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Book Review: You Can’t Lie to Me

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by Janine Driver

by Janine Driver

Whether executives want to admit it or not, during the course of the average week someone, be it a client, vendor, employee or peer, is attempting to lie to them. People faced with this situation use a variety of methods to attempt to determine whether they’re getting the facts. Few of these methods actually result in separating fact from fiction. Author, keynote speaker and world-renowned body language expert Janine Driver offers a better way to pull the truth out of others in her book You Can’t Lie to Me: The Revolutionary Program to Supercharge Your Inner Lie Detector and Get to the Truth. This book is now available in multiple digital formats as a Soundview Executive Book Summary.

Driver stakes a claim for her expertise by offering “The BS Barometer,” a combination of tools that help readers understand the nature of detecting deception. One surprising point is the critical importance of the emotional investment of the person attempting to discover deceit. Driver writes that emotional investment is “the biggest predictor of your success. You must have as much skin in the game as the liar does. Why you want to know is just as important as what you want to know.” Recognizing what could be gained or lost by allowing a lie to persist will power executives to stop it in its tracks.

You Can’t Lie to Me provides a five-step program for advanced lie detection. Each step is given a name that will register with fans of true crime novels or police procedural media: Gathering Intel, The Wiretap, The Stakeout, The Full Body Surveillance, and The Interrogation. With unique insights on body language, verbal cues and facial expressions, Driver creates a communication method that, if thoroughly read and carefully practiced, can give executives a secret advantage in their daily interactions.

New Summaries on Deception, Innovation and Explanation

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Some of the most difficult parts of an executive’s job can result from ordinary situations. A simple conversation with an employee can reveal a problem that will affect the entire organization. A mishandled pitch in a meeting dooms an idea for a game-changing product to fail. Soundview has three new summaries that provide executives with the skills to turn those pivotal moments into extraordinary opportunities.

by Janine Driver

by Janine Driver

You Can’t Lie to Me by Janine Driver. What if you could increase your salary by 15 percent and kick problems and worries to the curb simply by learning how to detect a lie the moment it starts? What if you had an easy-to-use test that tipped you off the instant someone held something back from you? No machine built to date has proven more effective than a well-trained human lie detector, says world-renowned body language expert Janine Driver, a former federal law enforcement investigator who has trained agents at the ATF, CIA, and FBI. In You Can’t Lie To Me, Driver teaches you how to protect yourself from liars and manipulators.

by Lina M. Echeverria

by Lina M. Echeverria

Idea Agent by Lina M. Echeverria. There is perhaps no leadership challenge more daunting than managing creativity — and more urgent than delivering breakthrough innovation. How do you harness some of the most passionate, intelligent people in your organization without stifling them? How do you simultaneously unleash their energy and channel it into something tangible? In Idea Agent, Lina M. Echeverría offers seven proven principles through which new ideas come to fruition.

 

by Lee LeFever

by Lee LeFever

The Art of Explanation by Lee LeFever. You’ve done the hard work. Your product or service works beautifully — but something is missing. People just don’t see the big idea — and it’s keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem. The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems. In this summary, author Lee LeFever provides a guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium.

 

All of the above summaries are now available in multiple digital formats.

Book Review: Predictably Irrational

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by Dan Ariely

by Dan Ariely

During the course of a day, executives spend a portion of time thinking about the “what” involved in various actions: What does the executive need to do? What did employees do? What are customers doing? Rarely does anyone take the time to analyze the “why” of what we do. Fortunately, Duke University professor and author Dan Ariely provides readers with one of the most thought-provoking examinations of the “why” behind decision making in his book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. The Soundview Executive Book Summary of this book is now available for download.

While Ariely’s book is not specifically written for a business audience, the benefits to an executive reader are tremendous. It is easy to read through the various social science experiments and see the applications to marketing, sales and customer service. What becomes clear to executives who read Predictably Irrational is that Ariely’s book offers additional suggestions for areas such as performance and workplace culture.

