Listening or Financial Shenanigans

Listening: The Forgotten Skill

Author: Madelyn Burley Allen

A proven program for turning effective listening into a powerful business tool Managers and other employees spend more than 40 percent of their time listening to other people but often do it so poorly that the result is misunderstood instructions, misdirected projects, and erroneous actions—millions of dollars’ worth of mistakes just because most people don’t know how to listen. In this new edition of her classic guide to the art of effective listening, Madelyn Burley-Allen shows you how to acquire active, productive listening skills and put them to work for you—professionally, socially, and personally. With her time-tested techniques, you’ll learn how to:

• Eliminate distractions and improve your concentration on what is being said
• Locate key words, phrases, and ideas while listening
• Cut through your own listening biases
• Interpret body language clues
• Ask constructive, nonthreatening questions that elicit real information
• Get others to listen to you
• Master a whole range of listening skills that you can use on the job and in your personal life

Listening: The Forgotten Skill uses an interactive learning approach with work-sheets, charts, graphs, and self-tests that help you pace and monitor your own progress.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Acknowledgments
1	What Is Listening and What Can It Do for You?	1
2	How You Got to Be the Listener You Are	22
3	Barriers between Listener and Speaker	46
4	Listening to Yourself	82
5	Making Listening Work for You	106
6	Getting Others to Listen to You	139
7	Putting It All Together	168
	Notes	187
	Suggested Reading	189
	Index	191

Interesting textbook: Toxic Congregation or Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations

Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks and Fraud in Financial Reports

Author: Howard M Schilit

Techniques to uncover and avoid accounting frauds and scamsInflated profits . . . Suspicious write-offs . . . Shifted expenses . . . These and other dubious financial maneuvers have taken on a contemporary twist as companies pull out the stops in seeking to satisfy Wall Street. Financial Shenanigans pulls back the curtain on the current climate of accounting fraud. It presents tools that anyone who is potentially affected by misleading business valuations­­from investors and lenders to managers and auditors­­can use to research and read financial reports, and to identify early warning signs of a company's problems. A bestseller in its first edition, Financial Shenanigans has been thoroughly updated for today's marketplace. New chapters, data, and research reveal contemporary "shenanigans" that have been known to fool even veteran researchers.

Howard M. Schilit, Ph.D., CPA, is president of the Center for Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA), a leading independent financial research organization, and is one of today's leading authorities on detecting accounting gimmicks. Dr. Schilit, a former professor at American University, has been quoted or featured in numerous business publications including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and The New York Times, and has appeared on CNBC, CNN, and other networks. He is also the coauthor of Blue Chips and Hot Tips.