TRUST sums up the thrust of the book. The examples provided come from our everyday lives, not just work life, but personal life, as well. Are you able to deliver bad news gracefully? Are you able to read the signals as to whether someone is ready to hear what you have to say or will that person just get defensive. Every day we have to deliver news to people who do not particularly want to hear it. This book can help you to determine the best way to communicate.
Prepare what you are going to say.
Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue.
Make it safe to talk about almost anything.
Be persuasive and not abrasive.
Top performers are not much different from each other until emotions run high and opinions differ. Then what this book has to offer makes for a big difference in how others around them see their effectiveness. If you explode when others do, you have lost your vantage point. How do you stay calm and provide dialogue opportunities when others have escalated out of control? All of those times when you did not say what you were thinking to the irate parent or the out of line board member, you had a story in your head about what might have been going on in their head. Imagining stories that are making other people react the way they do, is part of how you can control in your own interpretation. Trying to give other people the benefit of the doubt and not consider that they are trying to be a burr in your side is the first step. I think Covey calls, it 'seek to understand before you ask to be understood.'
Always good advice. If you have bad news to deliver, or are in a very political set up that looks like a "lose/lose" situation, take time to read the book...or listen to it on CD's (only 4 in the set to cover the whole book). What do you have to lose? Perhaps the argument? When there are those people who really are trying to rattle you and make you look bad. How do you avoid not rising to the bait? Great examples.
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