1st Edition

People Skills at Work

By Evan Berman, Dira Berman Copyright 2012
    438 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Wouldn’t you like to achieve better work results, advance your career, navigate the workplace effortlessly, and more easily balance work success with personal well-being? Who doesn’t want the secret recipe for that? While there may not be a single, one size fits all answer, developing a people skills toolkit can put you on the right path. An exploration of the ways in which people skills can be acquired and developed, People Skills at Work discusses new career development tools, the role of professional commitment statements, psychological contracts, and how to work with difficult people.

    • Manage interpersonal relationships in the workplace
    • Improve communications with coworkers and constituencies
    • Work with people of different ages, gender, and backgrounds
    • Handle conflicts with co-workers and clients

    Shaped by the authors’ experience, the book reflects their professional and personal integration of many different sources of knowledge and experience. The book uses a practical approach to address critical social skills, career advancement and professionalism, and how the different career stages affect key relationships. Each chapter elucidates the development of a specific skill and includes examples, sets benchmarks, and examines the particular skill’s relationship to the other skills presented in the book.

    Good people skills are no longer on the "nice to have" list; in most work settings they are simply a must. Very few people can escape the reality that their success usually requires having good people skills, too. This book gives you the tools to improve interpersonal relationships, communications, job performance, and interaction with people of different ages, genders, and backgrounds.

    Setting the Stage
    Common Sense Is Not Enough

    Social Skills in a Modern World
    Welcome
    Communication
    Getting Along
    Connecting
    We Need To Talk
    Assessment

    The Professional Self
    What’s Your Commitment?
    Interviewing and Networks
    Expectations
    Ethics
    Leading
    Mentoring and Development

    The Human Condition Explored
    Getting To Know Us
    Gesture of Balance
    The Search for Happiness and Fulfillment
    Mental Health
    The Little Tyrant... and Other Problems
    Transitions

    Epilogue
    Knowledge is Power?
    Appendix A: Primer on Emotions
    Appendix B: Essential Social Manners for the Workplace
    Appendix C: Sample Professional Commitment Statements
    Appendix D: Sample Psychological Contract
    Appendix E: Further Readings

    Biography

    Evan Berman, Diva Berman