How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Reviewed by Radhakrishnan Chettour

Recently when I visited Crossword, Bangalore, I found the book How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. For last few months I was actually in search of a book on communicating with primary kids. Many times during my workshops I have come across lot many questions from educators on this topic. Most of the training professionals, including me, have to admit that we concentrate our learning and modules targeting middle and upwards. So when I found this book, without a second thought, I decided to pick. I have to admit that I opened it with very low expectations, as I think that our culture tends to emphasize talking to our kids way too much. In general, and especially for toddlers, actions speak far louder than words. However, I was happily surprised to discover that I really enjoyed this book, and agreed with almost everything it had to say. It was aimed primarily at primary kids, but many of the lessons can be applied to Kindergarten children too quite easily.

The book gives what I consider to be really practical advice on how to talk to kids in ways that recognize their feelings (without labeling too much), encourages their cooperation, and helps them to be competent.  I especially loved how it shows parents how to help/let kids come up with their own solutions to problems they present.  Some of these were too advanced for toddlers, but even at my school when a child comes to me with a complaint, I'll often start out with, "Oh no!  What will you do?"  Not jumping in to solve every problem helps children feel competent and proud of themselves. Even the chapter on Praise, which made me cringe just to open it, started out looking at the difference between authentic praise and over-excessive praise, and how undeserved praise can backfire in different ways.  Then it looked at ways to praise kids that feels good to them. It is very hands-on, with exercises for you to do, and lots of actual dialogue between parents and kids. Some of these activities I experimented with my son and found quiet good and effective. In our day-to-day school activities many times we educators praise the children often without reasons and that I have seen really make the students lethargic and proud. In today’s commercialized schooling setup, we advertise for marketing purpose even small victories/deeds of our students with much exaggeration and ultimately sometimes it backfires and creates lot of indiscipline and even sometimes de-motivates them from setting high goals. If you are going through such a trauma, this book will help you to tackle the issue.

While reading the book the topics that caught my attention very much are alternative to punishment and encouraging autonomy. The lesson on engaging cooperation too is filled with plenty of practical ideas and tips which can be easily applied in our day-to-day schooling and grooming process of the children. Illustrations, conversation boxes, practical exercises and quick reminder boxes really add value to the book. The afterword additions such as the letters, yes, but…what…if… how about…? and about the negative tongue too help us have more insight in the subject. Many good books listed at the end for further reading can also help us find new readings on this subject.

 The only complaint I can come up with is that the book is very rosy in its outlook, with children going from being recalcitrant and surly to being reasonable and responsive with just a few short sentences from mom or dad. In reality, if you have negative patterns going with your child, it will take consistent practice to change those patterns. However, if things are going relatively well with your child, this book is a great resource for nipping negative interactions in the bud and helping your relationship flourish. I would definitely recommend it to preprimary and primary educators and even to all parents of young kids.

To buy online: How to Talk so Kids will Listen so kids will Talk

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For your success and glory!

Developing The Leaders Around You - Help Others to Reach their Full Potential – John C. Maxwell

Reviewed By Radhakrishnan Chettour

John C. Maxwell has turned to be one of my favourate authors on leadership. He is an internationally-renowned leadership expert, speaker, and author who have sold more than 18 million books. In addition to writing more than two-dozen books, he has established several organizations geared toward training and equipping leaders and has developed numerous ancillary products like tape series, handbooks and manuals, and curriculum materials. In short, he's an expert in his field and one of the best communicators out there.

Maxwell is outstanding in mining the wealth of information and resources he has amassed and recycles it all to create new books --- which means that one Maxwell book often overlaps into another one, which overlaps into another one, and so on. Longtime readers of Maxwell are well aware of this, having discovered a significant amount of familiar material in the context of information that's genuinely new. He's often criticized for this, but he still manages to sell a whole lot of books, so I suspect it isn't as much of a problem as his critics would like to believe. Whatever it is I like reading his books all the time.

