Books with author Don Gordon

A book about teams to help teams become more positive, united and connected. Worldwide bestseller — the author of The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership shares the proven principles and practices that build great teams - and provides practical tools to help teams overcome negativity and enhance their culture, communication, connection, commitment and performance. Jon Gordon doesn’t just research the keys to great teams, he has personally worked with some of the most successful teams on the planet and has a keen understanding of how and why they became great. In The Power of a Positive Team, Jon draws upon his unique team building experience as well as conversations with some of the greatest teams in history in order to provide an essential framework, filled with proven practices, to empower teams to work together more effectively and achieve superior results. Utilizing examples from the writing team who created the hit show Billions, the National Champion Clemson Football team, the World Series contending Los Angeles Dodgers, The Miami Heat and the greatest beach volleyball team of all time to Navy SEAL’s, Marching bands, Southwest Airlines, USC and UVA Tennis, Twitter, Apple and Ford, Jon shares innovative strategies to transform a group of individuals into a united, positive and powerful team. Jon not only infuses this book with the latest research, compelling stories, and strategies to maintain optimism through adversity… he also shares his best practices to transform negativity, build trust (through his favorite team building exercises) and practical ways to have difficult conversations—all designed to make a team more positive, cohesive, stronger and better. The Power of a Positive Team also provides a blueprint for addressing common pitfalls that cause teams to fail—including complaining, selfishness, inconsistency, complacency, unaccountability—while offering solutions to enhance a team’s creativity, grit, innovation and growth. This book is meant for teams to read together. It’s written in such a way that if you and your team read it together, you will understand the obstacles you will face and what you must do to become a great team. If you read it together, stay positive together, and take action together you will accomplish amazing things TOGETHER.

We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard. As a leader, you will face numerous obstacles, negativity, and tests. There will be times when it seems as if everything in the world is conspiring against you and your vision seems more like a fantasy than a reality. That’s why positive leadership is essential! Positive leadership is not about fake positivity. It is the real stuff that makes great leaders great. The research is clear. Being a positive leader is not just a nice way to lead. It's the way to lead if you want to build a great culture, unite your organization in the face of adversity, develop a connected and committed team and achieve excellence and superior results. Since writing the mega best seller The Energy Bus, Jon Gordon has worked and consulted with leaders who have transformed their companies, organizations and schools, won national championships and are currently changing the world. He has also interviewed some of the greatest leaders of our time and researched many positive leaders throughout history and discovered their paths to success. In this pioneering book Jon Gordon shares what he has learned and provides a comprehensive framework on positive leadership filled with proven principles, compelling stories, practical ideas and practices that will help anyone become a positive leader. There is a power associated with positive leadership and you can start benefiting yourself and your team with it today.

Training Camp is an inspirational story filled with invaluable lessons and insights on bringing out the best in yourself and your team. The story follows Martin, an un-drafted rookie trying to make it in the NFL. He’s spent his entire life proving to the critics that a small guy with a big heart can succeed against all odds. After spraining his ankle in the pre-season, Martin thinks his dream is lost when he happens to meet a very special coach who shares eleven life-changing lessons that keep his dream alive―and might even make him the best of the best. If you want to be your best―Training Camp offers an inspirational story and real-world wisdom on what it takes to reach true excellence and how you and your team (your work team, school team, church team and family team) can achieve it.

We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard. As a leader, you will face numerous obstacles, negativity, and tests. There will be times when it seems as if everything in the world is conspiring against you and your vision seems more like a fantasy than a reality. That’s why positive leadership is essential! Positive leadership is not about fake positivity. It is the real stuff that makes great leaders great. The research is clear. Being a positive leader is not just a nice way to lead. It's the way to lead if you want to build a great culture, unite your organization in the face of adversity, develop a connected and committed team and achieve excellence and superior results. Since writing the mega best seller The Energy Bus, Jon Gordon has worked and consulted with leaders who have transformed their companies, organizations and schools, won national championships and are currently changing the world. He has also interviewed some of the greatest leaders of our time and researched many positive leaders throughout history and discovered their paths to success. In this pioneering book Jon Gordon shares what he has learned and provides a comprehensive framework on positive leadership filled with proven principles, compelling stories, practical ideas and practices that will help anyone become a positive leader. There is a power associated with positive leadership and you can start benefiting yourself and your team with it today.

