Training Books

Whether you are at an entry level position or a seasoned HR professional, this book is an excellent guide for promoting and maximizing total company quality and development. LaBonte takes you step by step through the process of integrating HPI into your company to pave the way for organizational success.

When Tom LaBonte decided to write Building a New Performance Vision, he created a template for moving training organizations "out of the outsourcing zone." But more importantly, he shared a secret weapon for companies to flourish even in the midst of mergers, reorganizations and technology change. That secret involves working across functional silos to partner, identify performance issues and enhance the organization's performance. LaBonte calls thus structure for change the Human Performance Improvement (HPI) organization. HPI organizations start by building support from the CEO of a company. They then organize for success by forming cross-functional teams with new roles, skills and knowledge. Building a New Performance Vision guides the reader through the entire process - from organizing to implementing performance improvement solutions.

If you are an HR leader, a line manager, a consultant or a practitioner, spending a few hours with this book will dramatically change the way you think and work within your company. Appendices include a glossary of terms, job descriptions and core competencies for Performance Consultants, Human Performance Improvement organizations and an organizational model for structuring a Human Performance Improvement department. Tables, charts and key points at the end of each chapter make the book easy to skim and navigate. But you will probably want to read it from cover to cover anyway!

While the concepts laid forth in the book are for mid to large companies, the strategies and goals can be applied to all levels. Comprehensive but still written in a fairly conversational tone, a must read for those who job or goals are to make the organization work better. And convince others they are right. Human Performance Improvement (HPI), what it is and how to make it work for your organization. The plan is clearly laid out. As someone who designs, delivers and sells technical training, Mr. LaBonte's book provides me with more than just buzz words, the book delivers a clear plan, a clear path on how I work with my customers, so I can help them achieve their goals. Standing in the trenches, striving to improve operations, it is great to have a road map that can resolve real problems for both internal and external customers. Thanks.

Highly enjoyed this book from Jossey-Bass because it clearly lays out the relevant issues involved in leadership development and training. It's concise and gives plenty of case examples. This would be an excellent purchase.

Also recommend a superb book our company uses for leader training - because it teaches managers very easily: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."

Unlike a like of so-called leadership books, this one seems like it was actually written in the 1990s. No out-of-date references to "successes" like Wang computers or Saturn autos. Lot of Gen-X stuff. An easy read.

Stretching beyond the confines of books devoted solely to leadership theory, "Building Leaders" combines a conceptual understanding of corporate leadership development with the nuts and bolts of it all. Through impressive case studies of significant companies, Conger and Benjamin provide a blueprint for the design and execution of leadership development programs. If you are at all interested in understanding what will, in the future, distinguish those companies that survive from those that do not, you must read this book.

The book includes a description of free weight and other exercises, but the primary focus of the discussion of different excercises is Nautilus exercise equipment. Having said that, the book does an excellent job of discussing the theory behind setting up both strength and cardio training programs. It does a particularly good job of explaining and contrasting the various strength training approaches such as circuit training, high intensity training, and slow training. The book is a bargain for the price!

This book is great as a reference for a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, or someone who is taking classes related to Exercise Science, and/or even someone just interested in the subject. The book is clear in it's explainations along with being clear to understand. It has great images for a variety of resistance machines and gives detailed information on what muscles are being used, the joint action, the movement path (i.e. rotary or compound) along with proper technique tips. The book also gives information on the types of exercise such as isokinetic and isotonic. It also explains about your muscles and the benefits of exercise, etc. I think it's a great book to own and I highly recommend buying it!

Five years ago, after my first child was born, I discovered this book. I've always worked out and been pretty fit, but as a new mom, I realized I could no longer live at the gym. I needed to make my workout more effective, but do it in less time. By following Dr. Wescott's advise, I was able to cut my workout to 1 hour, 3 times a week (I used to workout 2 hours, 4-5 times a week), and increase my strength and endurance. Within 6 weeks, I noticed a huge difference in my strength (I had previously plateaued). Now that I have 2 kids, I'm in maintenance-mode, but follow the same principles outlined in this book. I cut my workouts down to 2 times a week (1 hour per workout), but am maintaining my physique and physical abilities.

This book definitely is worth getting.

I'm a new coach and find myself responsible for three different sports during the year. This book helped me incredibly. It discusses different exercise regimens for athletes in different sports, and it provides a booklet for each athlete! I simply duplicated the copy in the book and was able to give it to all my kids so they could guide their own workouts. I think every coach should buy and use this book. I've never seen anything like it.

Dude, I'm buff now thanks to this book. Try it, it works.

Before I read this book I knew very little about how to really get fit. Since reading and applying what I read, I not only look and feel great but I have only eighteen percent body fat. This book helped me change my body. I have met Bruce Hanson and everything he says in this book is golden.

