Reviewed by Parul Sood for Readers' Favorite

The StorySelling Method by Philipp Humm is a comprehensive guide to mastering the art of storytelling in business. In his book, Humm provides a step-by-step process for crafting and delivering stories that will not only captivate your audience but also persuade them and inspire action. He begins by explaining the importance of storytelling in business, emphasizing the power of stories to build trust, stand out, and boost sales. He then breaks down the four essential elements of effective storytelling: characters, conflict, plot, and resolution. Throughout the pages, Humm provides practical exercises, templates, and real-world examples to help us create compelling stories.

One of the strengths of The StorySelling Method by Philipp Humm is its focus on authenticity and emotional resonance. Humm stresses the importance of connecting with your audience emotionally and provides tips for doing so authentically. He also emphasizes drawing on your experiences and emotions when crafting your stories rather than relying on generic or formulaic approaches. It is a blueprint for creating accounts to captivate your audience and drive sales. The exercises and templates provided make the concepts easy to understand and apply, and the real-world examples help to illustrate the points and make the ideas more tangible. This engaging and informative read offers valuable insights and practical tools for improving storytelling skills. Whether you're a marketer, salesperson, or entrepreneur, it is a must-read if you want to build stronger connections with your audience and drive business results through the power of storytelling.

Reviewed by Grace Ruhara for Readers' Favorite

What kind of leader do you aspire to be? Do you want to be the controlling and commanding leader that thrives on your employees following you rather than leading them? If not, Leadership Mindset 2.0: The Psychology and Neuroscience of Reaching your Full Potential by R. Michael Anderson will equip you with tools and techniques to become a better leader who is resilient, focused, motivating, yet empathetic and humble. Anderson incorporates four phases of growth leadership with psychology and neuroscience that will help you as a leader to understand how your brain functions and how it’s wired; how you think and how you can change your mindset; the drive behind the choices you make so that you can easily release any stumbling blocks that are holding you back from reaching your full potential. He also reveals how you can adopt a positive mindset by learning what procrastination and imposter syndrome are and how to overcome them. Anderson shows how to lead others by learning to relate to them while inspiring and motivating them. He also teaches the leader how to think, act, talk, and connect with others strategically.

Leaders will be motivated to work on themselves to become great with R. Michael Anderson’s story. He provides examples of individuals who have made mistakes in life, enabling us to learn from their mistakes and avoid them, thus giving us an upper hand once a similar situation approaches. At the end of each subtopic, some questions helped me think about and evaluate my leadership skills. As a result, I ended up adjusting and rectifying my weak areas. Leadership Mindset 2.0: The Psychology and Neuroscience of Reaching your Full Potential is a guide I recommend to those who want to become better leaders with a positive mindset and work well with others to do their best.

Reviewed by Edith Wairimu for Readers' Favorite

In her eye-opening work, Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges, Michelle D Gladieux encourages us to take intelligent communication risks and grow as communicators. In her narrative, courage refers to the ability to face and address dysfunctional elements of communication in oneself and those we interact with. Analyzing risk relates to evaluating the professional and personal costs involved in communication, choosing whether to deliver a message, and considering how to deliver it. For one to grow and become an effective communicator, Gladieux asserts we have to be aware and ready to address four hidden challenges, which include hiding from risk, defining to be right, which involves acting on the bias, rationalizing the negative, which includes shielding oneself from the advantages and disadvantages of communication and, settling for just good enough in communication.

Communicate with Courage includes helpful communication strategies in each chapter that can be utilized professionally and personally. The exercises are specific and straightforward and guide us on how to act on the advice included. I loved that the content is written for different people with different personalities, and considers our various ways of communicating. It explores the hidden challenges of informative communication with thoughtful and enlightening anecdotes. The discussions are timely, especially in today’s world marked by strife and conflict, and will be helpful to anyone regardless of how effective they are in communicating. Communicate with Courage by Michelle D Gladieux is an important work that delivers actionable and valuable strategies and tools for developing your communication skills. It will be helpful to anyone regardless of one's professional or personal background. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers' Favorite

Our past experiences shape our mindset and tremendously impact how we perceive, analyze, and approach any event or situation in our lives. Despite being raised in a dysfunctional home, Soren Kaplan went on to become the leader of a strategy team of a Fortune 500 corporation in Silicon Valley. In this thought-provoking guidebook, Experiential Intelligence, Kaplan showcases how XQ (Experiential Intelligence) relates to IQ and EQ (Emotional Intelligence), providing tools and strategies for us to help nurture and develop our XQ and apply it in our personal and professional lives in the context of leadership, teams, and communities. It also shows you how to identify the collective experience and impact of the past in the context of your community, team, or organization and helps you foster leadership abilities amidst disruptive environments.

