White or wheat? Public or private? CD or Roth IRA? Our days are full of choices. Some of these choices seem easy, while others leave us puzzled. The problem is, humans are all susceptible to a variety of biases that generally cause us to make poor choices. What we need is a nudge in the right direction. At least that's what authors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein would assert.

In their book, Nudge, they accept and even embrace our limitations when it comes to making choices, and they demonstrate how we can design environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for them, their families, and society. They call this practice "choice architecture." According to Thaler and Sunstein, "a choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make decisions."

The authors claim that these choice architects, a title many people hold without realizing it, are simply nudging decision makers in beneficial directions without restricting their freedom of choice. For example, the way cereal is displayed on the grocer's shelf: you are free to choose what you want, but the placement of certain cereals at eye level may nudge you to put them in your cart.

This book is a fascinating read that is sure to open many eyes to the decision-making process.

"Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you." From the man who revealed how companies can ascend from good to great comes a new book about the roots of corporate failure and the road to recovery. In How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins offers a "research-grounded perspective" of the typical stages of decline, as well as steps that can be taken to steady the wagon before it crashes.

Collins has structured the book around these five stages: 1) Hubris born of success; 2) Undisciplined pursuit of more; 3) Denial of risk and peril; 4) Grasping for salvation; and 5) Capitulation to irrelevance or death. Based on years of study, these stages aren't a prescription for failure, they are an accurate description of how the companies he and his team researched fell into decline.

The book is brief, only 123 pages followed by an appendix that makes up nearly 100 more. But in that small number of pages are some large truths about how decline can happen, even to seemingly invincible companies. Its short length and well-constructed arguments make this a very accessible book that, if read and followed, could save companies of all sizes from falling into oblivion.

Rob Walker is no stranger to the effect that brands have on consumers. Or, for that matter, that consumers have on brands. His weekly New York Times Magazine column "Consumed" explores consumer behavior and culture. His book, Buying In, is an extension of this column.

The premise of the book, and Walker's mantra, is this: "We can talk all we want about being brandproof, but our behavior tells a different story. ... there is nothing to be gained by simply believing we are immune to brands. But there might be something gained in understanding why we aren't."

In Buying In, Walker combines real-life examples with his own insights in an attempt to explore the consumer-product relationship. Why do certain products earn public attention, and how do they do it? One way is through "murketing," a term Walker invented by combining the words murky and marketing. It refers to the "increasingly sophisticated tactics of marketers who blur the line between branding channels and everyday life."

Through a variety of case studies and insightful commentary, Walker invites readers to stretch their minds and think about their brand in a new light.

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to capture an idea on paper, but the only thing you had available was the back of a napkin? According to Dan Roam, that and a pen is all you need to innovate.

In his book The Back of the Napkin, Roam unpacks his ideas about visual thinking, or solving problems with pictures. On page 2 of the book, he gives you his elevator pitch: "Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see - both with our eyes and with our mind's eye - in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those idea quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way that they simply 'get.'"

He asserts that no matter how poorly a person thinks they draw, or that they aren't creative in "that way," everyone is capable of putting their thoughts on paper using simple drawings that make sense to others. The book is divided into four parts: the introduction, discovering ideas, developing ideas, and selling ideas.

Readers will be impressed with the thorough explanations and engaging style Roam uses to explain his concepts. Illustrations abound, giving life to the words he writes. It is sure to be an interesting read for any business professional.

Best-selling author of Free Agent Nation and former chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, Daniel Pink goes beyond the everyday business hype and sends his readers on a journey into a new way of thinking and learning in his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.

Pink says the age of left-brained dominance is gone, and compares this upcoming "conceptual age" to past periods of intense change, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance. He says the future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers--creative and empathetic right-brained thinkers whose abilities determine who gets ahead and who doesn't.

Pink divides the book into two primary parts, with the first essentially an introduction and argument on how and why industry is moving away from left- to right-brain thinking. In part two, Pink lays out a variety of skills to exercise and refine the right side of the brain.

This mind-altering read is packed with an abundance of exercises and resources to help you free your brain, expand your thoughts, and develop a new way to think about the future that has already arrived.

