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Engagement: Transforming Difficult Relationships at Work

Engagement: Transforming Difficult Relationships at Work by [Bolman, Lee G., Gallos, Joan V.]

The essential resource for mastering the interpersonal side of management 

Engagement: Transforming Difficult Relationships at Work is the must-have guide for transforming difficult relationships at work and beyond into positive and productive exchanges.  Bestselling authors Joan Gallos and Lee Bolman teach readers how to tackle tough people problems with ease and confidence through the use of four rules of engagment that the authors have distilled from their analysis of human interactions gone wrong and organized for ease of use around the acronym SURE  (Stop and Learn, Unhook, Reframe, Engage or Exit). The book features a compelling business story about a talented manager in a new job as she learns to cope with an oppressive boss and an underperforming team of subordinates. Periodic interludes highlight key lessons and underscore ways to strengthen diagonostic lenses and relationship skills.  The book closes with an impressive “try this” tutorial section that digs deeply into foundational practices and habits of the mind to help readers expand their professional skills, strengths, strategies, and resilience. 

People are the hardest part of a manager’s job and the biggest impediment to productive teamwork. No matter how well-matched skills and values may be, there is always the potential for conflicts and strains to throw any relationship off-course.  Engagement is for anyone in search of new ways to better manage conflict or to handle a problem employee, irritating boss, complaining colleague, or treacherous teammate.  

From the book cover 

In Engagement, bestselling authors Lee G. Bolman and Joan V. Gallos offer a compelling workplace parable to illustrate the strategies and skills needed to make unworkable relationships positive and productive. The book introduces the four-step SURE model, which offers strategies for staying alert, grounded, and productive when faced with the prickly, taxing, or toxic folks who block progress, weigh you down, undermine your confidence, leave chaos in their wake, and cause a disproportionate share of headaches and sleepless nights.

Gallos and Bolman advocate that deeply engaging oneself, one another, and the situation is the best route to transform difficult relationships. The authors show how to unhook from the anger, stress, and frustration that limit your ability to see and appreciate better possibilities.

Working with difficult people–a problem employee, bully boss, chronically complaining coworker, mean-spirited associate, Machiavellian teammate, or troubled colleague–all take a combination of strategy, confidence, determination, and skill. The authors show how to apply the four-step SURE model for overcoming the obstacles and frustrations that difficult people present.

Because it is written as a parable, Engagement offers you the opportunity to slow down and think about your reactions, compare your solutions with others, and view events through multiple perspectives–your own, the authors, and the characters in the story.

Engagement helps its readers to better understand yourself, respond more effectively in your workplace, and handle challenges in ways that bring out the best in you and others.

 

Praise for the book

“If you’ve ever felt hobbled by a difficult relationship at work, read this book! The authors’ four-step process is remarkably easy to use–anyone can do it–and their many examples and clear scripts take the anxiety out of the process. It almost makes me eager for the next high-maintenance person to enter my life!”

DOUGLAS T. HALL, PhD, Morton H. and Charlotte Friedman Professor of Management and Director, Executive Development Roundtable Emeritus, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

“Toxic people quickly create environments of intimidation and hostility that sap motivation and leave us feeling helpless. Engagement is the perfect antidote: insightful strategies for engaging with difficult colleagues in ways that build confidence and transform relationships. A must-read guide for maximizing interpersonal productivity in the workplace and beyond!”

SANDRA KRUSE-SMITH, PhD, Executive Coach and Owner, Synergy Career and Professional Development

“The principles of human development and interpersonal relationships on which Engagement is based are sound. As a user of its four rules, I can tell you they work: empowering, effective, and a way to face challenging people with new confidence and elan.”

JANINE BEMPECHAT, Clinical Professor of Human Development, the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development