Purington & Butler do an outstanding job of providing a systematic approach to managing positive change in training & development. The book is full of very specific & useful recommendations to upgrade an organization's culture cost effectively and gain competitive advantage in its ability to learn quickly. It shares many examples of what worked well along with a few examples of flexibility with plans that needed to be changed. The only negative to the book ... and it is only a minor negative is that it sometimes repeated some of the examples. If you are in a training department, are in a position to influence or approve a training department's strategies or are selling & marketing to the training & development market ... this is a must read!!

Purington and Butler have succeeded by detailing how to implement the strategy they so clearly recommend in the book. The book sets forth in an orderly and easily understood manner the steps that will greatly improve any training department. If there is any one book that will pull it all together for the training professional, this is the one. A must read book.

This book provides a step by step process to make any training department successful. The book is written in easy to understand language with detailed success strategy for creating the ideal learning organization. Most training books fail to inform the reader how to execute the strategy they are recommending. Purington and Butler have done a masterful job putting the detail in the puzzle. Outstanding and a must read book for all training professionals!

This book review is written from a different perspective. I am not a professional business coach, but I have benefited from Bill Zipp's coaching and mentoring for several years. If he writes like he coaches this book should be 10 stars.

As I have surveyed 'The Business Coaching Toolkit' I recognized several themes that Bill encouraged me to consider, the one percent solution, the sixth suitcase, SMART goals and the new twist on SWOT. But, more importantly, is that he walked me through each of the exercises and assignment with a combination of competence and care. The process enriched my life and enhance my effectiveness as a leader. He wasn't able to change my weaknesses into strength, but he was able to help me identify areas that need attention and then gave me some tools to do my best.

I recommend this book because I recommend the author.

Charles David Kelley
President
Bridge Builders International

As an experienced business coach (eighteen years), I resonated with many of the observations and descriptions. I also picked up some excellent tips (the closure letter for one) and have done a fair amount of reflection on my own coaching practice while reading. That's a lot of value to receive from one book!

This was a very good book. It was written well and an easy read. It is written for business coaches who will benefit from having different problem solving techniques presented to them. Some of what is covered has to do with how to effectively use people skills to help the people being coached. While other things covered had to do with what solutions to recommend when coaching. The book had 11 chapters as follows:

0. Introduction: The evolution of personal coaching
1. Developing a leadership vision (It's not what you think!)
2. The 1% solution
3. Getting things done through others
4. Making goals smart
5. The power of positive praise
6. Making feedback effective
7. A new twist on SWOT
8. The life leadership dashboard
9. The 6th suitcase
10. What color is your team?
11. Using the 10 tools
Appendix: the 10 tools summarized

I'm a SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) volunteer business coach. Just about everything covered in this book directly relates to what I do in my capacity as a SCORE volunteer. I was a very interested reader while turning the pages. And I must say I was not disappointed with what was presented. I won't say I learned anything new. And I don't think there is any rocket science included. But for a seasoned business coach and entrepreneur this book was a fun read for me. 5 stars!

This is a grreat book. Short, but full of information that in very important to a business owner or potential business. Plain spoken, honest and open...Flows well. Read the book..then attend one of his workshops. Did both..... GRRRREAT STUFF! This is by an ordinary man who did an extra-ordinary thing... Started his own business, which is the "American Dream". This is his joureny into the independent business owner world. His failures, his successes, his hopes and aspirations. He writes straight from his experiences, no fluff,no fillers.. Great motivator....he may even be the next Zig Ziglar....

I have been looking for good guidance on running your own business. As the author points out, most small business books aim to tell you the stuff you already know -- dress smartly, write your correspondance with correct grammar, etc. What this book does is present the advice you seek without talking to you as if you've never been to a business meeting before. Sage advice about how to conduct business on a low budget, how to promote yourself through effective PR, how to think about using friends and family in your business, etc.

You will not be disapppointed with this book.

Venturing out on your own into the business world can be a very scary and overwhelming endeavor. No one can prepare 100% for the obstacles they will encounter along the way, but by reading Mark Csordos' book, "Business Lessons for Young Entrepreneurs", the young business leaders of today can give themselves an invaluable head-ups on the reality of the business world.

The book is comprised of thirty diffenent chapters, each of which centers around the authors own personal experiences as a young struggling business owner. As a freshing and motivating bonus, the beginning of each chapter is started with a quotation or anecdote that is appropriately selected for the topic of each chapter. All of the quotes and stories are up-lifing and inspirational. The chapter subjects range from the more conventional topics of business, such as "self promotion" and designing a business plan, to the more unconventional side of business such as the personal fears, hopes, expectations, and occasional failures one might encounter along the way.