Have you ever given any thought to your brain? To how and why it works the way it does? To say it is remarkable is an understatement. The human brain is by far the most complex information-transfer system on the planet. Developmental molecular biologist John Medina has dedicated his brainpower to uncovering the mysteries of the brain, and he has written a book, Brain Rules, as a way to share what he is learning.

Brain Rules is Medina's attempt to shed some light on 12 rules related to how the brain functions and how these rules should be applied to our daily lives. For example, Medina debunks the myth of multitasking -- people's brains can't pay attention to two things at the same time.

Each chapter of the book deals with a specific rule, from "exercise boosts brainpower" to "vision trumps all other senses," and gives an easily digestible description of the science behind the rule. These are followed by interesting stories and experiments that illustrate his point, as well as practical ways you can benefit from the rules.

Brain Rules is an intriguing read because it gives readers hope that they can improve their own lives by learning to follow the rules.

Despite everything we know to be true, despite our most determined efforts to be reasonable, we occasionally find ourselves making decisions that make very little sense--for better or for worse. Why?

Stanford MBA Ori Brafman and his psychologist brother Rom have combined their years of expertise to diagnose why people are often compelled to move completely against all things rational, in Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior.

The authors liken the "sways" of life to oceanic rip-tides, strong forces that tend to draw us further and further off course. Some of the sways described in the book include aversion to loss, the force of commitment, and a skewed desire for fairness.

Practical examples serve to illustrate how each sway works in real life, with multiple suggestions on how to counteract the pull of each type of sway.

The book can be used in two distinct ways: to illuminate those areas in which personal or business direction is being inadvertently swayed off course, and to harness the tools that might help a business to sway customers' thinking in a positive direction.

Highly readable and certainly thought provoking, Sway will enlighten the reader to the sways tugging on their own rationality and how to stay true to themselves.

Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but, as MIT professor Dan Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioral economics, people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion.

In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.

Not only do we make simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes. We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable--making us predictably irrational.

From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, Ariely explains how to break through these systematic patterns of thought to make better decisions. Predictably Irrational will change the way you interact with the world--one small decision at a time.

We've all heard the saying by Heraclitus, "There is nothing permanent except change." Then why is it so difficult for most people to face change with a positive attitude? John Kotter, professor at Harvard Business School, is a leadership and change expert who has been grappling with this paradox for years.

One way Kotter explores and explains the complex nature of change is through the business fable Our Iceberg Is Melting. In the book, Kotter teams up with Holger Rathgeber to present the tale of a penguin colony that is facing a very serious dilemma - the iceberg they are living on is, in fact, melting.

The majority of the book focuses on a team of five penguins that has been assembled to guide the other birds in the colony through a time of necessary but difficult change. From the leader to the naysayer, this team functions like a human team, allowing the reader to see himself as part of the fable. And that is the goal of the fable - to encourage people to examine the ways they deal with change, and how their attitudes affect those around them.

The book isn't all fable. It finishes with the Eight-Step Process for Successful Change, which provides an ideal springboard for discussions about group dynamics, corporate culture, and the challenges of change.

John Maxwell has been sharing his thoughts on leadership for 30 years. During that time, one of the most frequent questions he has been asked is, "How do I apply leadership principles if I'm not at the top?" His response, and the thesis of his book The 360° Leader, is this: "If I had to identify the number one misconception people have about leadership, it would be the belief that leadership comes simply from having a position or title."

Maxwell devotes much of his book to proving his claim that "99% of all leadership in most organizations takes place in the middle." He does this by first taking the reader through a series of leadership myths, which he quickly debunks. Second, he explains the challenges faced by leaders in the middle of their organization. Third, he spends the majority of the text unpacking the three ways a leader can exercise influence in every direction–lead up, lead across, and lead down. Finally, he writes about the value of being a 360-degree leader.

The book is a comprehensive tool that can be used by anyone who is willing to practice the disciplines Maxwell presents. Doing so will lead to greater influence in your organization, regardless of your job title or position.

The days of pure capitalism are fading into the landscape of transcendence. So claim the authors of Firms of Endearment. This revolutionary new book by Raj Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jag Sheth explores the competitive value of placing emphasis on the stakeholders in your company, not just the shareholders. Their thesis explores this "strong movement if not altogether a revolution" that is beginning to emerge.

