Easy Peasey: People Skills for Life

This is the second book on body language and NVC I've picked up this year, written by one of the most pre-eminent names in the field (remember the guy who used to have the TV show about body language? Yeah, that Allan Pease), and yet I didn't actually find it as good as the Need to Know? one I read a couple of weeks back.

Don't get me wrong - the book's pretty good for what it is... a short, sharp, to-the-point, do-this-thing-don't-do-that-thing guide that tells you what to be aware of (in yourself and others) non-verbally - where to sit, how to stand, what to do with your hands, where to look, etc - in various business situations.

What it doesn't do is explore in any depth any of the recommendations it makes. It tells you what to do show more (usually with a single recommendation), but not very much about why, or how it all fits together, what other options you have, or what other messages you might be sending by doing what they suggest without ensuring the rest of your body language supports the message you're trying to send. And any rationales given for any recommendations tend to be in the order of 'studies show' or 'research has concluded'. Now because this is Allan Pease and I've read some of his other, more descriptive books a long time ago, I don't doubt that he really does have the research available to back up the statement... but you can't tell that from this book.

However, that doesn't mean it's a bad book - I just suspect I'm not the target audience. The feeling I get is that this book was written for the kind of person that acknowledges that yeah, NVC is important and that it's a critical part of impression and image management; but they don't really want to get bogged down with all that extraneous stuff - they just want to get straight to the meat, and learn what they're supposed to do and watch out for as quickly and with as little distraction as possible.

For someone like me, though, who's fascinated with non-verbal messages and communication channels; the book's just a little too sparse. All those complex, extraneous distractions (how speicifc gestures developed, cultural differences, different shades of meaning, or different meanings depending on the other gestures within the cluster) is a big part of what attracts me to the topic, and reducing it to a book like this feels a little like opening a painting-by-numbers kit when I could be taking a semester-long class in capturing landscapes with oil paints.

So... hmmm... on consideration, I think I'll give Easy Peasey a 7.5/10 - the information in it's good, and well worth it if you just want to cut to the chase - but it's a little too sparse to even start sating that NVC hunger of mine that only seems to be growing at the moment. show less

No nonsense, straight to the point book on people skills. Brilliant! Every sales person should have a copy, actually every individual should. Easy to read instructions that you can put into action immediately. Some people in this world surely need a crash course on people skills, and this book is perfect!