Today I am here to bring a review and what all we can get from one of his magnificent book “DEVELOPING THE LEADERS AROUND YOU”. In this, Maxwell provides both inspirational and practical assistance for leaders who are committed to helping others reach their leadership potential. In his usual style, the author gets his point across by making the most of reader-friendly features like assessment tests, charts, cartoons, sports analogies, and mnemonic devices like original acronyms (such as RISE, Rewards Indicating Staff Expectations). He also sprinkles the text with well-chosen quotations --- some profound, some funny, but all of them relevant to the topic at hand.

The most important point I want to emphasis about this book is its helpfulness to people outside of the business community. It's especially appropriate for CEOs, managers and other leaders like School/college principals, but many of the principles and practical tips can be applied to people in all walks of life who supervise (or even parent) others. That's because at the heart of each principle is the priority Maxwell places on building strong relationships and learning to relate to people in a healthy and positive way. Besides, it is a stand-alone volume; there's no need to be familiar with any of Maxwell's previous works to benefit from this one.

Here's an example of what you can expect to find, from a chapter on a lifelong commitment to developing potential leaders. In addition to straight text, Maxwell offers a chart defining the distinctions among nurturing, equipping and developing others; three specific questions designed to determine the potential leader's motivation; an example of a practical plan for personal growth; a description of the four steps it takes for someone to adopt a new idea and adapt to new situations; several mnemonic devices, including the IDEA grid (Instruction, Demonstration, Exposure, Accountability); 10 guidelines for positive confrontation; and an analysis of the six levels of leadership growth. Clearly, this is an author who covers all the bases.

Anyone who has read Maxwell knows that he has a reputation for excelling in communicating his ideas. With DEVELOPING THE LEADERS AROUND YOU, that reputation remains intact. His casual, anecdotal style makes this an enjoyable read --- not bad for a topic that could easily produce the opposite result.

For my readers I am giving here a list of what I learned from this book. If you wish to have the real learning excitement from this book you must get a copy of this book and read it for yourself.

Major Takeaways:

•  Acquiring and keeping good people is a leader’s most important task.
• Grow a leader – grow the organization.
• Everything rises and falls on leadership.
•  It takes a leader to know a leader, grow a leader, and show a leader.
• There is no success without a successor.
• A leader’s success can be defined as the maximum utilization of the abilities of those under him.
• Momentum is the greatest of all change agents.
• It takes a leader with vision to see the future leader within the person.
• To develop positive, successful people, look for the gold, not the dirt.
• Character flaws cannot be ignored. They will eventually make a leader ineffective.
• A proven leader always has a proven track record.
• A great leader has the ability to instill within his people confidence in themselves.
• Liking people is the beginning of the ability to communicate.
• A leader who loves the status quo soon becomes a follower.
• Seek people who seek solutions.
• Nurturing has the ability to transform people’s lives.
• Leadership can only function on the basis of trust.
• Time spent with a potential leader is an investment.
• When you believe in people, you motivate them and release their potential.
• It is the leader’s job to hold hope high.
• Spend 80 percent of your time on the most promising 20 percent of the potential leaders around you.
• Equipping, like nurturing, is an ongoing process. Equipping must be tailored to each potential leader.
• A person should be spending 80 percent of his time doing things that require his greatest gifts and abilities.
• All good mentoring relationships begin with a personal relationship.
• The leader must know his people well enough to identify attainable goals that require a stretch.
• Good leaders are good listeners.
• Every idea is a good idea until you’ve settled on the best idea.
• Personal growth is like investing. It’s not your timing. It’s your time in.
• Excellence breeds character, and character breeds excellence.
• Teams that don’t bond can’t build.
• A good team fit requires an attitude of partnership.
• Individualism wins trophies, but teamwork wins pennants.
• Knowing where their team stands at every moment separates the great players from the adequate players.
• Success comes down to sacrifice-willing to pay the price.
• Having the right players determines 60 to 80 percent of the success of any organization.
• Problems almost always create opportunities – to learn, grow, and improve.
• Good coaches approach each opponent from a fresh perspective.
• Respect must be earned over time. There are no shortcuts.
• Give opportunities, resources, and playing time according to players’ past performance.
• Delegation is the most powerful tool leaders have.
• People development is life-changing for everyone involved.
• Believe in people, and they will rise to fulfill that belief.
• Look for opportunities to share yourself with people.
• People become empowered when you provide them with three things: opportunity, freedom, and security.
• To live a worthwhile, meaningful life, a person must be a part of something greater than himself.
• One of the greatest rewards of adding value to people is that it comes back to you multiplied.
• A leader who produces other leaders multiplies his influence.
• True success comes only when every generation continues to develop the next generation.
• Relational skills are the most important abilities in leadership.
• How big we think determines the size of our accomplishments.
• Progress and innovation are made by people who think without lines.
• Give your leaders deep, broad roots by growing them slowly and varying their experiences.
• Managers are maintainers, tending to rely on systems and controls. Leaders are innovators and creators who rely on people.
• If you want to become an expert in a subject, according to Earl Nightingale, spend an hour a day for five years focusing on that subject.

