Training Books

Graham Alexander is a professional leadership coach who allows us to be indirectly coached by him through a series of ten powerful and thought-provoking questions. Questions such as "Who are you and who do others say you are?" and "What can only you do?".
Each chapter is an opportunity for you to examine a part of yourself or your influence.

Each chapter includes Million Dollar Questions, Wakeup Calls, and Action Items sprinkled through the pages at strategic points. These are gathered together at the end in the form of an Executive Summary.

This book is a powerful tool to support you in taking yourself and your leadership to a higher level.

One of the best hands-on leadership books I have read. Excellent tips and practices. Great stories. Very practical with items that can be implemented immediately. Very thought provoking.

Tales From The Top is a must read for every leader! This book not only helps you to achieve your best in business but as well teaches you how to achieve your personal best in life. I appreciate how Graham asks the appropriate questions to not only help you excel in business, but also how to thrive in your personal life. Many books on the market today help you to excel in one or the other, not in both. I appreciate the balance Graham challenges every leader to achieve.

The author is a proponent of the following organizational
customs/philosophies:
- get fear out into the open where it can be confronted and
dealt with constructively
- say what you think
- face facts dispassionately rather than running away from them
- confront negativity head-on
- be passionate about your business
- seek new missions to reinvigorate staff
- select the undone things on your "to do" list
- itemize reasons for failure or reasons why there are no results
- discuss the unmentionables dispassionately
- do not waste precious talent

The work is invaluable because it confronts reasons why
people and/or organizations face intractable bottlenecks.
Dispassionate honesty flushes out why an organization does not
work so that constructive strategies can be put forth to
improve the throughput of decision-making .

No one teaches you to be a CEO, but this book offers a rare peek behind the scenes in other corner offices. The book gives real-world examples of issues faced by some of the world's top executives, and walks you through how Alexander coached them to solutions that substantially increased their effectiveness. He brings a refreshingly human approach to leadership issues. I hear his fee is $1,000 an hour, so this book seems like a pretty affordable way to get his help!

Telemedicine and Telehealth is a timely and useful book. As a Physician and Consultant, Teleheath provides a soup to nuts discussion about the issues relating to telehealth.
The first chapter details basic definitions of the field. The next five chapters deals with the patient, physicans, Healthcare in general, and lastly specific telemedicine services. The authors suggest the formula for telehealth success as improved quality and access to care at a lower cost and without raising professional objestions.
I found the chapters developing the business case for Telemedicine and telehealth services most compelling. These markets are still in their infancy and are still struggling to develop their potential. The authors share with us their strategy for selling Telehealth services (page 157).
Telemedice and Telehealth, also provides a cautionary note. The authors indicate that to date they were not aware of studies demonstrating a viable telehealth model with the current legislation and reimbursement structure. Further issues such as licensure, quality assurance and backup systems remain to be clearly defined.
This book is an excellent read. Concise, articulate and timely. I would recommend this book to any one intersted in Telemedicine or Telehealth.

Conceptually, the answer to many of health care's challenges lie in the use of new information technologies. Knowing this is the case and making it happen are two very different entities. This book ably bridges these two entities. The devil, as always, is in the details and the authors deftly elaborate the problems and provide solutions. I recommend this book to practitioners, administrators, managers and policy makers who are energetic and enthusiastic about the future direction of health care. Errol L. Biggs, Ph.D., Director - Programs in Health Administration, University of Colorado

As a software developer and member of the American Telemedicine Association, I found this book to be a very valuable reference. Our company is developing software solutions to allow patients and health care providers easy, secure access to medical information. This book has helped us understand how telemedicine is developing and how it will be used, so that we can see the developing niches for our products. This book provides the larger view of this developing field and gives readers inspiration to enter the exciting field.

Review of: Telemedicine and Telehealth by Adam W. Darkins and Margaret A. Cary

This important book begins the necessary critical conversation of defining the fundamental of concepts and terms, as well as those areas of current and future applications, involved in the merging of health care delivery and high technology systems. The authors wisely suggest using the term Telehealth to address the broad range of health applications which high technology, the Internet in particular, can greatly impact.

