Customer Reviews

The Art of Speedreading People: Harness the Power of Personality Type and Create What You Want in Business and in Life

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have read a great number of books on the 16 MBTI personality types, and I have investigated scores of websites to really find out all I can about understanding people and their personalities. This book, by far, is the easiest guide to the MBTI. I highly recommend it both to people new to MBTI, and to those who have a fairly good understanding of the 16 types.

This book is simple and easy to understand, and has some really great real-world examples that are wonderful. The "How To Speak" sections are fun and make perfect sense.

Other books on the MBTI are really complicated and seem to require a Master's degree in psychology in order to really get the most out of them.

This book will help you understand the people in your life, and make you realize that everyone is different, and that everyone sees things from a different perspective. But that isn't the best part... it tells you HOW they see things and HOW best to interact with them.

I have used MBTI at work and found it to be useful. I came across this book when I was looking for something to add to the basic knowledge that I had. Don't worry though, the first two chapters go over the basics. If you are not familiar with MBTI, this will get you started. If you are familiar with it, it serves as a good review.

Then the heart of the book takes you through three tools for identifying peoples preferences: type preference as a whole, temperament, and extraverted/introverted feeling. After putting all of these together, the authors present you with some case studies where you use the various techniques to try to identify the types of the people involved. They are simple but useful.

The book closes with some detailed advice for interacting with the four different temperaments in general and then specifically the four individual type preferences within a given temperaments.

The final chapter is titled "How Will I Ever Look at People the Same Way Again?" Truthfully, you won't. You will notice things about people, and hopefully these things will help you improve your interactions with the people you come in contact with.

I had heard about personality typing and such before from Psych classes, but this book puts it to practical use. They first give an introduction to personality typing, it's history, and modern implications. They then help you understand the differences in type as well as dispelling some common myths and connotations of terms used in typing.

The book introduces various methods of assessing a person's personality type (using preferences vs. temperment) as well as giving some exercises at the end of each chapter to help put what you just learned to use. Of course, the stress is on *Speed* reading people so they give tips on how to quickly asess someone's type so that you can put what you learned to use in the real world where you can't sit down and have a therapy session with everyone you meet.

The later chapters in the book delve into the 16 different types, grouping them by temperment, and gives detailed descriptions on common behaviors and responses of these types. Additionally they give tips on how to interact with particular types in order to communicate with them most effectively.

Note: they are VERY careful to state that typing does not equal stereotyping and always caution that people won't always fit neatly in these man made categories. Plus they are very careful to stress that this book is not intended for someone to learn how to "control" others, but rather develop a system of effective interaction with friends, colleagues, bosses, etc.

If you always felt you never really "got" people then this is a definate must read. If you always kind of "felt" people out and reacted from what you sensed (like me) this is still a must read because it takes this method and lays it out explicitly so you can use it as a tool rather than merely intution.

I generally like Meyers-Briggs personality books. The test is pretty acurate as far as standardized personality tests go. It's pretty flexible and encompassing and if you haven't taken it you should. You'll learn something about yourself.

That said, I don't think this book was the best example of what one can achieve using knowledge of Meyers-Briggs. The speed reading is not very revealing. The tips they give are things anyone with familiarity with the system could figure out on their own. In the beginning of the book one of the authors talks about the time she had to give a presentation to someone and she observed that he was a meticulous fellow and then used her amazing people reading skills to determine that he might be very detail oriented, so she crafted her presentation with that in mind. Really? A meticulous person might be detail oriented? Well madame how DO you DO it? It's not bad information but it's stuff you don't need if you have any of the other Meyers-Briggs books and a bit of intellectual horsepower. If you've never been introduced to these personality tests I guess this is an ok introduction, but eventually you'll want to move on to something a bit more meaty, like "Please Understand Me", or "Gifts Differing". There is a little new material here but it's sort of a re-heated version of the previous two books I just mentioned. Sure some of it is useful stuff, I just think there are better books out there. But that's just my opinion. It is worth a look, maybe check it out from the library first and see what you think.

I'm a nineteen year old student who's been interested in Myers-Briggs personality type for several years, and this is one of the most interesting and readable books there is. It's got the best, most accurate profiles of the 16 personality types that I've ever found. To respond to the previous review: I agree that the title of the book, and even the introduction make the book sound like it teaches manipulation. But it does not. Flip past the first few pages, and it will teach you to understand where other people are coming from. I've found personality typing really does help me to have more compassion and patience with people who are different from me. This book teaches some personality theory, but focuses more on putting it into practice. It's very understandable and I highly recommend it, especially for people who are looking for an introduction to personality types.