I broke the rules, and now I’ve been exiled to the human world.I’m an orphan—half human, half fae, and totally alone in Grant City. But I’m not the only supernatural in town, and the ones I’ve been coming across seem up to no good.Someone definitely needs to stop them.And then there are the humans.Do I have a friend in the shy computer genius? Is the boy with the heart-breaking smile and rich parents trying to play me? Can I trust the handsome and mysterious stranger who lives next door?Oh, and why are women going missing off the streets? Who is taking them?I should probably just concentrate on graduating high school…But where is the fun in that?Click read for free or buy now to begin the adventure that is The Aria Fae Series!

A book about teams to help teams become more positive, united and connected. Worldwide bestseller — the author of The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership shares the proven principles and practices that build great teams - and provides practical tools to help teams overcome negativity and enhance their culture, communication, connection, commitment and performance. Jon Gordon doesn’t just research the keys to great teams, he has personally worked with some of the most successful teams on the planet and has a keen understanding of how and why they became great. In The Power of a Positive Team, Jon draws upon his unique team building experience as well as conversations with some of the greatest teams in history in order to provide an essential framework, filled with proven practices, to empower teams to work together more effectively and achieve superior results. Utilizing examples from the writing team who created the hit show Billions, the National Champion Clemson Football team, the World Series contending Los Angeles Dodgers, The Miami Heat and the greatest beach volleyball team of all time to Navy SEAL’s, Marching bands, Southwest Airlines, USC and UVA Tennis, Twitter, Apple and Ford, Jon shares innovative strategies to transform a group of individuals into a united, positive and powerful team. Jon not only infuses this book with the latest research, compelling stories, and strategies to maintain optimism through adversity… he also shares his best practices to transform negativity, build trust (through his favorite team building exercises) and practical ways to have difficult conversations—all designed to make a team more positive, cohesive, stronger and better. The Power of a Positive Team also provides a blueprint for addressing common pitfalls that cause teams to fail—including complaining, selfishness, inconsistency, complacency, unaccountability—while offering solutions to enhance a team’s creativity, grit, innovation and growth. This book is meant for teams to read together. It’s written in such a way that if you and your team read it together, you will understand the obstacles you will face and what you must do to become a great team. If you read it together, stay positive together, and take action together you will accomplish amazing things TOGETHER.

My life was totally normal.Well, mostly normal, anyway. Then the vampires showed up. Beautiful, terrifying creatures with rows of razor sharp fangs made for tearing through flesh. My sister and I ran for our lives, leaving our mother behind in the process.As it turns out, I’m not human, either. I’m the last of a supernatural race of elite warriors, and I’m about to step into a world full of vampires and werewolves who all seem to want something from me.The hidden academy we find ourselves in appears perfect, but secrets stalk the shadows, and everything is not as it seems.All I know is that I will do anything to protect my sister, even if I am afraid to look too closely at the darkness within myself.Who can I trust? And what will it take to make it out of this place alive?From the author of the Wolf Wars Series comes a fresh twist on urban fantasy, with a strong female heroine and a magical world full of mythical creatures and action. Readers of Vampire Academy, The Vampire Diaries, and Twilight will love this series. Start the completed series today and see why thousands of readers have fallen in love with Alexa Montgomery.

To save my best friend, I sold my soul to a demon.At the time, it seemed like a fair trade.The demon gave me until my next birthday before he would come and collect. Those nine months flew by in a flash.Now, I'm on a mission to save my soul, but the ghosts of my past keep popping up to haunt me. Meanwhile, the mystery I've been working to solve since moving to Grant City is finally starting to unravel, and I may get a shot at taking out the man behind it all.Now that I’ve finally found a family, will all the things I’m trying to hold onto slip away? Will trying to save everyone backfire? Will my love for them seal my fate?Find out! Click read for free or buy now to join Aria on her final adventure in The Demon’s Deal.

