The chances are high that you encounter difficult people at your work and social circles. Sometimes these difficult people overpower our positivity and drain our energy. Robert I Sutton takes the no holds barred approach and terms these with a vulgar slang starting with A. It serves two purposes. The first is that the title sends out a clear message to us on the contents of the book. The second goal is to shock and raise your interest level. I have not read any of Bob Sutton's previous books. As it is always good to refresh the techniques to deal with difficult people, I picked up the book. The book is a survival guide and not an in-depth psychological analysis. Most of us are looking for how to come out unscathed in such encounters. In this regard, the book is handy.
The book explains practical ways to detect, avoid and confront difficult people. There are chapters dedicated to each topic like detection, avoidance, and confrontation. After describing each of these techniques in detail, Bob Sutton summarizes these techniques into a list. When dealing with such people and situations, we just have to go back to this list. At the onset of the book, Bob Sutton establish the most important ground rule. Sometimes, we might be the problem while we are ignorant about we being the issue. We might think everyone else around as difficult, but it might be us who are difficult to everyone around us. So Bob Sutton suggest the following rule. Be quick to label yourself as the difficult person and be slow in labeling others.
With this in mind, I recommend you to read this book. After all, the workplace is where we spend most of our time. So it is essential to have healthy if not happy environment there. This book helps in building such a place. There are enough anecdotes and studies scattered in the book which you will be able to relate.
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