At the end of each chapter, Soren Kaplan provides key messages that outline and overview the contents of the relative chapter. Experiential Intelligence offers tools and practices to help us recognize and tap into opportunities by drawing on the strengths we've accumulated through our past experiences. You will learn to create new experiences, develop abilities, scale Experiential Intelligence, and foster positive relationship loops. Presented with meticulous organization and a keen eye for detail, the contents are accessible and easy to grasp. Kaplan's insights and practices are also applicable in the real world, which is my biggest compliment. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers' Favorite

With the rise of social media and the internet, it feels like there has been an exacerbation of underlying hostility among people who refuse to simmer down anytime soon. In this modern era, communication is critical to bridging relationships and reaching across the political spectrum that seems to have divided the general populace to extremes. Sally Susman is the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Pfizer, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. With Breaking Through, Susman provides valuable insights to help readers get the best out of conversations and use communication as a fundamental benchmark for success. You will learn to display clarity of vision while declaring unwavering intentionality, practice honesty in all aspects of your life, build a framework to navigate the unexpected challenges that come your way, use humor to foster workplace harmony, and much more.

Breaking Through gives you the tools and practices to help you find the best way to communicate and present yourself and your ideas to the outside world. This book is not just for corporate professionals or entrepreneurs but for people from all backgrounds and careers. Author Sally Susman uses personal anecdotes and shares her vast knowledge and experience to help you become the best version of yourself and thrive in your respective field. She reveals how difficult it was to come out in front of her parents in the mid-1980s and encourages readers to strive to be authentic about who they are and what they want. I found the book educational and inspiring but also surprisingly entertaining because of Susman's wit and humor. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Foluso Falaye for Readers' Favorite

In Oops, I Became a Manager: Managing the Veterinary Hospital Team while Finding Unicorns, Amy Newfield provides a comprehensive guide to mastering leadership and management in the veterinary industry. Amy picks several engaging and humorous stories from her experiences while working with different veterinary teams to give readers practical, tested methods to employ with their teams. The book contains thought-provoking essays about learning to delegate and supervise optimally instead of trying to take on all the important activities, key traits to look for while selecting leaders, building trust and reducing gossip in workspaces, recognizing and dealing with burnout, and more. Whether you're new to the veterinary world or you've been practicing for a while, you will learn how to up your game in leadership and teamwork from this informative and complex book.

I wish that every professional role came with a candid, fully-packed guide, like Oops, I Became a Manager to advance individuals in their chosen careers and help them avoid costly mistakes. This is exactly what the book does for veterinary professionals. Still, the lessons about leadership and performing well with others within teams can be applied in any field. It doesn't get more practical than the direct steps Amy Newfield shares as it includes clear wording and messages to use in different situations, the activities to include in different types of meetings, and more useful information that shows that the author has mastered her profession. Thanks to this book, I now know how significant and beneficial something as simple as giving well-deserved praise can be. This is a well-balanced, engrossing book, with its abundant statistical information, real-life examples, and its friendly, interactive tone.

Reviewed by Vincent Dublado for Readers' Favorite

Customer Escalations Management: The Golden Recipe by Nikolaos Zormpas is the ultimate guide on how to provide amazing customer service and exceptional customer experience. Dealing with customers and avoiding escalations is one of the most challenging parts of any business, but the good news is that this book redefines what true customer service means. Is the customer always right? This book tells you that it is not always the case. However, it is an aspirational ideology that, when placed in the right context, becomes the nucleus of the five steps you can take to overcome challenging situations and reach a mutual agreement with your valued customers. There is always a silver lining. Use The Golden Recipe to learn how to handle customer escalations that result in customer satisfaction.

Nikolaos Zormpas puts the human touch back into customer relations and strengthens the connection between people and your business. It is difficult to win customers yet it is very easy to lose them. Customer Escalations Management teaches you how to retain your customers, strengthen your brand, and accumulate more patronage. Zormpas guides you through all this by presenting you with a realistic approach to the subject. I've had my share of customer service experience, having worked at an outsourced call center, and I certainly wished I'd had this book back then. I like the way it teaches you a strategic approach to defusing customer frustration. The Golden Recipe is a huge boost in turning problems into opportunities. Customer Escalations Management is an invaluable reference for anyone who is engaged in a customer-oriented venture.

