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Book Review

Fierce Conversations -  Achieving Success at Work & in Life One Conversation at a Time
By Susan Scott

Don't be misled by the title!  "Fierce" doesn't mean aggressive, insensitive, or mean-spirited.  It means robust, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled and - most importantly - it means authentic!

"When the authentic conversations so clearly described in the book catch on everywhere, it will be the end of gossip, corporate politics, bad marriages, and 360-degree feedback.  Fierce Conversations is today's primer for success as well as for survival in our ever-changing world." 

- Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D., Harry Paul, and John Christensen, coauthors of Fish! and Fish! Tales 

 

By reading this book, you'll learn the importance of first having authentic conversations with yourself and then with others.  The integrity, authenticity, and collaboration that result from learning to have Fierce Conversations can only result in cultural transformation.

Business is fundamentally an extended conversation - with colleagues, customers, partners, and the unknown future emerging around us.  Unfortunately, many conversations, and therefore relationships, fail.  Practicing and championing Fierce Conversations within companies enhances employees' capacity to serve as effective agents for strategic success, structuring the basis for high levels of alignment, collaboration, and partnership at all levels within the organization.

Success increasingly hinges on engaging colleagues, customers, friends, and family in conversations that interrogate reality, provoke learning, tackle tough challenges, tap our deepest aspirations, and enrich relationships.  Fierce Conversations shows you how with principles, examples, tools, stories, and exercises to take you step-by-step through your first fierce conversation - with yourself - on to the most challenging and important conversations facing you.

Fierce Conversations can transform the relationships central to your success.  You'll experience positive organizational change, greater effectiveness in everyday interactions, a renewed sense of purpose, and a new way of relating to people at work, at home and in every area of your life.

This book has already made a difference in my life and I haven't even begun to apply all it's rich concepts and tools!

"What a refreshing departure from typical management superficialities!  Susan Scott zeros in brilliantly, and charmingly, on the single most important activity of management and leadership - engagement through conversation.  A must-read for managers certainly - and for anyone who cares about improving relationships."

- Richard Farson, president, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute; coauthor of Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation

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