Skip to main content

How to Be a People Magnet

I'm a little embarrassed I got this book. I have been thinking about the whole "soft skill" thing a lot recently, and kind of reflecting on the fact that it really is good relationships that have the power to make just about anything happen. So, the book seemed interesting from a skim, so I picked it up and read it.

Really, the book is kind of facile and way too autobiographical about the author, Leil Lowndes, whom I'd never heard of before. But apparently, she has a cult following, at least to believe what you read. However, if you look at the book from a "tip" perspective, there are some useful tidbits, and the points she raises are basically wise reflections from someone who's good with people. For instance:
When I knokw in my hear that something is right, I will go for it. Whether it's as important as racial relations or as insignificant as cracking a click in one high school, I'll be the first to stand up--or sit down--for my folks. Yes, they will like me for it. But most of all, I will like myself. (And that's the first step to making everybody like me.)
I apologize if that makes you choke back your breakfast, but it is good advice and a good perspective on things--and a good way to keep balanced when dealing with people. It's easy to get along if you go along. Less easy to stand your ground and have people like you for who you are.

By Leil Lowndes
ISBN# 0809224356

Popular posts from this blog

An Army of Davids

So, I've been spending some time with Glenn Reynold's book (Glenn being of course the seminal and highly influential Instapundit ), and I must say that it gives me lots of language I can use to talk about phenomena that are easily observable right now. I think you could say that Glenn Reynolds has done for technology what Virginia Postrel did with design topics . Which is to say, they beat the drum and say, hey, look at what this democratization of knowledge can do for you! In that vein, the book is really pretty visionary, pointing out the magic of the internet age. And I for one see it as magical. You know how Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pa in Little Town on the Prairie said to Laura that it was an amazing time to be alive (that was in the 1890s)? I've been actively thinking that to myself for the past few years, and An Army of Davids gives me ample evidence to back that up with its talk of citizen empowerment and the "comfy chair revolution." The theme of ...

Managing the Nonprofit Organization (Part Three)

1. What is the bottom line when there is no bottom line? Businesses as a default can rely on profit as an effectiveness measure. Nonprofits cannot use this concrete measure meaningfully. There are many different ways of looking at measurements that can serve as bottom lines of sorts, but the trick is to pick the right measurement to look at. And that can change over time, so it needs to be incorporated into the strategic planning (or whatever you want to call it) process. Nonprofits have many different customers which all need to be pleased to differing degrees. Drucker talks about the difficulty nonprofits have abandoning lost causes. Nonprofits have to distinguish between moral causes and economic causes. A moral cause is an absolute good. Preachers have been thundering against fornication for five thousand years. Results, alas, have been nil, but that only proves how deeply entrenched evil is. The absence of results indicates only that efforts have to be increased. This is the essen...

Public sector information design

Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.