It’s Friday book review time! You may notice that all my reviews are positive. There is a reason for that. I don’t see it as a book club type review, more a recommendation for small business owners to build a collection of great books to help them grow.
This week’s choice is: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
I had to go and look up how old this book is. It’s been around for many years (77 years to be exact!). My husband did the course back in 1980 which is when I first read the book. I have read it a number of times since and recommended it to many, including my children.
This book is great both personally and professionally. It is full of solid, basic advice for building the relationships in your life and in your business.
- Don’t criticise, condemn or complain. Try to come from a place of positive, solutions and understanding. It does wonders for communication;
- Give honest and sincere appreciation – Be authentic, fake appreciation is insincere and quite transparent and it can come across as condescending;
- Arouse an eager want – My interpretation of this is to generate interest and motivation;
- Become genuinely interested in other people – we can’t fake genuine any more than we can appreciation. Be mindful and present when people are talking to you;
- Smile – it’s contagious;
- Remember a person’s name is the most important thing – don’t we all hate it when people address us by the wrong name;
- Be a good listener – encourage others to talk about themselves – actively listen, don’t spend the time that others are talking planning what you are going to say next;
- Talk in terms of the other person’s interests – think about things that you have in common that will make for interesting conversation;
- Make the other person feel important – to do it sincerely you need to actually believe that they are important. Think about why you value this person, they will walk away from you feeling great, and they’ll want to come back for more.
