Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
|
|
Survival of the Savvy : High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success |
List Price: $26.00
Your Price: $17.16 |
|
|
|
Product Info |
Reviews |
<< 1 >>
Rating: Summary: Hope for those who hate politics! Review: As a coach and consultant to major businesses, I have had plenty of opportunity to see how the politcal game is played in organizations and how those who are blind to it get burned. This books helps even those who loathe the notion of organizaitonal politics learn practical ways of increasing their impact while remaining true to themselves. In addition to picking up tactics that will help me in my career, I've gotten a useful framework for coaching others through what can feel like the political minefields of organizational life.
Rating: Summary: A READ THAT MATTERS! Review: BOOK COVERS THE AREAS THAT MAKE OR BREAK THE IMPACT AND INFLUENCE WE HAVE AT WORK BY COVERING TOPICS NOT TYPICALLY FOUND IN BUSINESS RESOURCES. KNOWING HOW TO ADAPT TO POLITICALLY CHARGED SITUATIONS, DESCRIBES THE ACTUAL HOW TO'S OF MANAGING OTHERS PERCEPTIONS, FORMING POSITIVE ALLIANCES TO ADVANCE IDEAS, AND PROVIDES INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES TO USE WITH INTEGRITY TO HANDLE THOSE WITH EXAGERRATED SELF-INTEREST. IT HAS GIVEN ME MORE CONFIDENCE AND ABILITY TO CAPITALIZE ON MY GOOD WORK!
Rating: Summary: Wish this book existed 20 years ago!! Review: I have consulted to and lived/worked in corporations where having political savvy was the key to survival and success. This books helps those who are under political wake up and smell the coffee (don't be naive, every organisation is political!) and those that are over political realise that their behaviours may not be getting them the best results.
Both types are taught how to modify their behaviour while remaining authentic. I wish I had read this book early on in my career! It would have saved me from putting my foot in it quite a few times!! I will use the book now to help my clients understand the importance of developing ethical politic skills and applying them in order to have more impact, influence and grow their careers.
Rating: Summary: Read This Book If You Work Inside Any Organization Review: I highly recommend this book! I wish it had come out earlier in my career. I would have been surprised less, understood more, and been a better leader for having read and applied what's in this book.
Brandon and Seldman essentially pull back the curtain on organizational politics. Their message about politics is simple: it exists in every organization and we need to deal with it. Our individual and company success depends on it.
Here's the point. When's the last time we looked at a manual to help us understand how to get things done in our organizations? Most of the time we're working with unwritten rules. We look to our managers, we watch our executives, we see what gets rewarded and funded, and we find out how and who makes the decisions.
Given this reality, Brandon and Seldman give us a road-tested approach to succeeding inside an organization with integrity. When we better represent our ideas, when we better communicate with others, when we know what's the best way of getting something done well, we and our companies benefit.
Brandon and Seldman help us determine our current place in the political spectrum, understand our skills in the arena, learn to detect other people's political orientation, and then guide us through practical approaches to building our own high-integrity organizational savvy skill set.
Brandon and Seldman have turned a taboo subject into one that will benefit us all by applying the principles laid out in the book.
Rating: Summary: Playing the corporate political game with ethics & integrity Review: In today's business environment, corporate politics is getting a lot of bad press- the front page news is full of stories about executives who have put greed and self-interest ahead of ethics and integrity. How can we survive, much less thrive in our companies where private agendas, sabotage and credit-stealing takes place? How can we continue to do good work, maintain our ethics and integrity and protect ourselves in today's corporate political environment?
This book shows you how. Brandon and Seldman build a clear and practical framework for how to navigate the political landscape of your organization. With their best-practices Organizational Savvy Continuum, you'll learn where you and others fall in terms of the attitude, knowledge and skills of political maneuvering. You'll see how you can maintain your ethics and integrity, get the credit, recognition and promotion you deserve and protect yourself from those who are getting in the way of your success.
Rating: Summary: The Perfect Airplane Read! Review: Survival of the Savvy is one of those rare books that combines powerful, useful information on an evocative topic with cornball humor that keeps you chuckling to yourself with each page. The writing style makes the thorough and impactful discussion of organizational politics easy to understand. The real life examples (you'll recognize yourself and your co-workers here) help you to apply the ideas to yourself, your coworkers and your company. The many practical suggestions for effectively working with politics without selling your soul can be applied immediately to your own situation.
As a corporate coach, I've heard, time and again, confusion and frustration about organizational politics. This book will help you reduce your frustration by increasing your understanding and your skills in navigating the world of organizational politics. A must read for anyone looking to succeed in the corporate arena.
