A prominent consultant reveals secrets to help you influence and persuade others—even when you aren’t in a position of power. We all have occasions in which we want or need to persuade someone of greater clout, prestige, or authority to see things our way. There are books that show how to effect change from a leadership position or how to work with peers within your own organization—but what can you do when you need to exert “upward influence” with decision makers who can help you achieve your goals? In this book, a popular speaker and successful consultant with expertise in grassroots efforts shows which tactics are most successful when you’re the underdog. She also shares real-world stories of everyday people who have achieved persuasion success in politics and business with someone up the food chain, the peer-reviewed science behind their success—as well as insights from those whose minds they changed.

Why do underdogs succeed so much more than we expect? How do the weak outsmart the strong? In David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell, no.1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw, takes us on a scintillating and surprising journey through the hidden dynamics that shape the balance of power between the small and the mighty. From the conflicts in Northern Ireland, through the tactics of civil rights leaders and the problem of privilege, Gladwell demonstrates how we misunderstand the true meaning of advantage and disadvantage. When does a traumatic childhood work in someone's favour? How can a disability leave someone better off? And do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into? David and Goliath draws on the stories of remarkable underdogs, history, science, psychology and on Malcolm Gladwell's unparalleled ability to make the connections others miss. It's a brilliant, illuminating book that overturns conventional thinking about power and advantage. 'A global phenomenon... there is, it seems, no subject over which he cannot scatter some magic dust' Observer

“Analyzing and refuting the common assumptions of anti-Americanism is a critical contribution to the global political debate. Thank goodness for this effort." —UN Ambassador John Bolton, author of Surrender is Not an Option David versus Goliath, the American Revolutionaries, "The Little Engine That Could," Team USA's "Miracle on Ice," the Star Wars Rebel Alliance, Rocky Balboa, the Jamaican bobsled team and the meek inheriting the Earth. Everyone, it seems, loves an underdog. Why is that? We begin life tiny and helpless, at the mercy of those who are bigger and more powerful than us: parents and guardians who tell us what to eat, what to wear, how to behave (even when to sleep and wake up). From childhood into adulthood, we're told what to do by those who wield more power—our parents, teachers, bosses government. So naturally, we have a predisposition to resent the overdogs and root for the little guy. But this tendency, which international political consultant and human rights activist Michael Prell calls “underdogma," can be very dangerous – both to America and to the world at large. In Underdogma, Prell, who has worked world leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Australian and Canadian prime ministers and the Dalai Lama, explores our love/hate relationship with power within our culture and our politics. Underdogma explains seeming mysteries such as why: •Almost half of Americans blamed President Bush for the attacks of 9/11, even while the American media described the architect of these attacks as “thoughtful about his cause and craft" and “folksy." •Gays and lesbians protest those who protect gay rights (America, Israel), while championing those who outlaw and execute homosexuals (Palestine). •Environmentalists focus their rage on America, even though China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. •The United Nations elevates countries such as Sudan to full membership on the UN's Commission on Human Rights, even as the ethnic cleansing of Darfur proceeds. Tracing the evolution of this belief system through human history—ancient Greece to Marxism to the dawn of political correctness—Prell shows what continuing with this collective mindset means for our future. While America and its president increasingly exalt the meek and apologize for their power, America's competitors and enemies are moving in a different direction. China is projected to overtake the U.S. economically by 2027 and is ready to move into the position of hegemon, and radical Islamists are looking to extend their global territory, taking any sign of weakness as a chance to attack. America must return to its founding spirit, and underdogma must stop now—our nation depends on it.

Over the past decade, research and theory on heroism and heroic leadership has greatly expanded, providing new insights on heroic behavior. The Handbook of Heroism and Heroic Leadership brings together new scholarship in this burgeoning field to build an important foundation for further multidisciplinary developments. In its three parts, "Origins of Heroism," "Types of Heroism," and "Processes of Heroism," distinguished social scientists and researchers explore topics such as morality, resilience, courage, empathy, meaning, altruism, spirituality, and transformation. This handbook provides a much-needed consolidation and synthesis for heroism and heroic leadership scholars and graduate students.

Heroism is a rich, elusive phenomenon. Any adequate understanding of heroic behavior requires a new type of scholarly imagination, one that taps into human artistic sensibilities as much as it does the rigors of scientific inquiry. In an important sense, we invoke a meta-version of the call to heroic imagination by Franco, Blau, and Zimbardo (2011), who describe such imagination “as a mind-set” and “a collection of attitudes” (p. 13) that can steer everyday people toward heroic achievement. This eBook also merges our understanding of heroism with heroic leadership, demonstrating that heroic leadership applies the principles of heroism in moving groups toward noble collective goals. This eBook represents an effort by a distinguished group of authors to unleash their own creative mindsets, attitudes, and imaginations in their scholarship on heroism and heroic leadership.

One major party in American politics, the Democrats, has consciously identified itself with underdogs. This book analyzes the relationship between the party and the main political ideology of its base: liberalism.

A guide to key planning strategies to prepare for grant writing.