Showing results by narrator "Susan Larkin" in All Categories

From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell - and a special way of telling them. In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death's door.

Change is the one constant in business, and we must adapt or face obsolescence. Yet certain challenges never go away. These are the ten seminal articles by management's most influential experts, on topics of perennial concern to ambitious managers and leaders hungry for inspiration—and ready to run with big ideas to accelerate their own and their companies' success.

If you read (or listen to) nothing else on managing people, listen to these ten articles (featuring "Leadership That Gets Results," by Daniel Goleman). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your employees' performance.

Most company's change initiatives fail. Yours don't have to.

Hayden has chronicled experiences from her long career as a special education teacher in several books, including One Child and The Tiger's Child. Successes in this difficult and often frustrating field can be few and hard won, a fact which Hayden deftly illustrates while simultaneously offering hope and joy in small victories. This time she brings to life the story of a scruffy seven-year-old, Venus, who is so unresponsive that Hayden searches for signs of deafness, brain damage, or mental retardation.

All 11-year old Alex wants is to launch his iPod into space. With a series of audio recordings, he will show other lifeforms out in the cosmos what life on Earth, his Earth, is really like. But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum, and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions. Where do I come from? Who's out there? And, above all, how can I be brave?

If you read (or listen to) nothing else on inspiring and executing innovation, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you innovate effectively.

If you read (or listen to) nothing else on marketing that delivers competitive advantage, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you reinvent your marketing by putting it—and your customers—at the center of your business.

Intuitive counselor Colette Baron-Reid is renowned for helping people create the purposeful and authentic lives they desire. In this fascinating book, Colette hands you the “magic wand” of your own awareness so that you can begin to perceive your life as a wonderful adventure, and see yourself as a powerful mapmaker.

In his defining work on emotional intelligence, bestselling author Daniel Goleman found that it is twice as important as other competencies in determining outstanding leadership.

The best leaders know how to communicate clearly and persuasively. How do you stack up? If you read (or listen to) nothing else on communicating effectively, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you express your ideas with clarity and impact—no matter what the situation.

Recently divorced, Merilee Talbot Dunlap moves with her two children to the Atlanta suburb of Sweet Apple, Georgia. It's not her first time starting over, but her efforts at a new beginning aren't helped by an anonymous local blog that dishes about the scandalous events that caused her marriage to fail.

Historically, they have borne the labels "freaks" and "oddities"; they have been collected as pets, displayed as spectacles, and treated as comic relief. Now, for the first time, in this comprehensive volume, the lives of dwarfs are explored in all their fullness and humanity. Spanning the centuries from ancient Egypt to the present, this unique social history chronicles the various ways this population has been exploited, describes their strategies for coping, and notes the persistent influence of mythology upon perceptions of them by others.

Nazi-occupied Prague, 1942: Amelia is hiding in her closet when flashlights blind her and she’s captured by the SS. Out on the cobblestone street, her heart shatters as her mother is shot before her eyes. She is shoved onto a freight train with hundreds of others—hours pass as they travel in darkness. Arriving in a concentration camp, Amelia fears for her life when she is led to a block by a soldier. He is her enemy, yet he secretly passes her a piece of bread; an act that saves her.

Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds. If you read (or listen) to nothing else on building better teams, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you assemble and steer teams that get results.

It was the 1960s - a time of economic boom and social strife. Young women poured into the workplace, but the “Help Wanted” ads were segregated by gender and the “Mad Men” office culture was rife with sexual stereotyping and discrimination. Lynn Povich was one of the lucky ones, landing a job at Newsweek, renowned for its cutting-edge coverage of civil rights and the “Swinging Sixties.” Nora Ephron, Jane Bryant Quinn, Ellen Goodman, and Susan Brownmiller all started there as well. It was a top-notch job - for a girl - at an exciting place. But it was a dead end.

The essays in How I Did It teach and inspire. Pulled directly from the pages of one of the most popular columns in Harvard Business Review, these essays offer firsthand accounts of the most difficult management challenges faced by the men and women who occupy the corner office. It's the next best thing to sitting down and talking face-to-face with these corporate leaders.

On the banks of the North Santee River stands a moss-draped oak that was once entrusted with the dreams of three young girls. Into the tree's trunk they placed their greatest hopes, written on ribbons, for safekeeping - including the most important one: friends forever, come what may. But life can waylay the best of intentions....

Twenty-five celebrated writers share the inspiring words and timeless wisdom of the athletic coaches who changed and influenced their lives and pass on the sage advice they received.

We've combed through ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review to help you get up to speed fast on the freshest, most relevant thinking driving business today. With authors from Clayton Christensen to Roger Martin and company examples from Netflix to Unilever, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations to your fingertips.