Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

Ekhart Tolle's message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment. And while this message may not seem stunningly original or fresh, Tolle's clear writing, supportive voice, and enthusiasm make this an excellent manual for anyone who's ever wondered what exactly "living in the now" means. Foremost, Tolle is a world-class teacher, able to explain complicated concepts in concrete language. More importantly, within a chapter of reading this book, readers are already holding the world in a different container--more conscious of how thoughts and emotions get in the way of their ability to live in genuine peace and happiness.

One of the world's most influential living management thinkers, Charles Handy has year-after-year been listed alongside business gurus including Peter Drucker and Tom Peters in the prestigious Thinkers 50 list. His views on management -- and life -- have inspired and enlightened others for decades. Now, in Myself and Other More Important Matters, the bestselling author of books including The Age of Unreason shares his special brand of wisdom, giving readers uncommon insight into business and careers...as well as the choices we all have to make in our lives.

Handy draws on the lessons of his own experience to help readers move beyond the facts they learned in business school and reflect on their own individual management style. With the "philosophical elegance and eloquence" Warren Bennis has described as his trademark, Handy discusses how one should develop one’s career goals in line with personal values and sense of ethics. Handy entertainingly recounts what he’s discovered along his own international journey: from lessons his father taught him growing up in Ireland…to what he learned in Borneo in his days working for Royal Dutch Shell… to Italy, where he bought and fixed up an old house in Tuscany…all the way to America, where recent corporate scandals have shaken our understanding of what is ethical and acceptable.

With a nod to Abraham Maslow and his theory of self-actualization, the Wilsons challenge readers to "thrive instead of survive," grow up emotionally and spiritually, and think in new ways. For them winning is not beating out others but avoiding the mindset of simply "playing not to lose." Presented effectively in low-key, straightforward fashion, this book is based on techniques Wilson's firm has developed and utilized in work with more than 500,000 persons.

Presence can be read as a both a guide and a challenge to leaders in business, education, and government to transform their institutions into powerful agents of change in a world increasingly out of balance. Since business is the most powerful institution in the world today, the authors argue, it must play a key role in solving global societal problems. Yet so many institutions seem to run people rather than the other way around. In this illuminating book, the authors seek to understand why people don't change systems and institutions even when they pose a threat to society, and examine why institutional change is so difficult to attain.

The authors view large institutions such as global corporations as a new species that are affecting nearly all other life forms on the planet. Rather than look at these systems as merely the extension of a few hyper-powerful individuals, they see them as a dynamic organisms with the potential to learn, grow, and evolve--but only if people exert control over them and actively eliminate their destructive aspects. "But until that potential is activated," they write, "industrial age institutions will continue to expand blindly, unaware of their part in a larger whole or of the consequences of their growth." For global institutions to be recreated in positive ways, there must be individual and collective levels of awareness, followed by direct action. Raising this awareness is what Presence seeks to achieve. Drawing on the insights gleaned from interviews with over 150 leading scientists, social leaders, and entrepreneurs, the authors emphasize what they call the "courage to see freshly"--the ability to view familiar problems from a new perspective in order to better understand how parts and wholes are interrelated.

This is not a typical business book. Mainly theoretical, it does not offer specific tips that organizational managers or directors can apply immediately; rather, it offers powerful tools and ideas for changing the mindset of leaders and unlocking the latent potential to "develop awareness commensurate with our impact, wisdom in balance with our power.

Very highly recommended.

A top business consultant and speaker lights the path to a positive, productive work environment What do the best leaders do to achieve greatness in the modern workplace that is muddled by fear, pressure for productivity, overwork? Inspire! offers business leaders a clear vision of what a positive, productive, inspiring organization looks like in these challenging and chaotic times, and how to get there. The key to extraordinary long--term performance lies in a transformational commitment to inspiring people rather than motivating them. Lance Secretan's Higher Ground Leadership concepts have been widely used to increase profits and quality, slash staff turnover, and achieve record organizational and personal performance. Inspire! describes Lance's breakthrough thinking, often in the words of the pace--setting leaders who are implementing them and building legacies. Countless examples, stories, and case studies demonstrate the magic of these brilliant ideas. Six essential values form the foundation of positive, productive, and profitable organizations and a meaningful and fulfilling life--courage to begin the transformation; authenticity that lets people contribute all of themselves and excel; service that fosters a spirit of cooperation; truth--telling that builds trust and loyalty; love for others that leads to inspired results; and effectiveness, the attainment of results. Inspire! shows leaders in any organization how to foster these essential values that lead to personal and organizational greatness. Lance Secretan (Alton, Ontario, Canada) is one of the world's foremost thinkers on self--improvement and leadership. He is an author, award--winning columnist, philosopher, corporate coach, and a renowned public speaker and business consultant. He served as chairman of the Advisory Board of the 1997 Special Olympics World Winter Games and is also a former ambassador to the United Nations Environment Program.

Many managers understand that cultural differences affect the process of doing business, but many underestimate by just how much. This book aims to dispel the idea that there is only one way to manager and encourages readers to get to know their own culture before doing business with others. The author explores the cultural extremes and the incomprehension that can arise when doing business across cultures - even when people are working for the same company. The book explains that there are five key factors or orientations that affect how people all deal with each other, do business and manage. The goal is the "transnational organization" - one in which the company can take from each country what is best, and for those who are sensitive to these differences, the opportunities are enormous. With many practical examples and case studies, this book brings insights to the dilemma of reconciling corporate consistency with local conditions as business life rapidly internationalizes. In 1991 Fons Trompenaars was awarded the International Professional Practice Area Research Award by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

There is much to laud about the objective perspective that Stanford professor and author Pfeffer brings to business. First and foremost, he calls em as he sees em, showcasing common management errors and building on four years as a Business 2.0 columnist. Trimming employees' compensation and benefits packages? Nothing is gained from that immediate cost savings, except plummeting morale and retention issues—as the airline and auto industries have learned. Thinking about a merger or acquisition? Think again, he urges; it's an easier strategy than fixing operations—but one that more often than not fails. No function or goal of corporate America is left unscrutinized, from strategy to human resources. Yet he softens his radical and common-sense opinions by offering a range of solutions and companies that practice them well. Pfeffer points to Whole Foods, to Larry Culp at Danaher, and to CEO Gary Loveman of Harrah's as leaders who have managed to set corporate priorities and agendas that succeed. Short chapters with clear-cut messages and examples allow time to contemplate and copy.

Though this authoritative examination of today's static corporate management systems reads like a business school treatise, it isn't the same-old thing. Hamel, a well-known business thinker and author (Leading the Revolution), advocates that dogma be rooted out and a new future be imagined and invented. To aid managers and leaders on this mission, Hamel offers case studies and measured analysis of management innovators like Google and W.L. Gore (makers of Gore-Tex), then lists lessons that can be drawn from them. He doesn't gloss over how difficult it will be to reinvent management, comparing the new and needed shift in thinking to Darwin's abandoning creationist traditions and physicists who had to look beyond Newton's clockwork laws to discover quantum mechanics. But the steps needed to make such a profound shift aren't clearly outlined here either. The book serves primarily as an invitation to shed age-old systems and processes and think differently. There's little humor and few punchy catchphrases—the book has less sparkle than Jeffrey Pfeffer's What Were They Thinking?—but its content will likely appeal to managers accustomed to b-school textbooks and tired of gimmicky business evangelism.