For fans of A Sick Day for Amos McGee and In a Jar comes a tender and gently adventurous gem about the power of friends to soothe aches big and small.Alice, a little piglet, loves life with her grandmother, making lists and crème brûlée, organizing buttons, and taking walks. Still, Alice wishes she had a sister--or even a brother. So, she does the sensible thing: She writes a note ("Hello! I am Alice."), tucks it into a bottle, and tosses it into the river, where it drifts out to sea, is captured by an octopus, picked up by a seagull, and arrives at a faraway lighthouse. There, François, a little dog, lives with his dad. François is everything Alice could wish for in a friend, and soon the seas are busy with their bottled correspondence. But when a big change comes, and Alice can't bring herself to write François more letters, will the simple comforts of time, love, and friendship restore the light to Alice's life?In this marvelous, gently funny and reassuring tale, the lucky and lovely friendship between Alice and François spans the length of the River Seine and the loss of a loved one. Award-winning author and artist Gus Gordon captures the highs and lows of being little, and tenderly shepherds kids on a journey full of fantastic possibilities, friendship, and healing.* "Reminiscent of William Steig...Will warm hearts and minds with each reading." --Kirkus (starred review)* "Endearing...Expressive...Intriguing...Heartening...Memorable" --Booklist (starred review)"Joyful [and] contemplative...[A] timely message that friendships can be maintained over distance and time." --BCCB"Triumphant...Gentle tongue-in-cheek humor [amid a] central theme of enduring love." --PW"Charming...[A] soothing, kid-friendly approach to life after loss." --SLJ"Earnest and playful...tender and inviting." --The Horn Book

Gus Gordon's The Last Peach is the story of two indecisive bugs contemplating eating the last peach of the summer in a hilarious picture book about anticipation and expectation. Summer’s almost over, and there’s one peach left. There’s also one big question in the air: Should someone eat it? What if it’s rotten inside?But what if it’s juicy?Should the bug who saw it first get to eat it?Should both bugs share it with their friends?Will anyone eat the peach?! EVER?!?

A dangerous supernatural from my past has escaped his prison, and our secret history makes me his obvious target—along with the city I’m trying to protect.The same city that now thinks of me as public enemy number one.Now, I have no choice but to face my past, along with the demons that lurk there.Trouble is, every time I try to do what’s right, things turn out wrong. I guess good deeds really don’t go unpunished.When things reach their worst, will I be the hero Grant City needs, or the villain they’ve made me out to be?Find out! Click read for free or buy now to join Aria in her new adventure in The Masked Maiden.

When I was the father of three little girls, I used to read the Bible to them at bedtime. It was one of the favorite moments of my day, and these moments now stand as some of my most cherished memories. Because some of the words were difficult for a child to understand, I did some “on the fly” editing, changing words or phrases to something they could comprehend. The Psalms did not hold the intrigue and suspense of many of the narrative sections of the Bible, but they still held the seeds of poetry that sprouted into delight. The Psalms began to shape the concept of God these children were hiding in their hearts. When reading the Psalms, I wanted to respect the meaning of the text and use the language other translators had created, but find a way to connect with the girls I knew and loved best. Most of all, I wanted them to grow to love the Bible as I did. I hoped they would hear the majestic praises, heartfelt laments, and exhortations to righteousness that are found in the Psalms and “hide them in their hearts so they would not sin against God.” These daughters are grown and out of the house now, studying at their universities or divinity schools, and still reading in their beds at night just as I am. Now that I am having my first ever sabbatical after 27 years of ministry in local churches, I wanted to take some time to convert some of those memories into written treasures for other parents, children, and grandchildren. That’s why I’ve created this book of Psalms with illustrations. I have extracted 25 of some of the most memorable, powerful, and child-friendly Psalms in the Bible and edited them in such a way that they will be comprehended by a child. Appreciating the diversity of the Psalms, I made an intentional effort to include all kinds of Psalms: praise, thanksgiving, lamentation, confession, wisdom, and trust. I have attempted to paraphrase these Psalms, using language and imagery appropriate for children, while remaining faithful to the spirit of these texts. Some explanatory notes along with some conversation questions are included in the back for those who might find these useful. My hope is that you will create your own special moments of reading and talking about God and the Bible with your own children, grandchildren, or any young person you love. I am grateful to Yates Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina for providing sabbatical time in order for me to carry out this dream. I am indebted to Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Dean of the Campbell University Divinity School (CUDS), and Irma Duke, Director of Church Relations at CUDS for providing space and hospitality at the beautiful Campbell campus, which enabled me to complete a large portion of this work. I am grateful to Dr. Tony Cartledge, Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School for the wise counsel he provided, though I would not want to lay the burden of theological accuracy on his shoulders. I thank my wife, Elizabeth, and three daughters, Sarah, Hannah, and Rebekah, for being sources of joy and inspiration to me for more than 27 years. I pray this book will contribute to lasting joy and a deeper love for God for all who might pick it up to read, see, and reflect on the glory and goodness of God. Soli deo gloria. —Don Gordon, 2013