Talking the Winner's Way: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Business and Personal Relationships

Author: Leil Lowndes
List Price: $16.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0809225034
Publisher: McGraw-Hill (01 September, 1999)
Sales Rank: 3,321
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5
Useful tricks that are easy to implement
This is a pretty valuable book for the socially awkward person or really anyone who just wants to improve their social life a little bit. There are 92 "tricks" in here, which are little phrases, body language signals, and mannerisms which you can learn to use and observe that will generally make conversations smoother and improve people's reaction to you. I found that about 2/3s of the tricks could be applicable to my life and that many were simple ones that I could use right away. Most take more effort and consciousness to remember and implement but nothing worthwhile is easy. I would say the best thing about this book is there are simple ideas in here you can read and then go out and do right away: how to avoid annoying silences and keep the conversation moving, how to introduce people, how to answer common questions in more interesting ways.

My main criticism of the book would be it is mainly written for exchanges with a female involved. The techniques I found least useful for me were generally a little too obseqious, something that a woman, I feel, can get away with more readily than a man.

All in all, if you're reading these reviews you're probably looking for help with your communications skills and this book can give you some simple, easy to use techniques. If you need serious help this is a must buy.


Rating: 4 out of 5
Dale Carnegie would be proud
If you liked Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People," then there's no doubt you'll enjoy this. In fact, "Talking the Winner's Way" is practically a modern version of Carnegie's book. Presenting 92 techniques, Lowndes discusses ways to carry a decent or appealing conversation, allow you the benefit of first-impressions, and several other methods building your way to remebrance as a good person. Sometimes Lowndes's style of writing became a little repetitive and unprofessional, but I still enjoyed it. I really couldn't put this book down. Of course, having read the book, I was a little down having realized I was doing some things completely wrong. I also understand this book can easily be used to manipulate people. If that's your cup of soup, then knock yourself out. But "Talking the Winner's Way" is also one more step in creating a world full of likeable people. We like that.


Rating: 2 out of 5
Lacks credibility
I am always intrigued how people get to be "self improvement" gurus without having proper education credentials. One would think someone who writes "Talking the Winner's Way" would have some formal background on communication or psychology, but there is no such indication. In fact, scientific basis of the ideas presented in this book are hardly evident. This leads me to a conclusion the ideas presented in this book, while appealing to the common sense, are far from proven. If empirical evidence is unimportant to you, then this book will provide many fine pop psychology\communication tricks. But if you are the logical\skeptical sort, then this book will leave a lot wanting.

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