatigue. And, as you may expect or have experienced first-hand, many organizations aren’t handling change all that well, with many efforts resulting in failure. What you may not realize, however, is that some workplace change initiatives are stunning successes, rolling out smoothly and more easily embraced. Why do some change initiatives fail while others succeed? How can organizations and employees handle change better? In The Hard and Soft Sides of Change Management, Kathryn Zukof offers practices and approaches to help you and your organization roll out, receive, and manage change effectively. Namely, Zukoff shows that you need to manage the process (or the “hard”) side and the people (or the “soft”) side of change and find the sweet spot between the two. She demonstrates that when you integrate both sides, you and your organization can make change less of a hit-or-miss affair. Successful change management means deploying sound project management techniques that increase the odds of achieving the outcomes of your change initiative. It also means helping employees understand the need and vision for change, so they feel less threatened by it and become excited and energized by what’s ahead. To deliver best results, you need to: Define the change and how to get there—with project charters and plans. Involve the right people in the right ways—from dedicated change teams to affected stakeholders. Build support, understanding, and awareness—with communication, training, and resistance management plans. Assess progress and adjust along the way—through action reviews and steps to tackle thorny issues. Capturing the inherently messy nature of workplace change—from technology implementations, mergers and acquisitions, and business transformations to office relocations and more—this book offers tangible insights to help you and your organization tackle change challenges. Follow the book’s tools and practices to lessen the messy and objectionable parts of change and actively give your change initiatives the best chance for positive outcomes.

Despite its name, soft skills are increasingly becoming the hard skills of today's professional world. It is not enough to be highly trained in technical skills without understanding and developing the softer, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills that are critical for professional growth. While technical, "harder" skills may present opportunities for you, it is your soft skills that will maintain those opportunities and provide avenues for new opportunities to present themselves. Your ability to identify and master these soft skills, ranging from critical thinking, dressing for success, networking and personal branding, are critical for achieving professional success. While these soft skills are often undervalued and/or not presented sufficiently to young professionals and pre-professionals, you will learn in this book that...Soft skills are anything but soft!