A collection of 24 portraits of 'difficult' participants encountered on training courses and at meetings. Meet the Trapper, the Griper, the Silent Cynic, the Whisperer and their many friends. Learn how to cope with them using such techniques as 'blockbusting', 'psychological judo', 'reframing', 'self-revelation' and 'confrontation'. Cartoons of the characters add to the humorous approach and there are four mini case studies. "I loved the book. It shows such a great variety of ways to deal with challengers."

A pocketful of tips on how to handle challengers at training courses and meetings.

Author Ian Fleming directs the 'Developing People Pocketbook' at full time trainers and managers with staff training as part of their jobs. He deals with training needs identification, the pros and cons of different training methods, learning styles and learning blocks, finding and briefing external trainers, assessing the outcome and applying the learning. Reviewing an earlier edition of this title, Training Education Employment Journal wrote: 'A worthy overview of training needs identification, design, delivery and evaluation. Read this and you could save many hours ploughing through far less accessible tomes on the subject'.

At some stage or other we all have to deal with difficult conversations. This work helps you learn how to communicate with authority, clarity and persuasiveness, and - through active listening, mirroring body language and other techniques - how to empathize with the other person and how to interpret what they are saying, feeling and thinking.

Over 25,000 copies sold! Fully revised and updated, the new, 3rd edition of People Manager’s Pocketbook is out now. It’s full of practical techniques for dealing with all sorts of tricky situations, such as: You’re managing someone fifteen years older than you with different ideas about how things should be done;You find out one of your team is moaning about you on social media;You are asked to implement a policy you strongly disagree with;You have to give someone bad news.

Failure to delegate or failure to delegate effectively is costly - to you, your colleagues and, ultimately, your employer. There are both morale and productivity issues. It's enough to make you cry unless, that is, you adopt the 'onion' approach which lies at the heart of the delegation process as described by Jon Warner in The Delegation Pocketbook. Think of your workload in layers, like those of an onion: tasks at the core need to be retained and more personal control exercised; those in the outer layers can be delegated, the more so the further from the core. To delegate effectively you need to understand your own attitude to delegation (a questionnaire in the pocketbook will help you here), what you can delegate and why you should do so (beware the wrong reasons!), who to delegate to, how to prepare properly and what briefing style to adopt - controlling, tentative, participative or collaborative. Warner recommends aiming for the latter style, collaborative, which is achievable using the principles outlined in his book. There is advice too on setting goals/milestones, using controls to minimise risk, how to monitor the process, warning signs to look out for and how to react, and maintaining responsibility and accountability. Recognising the contribution made by others and learning from the experience are also covered. How well do you delegate and what style do you adopt: controlling, tentative, participative or collaborative? This pocketbook looks at the what, when and how of delegation - an insightful and practical overview.