Penguin Business Experts Series

Most managers fail. Some 70% of employees say they are dissatisfied with their line manager. A shocking 50% are labelled as incompetent, a disappointment or a wrong hire by their co-workers. But, what do we expect when over half new managers are given no training when they are promoted? Becoming a manager isn't a progression; it's an entirely new job.

Penguin Expert Series: Managing People is a manual for managers who want to succeed in their new job, motivate and direct their teams and establish a working culture where everyone wants to do their best work. The book condenses Simon Birkenhead's decades of experience working as a team leader. He reveals; what makes a good manager, highlights common pitfalls to avoid, presents his tried and tested 'four-lever framework.'

With strategies to activate motivation in your team, set goals and expectations, provide feedback and coaching to building a high-performance culture, and plenty of examples from across industries, this is everything first-time managers need to succeed and be the boss that everyone wants to work for.

Remote working makes us happier, more productive and more profitable, but it can bring its own set of challenges. How do we manage our work-life balance; communicate and collaborate effectively as teams; and ensure our technology is efficient?

In Work Remotely, Penguin Business Experts Anastasia Tohmé and Martin Worner explain everything you need to know:

- Set your own targets and monitor productivity
- Establish boundaries between working hours and free time
- Manage effective communication and decision-making at a distance

Including case studies from the companies around the world who are innovating and revolutionizing the way we work, Work Remotely shares useful advice and practical tips to ensure you get the most out of working away from the office environment.

One in five people are experiencing mental health problems right now. Stress, anxiety and depression account for half of all working days lost. So why are we still not talking about mental health at work?

Promoting positive mental health is fast becoming a priority for companies yet many are failing to implement a strategy that works. Penguin Business Expert James Routledge has been working with leaders, managers and people in all positions who want to positively change their organisation's approach to mental health. In this book, he reveals how to; reduce stigma, focus on early intervention and prevention, improve productivity, engagement and retention and create a culture of openness from the top down. Filled with practical tips, proven strategies and case studies from the organisations leading the way, this book will help any organisation build a positive mental health framework that works.

We all spend too much time in meetings, where very little is achieved and even less is followed up on afterwards.

In Hold Successful Meetings, Penguin Business Expert Caterina Kostoula will introduce you to everything you need to know to; decide when a meeting can and can't be avoided, what kind of meeting to hold, encourage effective decision-making during the meeting and efficient follow up afterwards.

Including case studies from companies that are innovating in this space, Kostoula will reveal useful advice and practical tips to make sure your meetings - whether physical or virtual - hit the mark every time.

Does the thought of delivering a presentation make your heart skip a beat? Do your pitches fall flat no matter how much preparation you put in? Are you often comparing yourself to more eloquent speakers and wondering how they capture the room?

At some point in our careers we will need to speak in front of an audience; whether to present our ideas to a group of five in a meeting, pitch for investment in front of a panel or deliver a keynote speech to one thousand delegates. Yet glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking, is incredibly common and can inhibit our chances of career progression by up to 15%.

In Speaking with Confidence, Expert and managing director of Speakers' Corner Nick Gold, shows how anyone can learn to be a confident public speaker and use their surroundings to give them the support and structure they need to achieve maximum impact and success from their speech. His decades of experience coaching and producing some of the best speakers in the country have been condensed here into one expert guide to help you connect with your audience every time.

Are you stuck in a career rut? Are your former peers progressing ahead of you? Are you doing all the hard work but getting none of the rewards? Are you wondering what everyone else seems to know that you don't?

Asking for a promotion ranks high on the list of life's most anxiety-inducing activities. Putting yourself out there to higher-ups can be intimidating, and competition can be fierce, especially in the current economic climate. And, of course, what if they say no?

But it's also one of the most important things you can do for your career. If you want to move forward in your company or field, promotions are part of the game and they won't just be handed to you - you have to work - and ask - for them. Ready to take that next step? Penguin Experts Series: Get Promoted will give you everything you need to know before the big conversation.

Future Proof Your Business: Penguin Expert Series will arm you with the practical skills you need to adapt your organisation so that is fine-tuned for our age of high-frequency change. You will learn to collect and analyse data to recognize the early indications of change in your industry and how to convert that foresight into rapid action.

- How can you build agility into your organisation and ensure it's ready it for change?
- What are the tools needed for predicting future trends in your industry?
- How can you act with speed ahead of your competitors?

Tom Cheesewright, a world-leading Applied Futurist, will answer all these questions, drawing from his own experience, as well as insights from industry authorities and case studies from thriving organisations around the world, to give you all the practical tools you need for successful change management in your organisation.

It has never been a more challenging time for managers and leaders to maintain a happy, healthy workforce. The pace of change and increasing uncertainty in most industries has resulted in a rapid increase in stress and anxiety in the workplace, and most organizations are poorly equipped to respond to these challenges in a meaningful and supportive way.

Penguin Business Experts: Coach Your Team is a practical guide for leaders who want to foster a culture where everyone has a chance to flourish, create and innovate while being happy and more resilient. It draws on cutting-edge, evidence-based techniques in coaching that focus on developing mindfulness and compassion in leaders, their employees and throughout their organisation with case studies of best practice from around the world. It covers everything you need to know to develop your own approach to coaching starting with learning how to coach yourself through to techniques to foster a coaching culture rooted in mindfulness and compassion within your team, and ultimately your organization.

Equality at work expert Ann Francke reveals how to understand and tackle the damaging consequences of gender imbalance in the workplace

Gender balance is first and foremost a business issue. McKinsey estimates we could add 28 trillion to global GDP if we achieved gender equality everywhere - that is more than the GDPs of the US and China combined. But it is so much more than that. Gender balance is one of the best levers we can pull to build better managers and leaders at every level, improve team performance and create better cultures where everyone can thrive.

In the Penguin Experts: Create a Gender-Balanced Workplace, Ann Francke, the CEO of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), introduces her solution to combating the problems at the heart of the continued imbalance and offers clear, actionable strategies for making a positive change in your organisation.

Are you struggling to juggle multiple projects? Do you often lose control of your budget? Does communicating your progress to the rest of your team cause you undue stress?

Project management is an essential skill for anyone who needs to get things done in any organisation, and is absolutely critical for anyone leading strategic change. In Lead Successful Projects, the Penguin Business Expert guide, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez introduces a simplified but strategic approach to project management developed over the last 20 years coaching executives, managers and MBAs.

Learn how to break down your project into manageable elements, define smart goals and meet them in this concise and practical guide to project success.