People Styles at Work: Making Bad Relationships Good and Good Relationships Better

"We love it! Extremely well done and as useful as they get." -- Soundview Executive Book Summaries

"With so much diversity in the workplace, it's no wonder people problems abound. Yet it is possible to overcome personality conflicts by understanding other people's differences instead of merely reacting to them emotionally.

A sequel to Social Style, Management Style, this book presents a comprehensive behavioral science model for understanding four different ""people styles."" The authors explain how readers can:

* identify their own styles and how they appear to others

* relate effectively -- no matter how others react to them

* create common ground with different people while retaining their own individuality

* evaluate the ""people styles"" of others and discover how to ""flex"" their styles to match

Readers will learn the characteristic strengths and weaknesses of each style -- driver, analytical, amiable, and expressive -- and how these characteristics can create stress in the other behavior types. They'll discover how to minimize these stresses by getting ""in synch"" with the style-based behavior patterns of others."

Why is it so hard to work well with some people? And more important, what can you do to significantly improve your working relationships? People Styles at Work presents a comprehensive, practical, and proven method you can use in any work environment to: * Identify your own work styles and learn how they come across to your colleagues * Read behavior of others so you'll know the best ways to work with them * Make small adjustments that will dramatically increase the quality and productivity of working relationships * Find common ground with different people while retaining your individuality * Relate effectively--no matter how others react to you. You'll learn the characteristic strengths and weaknesses of four different "people styles" and how these characteristics can clash and create stress. You'll also master proven techniques for reconciling those styles and leveraging differences toward common goals. A practical approach to help you handle "people differences" on the job, People Styles at Work is a crucial tool that will let you work more effectively with anyone and everyone in your organization!

ROBERT BOLTON, Ph.D. and DOROTHY GROVER BOLTON (Cazenovia, NY) are co-founders of Ridge Associates, specializing in skills training, organizational consulting, and one-on-one coaching and counseling for executives and fast-track managers. They also wrote Social Style, Management Style (AMACOM).