"The Confidence Myth is the handbook for any woman looking to succeed in her career."

-- Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul and star of ABC's Shark Tank

We need more women at the highest levels in business, government, and nonprofits-and there is no time to waste. The problem, says Helene Lerner, isn't so much that women lack confidence but that they misunderstand what confidence really is.

True confidence isn't fearlessness; it's having the courage to move forward while your knees are shaking. Any woman waiting until she has enough confidence with a capital C to act never will. Lerner lays out practical strategies for beating this confidence myth, drawing on her own and other female leaders' experiences and on her survey of over 500 working women. You'll learn how to present your best self no matter how you feel inside, welcome even brutal feedback as a tool to hone your skills, avoid spreading yourself too thin by saying "no" strategically, and much more. The book features dozens of Confidence Sparks, simple but powerful exercises and techniques to catapult your career to the next level.

The playing field is not level and gender inequities persist, but the women interviewed in this book have found ways to navigate through it, and you can, too. The key to success is seizing the opportunity and acting now. Helene Lerner is here to act as your personal coach as you silence the "mad mind chatter" and take risks, speak out, and step up.

• Not written by an "expert"-learn from a living, breathing employee what does and doesn't work to get him motivated and productive
• Funny, irreverent, fast moving, and written in a direct, in-your-face style
• Packed with real-life examples that show the actual, sometimes unintended, effects of management actions on employees

Management books are traditionally written by industry "experts": scholars, consultants, senior managers. They're writing about how to manage workers, but none of these experts really understands the viewpoint of the average worker, the regular grunt in the trenches-the peon. Peons are the ones affected when a manager decides to manage-in-one-minute, to move somebody's cheese, to try that fifth discipline. Rather than consult some expert, why not go to the source, and ask the peons? Who better to teach you how to train a dog than the dog himself? And who better to tell you how to manage than one of those who are being managed? The Peon Book gives managers the perspective they've been lacking. Author and self-proclaimed Chief Executive Peon Dave Haynes' sole, powerful source of expertise is that he has been managed in different companies and in different industries, and he knows what worked-and what failed catastrophically. In irreverent, straight-talking terms, Haynes tells managers what they really need to do to make their employees motivated, committed, and productive-and it's not memorizing yet another "technique" or "strategy" or "discipline." Haynes writes in a common sense, easy-to-read style that is both witty and wise. Every boss can benefit, and every employee can empathize with the words in The Peon Book. "The inability to empathize can be a real speed bump on the road to a trusting, personal relationship with your employees. So how are you supposed to show more empathy? I take issue with management books that give you a phrase to say to show empathy like 'I understand,' or 'I know what you mean,' or that say that by rephrasing a statement you can show empathy. Don't use some coined phrase to show empathy, just mentally put yourself in our shoes. Sometimes it's just a matter of remembering what it's like to have to get all those reports turned in on a Friday. Or remembering what it's like to have to ask for time off. Or remembering what it's like to be the new guy on the job, and have a hard time remembering everything. Do you see the key concept I'm getting at? Empathy = remembering. Who said you'd never use math in the real world?"

• Not written by an "expert"-learn from a living, breathing employee what does and doesn't work to get him motivated and productive
• Funny, irreverent, fast moving, and written in a direct, in-your-face style
• Packed with real-life examples that show the actual, sometimes unintended, effects of management actions on employees

For over thirty years, Barry Oshry has uncovered core truths about how we operate in large organizations through the Power Lab, an experiential program that has been called "The World Series of Leadership Development Activities." In Leading Systems, Oshry reveals the lessons he has derived from his Power Lab experiences-experiences that have been central to his innovative insights about human systems and system leadership.

Oshry maintains that the next evolutionary challenge for human beings is to recognize ourselves as system creatures, see how system processes shape our experiences, and develop the knowledge and skills to master these processes rather than be victims of them. Drawing on his Power Lab experiences, he reveals the possibilities of systems leadership and how effective leadership can provide the basis for creating sane, healthy, effective social systems.

Challenging conventional thinking, Oshry shows the limitations of consensus, the importance of unilateral action, and the restrictions that our values-such as egalitarianism, liberalism, conservatism-can place on power. He reveals how the problems we often believe are personal or peculiar to our system or circumstances are in fact systemic, limiting the possibilities of both individuals and the system as a whole-and he demonstrates what it takes to break out and elevate ourselves and our systems to higher levels of possibility.

Perhaps most importantly, Oshry shares his experience in discovering what he calls "exhilarating concepts," and shows how these concepts offer unusual insights into the nature of systems, shedding light on everything from organizational dysfunction to the conflicts that occur along lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. It is only through this deep knowledge, Oshry says, that system leaders can elevate their systems to those higher levels of possibility to which we aspire.

Offering new directions, Leading Systems is essential reading for anyone who wants a deep understanding of how systems work and how to exert enlightened leadership.

• Accessible, full of real-life examples, and beautifully written by a pioneer in systems thinking
• A systems framework based not on hopes and dreams but on thirty years of research on what systems really are
• Speaks to leadership in the family, community, organization, and nation