These concerns are set in the context of both a historical view of health care and society, particularly in the more technologically developed societies of the U.S. Western Europe and Japan, and these societiesÕ current and future trends toward change of lifestyle driven by their adaptation of new technologies. These are vital concerns, both within health care delivery in particular, as well as within the economic and social evolution of these societies in general.

Their book focuses on the patientÕs experience of health care service as facilitated by this new technology rather than being yet another discussion of the fascinating innovations within the technology itself, a very important distinction.

Being physicians themselves, authors Darkins and Cary have professionally grown up through the very cusp of change they are defining for us; they know the pre-high technology delivery of health care and have been witness to, and advocates for, the introduction of high technology to the health care systems in which each have worked, both in the U.S. and England.

Their book is both comprehensive in its discussion of the issues involved as well as being detailed in its coverage of those particulars necessary to see the overall picture clearly.

Because of the timeliness of this merging of high technology and healthcare delivery, one wishes this book could be made more available to a wider reading public through a greater promotional effort by the publisher.

As a practicing physician with a keen interest in information technologies and their applications in healthcare, I always approach books like this with some bemusement. In turn, I was pleasantly surprised by my delight with this book. To succeed in the charge to bridge the digital divide and to eliminate health disparities, we physicians and managers will have to arm ourselves with timely solutions which are informed by experience and science. Coupled with the practical and the "how to" make "Telemedicine and Telehealth" a valuable resource for anyone interested in creating the future healthcare system. It connects and transcends the important elements and issues rather than just regurgitating the problems we've heard over and over again. If you believe, as I do, that the future of healthcare will be greatly enhanced by the new information technologies, this book helps to put the present and future in perspective. Darkins and Cary absolutely succeed!

This is the first book I read about 16 personality types. Easy to read and it makes sense.

Written by certified human resource professional and award-winning author and consultant Donna Dunning, TLC At Work invests heavily in the concepts of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory and Dunning's twenty years of experience. "TLC" stands for "Training, Leading, and Coaching", in this excellent guide especially for human resource professionals and people seeking to improve their performance at work. Chapters address how to build relationships and establish credibility, rapport, and trust, how to facilitate development, enhancing the five basic workplace competencies of self-responsibility, communication, mindfulness, productivity, and proactivity, and more. Of especial interest is the recommendations for using coaching to help people who think and react in very different ways learn to balance and effectively fine-tune their gut responses to a given situation. A highly recommended and superbly useful guidebook; though intended for business use, its principles are also directly applicable to volunteers coordinating or managing smaller projects such as a community theater production or a charity drive.

One of the most powerful definitive works on what one needs to do when mentoring or helping others. Training, Leading and Coaching at Work answers the often raised questions about mentoring - a good idea in theory, but what do I actually do?

TLC at Work provides real situations and real responses that all can learn and put into immediate use in the workplace. This book should be required reading for all University Students no matter what field of study they are in. Used as a reference guide, it will help the professors understand the students and will help the students advance more quickly in their careers. A must read! TLC at Work will lead to people describing their workplace as one that supports a TLC attitude to the staff.

A nice blend of theory and practice. Filled with practical down to earth tools that can be implemented easily. Myers-Briggs afficinados will find it immediately useful and so will those without a background in type because it's written so that a deep understanding of type is not required for value to be found.

If you are responsible for training or developing other people, if you are in a leadership role or if you simply want to accelerate your career development, we recommend Donna Dunning's book as your personal study guide. The author utilizes her 20 plus years of experience in employee development to identify succinctly the five basic competencies everyone needs to succeed. Going a step deeper than the usual treatment, she recognizes that individuals who want to develop a particular competency may not understand what mastering that competency looks like. For example, what does "mindfulness" look like? Can you see mindfulness? Not really. But you can see the results of mindful behavior. Dunning focuses on identifying specific behaviors that demonstrate each competency so anyone who wants to develop a skill knows exactly what to do. Then she takes the process still further, identifying how personality types and preferences have an impact on the development of each of the five basic competencies. She shows facilitators how to work most effectively with each personality type to develop individuals to their full potential in a collaborative manner with the least amount of frustration and resistance.

