Description
Book SynopsisA highly practical guide to help leaders make intentional choices and draw on their assets, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to influence others, bridge differences, and initiate positive change.
Trade ReviewConsultants Latting and Ramsey draw from industrial and organizational psychology, social work, education, and marketing in these guidelines for improving interpersonal relationships in the workplace. The authors take care to include only ideas that have been supported by academic research, borne out by their own experiences as consultants, and reported as useful by their students and clients. The techniques described will help leaders, middle managers, and management students harness the power of self-change, test assumptions about others, clear negative emotions, bridge cultural differences, and deal with difficult situations. An ongoing story, based on real conversations between consultants and clients, students and instructors, and between colleagues, illustrates key principles. Boxes are included summarizing recent research supporting the techniques. * Reference & Research Book News *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 Matt's Story: An Introduction to Conscious Change
Plan of the Book Why This Book? 2 Testing Assumptions
Mental Models: Short-cuts to Perception Being in the Answer Making Up Stories Being in the Question Choosing to Test Assumptions Retraining Neural Pathways Building Positive Emotions 3 Clearing Emotions
Emotions and Feelings The Emotionally Flooded Manager The Myth of Suppressed Emotions Preventing Self-fulfilling Prophecies Clearing Emotions: The Process What Results Can You Expect? Other Sources of Help Building Positive Emotions 4 Building Effective Relationships
Powerful Listening Inquiry Openness Giving Feedback Receiving Feedback Seeking Feedback What If the Other Person Really Is the Problem? 5 Bridging Differences
Dominants and Nondominants Dominance Dynamics Dominants' Blind Spots Acute Awareness of Nondominant Status Dominance Dynamics at the Organizational Level From Guilt to Learning and Contribution Bridging Differences: Antidotes to Dominance Dynamics 6 Conscious Use of Self
Get Your Emotional Attachments Out of the Way Accept Responsibility for Your Own Contribution Maintain Integrity Focus on the Other Person's Strengths Adopt a Learning Orientation Seek to Understand Others' Perspectives Recognize Your Own Power and Use It Responsibly 7 Initiating Workplace Change
Steps for Initiating Change Moving Forward: A Sequence of Small Wins 8 Matt's Story Redux
Focusing on Strengths Being in the Question Building Relationships and Bridging Differences Seeing Situational Factors, Not Just Individuals Clearing Emotions Changing Workplace Dynamics and Relationships through Changing Oneself Allowing the Unexpected to Emerge Conclusion: Sustaining Hope Appendix: Principles for Conscious Change Index
