Polish Your People Skills [Paperback]

Bobbi Linkemer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Get ahead tool kit series | Publication Date: March 3, 1999

This self-training package combines an interactive CD-ROM and reference text, and aims to help anyone build good relationships with difficult people in the workplace. It covers communication, working as a team and building trust, and dealing with "problem" behaviours such as anger and manipulation.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This self-help product is for individuals working on "building positive, enjoyable relationships" at work or coping with challenging situations in the work-place and is intended to "help businesspeople master those tricky people-managing skills." In informal language and with a practice-oriented approach, it offers the possibility of positive outcomes and an understanding of one's own locus of control in situations where blame, rationalization, defensiveness, and distortion might otherwise dominate. The book includes Creating Positive Relationships, Dealing with Difficult Situations, and Dealing with Difficult People, with chapters devoted to skill sets in that area (e.g., Learning To Negotiate, Maneuvering Around the Obstacle Course, Living with Anger and Conflict). Chapters open with "interviews" followed by the author's guidance. An index and a brief bibliography are included, and the straightforward prose is readable and down to earth. But it's the disc here that merits your attention, as much for presentation as for content. It, too, has a three-part structure, though its sections reflect a more experiential approach: "How can I improve my work relationships?" "How can I deal with these situations?" "How should I handle these people?" The disc invites a sequential navigational approach through scenarios (though the user can move around at will). Those who like to search for particular topics, tools, or strategies can use the Find a Topic option under Help (although this useful little feature could be more prominently displayed). The opening screen of each section offers a summary of issues and a selection of four scenarios to follow. Readers click on a scenario to get at more in-depth topics, including behavioral specifics and clickable links offering information on tools and skills. Then the stage is set with fade-in cartoon-like images of the players in the scenario. Dialog boxes and questionnaires invite user participation (responses entered in the dialog boxes can be saved to a notepad for future reference). The dynamics at work in the scenario are analyzed, then the scenario is played out more positively in a second take. What makes this work is the overall high quality of the disc's content and its function in clarifying for users what their approaches might be. It serves as an electronic sounding boardAan advisor available in the safety of one's cubicle. It is dynamic and engaging, differentiating it from many self-help publications. A few niggling criticisms: the elevator bar in the introductory material races by at the click of the down arrow making it difficult to read the text; also, there are places in "what to do" sections where the advice falls short (e.g., dealing with a controlling manager by becoming a moving target or taking on cynics by trumping their remarks with your own). Some of this material is recycled: a cover statement acknowledges that the disc "contains interactive scenarios adapted from the AMACOM book Working with Difficult People." The Bottom Line: Polish Your People Skills is suggested for businesspeople focused on the workplace, but we see a broader context for application in all sorts of library settings. Recommended for human resource professionals seeking alternative approaches to training and staff development as well as to the libraries that serve them.AMary Beth Clack, Staff Development, and Laura Farwell Blake, Research Svcs., Harvard Coll. Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (March 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890003034
• ISBN-13: 978-1890003036
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,349,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bobbi Linkemer is an editor, ghostwriter, teacher, writing coach, and the author of 16 books, including a step-by-step workbook on "How to Write a Nonfiction Book: From planning to completion in 6 easy steps," now in its seventh edition.

Her other books on writing include "Words To Live By: Reflections on the writing life from a 40-year veteran," "Going Solo: How To Survive & Thrive as a Freelance Writer," and "The Invisible Author: Confessions of a Ghostwriter." She has also written extensively about communication, relationships in the workplace, professional image, meetings, and developmental disabilities.

Bobbi's articles have been published in corporate and university publications and the trade and national business press. She has also written audio, video, and print training programs on a wide variety of topics and taught classes in nonfiction book writing at the continuing education divisions of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis Community Colleges, St. Charles Community College, and Lindbergh School District.

As the owner of a creative consulting firm for the past 22 years, Bobbi has worked with organizations in both the private and public sectors on projects ranging from annual reports to web sites. Her 40-year career has included all aspects of corporate communications, public relations, marketing, magazine writing and editing, and lecturing.

For more information on how Bobbi Linkemer can help you take your nonfiction book from concept to completion, visit WriteaNonfictionBook.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A user-friendly guide to positive work-place relationships., March 5, 1999

By 

Barbara L. Linkemer "Ghostwriter & Editor" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polish Your People Skills (Paperback)

Review by the author: This book is part of a series originally aimed at "office professionals," but it is appropriate for a much larger audience. Since, virtually every job requires some kind of contact with people, knowing how to create constructive relationships, on one hand, and cope with potentially destructive ones, on the other, are survival skills everyone needs. Polish Your People Skills makes them easy and fun to master.

5.0 out of 5 stars Polish Your People Skills, August 12, 2002

By 

Barbara L. Linkemer "Ghostwriter & Editor" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polish Your People Skills (Paperback)

OK, I must admit that I gave it 5 stars because I wrote it, and it's one of my favorites. The book is organized into three sections: one on creating productive relationships at work, one on dealing with difficult people (which led to Solving People Problems, also published by Amacom), and the third on dealing with difficult situations. What makes this book special is that each chapter is accompanied by a first-person interview, written completely in the interviewee's words, that addresses the topic of the chapter. The interviews are great and really bring the author's (my) ideas to life. Order it quick because the publisher just told me there are no more available.