Brief Book Brief
It’s been interesting in the counselor bird seat as our society transitions back into more social interaction following our emergence? from the every hundred year plague and ongoing division and strife. If I’m being honest, I certainly became more comfortable in my late in life Howard Hughesian ways and have had to make some adjustments to return to a more social world. The folks that developed the feely course at Stanford Graduate School of Business laid the course out in the book with exercises and challenges to improve the number and depth of connections. Have stole some ideas for sure.
Some quotes from the book:
“Soft skills require a lot of hard work.”
“TEN WAYS YOU GIVE AWAY INFLUENCE
Assuming that your needs are secondary to the other’s
Not listening to your feelings
Letting yourself be interrupted
Backing down when someone disagrees with you
Avoiding conflict—not disagreeing with the other, keeping things nice
Not giving feedback
Assuming the problem is probably yours
Being concerned about being liked/approved of and seeing that as most important
Minimizing the importance of your comments
Not taking credit for your accomplishments
Not pointing out a problem unless you have a solution”
“the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch is widely attributed as having quipped, “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
“François de La Rochefoucauld once said, “We’re so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.”
Recommended? Sure.