Each chapter is filled with immeasurable insight that one can only truly gain through personal experience. The lessons in this book are universal and can apply to anyone at almost anytime during the building of one's business. You can't find this kind of first hand, real life information in most business books.

I was especially inspired by the chapter entitled "Dare to Dream". In this chapter, the author encourages his readers to shoot for the stars and to never give up no matter how unobtainable his or her dreams may seem. To provide his readers with additional motivation to strive for success, the author gives numerous examples of ordinary individuals who defeated the odds and became people that we can all recogize today such as Bill Gates and Dave Thomas.

For anyone wanting to start his or her own business, this book is an excellent real life handbook of the ups and downs of being your own boss. Read this book and use it to guide you during your jounery. The author leads you in the right direction and is with you every step of the way.

Shelly and Miller have struck a chord in the heart of nursing with their improved 2nd edition of Called to Care. Their overview of the history of nursing and caring helps us understand how we got to where we are today, while their presentations on person, the environment, health as shalom, and nursing show us where we need to go in the future. Their explanation of a Christian worldview for nursing is both simple and deeply profound. I found myself cheering inside saying, "Yes, that's what nursing is about! That's why I'm a nurse!" This is a great book for nurses at the bedside, undergraduate and graduate students in nursing, nurse educators and nurse researchers alike.

Very readible using stories from nursing practice to illustrate a tapestry of content from nursing theory, philosophy,and history. The major concepts of the nursing paradigm and various worldviews provide structure for the content. Numerous illustrations and tables clarify content and case studies at the end of each chapter encourage engagement with that content. Useful to a broad spectrum of readers from undergrad and graduate students to practicing nurses whether they be in intensive care or parish nurse settings. In summary - a very valuable contribution to the canon of nursing literature.

This book is a must read for nurses and other health care professionals who want to reaffirm the meaning and purpose of their work as they are called to care by God. Shelly and Miller have expanded on the first edition by adding a purpose and objectives for each chapter, discussion questions, and case studies. In addition there are charts and tables comparing worldviews and nursing theories, detailing healing accounts in the New Testament, and contrasting the views on hope in suffering from various religions. Rich story telling brings authenticity and insight to patient care and student-faculty examples. Finally, we hear the inspiring voices of six Christian nursing leaders they share their visions for the future of nursing.

Christine Pelosi has written a primer on How To Run. (Also, on how NOT to run, when that's the right thing to do.) She's got the background and experience to know the lessons of how to go about running for office, the first-hand experience of training people to do it, and a wealth of voices who back up her practical advice with their first-hand stories of why they ran and what they learned. Practical. Solid. Essential for the first-time campaigner, the twenty-year incumbent, the journalist, and the woman on the street who wants to get an understanding of How It All Works.

Look here! Christine Pelosi is someone who has been getting dirt under her fingernails in grassroots politics since she was in the stroller. "Boot Camp" is not the result of just another pundit or academic writing about politics. Christine really gives you both the promise and blessings of fighting for something you believe in while she also tells the truth about the planning and hard work it takes to succeed. She should know because there are at least three generations of Pelosi's who have risen to the top of the political ladder -- a grandfather who was mayor of Baltimore, a mother who is Speaker of the U.S. House, and herself as a 10-year elected veteran of the Democratic National Committee from California. Practical is what the Pelosis know and live; commitment to cause is what fuels them.

Anyone who wants to win an issue or office should put this on their early reading list.

Step aside, Colbert - Christine Pelosi has a real strategy for running for office, and anyone, she says, can do it. I listened to Pelosi on the radio the other day and she was so exciting, I checked out her book the same afternoon. She makes practical and worthwhile suggestions for being politically active - and her advice is valuable for anyone. I'm just a copy editor but I feel like even Clinton's senior staffers could learn a thing or three from "Campaign Boot Camp."

Wow! We love this book even though we are not preparing for the MRCP! The book is completely up-to-date, and the cases are incredibly educational and thought-provoking. If you think you know everything in Medicine, this book will prove you wrong. Incidentally, the questions are much more difficult than what you would see on the American Board of Internal Medicine. An example: Case 1.4 is a 30 year old lady with dilated cardiomyopathy diagnosed 2 years ago now undergoing transplantation because of rapid deterioration. Coronary was normal on cath. She had a PHx of premature menopause 2 years ago. The surgeon made the diagnosis at surgery. What was the diagnosis?----A Cardiology Fellow, New York City.

Be warned - some of the questions are very hard - but Goldsmith provides excellent explanations to the answers. Graded marks are given for possible answers, just like in the exam, which I really liked.

This was the only membership book I kept after passing the exam. It is very well written and is a real gem.