The authors describe stakeholders as the customers, employees, partners, communities, and shareholders that make a company what it is. They argue "each stakeholder tends to thrive best when all stakeholders thrive. No stakeholder group is more important than any other. ... It is disciplined dedication to the well-being of all stakeholders that separates firms of endearment from their competition."

To illustrate their point, the authors have compiled stories and examples from their favorite firms, and woven them together with practical advice and helpful statistics to present a guide for putting stakeholders first. It is in these real-life stories, where the rubber meets the road, that readers are given a sense of how a company earns the title of a "firm of endearment."

He has been called "the world's leading expert on business strategy" by Fortune magazine. The Economist calls him "the world's reigning strategy guru." Just what does Gary Hamel know that makes him so powerful? He understands what makes companies thrive better than just about anybody.

Hamel's latest effort focuses on inspiring new management practices. His book, The Future of Management, was written to explain the management shift that has occurred in the last century–from control and efficiency to adaptability and creativity–and to encourage innovative management practices.

According to the book, this innovation comes when managers begin to accurately see the challenges they face in an ever-changing world, to resist the temptation to follow traditional management techniques, and to rewire their company's "management DNA." Although the book reads in some ways like a B-school textbook, managers at every level will be inspired by the possibilities that Hamel presents.

Using examples from companies such as Google, IBM, Best Buy, W. L. Gore, and Samsung, Hamel has written a practical book that can help change the way innovative companies look at management.

Something has been happening to the female workforce that has caused economist and author Sylvia Ann Hewlett to take notice, something that could result in a downward spiral for the leadership and structure of hundreds of companies around the world. For years women have desired to be part of the corporate workaday world and remain champions on the home front. But what happens when the two collide?

Hewlett's claim is too many women find themselves taking an "off-ramp" from the road to success in their careers to care for children or aging parents, only to have a difficult time later finding the "on-ramp." Encouraging companies to develop strategies that enable women to easily navigate the on-ramps and reenter the workforce in a nonthreatening way is the focus of her book Off-Ramps and On-Ramps.

One of Hewlett's main arguments for developing paths that get women back into their careers with relative ease is the impact it can have on a corporation. "Companies can ill-afford to lose experienced, well-qualified women–they are not cheaply or easily replaced," she writes. Companies that meet the needs of the female worker will remain competitive. Any business owner who employs women would benefit from reading this book.

Picture a corner store of the 1950s. What made the shopping experience so enjoyable for customers? The were met with a smiling face behind the register and a helping hand if they had any questions. Service wasn't automated, it was personal.

Webster's Dictionary defines "authenticity" as "genuineness; the quality of being genuine or not corrupted from the original." In today's society, genuine interactions between consumers and businesses are becoming rare. The original corner store mentaility has been corrupted. The ironic thing is, most consumers desite a more authentic experience with the businesses they interact with.

James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II have written Authenticity as a wake-up call to business owners. Their goal in the book is "helping you manage the perceptions of real of facke held by the consumers of your enterprise's output...." What the are introducing is an entirely new frame of mind that must be adopted by business owners if they are to succeed in a postmodern economy.

Business owners who are interested in being "really real" owe it to themselves to read this book and put its priciples to work in their busniess.

There is a leader in everyone. Whether your sphere of influence is a small team of individuals, a large corporation, or a group of young children, eventually you will find yourself in a position of leadership. The question is, are you really ready to lead?

In their book, Launching a Leadership Revolution, Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward offer a fresh look at just what it takes to become a successful leader. Their claim that leadership can be learned by understanding the "Five Levels of Influence" is supported by years of experience in leadership development. By looking at timeless leaders such as George Washington, Winston Churchill, and even Saint Paul, the authors bring to life the five levels of influence: Learn, Perform, Lead, Develop Leaders, and Develop Leaders Who Develop Leaders.

The book is broken down into chapters that provide practical, step-by-step methods of developing your leadership skills and putting them to work for you.

Whether you are someone who has been in a leadership role for many years, or you are just beginning your quest to become a leader, this book will provide valuable insight into the skills and mind-set you need to become an influential leader.

