Describes personal traps and self-sabotaging behavior and explains how to overcome them to increase one's chances at workplace success
This book is written for everyone who is employed.As professional workplace consultants, working with thousands of people from numerous corporations for the past 25 years, we became particularly interested in how to help people succeed who were affected by the many changes in the new workplace: mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and downsizing. We noticed that these changes led to a new set of workplace rules. We also saw that many talented people did not understand these "new rules" and as a result had difficulty adjusting to this new workplace with its lack of predictability and security, increased pressures and demands, and broken career promises and unclear career paths.
What was also interesting was that those who were not successful were not that way because of their lack of skill, ability, experience, talent, or dedication. Rather, we found that certain personal reactions, attitudes, styles, and behavioral responses to this new workplace caused their difficulties. In many ways they were sabotaging their own success without knowing it. We called these reactions and attitudes "personal traps". Some of the traps we observed include: taking what happens at work personally, not directing their own careers and not acting in their own self interest, being too loyal, and certain work patterns, expectations and assumptions that were no longer applicable to this new workplace. In other words, they were still playing by the "old rules".
In this book, we have a questionnaire that will help you determine if you are caught in any of these "personal traps". We teach easy to use skills, methods, and techniques to overcome them. In addition to the "personal traps", the book also offers tips on how to deal with other common workplace situations, and how to be an effective teamplayer within your company, how to be effective with your manager and with your coworkers.
We also deal with stress. We've seen how many people's personal lives are affected by their stress at work. We know how this carries back over into the workplace and vice versa. Therefore, we teach how to effectively manage your stress while at work and strategies for how not to bring the stress home. We provide real life scenarios and exercises to help you learn how to balance your life and utilize the people in your life as positive replenishing resources- especially how they can serve as your guides and mentors. We've also observed that those who are successful in today's workplace have to be able to increase their value. This book not only teaches you how to do that, it also teaches you how to shine your own light so that others will appreciate your value. We've found all of this important in order for you to stay ahead of your field.
We consider this book a complete guide for the worker in the new workplace. It is written for everyone who is employed in all levels of an organization-from entry level to management. We are certain it will address your needs as well. Let us know.
Mel & Muriel