This book not only describes the different types, it gives the reader tips on how to recognize these different types, and then helps you learn the best way of dealing with people based on their type.

This book does not suggest that we should manipulate others. It simply makes the point that all people are different, and it is important to try to communicate with others in a way that makes sense to them. If a listener can't understand the message you are trying to send, they argue, then you have conflict and miscommunication. Such a scenario does not benefit anyone.

The first part of the book helps the reader identify their own type. This is done through a very thorough discussion of the differences in each pair of letters (E/I, S/N, T/F, and J/P), including excellent examples. This is the first Myers Briggs book I have read that allowed me to unequivocably determine my own type. The book then has descriptions of the sixteen types, as well as a discussion of temperment. I found the descriptions of the sixteen types a bit sparse, but the discussion of temperment was the best I have read. I normally find the discussion of temperment and lead functions to be the best, most easy to understand description I have ever read.

The sections on how to identify other people's type and keys to effectively communicating with each type were the high points of the. The authors give readers a number of exercises to practice and develop the skills they are teaching. These exercises really add to the book. The tips on communication all make sense and are easy to implement.

This book is almost guaranteed to help you improve your communication skills. I highly reccommend it.

This book is an excellent companion to "Type Talk at Work". It digests the theory and applies it to logically grouped type components. If you are looking for a formula to both understand and communicate effectively with specific Personality Types, this book does an excellent job. People will not realize you are using a formula because the techniques are playing into their personality preferences. The results can be reduced stress, faster agreement, and improved understanding. The key is taking the time to step out of your personality preference to plan a presentation or communication session that steps into the other person's personality preference. [This book serves as an excellent reference book]

He describes the four basic components of personality---extrovert/introvert, sensor/intuitive, thinker/feeler and judger/perciever. He then describes them further in depth so that you can figure out which one you are. Then it explains temperment based on the combinations of personality charachteristics. The next few chapters are devoted to being able to put all this together so that you can spot the different personality types. In the final section, there are actual exercises to "test" yourself and to sharpen your skills.
There are numerous examples of what to look for to guess what charachteristic best fits a person. There are also very short examples to be able to test out, just in casual conversation, with co-workers/friends.
This is a great book and fun to read/do the exercises to try out your new gained insight. This book will certainly not make you a personality expert but it will help you appreciate the differences and gain tolerance. It was also fun to discover that the "quirks" in my personality are actually quite common...like, my car is always messy no matter what, and that is indicative of a "perciever". It was also fun to do some of the exercises on my friends...like having them give me directions. This is a clue to determine if the person is a "thinker or feeler".
I recommend this book! Fun, fun, fun!

I took the Myers Briggs personality test and learned a bit about personality type in communication and psych classes in college. But I wanted to know more. I wondered how I could figure out the personality types of others and use this information to help understand and communicate with others. I came across this book on Amazon and I think I purchased it because of all the great reviews. So I thought I should contribute a great review too. If you only buy one book on personality type I recommend this one. It's a great intro to type and it's very easy to understand. I refer back to it all the time. I also recommend "Just Your Type : Create the Relationship You've Always Wanted Using the Secrets of Personality Type" by the same authors, which matches all 16 personality types with each other, explains how type affects couple's interactions and suggests potential sources of conflict. Also very interesting. I would definitely purchase other books by these authors.

The Tiegers wrote a book that is appropriate for all, well, types of people. The book is tremendously well organized. I have been able to use the information to read people I would otherwise might not have guessed. The exercises in the book are marginally useful (at least to me), but the techniques are sound and can be applied immediately.

The reader completely unfamiliar with the sixteen types and the Myers-Briggs type indicator (often talking about the types is summed up as 'the MBTI') is not at a disadvantage, because the Tiegers explain each of the eight preferences and give a nice background and summary about the sixteen types later on. I would be cautious about overgeneralizing people's behavior, and unfortunately unscrupulous readers will misuse the MBTI and the information in the book. The Tiegers give a nice response to the ethics concern and hopefully those who read the book will use it to improve their lives and relationships and not use the information to abuse others.

As the title suggests, reading people is a bit of an art. After absorbing the book you will have a solid basis for categorizing people and hopefully a more scientific way of reading their type.