Although this is a departure from author Lundin's famous "Fish" series of customer service focused books, "Top Performer" demonstrates yet another means of identifying and delivering excellent customer service. It is novel in that most people would never seriously consider a street performer to be excellent at focusing upon the "needs" of his customers and then delivering customer service that fulfills those needs. As in the "Fish" series, "Top Performer" will deliver those "light bulb goes on" moments. The lessons that it delivers are easy to recall and should be part of any process used to identify and deliver superior sales and service. This is a fast and easy read which you will end up going back to periodically for a refresher course.

What a cool concept, increase the energy of yourself and those people around you. Without getting metaphysical, Lundin and Hagerman have touched on something that is real but cannot be seen. A great, fun read to keep me on the path of continuous improvement.

Lundin and Hagerman have authored a book that is surprising in its depth. A burned-out businessman goes in search of new energy to stay on top of his game. What he finds surprises him and it will surprise you, the reader!

This clever fable of life lessons from a street performer is something we all need to learn. Life is about relationships--about living the moment with gusto--about honoring mistakes and surprises, and finally about taking care of one another. The principles that spark the protagonist are good advice for life. This book is a great gift. How rare to find a "business book" that is fun to read and offers life-changing advice.

Anyone who works in sales or customer service industries should definately read this book. It tells the story of a successful salesperson who finds that the extra hours and discipline which have worked well early in his career are no longer enough. His home life is strained, his motivation is low, and he no longer can sustain himself on the challenge of just meeting his targets. He finds the answers he needs from discussions with street performers and learns tools and strategies to excel and rekindle the excitement in his job and life. A quick and fun read full of great ideas that stick with you!

A wonderful journey in the land of intuitive reasoning and inner potential mining. For those of us struggling in the pursuit of new business ideas or suffocating in unattainable bottom lines. Top Performer will help you tap your natural energy, awaken your curiosity and leverage your unique abilities. A truly sustainable new year's resolution!

very informative. covers many areas. I will use and reuse this book for many years .

Coaches and anyone who works with children should check out this book. It will dispel all those myths you may have heard about training children in sports.

I am from Greece and it was quite easy for me to understand it and apply the meaning of this book to my athletes. Thank you Mr. Bompa.

It helped me a lot to understand the essentials of training my young kid, and designing an effective training strategy for his age.

It's hard to write a review without it sounding like an advertisement...This book dispels many myths of youth training like the need for early sports specific exercises. It covers exercises for all phases of youth development from ages 5 to 20. His advice, backed by world class achievement, can help you resist the pressure to put children through adult style training exercises and at the same time properly train children for future world class competition. I have compared his recommendations against many sources and have become convinced that they are correct. This book is a must have for Directors of Youth Coaching and Physical Development.

A most entertaining book - fun to read, and so informative - for once I read what the africans really do on a day to day basis.
A ruuner's coffee table MUST HAVE. MAde me wanna run... all the way to Africa!

This is the best running book I've ever come across - and I've read a few! It's easy to read & fun, makes we want to run to Africa to run... On a more serious note - it shows that the only way to improve is to train. It's informative and backed-up by some of the world's greatest runners. As Mr. Tanser says: Train Hard, Win Easy. Great reading!

If you are a "goal oriented" distance runner, you'll love this book. Most of us can forget trying the workouts listed here but hey, we can dream! This is a great thing to reread when one wants to get fired up about one's training. I really turn to this book when I am tempted to waste more money on fads, new gadgets, etc. :-)

The formula for Kenyan success in distance running? It is no secret, really. You will find about what you expect. Still, this book is worth reading.

This book also provides a few brief glimpses of Kenya's culture and of the various sub-cultures within.

A total break from the boring running books. This book actually tells us from a runner running with the great runners. Whenever I need a kick before training I just get out this book, read a couple of pages and I'm flying through the Rift Valley training with Moses Tanui!

