The classic #1 New York Times bestseller that answers the age-old question Why is incompetence so maddeningly rampant and so vexingly triumphant? The Peter Principle, the eponymous law Dr. Laurence J. Peter coined, explains that everyone in a hierarchy—from the office intern to the CEO, from the low-level civil servant to a nation’s president—will inevitably rise to his or her level of incompetence. Dr. Peter explains why incompetence is at the root of everything we endeavor to do—why schools bestow ignorance, why governments condone anarchy, why courts dispense injustice, why prosperity causes unhappiness, and why utopian plans never generate utopias. With the wit of Mark Twain, the psychological acuity of Sigmund Freud, and the theoretical impact of Isaac Newton, Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull’s The Peter Principle brilliantly explains how incompetence and its accompanying symptoms, syndromes, and remedies define the world and the work we do in it.

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.

Systems designers have learned that many agents co-operating within the system can solve very complex problems with a minimal design effort. In general, multi-agent systems that use swarm intelligence are said to be swarm intelligent systems. Today, these are mostly used as search engines and optimization tools. This volume reviews innovative methodologies of swarm intelligence, outlines the foundations of engineering swarm intelligent systems and applications, and relates experiences using the particle swarm optimisation.

Being a leader is one of the most challenging yet rewarding roles we can take. Good leaders can create powerful teams that have huge impacts on companies, organisations, even the world! But it's not easy to be a leader, especially an effective one. It can be stressful and demanding, and many of us spend our time as a leader feeling like a fraud who will be soon found out. If you're struggling to get a grip on your team and its related responsibilities, it can be hard to know where to start. Whether you are a team leader, a department manager or head, or the CEO of a company, this simple guide will help you take control and get unstuck. It takes you step-by-step through: - Building a united team - Conducting good, consistent, one-to-ones and performance reviews by implementing a simple system - Using a four-part model to assess and troubleshoot the basic building blocks of your team You will have the tools you need to build a happy, productive, highly-performing team and become a fearless leader. This book includes information on how to access electronic versions of all the tools described inside so that you can work through them and share them with your teams.

Follow Jamey Doan an Iowa farm boy, skilled with the rifle his gunsmith father made for him. He is thrown into the maelstrom of the Civil War in the west along the Mississippi River. His enemy at times is his family, a Mississippi cousin and uncle fighting for the Confederacy. His first battle is the little known northern most battle of the Civil War Athens Missouri. He battles his way down river to Vicksburg, fighting as a sniper and skirmisher in the Western Rifles. Jamey grasps the meaning of war and fights ferociously. He becomes a man of war but is still a boy when he finds love and the mysteries of women. This author leaves his readers anxiously awaiting the sequel which will follow, starting at Vicksburg, where this volume stops, as the Union Army moves south.