Since 2001, the "Gallup Management Journal" has provided leaders with essential insights into managing the human side of their businesses: their employees and customers. This book features articles from the first seven years of the journal that could not be more relevant today, as executives continue to struggle with the transition into a 21st century global economy. A range of voices is included in these pages. A Ritz-Carlton executive tells how his company is reinventing its world-class brand, while a leader at Ann Taylor describes how the retailer invests in talent. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman probes how customers think, while one of the founding fathers of the Internet, Vinton Cerf, speculates on the future of a connected world. With its lively writing and penetrating, research-driven insights, "The Best of the Gallup Management Journal 2001-2007" is essential reading for leaders who want to engage employees and customers in a hyper-competitive and ever-changing global economy.

"A new & upgraded edition of the online test from Gallup's Now, discover your strengths"--Jacket.

Explains how to identify and maximize sales talent, outlines the basic steps of the selling process, and includes an access code to an online assessment test.

Six Sigma changed the face of manufacturing quality. Now, HumanSigma is poised to do the same for sales and service organizations. Human Sigma offers an innovative, research-based approach to one of the toughest challenges businesses face today: how to effectively manage the employee-customer encounter to drive business success. Based on research spanning 10 million employees and 10 million customers around the world, the Human Sigma approach combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it. Human Sigma is based on five rules to bring excellence to how employees engage and interact with customers: RULE #1: E Pluribus Unum. Employee and customer experiences must be managed together — not as separate entities. RULE #2: Feelings Are Facts. Emotions drive and shape the employee-customer encounter. RULE #3: Think Globally, Measure and Act Locally. The employee-customer encounter must be measured and managed at the local level. RULE #4: There Is One Number You Need to Know. Employee and customer engagement interact to drive enhanced financial performance. And this interaction can be quantified and summarized with a single performance metric. RULE #5: If You Pray for Potatoes, You Better Grab a Hoe. Good intentions alone do not constitute a plan of action. Sustainable improvement in the employee-customer encounter requires disciplined local action coupled with a companywide commitment to changing how employees are recruited, positioned in roles, rewarded and recognized, and importantly, how they are managed. Essential reading for global business leaders, Human Sigma shows how sales and service companies can flourish in the new global economy. It reveals a profoundly different method for managing human systems for growth. Blending strategic analysis with hands-on, practical steps and advice, Human Sigma will change how you view your work, your employees and your customers forever.

This third edition of Exploring Internal Communication includes new chapters on the history of internal communication, the evolution of employee engagement, the current state of practice, change communication, storytelling, research and measurement, an internal communication measurement dashboard, intranet management, and internal social media. It argues that internal communication practice is about keeping employees informed and at the same time giving them a voice that is treated seriously. The book is both a companion for internal communication courses and an exploration of key concepts for a strategic approach to practice that underpins employee engagement.

The creation of business value and competitive advantage is crucial to any company in the modern corporate sector. By developing positive relationships with consumers, businesses can better maintain their customers’ loyalty. Building Brand Equity and Consumer Trust Through Radical Transparency Practices is an innovative reference source for emerging scholarly perspectives on the role of branding in organizational contexts and techniques to sustain a profitable and honest relationship with consumers. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as risk management, product innovation, and brand awareness, this book is ideally designed for managers, researchers, professionals, students, and practitioners interested in the development of value creation in contemporary business.

Bringing both the science, and the real-life applications, of positive psychology to life for students This revision of the cutting edge, most comprehensive text for this exciting field presents new frameworks for understanding positive emotions and human strengths. The authors—all leading figures in the field—show how to apply the science to improve schooling, the workplace, and cooperative lifestyles among people. Well-crafted exercises engage students in applying major principles in their own lives, and more than 50 case histories and comments from leaders in the field vividly illustrate key concepts as they apply to real life.