Heidi Grant Halvorson

For more than two decades, psychologist and journalist Daniel Goleman has been scouting the leading edge of the human sciences for what's new, surprising, and important. In Focus, he delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long overdue discussion of this little-noticed and under-rated mental asset that matters enormously for how we navigate life. Goleman boils down attention research into a three parts: inner, other, and outer focus. Goleman shows why high-achievers need all three kinds of focus, as demonstrated by rich case studies from fields as diverse as competitive sports, education, the arts, and business. Those who excel rely on what Goleman calls Smart Practices such as mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery, positive emotions and connections, and mental 'prosthetics' that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain excellence. Combining cutting-edge research with practical findings, Focus reveals what distinguishes experts from amateurs and stars from average performers.

We all need help--especially in today's uber-collaborative workplaces. Here's the good news: humans are naturally wired to want to help each other. Now here's the bad: asking for help makes most of us wildly uncomfortable. As a result, we do a poor job of calling in the reinforcements we need, leaving confused or even offended colleagues in our wake. This pragmatic book explains the research on what psychologists call social intelligence. To elicit helpful behavior from their colleagues, you need to do two things: 1) Remove the obstacles that stand in the way of them helping you; 2) Trigger one or more of the motivations that make people want to help. Whether you're a first-time manager or a seasoned leader, getting people to do things for you is what management is. This book will help you do so, and do it in a way that leaves your helpers feeling good about pitching in.--

"Have you ever had the feeling that you're just not getting through to the person you're talking with, or coming across the way you intend to? You're not alone. Our usual approach is to just talk louder, to try harder to get our message through. This is almost always the wrong approach. Why? Because other people almost never see us the way we see ourselves. Fortunately, these distortions in perception are systematic, understandable, and surmountable. Heidi Grant Halvorson, bestselling author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently and Focus, now shows you how to communicate effectively-despite these unintentional (yet widespread) distortions of perception. By better understanding how communication and perception really work, you'll learn to send the right signals at the right time, no matter who you're communicating with"--