Video Link: John Maxwell’s video on Developing Leaders  

To buy online:  Developing the Leaders Around You

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How to determine if a School is effective before admitting your ward or before joining for a job?

By Radhakrishnan Chettour

Most of us get confused to decide or determine whether the school is good to admit our children or to join as a faculty or staff. Today it’s more complicated because of the mushrooming of school brands and their aggressive marketing strategies. How do we know if the school where we are teaching is the right one for us? How can you tell before you even take a job there? What are some of the key characteristics of effective schools? Here are 10 ways to know if your school is effective.

1. Attitude of the Office Staff

This might seem an odd first choice. However, the first thing that greets you when you enter a school is the office staff. Their actions set the tone for the rest of the school. If the front office is inviting for teachers, parents, and students, then the school leadership values customer service. However, if the office staff is confused, unhappy and rude, you must question whether the school as a whole including its Principal has the correct attitude towards customer service and teamwork. Be wary of schools where the staff is just not approachable. You as a teacher will probably find that if the staff has a pervasive unhelpful attitude they will not provide you with the support you need throughout the year.

2. Attitude of the Principal

Just as with the office staff, you will probably have the ability to meet with the Principal of your school before you actually begin working there or admitting the child. His or her attitude is extremely important for you and the school as a whole. An effective Principal should be open, encouraging, and innovative. They should be student-centered in their decisions. They should also empower teachers while providing with the necessary support and training to grow each year. If you could ‘t meet the Principal on the given time of appointment you can make sure that after joining for duty to meet such a Principal will be very difficult. Analyse after meeting with the Principal how the Principal answered your queries on duties and responsibilities, pay and perks, professional development, performance appraisal system, etc.  Suppose the Principal could answer your queries in a satisfactory and convincing manner, then you can perceive that the school has certain system and procedures. If the Principal asks other than the subject you applied which all subject you can handle, guess that at any moment of time teachers used to leave the school and other teachers are given the responsibility of teaching those subjects. Principals who are never present, who have horrible customer service, or who are not open to innovation will be difficult to work for and will probably result in many disgruntled employees. After the interview process look at the coordination part of the interview board and check whether there were contradictions within the board while you were interviewed. If you find contradictions within the board you can make sure that top level management has difference of opinion and to work in such an organization will be difficult. Finally, watch around the office and tables to get an idea whether the Principal has organizational and management traits. If the office is in disarray, you can guess that the Principal lacks organizational skills and that will reflect on the way the school runs.

