My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘career’

We all know a Weasel. You know, that person that threatens to take down your organization by using every sleazy tactic in the book to advance their careers regardless of how it effects others. Warriors, Workers, Whiners, and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by entrepreneur Tim O’Leary takes a refreshing look at the different personalities we encounter and how to handle them.

The premise of the book is that essentially everyone fits into one of four personality groups &ndash Warrior, Worker, Whiner, or Weasel. O’Leary defines each as the following:

Warriors, who confront change, see possibilities, innovate and manage to win!

Workers, who deal with the ups, downs and challenges of everyday corporate life dependably, and who can reliably implement the change and direction established by the Warriors.

Whiners, who get through life by complaining about everything they do, who profess negativism and dissatisfaction wherever they go, and blaming others for their own shortcomings.

Weasels, who lurk everywhere and threaten your career and life-goals through their own deception and insecurity and who spread these feelings quickly throughout the organization.

The book is designed to help you recognize what group you fit into, give you the necessary tools to get to the group you want to be in, and learn how to effectively deal with people in each group. The book really does a great job of forcing you to truthfully analyze yourself. O’Leary warns you that you might not like what you find, but also is quick to point reinforce that you are in control and that you can make the changes in your life to fit into the group that you desire.

Even more interesting (and fun) is visualizing the people you know and placing them into their appropriate categories. We have all encountered a Whiner or Weasel and it helps to know what makes them tick and how to effectively deal with them so that they don’t negatively impact your life. O’Leary uses the analogy to the common cold &ndash you can’t completely eliminate Weasels from your life but you can take precautions to limit the frequency in which they enter your life and the damage that they do while they’re a part of it.

O’Leary uses a mixes light-hearted humor with a fiercely intense attitude to combine a business book and a self-help book in an exciting fashion. One chapter might focus on a self-analysis, the next might be about personal stories from O’Leary’s experiences, and the next about management. The book is well over 200 pages but reads at the speed of a book that’s half that. I often found myself reading several chapters in a sitting, which is a testament to the writers’ ability to hold readers interest. If there’s a downside (and it’s not much of one), it’s that O’Leary is so brutally honest that it may rub some people wrong, especially those who fall into the Whiner and Weasel groups.

Warriors, Workers, Whiners, and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by Tim O’Leary is a must read for every entrepreneur, business owner, manager, and worker wishing to learn more about themselves, take advantage of their best traits, and protect themselves from those who could sabotage their career.

Her Backyard by Doreen Lewis is an adventure, romance novel that depicts a career woman in the middle of self-discovery. It is about making choices that may not be so easy to make and complex relationships between co-workers, siblings and friends. I am certain that many readers within the age group between 30 and 40 will find a connection with Audrey, the main character.

Audrey and her sister Ava have a touching, close &ndash sometimes tense, other times humorous &ndash relationship. Their mother died when they were young and now they were facing losing their beloved father. Audrey returns home for the funeral and meets up with an old flame that helps her come to terms with what is missing in her life. Office politics were wearing thin and career hungry co-workers were beginning to both irritate and consume her.

She begins to question her choices in life and is faced with desirable options that play tug-of-war with her mind. Finally, exhausted and emotionally wrought she is given the opportunity to choose the path of content happiness. Audrey learns to make a decision based upon her needs, rather than trying to live up to the impossible lifestyle society encourages.

Her Backyard definitely has a story line that I think many women can relate with. Career women have to make many sacrifices and there are times when one wonders if this lifestyle is truly full filling all their needs. I think Doreen Lewis has written a fine book portraying this conundrum.

ISBN#: 0976091941

Author: Doreen Lewis

Publisher: Helm Publishing