I expected this to be a book, which would reveal all the secrets of Kenyan runners and take my own running to another level. I was a bit disappointed at first but when I started reading it more I found it very inspiring. It teaches you how crazy actually the Kenyan runners are with their training. This book does give training examples of what the Kenyans do but they are more like just "samples" of the training and it's hard to get a big picture. If you want to learn the secrets of Kenyan runners, forget it -- there are no secrets. These guys just train so hard that it would be a wonder if they wouldn't be world class runners. If you want find out what it takes to be a world class runner, this book could be your choice.

I coach middle school track and found that this book helped me think beyond drills. My students love the games, and I see improvement in their running!

This book has some great ideas to spice up your workouts. It is organized very well and offers different ideas that range from simple to complex.

Training for cross country or distance track events can often become tedious work. Anderson does a great job of providing simple, ready-to-use games and techniques that will help combat this problem. I found many of the ideas useful and easy to use right away. Other ideas were not so adaptable to my team, but I still used the nuggets he have in the book and manipulated them to meet my needs. My athletes responded with enthusiasm. While nothing can take the place of mileage, the mindset an athlete has during the mileage can set the tone for the whole training experience. Although this book may not meet the needs of the reader to a tee, it is broad enough to enable the reader to create his/her own variation on the theme. Solid book for coaches.

"Training Games" is a rather tiny publication compared to others relating to the same topic, but it is loaded with great ideas! It is to the point. Everything relates to practice and there is no wasted page! I used this book over and over and still discover new things. It also leads the user to create and add own ideas. Invaluable for any teacher and coach! It is money well spent.

Lots of fun and useful information. The kids are always asking to play a game or practice one of the techniques found in the book. I have had the book for a year, and there is still so much yet to use! A great tool for finding new and different ways to improve your coaching/training.

I got this book about a month ago and it has been a big help for training at home. Its packed with a lot of information and is written really well...
I really like that it has sample workouts in the back that give you an idea of what you should do for each area you are trying to work on and how much to do...

I'd recommend this book to every martial artist

This book has strategies and exercises geared toward improving power, speed, perception, balance, agility, coordination, timing, endurance, accuracy, flexibility and mental strength. Also included are sections on nutrition, injury prevention and sample workouts that mix a variety of exercises from the categories previously listed. This book outlines a very direct and organized approach to the fitness aspect of martial arts training without any fluff or stylistic interpretations. Read it and immediately you will have an arsenal of good exercises for your fitness routine, at home or in a class. Highly recommended.

I practice Taekwondo, but no matter your martial art, this book is so detailed and helpful. Some exercises would be great in the Dojang, but you can do nearly all of them on you own. I believe even if you arent even a martial artist this book will whip you into excellent shape and you will have fun along the way.

Part of my daily routine. I also own his newer book on flexibility. This author has laid out a good comprehensive plan for everyone at every level, not just us who practice martial arts. Although this book was written quite a few years ago, its basic theory is still good-to-go today and it remains fresh.

Ultimate Fitness Through Martial Arts author Sang Kim delivers. First by identifing and devoting an entire chapter to each of the main attributes (power; speed; perception; coordination; balance; agility; flexibility; endurance; accuracy; timing and strength) required to perform the martial arts. Second, by breaking-down each attribute into more detailed subsets - for example, power is broken down to explosive power, static power and dynamic power. Third, is how and why our bodies respond (or won't!) when we try to do a technique with power or speed and the result is (or isn't) powerful or speedy!

Kim then presents an impressive number of exercises and variations in each chapter that help the reader improve that specific attribute and/or subset.

This book has been a helpful supplement to my karate class training and has enabled me to accelerate my progress in endurance and flexibility - the two attributes which I am specifically working to improve. This book is an excellent resource.

This book is intended to be an inspirational presentation by an athletic coach or trainer, not a psychology book. So the reader needs to be a little forgiving at times about assertions with no citations for claims. I actually found the book useful, and I am sure the author can motivate an athlete or team.

Unlimited Sports Success does not claim to make an amateur into a professional, there are too many other variants in the world, but it does explain a great deal about what goes on in the mind of the athlete. Aspects that we can all use. I find myself constantly returning to this book as my life progresses and other tips become relevant, I often find myself remembering something Stephen wrote thus return to the book for some advice.