There is something happening in America that you are probably a part of without even realizing it. It is a movement of "microtrends," small segments of the population that have a similar passion or interest in a particular area.

Professional pollster and author Mark J. Penn, along with E. Kinney Zalesne, has compiled a book of 75 microtrends that are sweeping the nation. Penn defines microtrends as "small, under-the-radar forces that can involve as little as one percent of the population, but which are powerfully shaping our society." The book is based on the idea that "the most powerful forces in our society are the emerging, counterintuitive trends that are shaping tomorrow right before us.

The 75 microtrends discussed in the book are segmented into 15 themed chapters. Each microtrend is dissected to provide a history behind its rise, and what impact it is having on the direction of the country.

The importance of this book from a business perspective is in the impact it can have on marketing plans. Helping develop the ability to recognize different subsets of the population, and devising ways your company can meet their needs, makes this an important read for business owners.

There have been books written in the recent past that have addressed the value of drawing wisdom from crowds and emerging social networks. What was needed was a book that could take the discussion one step further, and help people understand how their businesses can profit from crowd wisdom.

While the cover gives authorship to Barry Libert and Jon Spector, this book is more correctly attributed to more than 4,000 business-minded individuals from around the world. These people have shared their personal experiences, along with the knowledge and insight that come from such experiences, to create this unprecedented volume. In keeping with the premise of the book, Libert and Spector realized that the collective "we" could make a much greater impact and produce stronger results.

With case studies in a variety of areas, the book not only reveals what works, but demonstrates the validity of its claims in the lives of actual businesses. Topics like how to balance structure with independence, manage risk, and which functions of your business would be best supported by communities instead of individuals are also covered. Readers are able to see themselves and their situations here, which makes it an important read for any business executive.

If retirement is supposed to usher in the best years of your life, why does it cause great anxiety for so many people? Baby boomers may have particular reason to be concerned about their retirement if they are relying on traditional retirement savings to carry them through their golden years, which in many cases is 20 or 30 years past retirement age.

Douglas Andrew, owner and president of Paramount Financial Services, Inc., offers hope to boomers, and anyone else for that matter, who feel a bit behind when it comes to retirement savings. His latest book, The Last Chance Millionaire, is the jumping-off point for serious discussions about how to make your money work for you. Whether you have decades or merely years to save, Andrew's "Three Miracles of Wealth Accumulation: the Miracle of Compound Interest, the Miracle of Tax-Favored Accumulation, and the Miracle of Positive, Safe Leverage," are sure to get you on the right track.

The easy-to-follow charts and graphs coupled with Andrew's sympathetic tone make this an encouraging read. There is hope for those who have little to nothing saved, and Andrew is the one to open your eyes to the options.

If you really do "want it all," then Timothy Ferriss is the one to help you get it. His list of life experiences covers all the bases, from holding a world record in the tango to acting on a hit television series in Hong Kong and speaking six languages, all while running a multinational firm.

Ferriss received his BA in neuroscience and East Asian studies from Princeton University in 2000. He studied nonfiction writing with Pulitzer Prize-winner John McPhee, and developed his life philosophies under Nobel Prize-winner Kenzaburo Oe. He has lived a full life, and he's only 29 years old.

The 4-Hour Workweek is Ferriss' attempt to show the world that life and business can coexist. The world is changing; technology is making it easier than ever before to conduct business outside of your office. Ferriss is part of a subculture called the "New Rich," which he describes as "those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility."

The goal of his book is to help people realize that life doesn't have to be an endless drudgery of long hours, short weekends, and brief vacations. In the pages of this book, Ferriss describes a step-by-step process to reinvent yourself and begin living the life you've always wanted.

The language you use, whether it's with your boss, your employees, your spouse, or the person in line at the grocery store, plays an important role in helping you get what you want out of life. No one understands this better than language guru Dr. Frank Luntz. If you want to know how to say something right, Dr. Luntz is the man to ask. He has given his expertise in wordcrafting to more than 1,200 surveys and focus groups in more than 20 countries, and has played a key role in several major corporate and political campaigns.

Words That Work is his attempt to share his thoughts on the importance of language. "The key to successful communication," Luntz writes, "is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener's shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart."

