Preface -- Introduction -- Building a team -- A good lunch -- Interview lies -- Job history -- Personality of reference writers -- Poor selection -- Writing a personal statement -- Getting the best out of people -- Absence analytics -- Experiential incentives -- Extraverts -- Facts of life -- Fudging and nudging -- Hire emotionally intelligent people -- Mid-level cadres -- Motivating your staff -- Performance appraisal systems -- Promote at random -- Promotion of the self aware -- Ranking and spanking -- Scientific understanding of the public -- Sconsable offences -- Shapers of destiny -- Talent myth -- The daily grind -- A grim place to work -- Aesthetics at work -- Biscuit hunters, film extras, therapy patients -- Changing places -- Gender at work -- Generations at work 1 -- Generations at work 2 -- Grievances at work -- How "family friendly" can backfire -- Legislation and regulation -- Memory and vision -- Paper trail culture -- Prioritisation -- Slaughter of the innocents -- Violence at work -- Will power -- Working from home -- Social networking -- Sponsorship -- It's all in the delivery : management behaviour -- All the questions and all the answers -- Benefits of adversity -- Bureaucratic punishment -- Conscientiousness -- Difficult conversations -- Family business -- Feeding narcissism -- Good advice -- Lie detectors -- Losing your mindfulness -- Managerially unexplained symptoms -- Marshmallow test -- Narcissistic manager -- Passive aggressiveness -- Risky types -- To be a grown up -- Translator transgressions -- U turns -- Under cover boss -- Learning on the job -- Assessment at work -- Bang for your buck -- Education -- Elite performers -- Honest evaluation -- Narrative skills -- Whatever happened to humility? -- Life beyond -- Dog years -- Drive for money -- Happiness brings wealth -- Mind and soul of the expat -- Regrets -- Sports ethic.

Resilient people are happier, healthier, and more productive. Psychologist and business writer Adrian Furnham takes a sideways and entertaining look at the challenges of being a leader, demonstrating how resilience can be honed, developed, and used as a personal life raft to keep afloat in the face of adversity.