Working PeopleSmart
6 Strategies for Success
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Bringing out the best in others is good business. When we bring both respect and interpersonal savvy to our work relationships, we do more than make people feel good. We enhance personal and organizational performance. And as the workplace grows more complex and competitive, managing our work relationships becomes even more essential and difficult. Now more than ever we need to work people smart. Working PeopleSmart describes the six core strategies used by people-smart individuals and shows how to apply them in the toughest workplace situations. Individuals who are people smart know how to open others up rather than make them defensive or resistant. They have a knack for diffusing tension rather than creating it. They set a good example through their own behavior on the job and can inspire and influence others with less developed skills. Working PeopleSmart can serve as your virtual coach to guide you through difficult work relationships skillfully. How do you deal with a critical colleague? Make your boss listen to you? React to an offensive joke? Get the resources you need? The authors look at over 50 real-life situations and offer people-smart prescriptions for handling them effectively. They provide coaching tips for each scenario and describe exactly what a people-smart response sounds like. As two psychologists with both organizational and clinical expertise, coauthors Mel Silberman and Freda Hansburg are highly qualified to deliver the message that we can emerge from even the toughest interpersonal moments on the job with dignity and grace. Where other books rely on typologies that categorize people according to their interpersonal styles and then offer advice on how to deal with each type, the strategies described in Working PeopleSmart are straightforward and universal. They can be used immediately to deal with any type of person or any situation, no matter how difficult or sensitive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The co-authors of PeopleSmart share tips and strategies for interacting with, relating to and understanding the behaviors of other people in the workplace in order to bring "out the best in others on the job." Focusing on six specific strategies-"be curious rather than furious"; "include the listener rather than talk at him or her"; "speak up (with tact) rather than suffer in silence"; "invite others to be your mirror rather than your blind spot"; "be open to resistance rather than fight it"; and "think we, not me"-the chapters explain how to apply their principles in a variety of workplace situations. While the repeated mantras tend toward cliche and certain aspects of the writing (such as references to workplace personality types like "Harvey Hierarchy" and "Carol Complainer") are hokey, the underlying advice is sound and worth taking to heart, even as a simple reminder of how to treat others graciously.