Reviewed by Cecelia Hopkins for Readers' Favorite

Winning Digital Customers by Howard Tiersky offers invaluable advice on staying relevant in a digital age. Chapter One commences with a discussion of the enthusiasm we feel for brands and products that successfully create a sense of connection with customers. Chapter Two explains the stages of Digital Evolution, then Chapter Three explains how digital transformation helps a business retain relevance, achieve cost efficiency, and attract employees. Chapter Four suggests convenience and personalization are key benefits to a digitalized product, while Chapter Five emphasizes the importance of a customer focus. Chapters Six to Ten discuss customer research and understanding the customer experience. Chapters Eleven to Fifteen workshop putting ideas into action, using innovation and “Design thinking”. Chapters Seventeen and Twenty-One discuss optimization, giving examples on making things work and combatting resistance to change.

Winning Digital Customers by Howard Tiersky is a readable and informative guide, providing insight into the reasons why some businesses successfully negotiate the digital age and others do not. The book also provides an interesting study into organizational culture and outlines the process of surviving transformation. Tiersky writes with authority and experience, covering material that would be appreciated by a business owner or corporate trainer. The book is illustrated with diagrams and flowcharts that make the explanations clear enough for any reader to comprehend. The occasional amusing anecdote lightens the mood and makes the business information relative and accessible. I recommend Winning Digital Customers by Howard Tiersky to anyone who enjoys reading non-fiction and learning about the economy.

Reviewed by Astrid Iustulin for Readers' Favorite

When you decided to become a business owner, you probably imagined some of the risks you would face. However, have you ever wondered if you and your company could deal with a cyber attack or if you are safe from fraud and abuse? Have you ever wondered if your workplace offers protection against violence? All of these situations need your consideration, but if you do not have the time to reflect on them all (every business owner has limited time), I recommend that you read Ivy Walker's handy manual, Twelve-Minute Risk Management: Strategies and Tools Small Business Owners Need Right Now to Navigate Today's Business World. Written for small business owners who want the best for their business, this book will put you on the right path by analyzing risks and offering what you need most - solutions.

Twelve-Minute Risk Management will make many small business owners happy. Ivy Walker will open the eyes of those who read her book and make them understand what steps are required for the security of their business. In particular, I was fascinated by the chapter on cyber-attacks. I believe the author's warning that small companies are more at risk than large ones will make business owners grasp the importance of paying attention to this aspect. The chapter about workplace violence (and the considerations of domestic violence it implies) also offers valuable insights into how the employer should deal with employees. This is a book that small business owners will appreciate for its no-nonsense approach. I believe they will all benefit from reading it.

Reviewed by Dr. Jordan Alexander for Readers' Favorite

Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads offers exactly what author Clif Smith says it will: Unlocking Exceptional Performance, Leadership, and Well-being for Working Professionals. Without ringing one bell or chanting one Om, the ex-CIA-trained intelligence officer, US Army veteran, and former diplomat shares a spiritual-free version of mindfulness practices that anyone can apply at work and home. Smith first quiets the noise around the concept of mindfulness, then shares examples of practices you can try over an eight-week period. None of them requires any spiritual belief! The overview of why mindfulness is critical today cites various studies of how work gets the bulk of our attention, followed by phone apps and Netflix, asking us what quality time is realistically spent in our lives?

Smith covers the myths of multitasking and the downsides of distraction, like how a three-minute social media break will take an additional twenty-three minutes to get you back on task. Readers will also learn why the wandering mind doesn’t allow proper rest and can create unhappiness; plus how consequences of physical presence without mental presence can increase stress and anxiety, compound health issues, and reduce productivity. So what’s the answer? According to Smith, it is a balance of non-striving (less doing, less should's, and more being), acceptance, letting go, and focusing on gratitude and generosity as a start. The rest is about practice – formal and informal – and patience with yourself, especially learning mindfulness. He urges us to be kind with the stories we tell ourselves about trying new mindfulness experiences.

In Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads, Clif Smith has brought his teaching to tens of thousands of corporate and government leaders as Ernst and Young’s Global Mindfulness Network Leader. Now you too can gain his valuable insights and perspectives. Each chapter summarizes key learning points and takes you step-by-step on a formal practice to try yourself, like starting simply with an Awareness of Breath meditation. Your informal practices come next and include everything from mindful eating and drinking to catching and releasing thoughts and keeping a gratitude journal. Daily mindfulness practices help you become more aware, happy, and healthy. If the spiritual side of mindfulness has been holding you back, Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads is here to help you improve your work, relationships, and life, one breath at a time.