For example, Ariely suggests that a better method to prevent procrastination is to allow people to voice their preferred path of action to accomplish a goal. This prevents the individual from feeling crushed by a mandate from above while creating the self-imposed restrictions that can help give structure to finishing a task. Ariely admits that this approach may lack the effectiveness of more dictatorial ways of enforcing responsibility, but a more cooperative approach to goals can, as Ariely writes, “help push us in the right direction.” In a bonus bit of business wisdom, he suggests that people can be more successful at meeting deadlines if given training and experience in setting their own timetable.

Predictably Irrational is an entertaining read with insights that can be interpreted and applied to an executive’s own company. Choosing to read Ariely’s book is a decision that can be firmly labeled “rational.”

To learn more about the positive and negative effects of irrational behavior, check out the Soundview Executive Book Summary of Ariely’s follow-up book The Upside of Irrationality.

Book Review: Beating the Global Odds

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by Paul A. Laudicina

by Paul A. Laudicina

In one of the most accurate depictions of today’s global business landscape, A.T. Kearney executive and author Paul Laudicina describes society as “a swirl of business, governments, organizations of all kinds and individuals.” While these primary elements have been the ingredients in the recipe for society for centuries, the concentration and blending are at all-time highs. Laudicina takes stock of the state of the global economy in Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-Making in a Confused and Troubled World. This essential guide to making sense of the global swirl is now available as a Soundview Executive Book Summary.

The “odds” Laudicina describes may appear stacked against most executives. He outlines the considerable challenge faced by leaders in the majority of organizations. Leaders are tasked with trying to keep up with fast-paced changes in technology, politics and customer expectations while operating within organizations that have long-held operating and decision-making practices. Laudicina also reminds executives of economist Paul Volcker’s three deficits: budget, trade and leadership. Of the three, Laudicina concurs with Volcker that the leadership deficit far outweighs the other two issues, and its ramifications may be the most damaging to the global economy.

Fortunately, Beating the Global Odds provides a method for what Laudicina terms “Values-Based Leadership,” as well as the critical importance of scenario planning to a company’s continued vitality. Laudicina does an excellent job of balancing what are traditionally termed “hard” and “soft” leadership skills. For example, a discussion on innovation follows a section on the need for a leader to improve his or her relationships. The equal amount of page space devoted to both sets of abilities is an indicator that Laudicina believes both hard and soft skills are difference makers.

The global odds seem formidable, but Beating the Global Odds stacks the deck in the executive’s favor.

Find the Balance with Three New Summaries

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This month Soundview debuts three new Soundview Executive Book Summaries that offer insights into the global economy, authentic influence and irrational human behavior. Whether read separately or taken as a whole, leaders will find numerous takeaways to blend personal performance with organizational excellence. The challenges facing today’s managers are increasing and these titles offer the much-needed blend of interpersonal skill and big-picture strategy. The titles include:

by Paul A. Laudicina

by Paul A. Laudicina

Beating the Global Odds by Paul A. Laudicina: While the widespread proliferation of information in our 24/7 news cycle can yield great benefits, the overall result has been a decrease in innovation and leadership. Beating the Global Odds is here to help, showing you how to cut through the clutter and regain your focus as you confront the challenges of the future. Author Paul A. Laudicina offers a road map to building a better, more cohesive, and more coherent tomorrow, for your business, your world, and yourself.

 

by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen

by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen

Real Influence by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen: In this groundbreaking book, authors Mark Goulston and John Ullmen reveal a new model for authentic influence — the kind that creates a strong initial connection and survives long after agreement has been reached. Based on listening, genuine engagement and commitment to win-win outcomes, Real Influence provides a powerful four-step method you can use to: examine your priorities; learn about the key players and what they need; earn their attention and motivate them to hear more; and add value with your questions and action.

 

by Dan Ariely

by Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely: Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor Dan Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioral economics, people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion. Drawing on psychology and economics, behavioral economics can show us why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over its cheaper counterpart and why honest people may steal office supplies or communal food, but not money. According to Ariely in Predictably Irrational, our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality.

These summaries are now available in multiple digital formats. Download your copies today!