3. Mix of New and Veteran Teachers

New teachers come into a school fired up to teach and innovate. Many of them truly believe that they can make a difference. At the same time, they often have a lot to learn about classroom management and the inner workings of the school system. On the other hand, veteran teachers provide years of experience and understanding of how to effectively manage their classrooms and get things done in the school. At the same time, they are also sometimes stuck in their way of teaching a subject and might be wary of innovation. Only through a mix of the new and old can both learn and grow. So check the retention rate of teachers before you join. Google through the web you can find how many times and at what frequency the school posted job ads and for what all posts. Repeated frequent ads shows poor retention rate and lack of job security. This brings me to my next item...

4. Student-Centered Attitude With Core Values

To be truly effective, a Principal must create a system of core values which the entire staff shares. To do this, the Principal must involve the teachers and staff each step of the way. A common theme to each of the core values must be a student-centered view of education. When a decision is made in the school, the first thought should always be "What's best for the students?" When everyone shares this belief infighting will lessen and the school can focus on the business of teaching. If a conflict occurs between staff members, then they should first meet and together decide what is best for the students. With this focus there is no doubt that the final decision will be more effective and much easier to accept by all parties.

5. Mentoring and induction Program

Most schools provide new teachers with a mentor during their first year. Some have very formal mentoring programs and others are more relaxed. This should happen whether the teacher is fresh out of college or coming from another school. Effective schools have strong core values that each teacher knows. Only by pairing a new teacher with a mentor who truly believes these core values will the school's mission be fulfilled. On a more practical side, a mentor can help a new teacher learn the ropes. They will introduce them to key office staff and help them navigate the procedures involved with items such as field trips and procuring items from the store. Many schools even conduct group induction programs or individualized induction programs to introduce the new staff to the school culture and practices. This will help in creating ‘a feel good’ feeling for the new faculty. Most of the time new teachers become a laughing stock because they get involved into things that they are not expected to in the school. Lack of knowledge of systems and procedures of the new school is the reason for this embarrassing situation. This kind of situation may lead to disappointment at the very outset and can even lead to attrition. This issue can be well tacked by group or individualized induction program.

6. Departmental Politics Kept to a Minimum

Almost every department in a school will have its share of politics and drama. For example, a Mathematics Department might have teachers who want more power or who try and get a larger share of the department's resources. There will probably be some sort of seniority system set up for picking courses for the following year or determining who gets to go to specific conferences. However, a quality school will not allow this type of behavior to undermine the quality of teaching students. Again, this starts with quality leadership from the Principal on down. The school leadership should be clear on its goals for each department and work with the department heads to create a collaborative environment where politics are kept to a minimum. For this to happen Principal should keep himself/herself away from partisanship and balance delegation of responsibilities between departments.

7. Faculty is Empowered and Involved

When the faculty is empowered to make decisions backed up by the administration, a level of trust grows which allows for greater innovation and more effective teaching. An individual who feels empowered and involved in the decision-making process will not only have greater job satisfaction but will also be better able to accept decisions with which they might not agree. As before this starts with the Principal and the shared core values that all relate back to determining what's best for students. A school where teacher opinions are not valued and they feel powerless will result in disgruntled teachers who do not have the desire to put as much into their teaching. You can tell this type of school if you hear phrases such as "Why bother?"

8. Teamwork Amongst the Faculty

Even in the best of schools there will be teachers who do not want to share with others. They will be the ones who get to school in the morning, close themselves in their room, and don't come out except for mandatory meetings. If the majority of the teachers at your school do this, then the school has a problem. Instead, a quality school will create an atmosphere where teachers want to share with each other. This should be something which the school leadership should model. Schools which reward intra- and inter-departmental sharing will see a huge increase in the quality of classroom teaching. It is a proven fact that an integrated curriculum is more effective for the student than learning each topic in isolation.