I have lent this book out on so many occasions in the past, but now am keen to keep it in my own hands as it is often tough to get it back. The reason the book is so sought after from my friends is that it deals with so many different sports. My father stole it for his Golfing advice, my cousin wanted to increase his Martial Arts internal energy (whatever that means!) my Sister wants to lose weight (whilst continuing to stuff her face!) and I need it for my Football skills.
If you choose to buy this book - take my advice write your name in the front cover!

Unlimited Sports Success does not claim to make an amateur into a professional, there are too many other variants in the world, but it does explain a great deal about what goes on in the mind of the athlete. Aspects that we can all use. I find myself constantly returning to this book as my life progresses and other tips become relevant, I often find myself remembering something Stephen wrote thus return to the book for some advice.

I have lent this book out on so many occasions in the past, but now am keen to keep it in my own hands as it is often tough to get it back. The reason the book is so sought after from my friends is that it deals with so many different sports. My father stole it for his Golfing advice, my cousin wanted to increase his Martial Arts internal energy (whatever that means!) my Sister wants to lose weight (whilst continuing to stuff her face!) and I need it for my Football skills.
If you choose to buy this book - take my advice write your name in the front cover!

Unlimited Sports Success does not claim to make an amateur into a professional, there are too many other variants in the world, but it does explain a great deal about what goes on in the mind of the athlete. Aspects that we can all use. I find myself constantly returning to this book as my life progresses and other tips become relevant, I often find myself remembering something Stephen wrote thus return to the book for some advice.

I have lent this book out on so many occasions in the past, but now am keen to keep it in my own hands as it is often tough to get it back. The reason the book is so sought after from my friends is that it deals with so many different sports. My father stole it for his Golfing advice, my cousin wanted to increase his Martial Arts internal energy (whatever that means!) my Sister wants to lose weight (whilst continuing to stuff her face!) and I need it for my Football skills.
If you choose to buy this book - take my advice write your name in the front cover!

Tony

Unlimited Sports Success does not claim to make an amateur into a professional, there are too many other variants in the world, but it does explain a great deal about what goes on in the mind of the athlete. Aspects that we can all use. I find myself constantly returning to this book as my life progresses and other tips become relevant, I often find myself remembering something Stephen wrote thus return to the book for some advice.

I have lent this book out on so many occasions in the past, but now am keen to keep it in my own hands as it is often tough to get it back. The reason the book is so sought after from my friends is that it deals with so many different sports. My father [borrowed] it for his Golfing advice, my cousin wanted to increase his Martial Arts internal energy (whatever that means!) my Sister wants to lose weight (whilst continuing to stuff her face!) and I need it for my Football skills.
If you choose to buy this book - take my advice write your name in the front cover!

If you get just one book on voice development, it certainly should be this one. As a phonetics teacher, I don't agree with every single detail in the book. But as someone who has taught English pronunciation and oral skills to ESL learners for decades, and also as a radio broadcaster, I feel a strong resonance with Lessac's approach. Differing in the details doesn't really matter, since the core of Lessac training is heightened sensitivity and slightly understated but focused control rather than specifics.

Lessac uses orchestral instruments as analogies to teach better articulation of each English consonant, e.g. the "N-violin" and the "T-snare drum drumbeat". Though impressionistic in approach, it does helps the student have an optimal quality in mind to aim for, and to pay closer attention to each internal physical event and the effect it produces.

Lessac has a fondness for coining his own jargon, like "NRG" ('energy'), "esthetic" (not "aesthetic"; 'anything that promotes sensitivity and induces awareness of sensation and perception in the body'), "kinesensic" ('intrinsic "self-to-self" sensation'), and of course the famous "Y-Buzz". The new terms are however well justified, since each figures importantly in the framework he teaches. The glossary in the back of the book can help keep everything straight. I also flipped to the index several times when trying to sort out the differences between terms like "tonal NRG" and "structural NRG" in the context of the book.

