We all know Weasel. You know, the guy who threatens to destroy your organization by using every dirty tactic in the book to advance his career without regard to how it affects others. Warriors, Workers, Whiners and Weasels: 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by entrepreneur Tim O'Leary offers a refreshing look at the different personalities we encounter and how to deal with them.
The premise of the book is that basically everyone fits into one of four personality groups – Warrior, Worker, Snarler or Weasel. O'Leary defines each as follows:
Warriors who face change, see possibilities, innovate and win!
Workers who can reliably deal with the ups, downs and challenges of daily corporate life and who can reliably implement the changes and direction set forth by the Warriors.
Whiners who go through life complaining about everything they do, profess negativity and dissatisfaction everywhere they go, and blame others for their own shortcomings.
Weasels who lurk everywhere and threaten your career and life goals with their own deceit and insecurity, and who quickly spread these feelings throughout the organization.
The book is designed to help you recognize which group you belong to, give you the tools you need to get into the group you want to be in, and learn how to deal effectively with people in each group. The book really does a great job of making you really analyze yourself. O’Leary warns you that you may not like what you find, but he is also quick to show that you are in control and can make changes in your life to fit into the group you desire.
Even more interesting (and fun) is visualizing the people you know and putting them into the appropriate categories. We've all encountered a whiner or a weasel, and it helps to know what sets them off and how to deal with them effectively so they don't negatively affect your life. O'Leary uses an analogy with the common cold—you can't completely eliminate weasels from your life, but you can take precautions to limit the frequency at which they enter your life and limit the damage they cause when they're a part of it. .
O'Leary uses a mix of light-hearted humor with a wildly intense approach to create an exciting blend of business book and self-help book. One chapter could focus on self-analysis, another on personal stories from O'Leary's experience, and another on management. The book is over 200 pages long, but reads at half the speed of a book. I often found myself reading several chapters in a sitting, which is a testament to the writers ability to engage the reader. If there's a downside (and it's not much), it's that O'Leary is so brutally honest that it may bother some people, especially those who fall into the Whiner and Weasel groups.
Warriors, Workers, Whiners and Weasels: 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by Tim O'Leary A must read for every entrepreneur, business owner, manager and worker who wants to learn more about themselves, harness their best qualities and protect themselves from those who might sabotage their careers.
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