This title will teach readers all things hard and soft using examples like animals, fun objects, and other things that they would recognize in their everyday lives. Complete with colorful and fun photos! Text and images complement each other so that readers will learn what opposites are and how to recognize them in their daily lives. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Abdo Kids Junior is an imprint of Abdo Kids, a division of ABDO.

***BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2021 WINNER: SELF DEVELOPMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR*** Everyone says a great leader needs EQ, Emotional Intelligence, soft skills, blah, blah, blah. What does that even mean? Where do you start? Where’s the line for that on the P&L? You might think that business is all about facts and figures. You probably prefer it that way. The truth is that as uncertainty and business complexity increases, successful leaders need to embrace soft skills to get the best out of their people in a sustainable manner. In this succinct, no-nonsense approach, Anne Taylor shares: Key soft skills relevant for leadership and practical applications of how to use them every day drawn from real-life case studies Straightforward tools to better understand yourself, because your leadership starts with YOU Simple frameworks to communicate with others to get things done while building a stronger relationship with them (at the same time, how efficient!) Logical ideas you can try immediately with on-line support if you want it. All done in an easy to read, logical, organized manner for people who prefer facts and don’t consider themselves natural ‘people people.’ In a direct yet professional manner, Anne combines the results-oriented focus from her extensive business background in Fortune 100 corporations with her passion for personal awareness and conscious choice to help you get better results through your people, fast. The Practical Principles in this book, when applied, practiced and honed, can improve your effectiveness, impact and bottom-line results.

What's the hard truth? Soft skills get little respect but will make or break your career. Master your soft skills and really get ahead at work! Fortune 500 coach Peggy Klaus encounters individuals every day who excel at their jobs but aren't getting where they want to go. It's rarely a shortfall in technical expertise that limits their careers, but rather a shortcoming in their social, communication, and self-management behaviors. In The Hard Truth About Soft Skills Klaus delivers practical tools and techniques for mastering soft skills across the career spectrum. She shows how to: manage your workload handle the critics develop and promote your personal brand navigate office politics lead the troops and much more! Klaus reveals why soft skills are often ignored, while bringing their importance to life in her trademark style—straightforward, humorous, and motivating. Perfect for readers at all professional stages—from those who are just starting out to seasoned executives—this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to take his or her career to the next level.

Leaders! Do you have days when you feel like you're communicating with toddlers rather than adults in the workplace?Are you tired of dealing with sulking, tantrums, personality clashes and poor performance?If you are not getting the results you need as a high-performance leader, this book is for you.In it, you will learn a new approach to communication that will radically improve your leadership effectiveness.Communication is the KING of the so-called "soft" skills that are essential in the modern workplace. Yet most of us have had little or no training in how to communicate effectively, particularly under pressure.We haven't been taught the FOUNDATIONS of GREAT communication.In Soft is the New Hard: How to Communicate Effectively Under Pressure, communications and soft-skills specialist, Leah Mether, gives you the complete solution: a step-by-step process that underpins communication and lays the foundations for success.Mether's proven strategies will help you:· defuse conflict· manage yourself under pressure· inspire individuals and teams to action· influence decisions and outcomes· lead your team through change, restructure or transition· deliver difficult messages· communicate clearly in an emergency or crisisNo-one is a perfect communicator, everyone can improve. And with this book, Mether shows you how.

Imagine waking up to the gentle noises of the city, and moving through your day with complete confidence that you will get where you need to go quickly and efficiently. Soft City is about ease and comfort, where density has a human dimension, adapting to our ever-changing needs, nurturing relationships, and accommodating the pleasures of everyday life. How do we move from the current reality in most cites—separated uses and lengthy commutes in single-occupancy vehicles that drain human, environmental, and community resources—to support a soft city approach? In Soft City David Sim, partner and creative director at Gehl, shows how this is possible, presenting ideas and graphic examples from around the globe. He draws from his vast design experience to make a case for a dense and diverse built environment at a human scale, which he presents through a series of observations of older and newer places, and a range of simple built phenomena, some traditional and some totally new inventions. Sim shows that increasing density is not enough. The soft city must consider the organization and layout of the built environment for more fluid movement and comfort, a diversity of building types, and thoughtful design to ensure a sustainable urban environment and society. Soft City begins with the big ideas of happiness and quality of life, and then shows how they are tied to the way we live. The heart of the book is highly visual and shows the building blocks for neighborhoods: building types and their organization and orientation; how we can get along as we get around a city; and living with the weather. As every citizen deals with the reality of a changing climate, Soft City explores how the built environment can adapt and respond. Soft City offers inspiration, ideas, and guidance for anyone interested in city building. Sim shows how to make any city more efficient, more livable, and better connected to the environment.

Change isn’t going anywhere. Learn how to manage it. We live in a wild world of volatility, unpredictability, chaos, and ambiguity, with change seemingly as the only constant. Change can be difficult. It often induces resistance, panic, and fatigue. And, as you may expect or have experienced first-hand, many organizations aren’t handling change all that well, with many efforts resulting in failure. What you may not realize, however, is that some workplace change initiatives are stunning successes, rolling out smoothly and more easily embraced. Why do some change initiatives fail while others succeed? How can organizations and employees handle change better? In The Hard and Soft Sides of Change Management, Kathryn Zukof offers practices and approaches to help you and your organization roll out, receive, and manage change effectively. Namely, Zukoff shows that you need to manage the process (or the “hard”) side and the people (or the “soft”) side of change and find the sweet spot between the two. She demonstrates that when you integrate both sides, you and your organization can make change less of a hit-or-miss affair. Successful change management means deploying sound project management techniques that increase the odds of achieving the outcomes of your change initiative. It also means helping employees understand the need and vision for change, so they feel less threatened by it and become excited and energized by what’s ahead. To deliver best results, you need to: Define the change and how to get there—with project charters and plans. Involve the right people in the right ways—from dedicated change teams to affected stakeholders. Build support, understanding, and awareness—with communication, training, and resistance management plans. Assess progress and adjust along the way—through action reviews and steps to tackle thorny issues. Capturing the inherently messy nature of workplace change—from technology implementations, mergers and acquisitions, and business transformations to office relocations and more—this book offers tangible insights to help you and your organization tackle change challenges. Follow the book’s tools and practices to lessen the messy and objectionable parts of change and actively give your change initiatives the best chance for positive outcomes.