The perception that others have of you is even more powerful than the perception you have of yourself. One way people form their perception of you is through the words you use. It stands to reason, then, that the words you choose have a profound impact on your personal success. Luntz believes this to be true, and his book helps readers make syntax decisions that enable them to tap into the power of communication.

A second chance to discover your strengths and how to make them work for you. It's been six years since Now, Discover Your Strengths hit bookstore shelves. During those six years, the book spent five years on bestseller lists and has helped millions of people discover their key strengths. The book, which was geared toward managers, was so well received by a broad audience that the Gallup Organization decided to publish a second version that is less manager focused. The new book, StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, takes the original ideas presented by Gallup in Now, Discover Your Strengths and expands them to include practical steps for putting your strengths to work. Perhaps the most useful part of the book is the suggestions given by hundreds of individuals about what they are doing with their strengths. The team at Gallup, along with Tom Rath, compiled the 10 best suggestions for each of 34 themes, which enable readers to assemble a profile that goes beyond a mere description and provides action steps to grow their key talents.

In many ways, the StrengthsFinder assessment works against the idea that if you try hard enough, you can be anything you want to be.

True to his personality, Lee Iacocca tells it like it is. When you've lived through the Great Depression, two World Wars, and presidents of every persuasion, you deserve a platform on which to share your feelings about it all. And, when you've met with more corporate and political leaders than almost anyone else alive, you've earned the right to speak about the future of the country if the leaders don't start leading. Lee Iacocca does just that in his newest book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? At 82 years old, this former CEO of Chrysler Corporation is taking an opportunity to share his thoughts about the current state of leadership in the United States, and let's just say he's not too happy.

Iacocca has a passion to see real change in the United States--a change in the current leadership culture that will change the direction of the country. In the book, he recounts several interactions he has had with various leaders, from Fidel Castro to Snoop Dogg, and encourages people to vote, get involved, and choose leaders carefully.

His no-nonsense approach is reminiscent of his bestsellers Iacocca: An Autobiography and Talking Straight. His honesty, however, should not be construed as pessimism. These are the words of a man who has been there, done that, and wants to tell you his opinion about it.

Check your pulse. Is it still there? That's good news. Not only are you still alive, you are someone who could benefit from a reading of Marshall Goldsmith's book What Got You Here Won't Get You There. Goldsmith has built a career out of helping people recognize the challenges of interpersonal conduct, especially as it relates to leadership behavior in the workplace. And while his newest book deals with workplace issues, his "20 Habits that Hold You Back from the Top" are applicable in both your career and your personal life. The principles are about becoming a more successful person, not just a more successful employee.

Goldsmith's no-nonsense approach to helping people recognize their bad habits and improve their behavior stems from the years he has spent as one of the world's most recognized business coaches. When it comes to curbing self-destructive behavior, Goldsmith's advice is to admit it's a problem and simply stop doing it.

The book is filled with anecdotes and examples that provide the right amount of direction for anyone looking to take the next step toward greater success as a leader and as a person. It is a page-turner that is sure to provide practical tips for all readers.

There is no direct path to becoming a great leader. Personal tragedies, emotional issues, failures, and regrets--each one has the power to knock you off the typical career path. And yet, it is often these life events that empower individuals to become great leaders. Bill George and Peter Sims understand this concept, and have written a remarkable book to help you discover "the internal compass that guides you successfully through life." Written as a sequel to Bill George's book Authentic Leadership, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership stands alone as a book that points readers toward becoming an authentic leader.

The book is broken down into three sections. The first is comprised of a series of anecdotes of individuals who have followed their internal compass and become authentic leaders, and some who have lost their way.

The second section focuses on the five key facets of a successful leadership plan. Arguably the most pragmatic section in the book, the authors take the reader through the necessary steps of creating a unique leadership plan.

In the third section, the reader is treated to more stories from the 125 men and women who provided candid peeks into their journeys to authentic leadership. True North is a valuable book for anyone who wants to point their compass in the right direction.

Whatever happened to honesty in business? That's what your clients and customers are asking, even if your company is above reproach. For decades, corporations have talked at their customers and called it "communication." Now comes the blog--and an opportunity for your company to talk with customers, and let them talk back.

