Whether youre a new officer or in need of a mentor, From Buddy to Boss: Effective Fire Service Leadership, is a must-have management book youll turn to over and over again. Fire service veteran Chase Sargent has taken his popular course and written a no-holds barred leadership book for the fire service in a conversational and easy-to-read style. He tells you how to accept and survive politics, deal with the fringe employees, and keep your cool -- tricks of the trade that usually takes years to acquire. In this book youll learn: ***Your credibility is a valuable currency that takes time to build up. What you do, not what you say, is the ultimate test of your credibility, reinforcing your expectations*** ***That leadership requires individuals and organizations to create an environment where people and their ideas can thrive*** ***How to use stories to impress upon our new members the necessity of doing certain things*** ***That the quickest ways to lose trust are to inconsistently apply and enforce rules and to allow your personal feelings to dictate what you will and wont enforce*** ***Why leading by example and from the front, doing not saying, is critical to you success*** Reading From Buddy to Boss is like turning to a trusted friend for wisdom and advice you can count on to improve your job performance. Use this book to master your leadership as well as your management skills and successfully make the transition to boss.

Practical advice for making the shift to your first leadership position The number of people who will become first-time supervisors will likely grow in the next 10 years, as Baby Boomers retire. Perhaps the most challenging leadership experience anyone will face isn't one at the top, but their first promotion to leadership. They must deal with the change and uncertainty that comes with a new job, requiring new skills, and they've been promoted from peer to leader. While the book addresses the needs of any manager, supervisor, or leader, it pulls from the best leadership and management thinking, and puts the focus on the difficulties that new leaders experience. Includes practical information for new managers who must supervise friends and former peers Authors are expert consultants who work with leaders at all levels Shows how to adopt the mindset of a leader, including: communicating change, giving feedback, coaching employees, leading productive teams, and achieving goals This much-needed book can help new leaders get beyond the stress and fear to focus on becoming the most effective leader they can be-starting right now.

If your employees brought their "A-Game" to work every day, what would it mean for your company's performance? Studies have repeatedly shown that the majority of employees are disengaged at work. But it doesn't have to be this way. Often, the difference between a group of indifferent employees and a fully engaged team comes down to one simple thing—a great boss. In How to Be a Great Boss, Gino Wickman and Rene' Boer present a straightforward, practical approach to help bosses at all levels of an organization get the most from their people. They share time-tested tools that have worked for more than 30,000 bosses in every industry. You can learn to be a great boss—and dramatically improve both your organization's performance and your team's excitement about their work. In this book you will discover: How to surround yourself with great people How to make more effective use of your time The difference between leadership and management and why they're equally important The five leadership practices and five management practices of all great bosses How to create accountability How to develop productive, relationships with each of your people How to deal with direct reports that don't meet your expectations How to Be a Great Boss provides practical tools that you can apply immediately with your people, allowing you to focus on improving and growing your organization and truly enjoy what you do.

Full-Contact Leadership is written for men and women who hold leadership positions or aspire to leadership roles in the fire service. There are many leadership positions in the fire service, but not all of them are held by leaders. Leadership has very little to do with the color of your helmet, the bling on your collar, the stripes on your sleeve, the title on your door, the order of march, or the crease in your pants. Full-contact leadership is a commitment to drawing out the very best within others and allowing the very best in others to be expressed as excellence. Full-contact leadership is a career-long, ever-challenging, never-ending, self-initiated, self-sustained personal research, development, and improvement program. Full-contact leadership is never about you; it’s always about them. In Full-Contact Leadership, Chiefs Flood and Avillo examine what makes a leader and, more importantly, what makes a leader effective in today’s fire service. This text discusses the various types of leaders, how they communicate, discipline, delegate, motivate, and set expectations for the people they lead. Flood and Avillo also take a hard look at what hinders or blocks effective leadership and what steps to take to foster and instill leadership in your department.

Professional development and leadership with you in mind A good friend once said about Chase Sargent that he’s “a very intelligent man, but he sure does tick people off sometimes.” Sargent doesn’t disagree. He may have made some people mad, but he wishes he had done it more often to get this point across: “Leadership—in all aspects of life—is sorely lacking.” The second edition of From Buddy to Boss: Effective Fire Service Leadership reinforces the fact that the fire service is screaming for leaders as men and women discover that leadership is important to their existence and success. Being a firefighter can be tiring and frustrating, but it can be rewarding. It’s not only about the job, “but also about raising kids, managing your life, and trying to be a good person, attached to God, country, family, and friends,” says the author. Many leaders today are surrounded by external politics, hidden agendas, fiscal constraints, and manipulative people. Consider these factors when navigating your career. Sargent knows from decades of experience that simply reaching the top of the organizational ladder does not make you a good leader. Before he went into teaching this subject, “It became apparent very quickly that the leadership and human resources training being provided was as scarce as water in a desert and that the fire service was thirsty.” This new second edition includes must-read topics on leadership lessons from the War in Iraq, knowing death in the fire service, and providing leadership in large-scale disasters. This book will change your life.

In this heartfelt memoir, master baker and star of the #1 hit TLC show, Buddy Valastro tells his inspiring story—and recounts his family’s warm memories from a lifetime of living, loving, and cake making. Television viewers have fallen in love with Buddy Valastro, master cake maker, and his funny and fiery family, proprietors of Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey, on the smash hit TLC series Cake Boss. Now, to coincide with Carlo’s 100th anniversary, cake designer extraordinaire Buddy Valastro brings together his passion for baking and his high-energy family stories in the pages of this charming, heartwarming book—complete with 25 recipes and tips that will make every reader the “cake boss” of their own kitchen. Buddy’s beautifully designed cakes are the stuff of legend—and so is the remarkable story of his father, a beloved pillar of the community and himself a talented baker who set the stage for his family’s rise to the pinnacle of their industry. Cake Boss recounts the story of Buddy’s life and of his family’s bakeshop, originally established in 1910 and now a Hoboken, New Jersey, landmark and culinary tourist destination. Here also are twenty-five recipes for Carlo’s Bakery’s most sought-after pastries, pies, cupcakes, and cakes, an irresistible combination of time-tested old-world recipes and modern creations, all founded on a rock-solid “old-school” baking foundation and classic techniques. This is the incredible true story of how Carlo’s Bakery came to be, how one hard-working family realized their patriarch’s dream of making their beloved bake shop a household name. The special bond and loving dynamic of the Valastro clan make this an uncommonly touching and truly inspiring memoir.

A condensed edition of Baking with the Cake Boss.