This is a solid course book, not casual reading, so take the chapters one at a time, mindfully, to reap maximum benefit from the book.

This edition is attractive and carefully edited; I found not a single typo in the whole book. My one criticism is the price. The outstanding content makes it definitely worth the cover price, but I don't see why a paperback needs to be so expensive. Like with Peter Ladefoged's A Course in Phonetics (with CD-ROM), I guess it is because it is a popular university textbook that commands a captive audience. About a third of the cover price would bring it more in line with similar editions. But that's not the author's fault, I assume, and doesn't merit taking off a star. And speaking of Ladefoged's book, it would be helpful to readers if this book included a CD-ROM as well.

As a voice teacher for many years, I am always being complimented on my speaking voice. Arthur Lessac's book was not my speaking coach, my operatic training was - but the technique is the same. Lessac has done a masterful job explaining the "old" Italian, bel canto/good singing technique that's been around since the 1600's - but he's done it for the speaking voice. Singers need to use the same technique for both speaking and singing, and this is the best book I've found on speaking technique.

Now everyone can understand logically how to improve their speaking and singing voice, and perhaps operatic voices will be better understood as not being something elitist or unnatural. Using the power of your instrument to produce quality sound is amazingly natural - it ain't magic. The "magic" is being given the vocal chords of an angel, inspiration from God, the constitution of a horse, the luck of (all) the Irish, and the intelligence of an Einstein to develop that voice into a Pavarotti, a Sutherland, etc.

This is probably the best technique out there for freeing and developing a strong vocal instrument for speech and singing. This is the only voice text (and I've read and studied them all: Linklater, Skinner, Berry, Rosenburgh)which gives a spicific structural breakdown for the production of healthy and tonal sound. Most other texts are just exercises, but Lessac's System gives exact physical placement for each vowel, consonant, and dipthong sound as well as extensive tonal work. Especially good for the dancer due to the strong physical emphasis of placement of the tongue, lips, jaw etc. His work on Consonant action is quite inovative, drawing on the actors imagination and assining each consonant sound to an instrument in the orchestra, thereby allowing the actor to more quickly understand the musical quality of speech. Here is a basic overview of what is covered in the text; anatomy of the vocal instrument, the alignment of the body and the economical use of muscular effort to produce sound, the use of optimum pitch to discover and develop the presence of tonality and broaden pitch and range, the use of melody and the onomatopoetic nature of language to communicate ideas, and the application of these skills to a text.

This is everything anybody (actors, speakers and liars) will ever need to know about discovering, developing and using with confidence the voice as a tool to communicate. Westerners especially, I believe, have trained and maimed their voices to suit ideals (The average woman speaks about 6 tones higher than her natural voice prescribes). This book, a trusted training manual in many theatre and opera schools, teaches practically and without pretence, the real abilities of the voice. This is all one needs to acquire/rediscover, with practise, how the voice can be an (extemely flexible) extension of oneself in a physical world. A wholistic adventure which necessarilly encompasses correct breathing and posture, which will eventually be effortless, simply because it is natural. From an acting perspective the Arthur Lessac voice system becomes a perfect partner to the Stanislavskyan system of acting (associated with 'The Method' in USA). The practice of the Lessac system can easily be taught to a child and has proven successful in overcoming a stutter. This probably because the learner is made aware of the manoeuvre-ability of sound and how it is created, and not only on voice as a carrier of language. The book contains many excercises, each making one discover and realise the immense power of (self-generated) sound. Living in Africa one often wonders at the vocal powers of its people. Westerners can also feel at one with their true voices. The Lessac system would be the first (and last) step on the route to rediscovery. This is a popular book (I had two copies stolen from me when it was out of print) amongst performers and all those who believe their bodies are instruments.

I first became acquainted with Arthur Lessac's work in the 1970's when I was in Graduate School. Since then, his Approach to Voice and Body Training has been the mainstay of my professional and personal life. His new book (the third version) has been written in such a way that complements the older version, yet takes us on a training journey that is wholistically and organically fresh and new. I enjoy teaching from this book, and my students enjoy learning from it!
--Nancy Krebs, Lessac Master Teacher