Customer Reviews

Working Relationships: The Simple Truth About Getting Along with Friends and Foes at Work

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is both practical and insightful. I could easily relate the situations described to my own. Mr. Wall provides down-to-earth and effective solutions to at-work problems that have the potential to ruin the day, the week - and sometimes the job! The principles can be applied to personal relationships as well.

If you’ve been at loggerheads with a co-worker, calm down and read this. Bob Wall takes a close look at why the ubiquitous “personality problem” persists at work. His conclusions boil down to basics: Co-workers mix professional and personal relationships, confuse organizational roles and expectations, and simply clash due to dislike or incompatibility. He offers a number of familiar solutions to workplace conflict, advising you to pick your battles, agree to disagree and consider the possibility that you might be at fault. Not exactly rocket science, but Wall’s book is fresh, easy-to-read and reader-friendly. We ... recommend this book primarily to supervisors, who will find the dissection of professional relationships useful in managing your sometimes-hard-to-understand employees.

I found this book to be an enjoyable read as well as a great resource for solving problems at work. It has some great excersizes to do and believe me they do work. This book is a must to own for anyone who needs help with a situation or problem at work .

This practical, important business books offers specific advice for users interested in business advice and enhancement. Bob Wall's Working Relationships presents facts on how to get along with friends and foes alike in a business setting. From building professional relationships and understanding different personality types and their motivations to handling complaints and requests, this provides an important job guide.

The simple truth is that being good at what you do simply isn't good enough if you can't work with people. Technical abilities may get you promoted into a management position, but it takes interpersonal skills to keep you there. Bob Wall explores first, what makes work relationships successful and what makes them fail. He then provides some common-sense steps you can take to improve work relationships that aren't working.

The most effective way to improve work relationships, says the author, is to learn to distinguish between personal and professional relationships. A professional relationship exists solely for the purpose of getting work accomplished, while personal relationships can have many purposes. In personal relationships there is an assumption of equality, while professional relationships are often hierarchical. Conflict at work is often based on miscommunication. We are often blind to how our behavior affects others, while we are very critical of the faults of others. When there isn't adequate communication, we often stereotype others as "aggressive jerks" or "incompetent" without understanding the issues or perspective of the other.

To confront conflict at work, you must first understand that most people honestly mean well, but often fail to understand how their behavior and attitudes affect others on the team. Unless someone tells them about it, how will they know they should change? This is true of your own behavior as well. You must be willing to listen to how others are affected by your behavior on the job.

The easiest way to begin fixing problems at work is to agree on goals, roles and procedures. The most common source of problems in teamwork is ambiguity. The team should begin by asking themselves:
· What goals are we going to accomplish?
· What role is expected of every team member?
· How will we coordinate our work with each other?

I found this book to be an enjoyable read as well as a great resource for solving problems at work. It has some great excersizes to do and believe me they do work. This book is a must to own for anyone who needs help with a situation or problem at work .