A tightly organized, well-presented case for a fresh way of doing business.
An executive coach offers a five-step process to unlock personal productivity in this guide.
According to Khouri, who leads the largest executive coaching firm for dentists in the United States, most supervisors are “constantly busy rather than purposely productive.” One reason: Managers find it difficult to say no. The author’s approach is to “triage requests” using a methodical practice he developed to protect his own time. Khouri admits the five steps he recommends may at first seem complex, but his lucid explanations of each are reassuring. The business book begins with a look at the shortcomings of the to-do list and multitasking. Both have their limitations, writes the author, and neither helps one know “when to say yes.” Khouri addresses other intriguing psychological barriers to decision-making before turning his attention to the five specific steps: 1. Create your Roadmap. 2. Define your relationship hierarchy. 3. Assess the quality of the request. 4. Prioritize and reprioritize. 5. Master delegation. In Part 2, the author covers each of these steps in considerable detail, using numerous pertinent examples from his own experiences and coaching practice. There are some excellent productivity boosters embedded in this section, such as “Khouri’s Seven Cs,” seven criteria that apply to developing solid goals, and the “Five Components of a Quality Request.” Part 3 is highly instructive; it demonstrates how to apply the five steps in a five-week period. The author also offers examples of how he used the process for three specific requests. A particularly useful chapter illustrates how the five steps can be applied to the bane of existence for many managers—email. Khouri concludes by explaining how his process can be integrated with a meetings and appointments calendar. Each chapter includes a “Productivity Corner,” an exercise that relates directly to the section’s content. In an engaging, creative touch, the author repeatedly references segments of the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life to playfully reinforce his methodology. This is a book that ingeniously applies psychology and time management techniques to address the challenge of being productive.
A tightly organized, well-presented case for a fresh way of doing business. (Appendix)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77-458139-1
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Page Two Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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