9. Communication Is Honest and Frequent

The school leadership in a quality school provides teachers, staff, students, and parents with frequent communication about what is happening. Rumors and gossip are rampant in many schools. Many of these rumors can lead to disgruntled employees. If the school is not communicating the reasons for decisions or upcoming changes as soon as they can, then rumor mills will take effect the results can be devastating. Therefore, it is important that the school leadership models frequent communication and has an open door policy so that teachers and staff can come forward with questions and concerns as they arise. Make sure that the school and the leadership are an open book.

10. Parental Involvement

Many schools do not stress parental involvement in their child's education. It is the school's job to pull parents in and help them understand what they can do. Some teachers do not want to bother. However, the more you as a teacher involve the parents, the better the children will behave and perform in your class. Many parents want to know what's going on in class but have no way of figuring out how to do this. A school which stresses parental contact for both positive and negative reasons is one which will only grow more effective over time. Thankfully, this is something that each teacher can institute even if the school as a whole does not stress this involvement. School leadership must also take initiative to conduct frequent parental workshops and interactive sessions with teachers for guiding parents on what they can do to help children do better in academics, co-scholastic activities and emotional aspects.

For your Success and Glory!

Read, Learn and Flourish!

Real Leaders - Take the Blame and Give the Credit

Radhakrishnan Chettour

It's hard to hold a team together when mistakes happen. The temptation to point fingers may be hard to resist. Read how real leaders beat the blame game.

Good leaders take more than their share of the blame and less than their share of the credit. Unfortunately, most leaders take more than their share of the credit and less than their share of the blame. They are not respected. When errors do occur, are you ready to support heroic efforts even in the face of failure?

After only two weeks on the job of Data Manager, Ramu had made a critical error that took the school computer system down. Coffee time to discuss performance of students with the parents has scheduled for the next day. He went to his Academic Supervisor (AS) immediately and said, "I think I just made a big mistake." AS replied, "I'm sure it is not as big as you think it is." He confided, "I think it could be bigger."

AS’s eyes got large as Ramu described the system crash and his lack of a data backup of students. In the midst of problem solving, his boss entered in low-brain function, that sub-cortical reptilian area that runs on more emotion than intellect. For fifteen minutes AS might have shouted at for Ramu's mistake. But he went on a silent mode.

Ramu was sure he was history. All Ramu could think of was at least his resume was current; he wouldn't even have to admit that he had ever worked at this school!

AS took the heat for Ramu's mistake. Not once had he even mentioned his name. It would have been tempting. All he would have had to do was to point his finger at Abhi and say, "There HE is. He's new, and he's defective!"

After the Principal ran out of steam, she said, "This shouldn't have even happened!" Ramu's AS replied, "It did, and I take full responsibility. This is my department. But every minute we are spending here means we are that much later in getting the system back up." The Principal left the room, leaving Ramu alone with his AS. AS did not look at him. Instead, he stared at the door, closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. He opened his eyes, a smile formed on his lips, he looked at him and said, "Don't do that again."

He all but fell over his own words of apology. He stopped him, "I think you are going to remember the importance of backup. And if this continues to be a problem, we will have a different kind of conversation. But you took responsibility for your mistake. Most of the time, I have to search to find them. I respect what you did. You're the kind of person I want working on my team. Now, I'm going to need your help to get this system back online at the earliest to avoid an embarrassment tomorrow for the coffee time with parents."

What happened after this conversation was the real leadership mantra for all leaders. The techno-savvy AS accompanied Ramu to the data room and started working with Ramu till late night to restore the data lost. Finally, they could finish the work and next day’s coffee time became a great success.

At the end of the day Ramu went to the AS’s office to apologies for the mistake. But before he could apologies, the AS stood up from his seat and thanked him for working beyond duty time and even appreciated his computer skills and ability to deal with emergency situations. Ramu was really surprised and thanked God.

Weeks, months and year’s went on, Ramu continued serving the school with the same boss. One day one of his colleague asked him, why does you are so sincere to that person? Ramu replied him by narrating the incident that had happened after two weeks of his joining the school and asked him to look at his business card and said, "You can't see it, but every day I write in invisible ink - 'SLAVE.' I would do anything for that AS!"

