A useful and motivational guide to achieving goals through conversation.
A self-help manual that offers very simple steps to getting what one wants out of life.
This latest book from professional speaker Hutchens, author of The Secrets Leaders Keep (2015), invites readers to imagine how they could change their lives if they had a magic wand that they could wave over trouble spots in their lives. One could conjure a work environment, for instance, in which “meetings are suddenly productive problem-solving sessions, and that putz in procurement actually helps you close the deal.” Such a wand really exists, Hutchens assures readers, and its most basic component is something that’s fundamental to human existence: talking. The author’s “Four Tenets of Getting What You Want” all revolve around improving one’s conversation skills, and they hinge on the conceit that “life happens one conversation at a time.” If you carefully and forcefully navigate your way through conversations (including those you have with yourself), you can reach your goals, Hutchens asserts. The process involves the five key steps, which each receive their own chapter: “Clarify Your Real Want,” “Seek Connection or Power—Rarely Both,” “Tune In to All the Conversations,” “Own Your Shit and De-stink Theirs,” and “Know Your Lines—Both What to Say and Where to Draw ’Em.” Over the course of this book, Hutchens writes with likable vigor. She consistently displays complete confidence in the effectiveness of her steps, laying them out by using anecdotes, bullet-pointed lists, and ample space for readers to answer self-help prompts. Some steps seem fairly vague and self-evident, such as clarifying one’s goals and being accountable for errors. But Hutchens’ repeated emphasis on getting across your ideas more clearly, “whether you’re conversing with a boss, a neighbor, your spouse, or your kid’s coach,” is refreshing, as are her reminders to use humor to defuse tense situations. The book’s interactive elements will encourage readers to step back and look at the world in proactive terms, and the author’s plainspoken clarity drives home the point that everyone possesses the tools to improve their existence.
A useful and motivational guide to achieving goals through conversation.Pub Date: March 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0693-7
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Inspirational and uplifting; a thorough guide to making a change.
A leadership coach lays out a personal transformation plan in this debut manual.
Self-empowerment is the basis for most books in the self-help category, and this lively work follows that pattern. Here, Ruth’s focus is on helping readers make fundamental change, even if it does not come easily: “Wherever we experience the most resistance, either internal or external, to a shift we want to make, that is where we have the greatest growth opportunity.” To facilitate making a major “shift,” the author details a process called “Twelve Stages of Transformative Shift,” borrowed from the workshops she conducts. The stages are lucidly explained in individual chapters, each ending with immersive exercises readers are asked to complete. Such stages as “Surrender,” “Get Clarity,” and “Get Uncomfortable” are not necessarily for the faint of heart, but Ruth is a sensitive, positive instructor whose writing is both inspirational and practical. The text is augmented by examples from her own life and coaching practice. She exhorts readers to work tirelessly on their own behalf, urging them to “learn to trust the fire within” and advising that “there is really no greater freedom or power than realizing we always have choices, and we get to take the responsibility for making them.” Throughout the book, the author offers helpful tools and techniques as well as insightful observations and counsel. For example, “Five Power Questions”—which include “How does this align with my values?” and “How am I owning this decision?”—are designed to encourage deep introspection. The author’s “three basic reasons to make a shift…greater freedom, power, or passion—or perhaps some combination of the three” provoke considerable reflection. Ruth’s belief that “shifting becomes real and sustainable when we see ourselves differently, from the inside out” is a cleareyed assessment of what a major change truly implies. The volume features a fair amount of motivational psychology intermingled with spirituality that makes for engaging content. While it will take a concerted effort by readers to participate in the process proposed by the author, this work is a commendable blueprint for learning how to shift.
Inspirational and uplifting; a thorough guide to making a change.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-99-951563-1
Page Count: 185
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A professional alarmist's attention-grabbing, albeit overstated, appraisal of a brave new world in which demand for labor could fall ruinously short of supply. Citing anecdotal evidence from a wealth of secondary sources, Rifkin (Biosphere Politics, 1991) provides worst-case projections of the job-loss havoc that remains to be wreaked by labor-saving advances in agriculture, banking, manufacturing, retailing, transport, and other enterprises that once afforded secure employment. Given the gains routinely achieved in the state of the bioscience, computer, robotics, and allied arts, he insists that there's precious little reason to believe that downsizing American corporations and their foreign counterparts won't continue to do more with less. Unless immediate steps are taken to rectify the situation, the author warns, civil unrest, open conflict between haves and have-nots, or even anarchy could result from what he calls the third industrial revolution. Not too surprisingly, Rifkin offers a lengthy list of suggestions for protecting the global village from the socioeconomic crises that could erupt when and if technology idles new multitudes of erstwhile breadwinners. To illustrate, he urges sharing of productivity gains (e.g., via shorter work weeks) and greater incentives for participation in the voluntary (i.e., non-marketplace) sector, such as time-based tax deductions. The author goes on to propose that government should encourage communitarian activity by substituting so-called social wages (e.g. negative income tax) for welfare. As a practical matter, then, Rifkin is recommending utopian solutions for the dystopian problems that could accrue in the arguable event that current trends persist. (Robert L. Heilbroner provides the book's foreword.) A bleak reckoning of the potential price of progress that will strike many observers as longer on ardor than analysis. (First printing of 50,000; author tour)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-87477-779-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
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