Rating: Summary: practical tips with an emphasis on integrity Review: The emphasis on integrity immediately separates this book from many, and I found the balance of a practical, how-to focus without over-blown promises of " Amazing Overnight Success" to be refreshing. A "business book"actually worth re-reading over the years...
Rating: Summary: A flawed affirmation of having integrity with street smarts Review: The Four Star rating indicates my respect for what Brandon and Seldman accomplish in this volume. However, I wish they had developed several of their core concepts in much greater depth and with tone and diction worthy of those insights. I groaned when encountering clunkers such as "Get off that river in Egypt -- De-Nile!" because Brandon and Seldman are not "teaching synchronized swimming in a shark tank!" Then "Merge into the Savvy Zone" while recognizing the importance of "Different Strokes for Different Folks." (I'm not making this stuff up. It's in the book.) That said, Brandon and Seldman generally succeed when recommending and then explaining "high integrity political tactics for career and company success."
When reflecting on his career, President Harry S Truman proudly described himself as a politician, reputedly claiming that politics "is the art of the possible." It should be added that throughout Truman's public service, his personal integrity was impeccable. Brandon and Seldman make two obvious but important points: Like it or not, politics are inevitable when two or more -- and especially when three or more -- people are involved, and, it is nonetheless possible to be (as was Truman) an effective politician without compromising one's integrity. In fact, as Jim O'Toole asserts in The Executive's Compass: Business and the Good Society as does David Maister in Practice What You Preach: What Managers Must Do to Create a High Achievement Culture, those whose lives are guided and informed by admirable values (e.g. honesty, loyalty, decency, trustworthiness) will achieve much greater success than will those whose lives aren't. Therefore, the "savvy" executive is one who combines high principles with street smarts. No news there.
What gives substantial value to this book is Brandon and Seldman's clever use of various devices with which their reader can conduct a self-audit. Long ago, after a substantial increase of tuition at Harvard, hostile parents confronted then president Derek Bok. His response: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." I thought of that comment as I examined the various self-diagnostic elements in this book. Two of the most damaging forms of ignorance are (a) not knowing what you need to know and (b) assuming what you think you know...but don't. To their credit, Brandon and Seldman make a rigorous effort to help their reader to reduce (if not eliminate) both forms of ignorance. Politicking, gossip, self-serving motives, back-stabbing, betrayals of confidence, etc. are harsh realities in almost any organization. Brandon and Seldman can help principled people to cope effectively with those realities. To me, that is this book's greatest benefit. Also, I strongly recommend that readers complete the comprehensive, self-scoring assessment tool and interpretative guide which Brandon and Seldman offer. How to obtain one? The authors explain on page 277.
As indicated earlier, I think the quality of thinking and (especially) the quality of writing in this book are too often a distraction from the quite important convictions and counsel which the authors share. Over-heated diction and under-developed ideas in combination with clichés prevent me from giving this book a higher rating.
Rating: Summary: not up to expectations Review: This is a fine tips and tactics book as indicated in the title. The authors' goal of taking the high ground, "moral means" to "noble ends" is laudable since there are only a few books out there that come from an ethical base rather than an amoral or Machiavellian perspective. The book didn't quite live up to expectations on that goal. Several of their suggestions had an amoral slant such as when they talk about "quashing" others' ideas, even if done inoffensively. At times, it comes across as more of a micro-level beginner's book when they write about the value of carrying the Wall Street Journal around in the hope of showing others one's business acumen. I doubt this ever really works. In addition, they go into power dressing, posture, elevator speeches, vocal speed and even how dilated one's pupils should be when influencing others. Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) is a much better source for this type of micro-level detail for influence management. I was hoping for a more strategic perspective. The book is very well written and helps one understand the reality of organizational politics, which some people would prefer not to hear. This book should help the many people they call `under political' defend themselves and survive when facing the down side of corporate politics.
Rating: Summary: For Navigating the Complex Waters of Organizational Politics Review: What Brandon and Seldman have accomplished here is no small matter, they have developed a clear map to navigate one the hardest aspects of organizational success: its political intricacies and the, at times, arbitrary nature of who and what gets rewarded, and what goes unnoticed.
In a direct and pragmatic manner, Survival of the Savvy manages to identify the core issues of organizational politics, helps individual recognize their political blind spots, and offers concrete and actionable strategies to increase one's influence, while maintaining one's identity and integrity.
What is contained and effectively presented here, constitutes one of the most important conversations people need to have about the workplace but they rarely ever get the benefit of having.
This is critical information for people who have been in large organizations for years -and have struggled with the unwritten rules of corporate- as well as for those just beginning their careers.
<< 1 >>
|
|
|
|