Leadership may not be as complicated as we make it. The late Bear Bryant, the great football coach, shared the same truth Ramu's boss lived when he said: "I'm just a plow-hand from Arkansas, but I have learned how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm down the others, until finally they've got one heartbeat together, a team. There's just three things I'd ever say: If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you." Those are wise words on leadership no matter what kind of team you lead.

For your success and glory!

Read, Learn and Flourish!

Perception and Gossip in Company Environment and its Effect

Radhakrishnan Chettour

We as human beings automatically make observations through out the day. Some of these observations are good and some are bad. These observations are also known as our perception of a person, place, or situation. We all know we shouldn’t judge someone the first time you meet them yet you’ve heard that little voice in your head making a comment and forming an opinion when you shouldn’t. That is your perception of the person you are meeting. These perceptions don’t stop on the street when you walk by someone new they go on through out the day, the week and the year.

The perceptions you have of others even overflow into the work place and can cause conflicts with other coworkers. When people begin to share their thoughts with other coworkers they open up the door for their coworkers to spread the gossip. This can cause enormous amounts of animosity amongst coworkers. There is also the issue of people getting involved in other workers lives whether its work related or not. They form opinions, make accusations, and cause drama. 

All of these problems are due to people forming perceptions of others when they shouldn’t. Workers should try to avoid idle gossip and concentrate on the tasks at hand. After all you are being paid to work not to congregate at the water cooler.

A good example of how perceptions and conflicts in the workplace affect real people is about this man I used to work with who was very well liked by everyone. One day one of the coworker decided to spread a rumor that he was not there for a company organized special function.  He started spreading the rumor that how the man could miss the function when he is in such a position. The rumors started flying around the office that the man was missing when the function was going on and nobody would say anything to him about it. In my opinion it doesn’t matter at all if the man was or wasn’t but it gave the office something to chat about. Finally when the gossip reached the top level management, the management called him and conducted a query. The man explained that he was present over there and working sincerely for making the function a true success. But the ultimate result was one person’s lying/gossip made the man embarrassed. It really hurt the man’s feelings and starts thinking that how should I work among such gossip mongers. The top level management also failed to take adequate measure against the person who started spreading the rumor even after identifying. The practice of the person became a habit and went on spreading rumors against the man. Finally the man ended up quitting his job because nobody looked at him the same. The worst part was he not only knew the man was there but even given instruction to that man to carryout some work related to the seating of guests for the function and the rumors spread by a coworker made this man leave his job. And if this kind of rumor mongers is at the top management level it will spoil the whole working environment and the company will miss right people and finally in the bus there will be only torch bearers of rumor mongers.

It’s the responsibility of the top management and all the people working in the company to identify gossip mongers and to make it known to everyone that such people won’t be tolerated. For achieving a non-gossip company environment, management at the top level should make sure that all actions and deeds are transparent and every one in the company has knowledge about what’s happened, what’s happening and what’s going to happen. 90% of the gossip can be prevented by this lone action. 

This just goes to show that opinions and perceptions of people are not always right and I believe they do not belong to the workplace.

For your glory and success!

Read, Learn and Flourish!

Qualities of a Spiritually Intelligent Person

Extract from  "SQ - Spiritual Intelligence," Zohar and Marshall

The levels of spiritual intelligence reflect the transcendence of self awareness and the potential integration between one's rational and emotional aptitudes. In their book "SQ - Spiritual Intelligence," Zohar and Marshall attached the following qualities to an individual who is spiritually intelligent. The individual...

