Customer Reviews

Adversity Quotient @ Work: Make Everyday Challenges the Key to Your Success--Putting the Principles of AQ Into Action

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Learning to climb and leading others through their climb becomes an essential skill for leaders in the new millennium. The wisdom of Stoltz's work are that we have the potential to do both.

Bob Weigand, Director Management Training & Development, St.Luke's Hospital and Health Network

'AQ@Work' is aimed at consultants, students, or those in business who want to create a structured reaction mindset (initially consciously incompetent, to unconsciously competent) to performing better individually and in teams in the workplace.

The attractively illustrated action-oriented chapters span: Expanding your capacity- the human operating system (Quitters, Campers & Climbers); The science of AQ; Measuring Your AQ; The CORE of a climber (Control, Ownership, Reach, Endurance); Developing Response-Able Climbers (LEAD= Listen to Response, Establish Accountability, Analyze the Evidence, and Do Something); Coaching and Mentoring Climbers; Defining and Finding Climbers; Hiring Climbers; Building Climbing Teams; Building A Climbing Culture.

Strengths include: the presentation (illustrations, tables, summaries, action lists); the lively engaging style; interesting "humans as computers with software" analogies; the usability of materials for in-company training; and the credibility of AQ itself (data set and application group spanning over 100,000 people Worldwide across cultures, sectors, and professions).

Weaknesses include: the lack of references; a need more anecdotes or tabulated quantified success stories (rather than repetitive, almost consulting sales pitch); needs 25% less page count for content; dull 2nd half becomes a "verbatim training notes doc" (to this reviewer); lack of depth to "science" (e.g. misses many credible individual/ team motivation/performance models e.g.2 misses communications models & significance to team performance); offers unsubstantiated contradictions with standard psychology view to internalizing/ externalizing problems and subsequent personal growth (or not); and anecdotes sometimes abstract/remote from complexities of real work environments. Interestingly, Cypress Semiconductor is hailed here as a success story, and as a failure in Pfeffer's recent OK "Hidden Value" and OK "Knowing Doing-Gap" texts.

Alternatives include: Pfeffer's efforts; Goleman's OK "Working with Emotional Intelligence"; and Schwartz's inspirational "Magic of Thinking Big". At the "quality-end" look at: the superb "First to the Future- on Active Leadership" by Willi Railo (rigorous proven methods to coach & lead Olympic-standard people, applicable to all) (ISBN82-991169-5-3 Norbok A/S 1995); and Jensen's punchy 'Simplicity' (ISBN 073820210X 2000). More peripherally look at: "The Time Management PocketBook" and "Yoga for Dummies" offering approaches for motivation, focus, and action to being better balanced as well as corporate citizens.

Overall 'AQ@Work' is only worthwhile- but it could be amongst the best with more rigor & science, less words, and more success statistics.

Finally! A book that shows exactly how to bring the best out of employees in today's organizations. Adversity Quotient @ Work provides readers with the essential tools they need to invent their own futures and to control their own destinies on the job -- taking their organizations to new heights. Get this book -- before your competition does!

Why do some individuals quit, maintain status quo, get comfortable or continue to pursue dreams/purpose/goals? Focus on adversity and how individuals respond is a significant determining factor on whether their drive/motivation leads them to continued success or settle for something less. AQ includes many of the known success factors but identifies the difference responding to adversity plays into the equation. Supportive and practical information is included.

Read this book! Dr. Paul Stotlz has written a wonderful book that can help us all to accomplish more at work and to enjoy it while we do. With his easy to undertsand concepts and easy to follow "how to's" we can all learn to harness the adversities and obstacles that we face every day and to use them as springboards in our lives. This book has already helped me and many of my friends to develop a higher level of perseverance which is helping to drive higher levels of accomplishment and statisfaction not only in our work but in every facet of lives. Dr. Stoltz, thank you for sharing your great insight!

Paul has written another marvelous book! With all the complex pressures educators face today, knowing how to work with adversity is becoming all the more important. As a past teacher, principal and central office administrator, I recommend that anyone working in our nation's public schools read this book. It is an invaluable resource.

In the era of swift change and unremitting uncertainty, the challenge for executives and entrepreneurs is not only how to avoid crisis, but mainly how to weather and defy adversity. Dr. Stoltz shows that success in converting adversities into profitable opportunities is related to our ability to move forward despite what appears to be insurmountable obstacles. Thus, navigators of large enterprises or entrepreneurial startups should read this book for it provides theory-based accounts on how to develop and harness human perseverance. Such personal determination affects not only career choices but also the success with which actions are pursued and executed, which in turn fortifies one's own AQ. My empirical research in the area of innovation management validates and provides scientific support for this theory. Higher AQ is not a fad; it is associated with higher personal success.

- Gideon D. Markman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship Lally School of Management & Technology Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Finally a book that explains how a person can manifest a more powerful personal and professional life.Going beyond simple advice and into simplifying vital scientific knowledge, AQ@Work is filled with achieveable and exciting methods to help everyone access their potential.This book doesn't tell the reader he should be more successful, more productive, or more positive,, this book actually describes usuable tools for becoming more successful, more productive and more positive!The use of the Climbers, Campers, and Quitters metaphor is a brilliant way to guide reader's visualization of their current status on life's path.Some may resent the labels and metaphors, I would urge them to read the description of Camper once more and weep....

"I have been reading AQ over and over again and find every concept most practical and applicable in life, work and relationships."

"This book has global appeal and lays the foundation for the future and an optimized life. It is the blueprint of the human journey to a life well-lived and the world well-occupied by climbers."

Dr. Stoltz has done it again! AQ@Work is another brilliant expose on how to bridge the personal with the professional. Insightful, critical, reflective and relevant, a superb addition to any library. Pick it up. Read it. But most importantly, live through its wisdom! Climb!