Rick Brinkman

When I first saw this book on a display at the library in my office, I was both intrigued and skeptical, but the intrigue won out when I requested it from the public library. I am rather stubborn and resistant to change, so I did not know how much of this book would actually help me. Still, you never know.

I must say that this book has been extremely informative and helpful. It presents ten different types of problem people and provides specific strategies for dealing with them. The authors show more show you what the motivation is behind each problem person's method of attack and provide concrete examples of situations where the various strategies are put into play. There is even an appendix with information on what to do when YOU are the problem person; for example, if you are a "Think-They-Know-It-All".

The language is straightforward and simple, although it is littered with rather too many "it's" where "its" is supposed to go. (Of course, I tend to argue that even one is too many...) And in the first part there are pockets where the writing becomes kind of children's-show-host-y as the writers guide you very, very carefully through each of the steps they discuss. The anecdotes and scenarios are all fairly good, with the exception of the quite-obviously-the-Beatles one where John and Paul debate accepting the offer to perform on the Ed Sullivan show. All of the shoehorned-in Beatles lyrics as dialogue were really, REALLY painful for me. It was more the excessiveness of it than anything else. Seriously, almost every single sentence was a Beatles lyric. Too much.

But these are just a few distractions. The substance of the book is quite satisfying, and I will be taking extensive notes for future reference. If you're interested in it, take a look. show less

This is what I have been reduced to.

On the other hand, it actually seems to be working so far. Now if only one of the types of 'difficult people' in the workplace they described weren't motivated either by the desire to get it done or get it right, be liked or approved of, as much as an intense and insatiable need to be thought of as having never so much as touched a mistake no matter how disastrous the results of their decisions later turned out to be. I would, just in case any intrepid show more authors out there are looking for a subject to tackle, be willing to pay a decent amount of money for something that would give me some solid tips on how to discuss learning from and moving forward on past mistakes with someone who takes every mention of any past mistake, no matter how elliptical or couched or how careful I am to direct blame at other (innocent) parties, with a comprehensive discussion of how entirely blameless they are and a long list of unrelated mistakes I've made. show less

Overall this was helpful. This is a book about how to deal with people at their worst with a correlated but unstated message - how not to be one of those people. There is a fair amount of cliche, self-helpish gook to get through but there is some very solid material as well.

Solid listen.

كتاب جيد، يتحدث عن كيفية التخطيط للحياة، كي لا تمر أيامك من بين يديك ولم تفعل شيئاً، بل كما جئتَ ذهبت !
ويخبرنا أن "السعادة هي حالة الوعي الناجمة عن تحقيق المرء لقيمه" .. فيعلّمك كيف تعرف قيمك وتحددها؟ تلك القيم التي على أساسها ستحدد أهدافك في الحياة .. وسيعلمك الكتاب أيضاً كيف show more تحددها

وكما هو واضح من اسم الكتاب، أن هدفه الرئيس أن تعرف كيف تخطط لتحقيق أهدافك تلك، وكيف تقيّم نفسك أثناء الطريق، وأيضاً يتحدث عما سيواجهك من معوقات من داخلك أو خارجك، وكيف تتعامل معها ومع العالم المحيط بك

لم يغفل المؤلفان الحديث عن العادات وتغيير السئ منها، وأيضاً التعلم من الماضي والاستفادة منه، بدلاً من البكاء عليه

وتحدث المؤلفان أيضاً عن شحذ طاقتك وتجديد نشاطك في أثناء مشوارك الذي خططتَ له، وكيفية القضاء على السلبية، وتحطيم القيود النفسية.

كتاب مفيد، لاسيما لمن يكرر قراءته، وقد قرأته مرتين متتاليتين. show less