Cain and Abel at Work
How to Overcome Office Politics and the People Who Stand Between You and Success
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- USD 4.99
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- USD 4.99
Descripción editorial
Do you know a Cain at work?
The back-stabbing liar who steals credit for your ideas...
The a**-kissing co-worker who worries about "face time" while you stay late working hard...
The gossipy colleague who spreads rumors just to create drama in the office.
If any of these people sound familiar, watch out: a Cain is lurking, ready to sabotage your job, your promotion, and even your reputation at work.
Written by two veteran media and political strategists, Cain and Abel at Work will help you survive the ultimate political arena—the office—and prepare you for the real-world interpersonal dynamics they don't teach you in business school.
In the Old Testament story that serves as the beginning metaphor for this book, backstabbing Cain kills the honorable Abel out of jealousy, and despite being punished with banishment, he goes on to marry, have a son, and build a city around him. All of a sudden, Cain gets to be a father, real estate developer, and probably the first politician of his day, while Abel's life is over in a flash. Authors Gerry Lange and Todd Domke have discovered that this type of injustice is still alive and well in the modern competitive workplace. Together, they have decades of personal experience and first-hand encounters with scheming, calculating Cains, and now they're giving readers an invaluable guide for coping with and combating Cain at work.
Using real-life case studies to illustrate how Cains operate, Cain and Abel at Work will teach you how to:
Identify the Cains before they make you their victim
Recognize the tactics Cains use to gain status and power
Win out over Cains without stooping to their level
With compelling new insight into human behavior and competition developed from the authors' experience in the political, media, and business arenas, Cain and Abel at Work explains what motivates both Cains and Abels at work. Not only does this book explore and deplore the behavior of Cains, it also explains how the simple naïveté of Abels allows Cains to get away with their shenanigans.
If anyone has ever stolen an idea from you or grabbed credit for your work, if they've taken advantage of or walked all over you, you need this book. Cain and Abel at Work is an office survival guide no well-intentioned Abel should be without.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The biblical tale of brotherly revenge, in which Cain killed his brother, Abel, because God seemed to treat Abel better, holds lessons for everybody in the workplace, according to veteran political strategists and media consultants Lange and Domke. Senior executives, graveyard-shift assembly-line workers and secretaries alike need to be able to identify their enemies in order to succeed in the business world, the authors claim. For readers who think Lange and Domke paint too black-and-white a picture, they include numerous brief case studies showing how people can be sabotaged because they didn't anticipate the motives of a Cain. Those who can't look themselves in the mirror and truthfully confess to being a Cain or an Abel will find the authors' classifications eye-opening. For example, Abels think in terms of getting the job done, teamwork and loyalty to colleagues. Cains think in terms of title, status, getting credit, power over others and the loyalty of subordinates. When Cains use words like "frankly" or "confidentially," they are actually saying, "I'm about to tell you a lie." To fight the Cains, readers can use some 27 strategies, including avoiding mind games, not believing lies and not allying with a Cain. Despite the biblical gimmick, much of this book is both engaging and plausible. However, some employees may be daunted by the process of recognizing Cains and modifying their own behavior while simultaneously performing their jobs day in and out. Managers and team leaders may find this book most useful as they assess their staffs and work groups and mentor their employees.