Using more than 50 interviews with people at all levels and types of business, the authors demonstrate in a fresh and thought-provoking way how blogs can repair corporate image and rebuild lost trust. And they show you how to do it right.

Bill Gates, who uses blogs to communicate with Microsoft customers, says, "You are letting people have a sense of the people [at Microsoft]. You're building a connection. People feel a part of this. Maybe they'll tell us how we can better improve our products."

The authors put forth a convincing case that businesses large and small need to take blogging seriously. Corporate blogging can also provide excellent return investment, particularly in terms of search-engine rankings. Can your organization afford not to blog? Read this book, and decide for yourself.

Do you have a signature order at Starbucks? Something you always pick up on your way to the office? You may even have it in your hand as you read this. Have you ever stopped to consider just what makes you go back day after day? Joseph Michelli, author of The Starbucks Experience, may be able to give you a few reasons for your devotion, while at the same time providing you with ways to create similar appeal at your own company.

Having been granted unique access to personnel and other resources at Starbucks, Michelli made the discovery that its success is ultimately driven by the people who work there and the experiences they create for each individual customer. In the book, Michelli contends that any company can institute a similar philosophy, and provides step-by-step strategies to encourage the reader.

These strategies are rooted in five key leadership principles. Michelli uses a variety of stories and anecdotes from behind the Starbucks counter to flesh out these principles and make them accessible to a wide audience. The Starbucks Experience is a robust brew of great ideas that can make a difference in your company.

Do you have trouble making your ideas stick? Do you feel like you're wasting your time trying to get your message across? Do you wonder if your idea really isn't worth promoting?

Every day, worthy ideas get tossed in the trash by people who have simply given up on being heard. This tragedy is precisely what led brothers Chip and Dan Heath to explore the notion of making ideas "stickier." Their book, Made to Stick, sets out to help people find ways for their ideas to be understood, remembered, and have a lasting impact.

Early on in the book, the authors write, "It's the nature versus nurture debate applied to ideas: Are ideas born interesting or made interesting? Well, this is a nurture book."

In the book, the authors take apart sticky ideas, things like urban legends, folk remedies, conspiracy theories, and found out what elements in these messages make them stick. Then, they give practical steps for using these sticky elements to craft your own ideas. Made to Stick acts as a great complement to Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point. It is an enjoyable read that is sure to get the wheels turning when it comes to creating ideas that stick.

Where were you when the world went flat? While it is common knowledge that the physical earth is not actually flat, the social, economic, and political world is getting flatter by the day. How can this be? Thomas L. Friedman unravels the mystery in his book, The World Is Flat.

Friedman is not suggesting that the geology of the earth has changed. What has changed, however, is the way in which the earth's inhabitants interact with one another. By "flat," Friedman means "connected." His book takes a look at the present state of the world, at how political barriers and trade blockades are being lowered, and at how technology continues to take society to places it never dreamed of, including the ability to do almost anything instantaneously with people on the other side of the planet. Friedman has not set out to write a book about the wonders that may come in our lifetime, but instead to shed light on the incredible things that are already taking place.

Friedman takes the concept of globalization and blows it wide open, exposing the hows and whys of this current trend. He contends that your business is going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. This is an important read for executives and business leaders who wants to keep pace with the world around them.

If the most difficult part of your job is dealing with the people you work alongside, you are not alone. Empowering yourself to take control of your work life by learning how to pinpoint and deal with relationships, and resulting emotional distress, that hold you back on the job will enable you to face each day with confidence. Psychotherapist Katherine Crowley and business consultant Kathi Elster have teamed up to write "Working with You Is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work" as a tool for people who find themselves in need of a little empowerment.

Emotional distress at work sets the stage for elevated stress levels, physical discomfort, and ultimately failure, if it is not brought under control. The goal of this book is to provide clear escape strategies for anyone who feels trapped by their emotions. Each chapter paints a picture of specific situations at work in which people often find themselves, such as unclear boundaries, confused roles, and difficult or extreme bosses, and, through a series of case studies, quizzes, and illuminating scenarios, offers a way to deal with each situation.

Whether or not you are in an emotionally distressing situation at work, chances are you will be at some point, and this book will prove to be an invaluable resource.