• addresses and solves problems of meaning and value
• has the ability to assess their course of action or their life-path
• realizes that he is a spiritual 'creature' and asks questions like: "Why was I born? What is the meaning of life? Why should I go on when I'm tired, depressed or feel beaten?"
• has virtue, the ability to ask questions about good and evil
• has the ability to "dream, to aspire, to raise ourselves out of the mud"
• realizes the human potential to facilitate between reason and emotion, mind and body
• recognizes the ability to heal oneself and to make oneself whole
• recognizes existing values with the ability to creatively discover new values, with the realization that one is not culture dependent
• is creative and uses this quality to be flexible and spontaneous.
• is willing to try and resolve life's problems and to deal with them
• will be able to transcend to intrapersonal and inter-personal relationships
• has transpersonal visions of goodness, beauty, perfection, generosity, sacrifice, etc.
• is a servant leader and an person who inspires others
• is able to identify the spiritually dumb culture of society with its pressures, urges, needs, and satiations
• can see the reality behind surface desires
• can reflect deeply on what he thinks with a deeper and wider framework of his deepest motivations and life's purposes
• seeks self-awareness
• can stand against the crowd, or is able to hold an unpopular opinion about something they deeply believe in
• knows who he is and what he believes in
• lives by the golden rule
• possesses intense personal integrity
• has the ability to see life and others as fresh as through the eyes of an child
• has the capacity to be flexible (actively and spontaneously adaptive)
• has the capacity to face and transcend pain
• has the quality of being inspired by vision and values
• is reluctant to cause unnecessary harm
• has a tendency to see the connections between diverse things (being 'holistic')
• has a marked tendency to ask "Why?"

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For your success and glory!

Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You

By Sydney Finkelstein and co-authors Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell

We've all watched smart, experienced leaders make flawed - even catastrophic - decisions. Some believe they have made the right choice, even when the disastrous consequences are staring them in the face. What is the root cause of these failures? How can the risks be reduced? And how can you be sure that you're making the right decisions?

In this fascinating and instructive book, Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell - each a distinguished expert on strategy and decision making in corporations - show how the usually beneficial processes of the human mind can become traps: experience and emotion can distort our judgment, even while we're striving for objectivity, and we fail to sport errors in our thinking.

In this follow-up to the #1 bestseller, Why Smart Executives Fail, Sydney Finkelstein and co-authors Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell turn their attention to such major strategic decisions as the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and numerous business cases to explain why decision-makers sometimes think they're right when they are really wrong. The book takes up recent research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and management to not only document why things go wrong, but also to offer a series of solutions that reduce our vulnerability to falling into the traps that lead to bad decisions. In light of the ongoing financial crisis, the lessons from this book are especially timely.

Why do smart and experienced leaders make flawed, even catastrophic, decisions? Why do people keep believing they have made the right choice, even when disastrous result stare them in the face? And how can you be sure you’re making the right decision—without the benefit of hindsight? Think Again shows how our brains can mislead us. The shortcuts our brains have learned to take over millennia of evolution help us most of the time. But, under certain conditions, they can derail our decision making. Think Again offers a powerful model for identifying when we are at risk – the red flags to watch for – and how we can design safeguards to help us make good decisions. Using examples from business, politics, and history, Think Again deconstructs bad decisions, as they unfolded in real time, to show how you can avoid the same fate.

Think Again provides a new model to help us make better decisions. With vivid stories ranging across industries and disciplines, the authors deconstruct bad decisions and identify the forces that have produced them. They go on to show you how to recognize the conditions - red flags - under which good decision making is most likely to falter, and offer a way of selecting safeguards that reduce the risk and ensure better outcomes.

There is no guarantee for perfect decisions. But with Think Again, you can understand the hurdles between you and success, manage to counterbalance their effects, and make better decisions - every day.

Sydney Finkelstein is the author of Why Smart Executives Fail, is a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and regularly lectures on leadership and why leaders fail. Jo Whitehead and Andrew Campbell are directors of the Strategic Management Centre at Ashridge Business School.

Visit the link to read introduction to the book: THINK AGAIN

How to Purchase in India: THINK AGAIN (Rs 965/-)

For your success and glory!

Read, Learn and Flourish!