Life becomes less complicated as we grow as communicators. There’s often more we can do to improve our interactions than we realize.

We don’t have to live with regret about what we could have said or how we should have listened. This timely, timeless bravery manual teaches which risks to take and how to engage in ways that don’t cost us our personal peace.

Michelle’s tips read like a heartfelt conversation with a trusted friend—one who happens to have decades of experience coaching people from all walks of life. When we fall into sneaky, fear-based patterns, we’re robbed of the joy of communicating skillfully and confidently. Readers of Communicate with Courage learn how to overcome four hidden challenges:

• Hiding: Avoiding risks we need to take to realize our potential
• Defining: Needing to be right rather than approachable and open
• Rationalizing: Shielding ourselves from honest feedback, conflict, apologizing, asking for help, negotiating, and other scary but potentially rewarding Pro Moves
• Settling: Accepting "good enough" instead of stretching toward better outcomes

Through riveting real-life stories and practical exercises, Gladieux’s compassionate guidance builds self- and other-awareness in a wide variety of settings. This transformative approach has garnered national acclaim, earning the book eleven literary awards, including the following:

• Best Book Nonfiction, Outstanding Education – Independent Author Network
• Nonfiction 1st Place and Best Book Nonfiction – PenCraft Book Awards
• Nonfiction in Leadership/Think Differently Winner – Goody Book Awards
• Bronze Nonfiction Award – Readers’ Favorite Awards
• Communications Nonfiction Gold Prize – Global eBook Awards
• Nonfiction Book of the Year, Grand Prize – Independent Author Network

Whether you aim to improve work relationships or experience deeper personal connections, Communicate with Courage offers tools to make interactions easier and more enjoyable.

“Communicate with Courage is life-changing. Gladieux’s extraordinary empathy shines through with relatable examples from diverse worlds, from music to business to sports. You’ll read this book more than once. It will transform your relationship with yourself and other people.”
—Dr. Jillian Ihsanullah, leadership researcher

This book gives leaders encouragement, examples, and inspiration as they make their way from the "lower" branches of the tree to the "highest."

• Introduces Being-centered leadership, which emphasizes the higher reality of business (such as its connection to humanity and nature) to create lasting business value
• Offers a four-stage road map to guide leaders in their efforts to realize this new approach
• Features moving examples of Being-centered leadership by twenty-one CEOs of globally recognized companies

Financial meltdowns and environmental disasters have made it obvious that business leaders have a responsibility for the environment and society with which their business is inextricably intertwined. But it's one thing to understand that idea-Ram Nidumolu knows that nothing is really going to change unless leaders feel it. Stories and metaphors have a power to transform that dry facts and numbers don't, so in this extraordinary book, Nidumolu turns to the ancient Indian philosophical texts, the Upanishads, to offer leaders a powerful message that transcends religion, culture, and tradition.

Two Birds in a Tree takes its title from a parable in the Upanishads. One bird, in the lower branches, hops from branch to branch, anxiously eating all the fruit it sees. The bird at the top of the tree sees the tree below and the world beyond and understands it is part of a larger whole. The higher bird is in touch with and symbolizes what the Upanishads call Being, the fundamental reality that underlies and unifies all phenomena-the very essence of existence.

Leaders whose sense of self is anchored in Being won't have to think about "corporate responsibility"-their actions will be driven by an instinctive sense of interconnection. Throughout this profound and enlightening book, Nidumolu uses stories not only from the Upanishads but also from his own life as well as the experiences of CEOs of global companies like PepsiCo, Southwest Airlines, Timberland, Costco, and many others to illustrate the principles of Being-centered leadership. And he provides what he calls a four-stage road map to help leaders cultivate a conscious connection to Being.

But this is a book meant to inspire, not prescribe. Nidumolu doesn't offer a specific, step-by-step set of instructions. Rather, he offers leaders advice, encouragement, examples, and inspiration as they make their way from the lower branches of the tree to the highest.

When leaders learn how to manage the emotions and drama in their organizations, conflict can be made healthier. Nate Regier uses the Drama Triangle Model and the Compassion Cycle to show leaders how to exercise compassion, not passion, and turn the negative energy of conflict into a positive energy for increased productivity and growth.
When leaders learn how to manage the emotions and drama in their organizations, conflict can be made healthier. Nate Regier uses the Drama Triangle Model and the Compassion Cycle to show leaders how to exercise compassion, not passion, and turn the negative energy of conflict into a positive energy for increased productivity and growth.


Conflict without Casualties fills a gap by showing leaders at any level how to leverage positive conflict. Practical, insightful, challenging, relevant.
-Dan Pink, New York Times bestselling author

Most organizations are terrified of conflict in the workplace, seeing it as a sign of trouble. But Nate Regier says conflict is really just a kind of energy and can be used in positive or negative ways. Handled incorrectly, conflict becomes drama, which is costly to companies, teams, and relationships at all levels. Avoiding, managing, or reducing conflict is a limited alternative. Instead, Regier explores the interpersonal dynamics that perpetuate drama in organizations through a concept called the Drama Triangle and offers an alternative: the Compassion Cycle. The Compassion Cycle allows leaders to balance compassion and accountability, transforming conflict into a growth experience that enables organizations to achieve significant gains in energy, productivity, engagement, and satisfaction in relationships. Provocative and illuminating, the concepts Regier shares will turn conflict from an experience to be avoided into a partner for positive change.

Premier CSR organization Aspen Institute offers nation’s first comprehensive guide to the world’s leading global MBA programs in CSR—an indispensable guide for prospective students, universities, hiring companies, and librariesThe Aspen Institute, a premier non-profit, research organization for corporate social responsibility, offers the first comprehensive guide to the world’s leading global MBA programs in CSR—an indispensable guide for prospective students, universities, hiring companies, and libraries. This guide provides an overview of how global MBA programs bring social impact management into their curricular and extracurricular programs. Social impact management, which includes environmental, ethical, and corporate governance issues, is the field of inquiry at the intersection of business needs and wider societal concerns that reflects their complex interdependency. Without an understanding of this interdependency, neither business nor the society in which it operates can thrive. Each year business schools from around the world strive to differentiate themselves and attract the best and the brightest future business leaders, while prospective MBAs are looking for a program that will provide effective management skills to succeed in the changing face of business. The bottom line is no longer exclusively dedicated to financial returns. Rather, business leaders must also consider the environmental and social impacts of their decisions in order to compete in today’s marketplace. The MBA schools that participate in the Aspen Institute’s survey, and are therefore highlighted in the Aspen Institute Guide for Socially Responsible MBA Programs: 2008-2009, are leaders in integrating these issues into their MBA curricula.

Whether you facilitate meetings for a living or simply as part of your job, you've surely found yourself “standing in the fire”—at the center of a group that is polarized, angry, fearful, and confused. Veteran facilitator Larry Dressler has found that what makes the crucial difference in these situations is the leader's presence. You have to master a way of being that allows you to remain effective no matter how hot things get.
Dressler shows how to cultivate six “stances”—mental, emotional, and physical— that will keep you steady, impartial, purposeful, compassionate, and good-humored,. Drawing on his own experiences and the insights of thirty-five distinguished practitioners, he helps you keep your cool and make the kind of inventive, split-second decisions these pressure-cooker situations demand.

• A concise, comprehensive guide to consensus and a powerful technique for building shared commitment around critical decisions
• Filled with practical tips, tools, and examples