Winning Ways: 4 Secrets for Getting Results by Working Well With People

Author: Richard I. Lyles, Ken, Phd Blanchard, Dick Lyles
List Price: $12.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0425181944
Publisher: Berkley Pub Group (04 December, 2001)
Sales Rank: 52,148
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5
Entertaining
"Winning Ways" by Richard I. Lyles is about a recent computer science graduate who is having people problems with his coworkers. His manager introduces him to a football coach who claims to know the "Winning Ways" -- the secrets of getting along with other people. Over the course of several meetings, the coach teaches our hero four principals of working well with others: Making others feel stronger, collaborating with others, avoiding two-valued thinking, and influencing for the future.

The book is easy reading, however, I recommend you check the book out of your local library before purchasing it. It's useful for recent college grads who are having problems dealing with other people.


Rating: 5 out of 5
Winning Ways
At my work, we read this book to enhance our skills as a company and as individuals. I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it to others. What this book said to me, was that in order to work efficiently, one needs to work well with others. Positions do not necessarily matter, as long as everyone feels that he or she is contributing all he or she can into the project. People need to be on the same wavelength as far as the goal for the project, because everyone can have different ideas on what the goal is. Another thing is to work together, not compete. If two people have different ideas in mind, they would both more likely succeed if they combined efforts. Lastly, if you boost each other's self esteem you will feel more comfortable working together.


Rating: 2 out of 5
Exception to the Blanchard team¿s typical excellence
A simple, easy to follow book about building teamwork and advancing your career through 'soft' skills. However, I thought the book fell far short of the quality and rigor Blanchard's more popular works on management and team building. While Lyles' ideas work on some level, they seem to fall short when looked at analytically through tested and effective management models.

For example, "Make people feel good about themselves" sounds good on the surface. But what if someone is engaging in unacceptable behavior at work? The assertion "Make people feel good about themselves" is a weakened version of the very effective advice offered in the 'One Minute Manager:' "Be tough on the problem, easy on the people."

What about the advice to 'build camels,' with consensus ideas being better than individual ideas? In my experience, a team's ideas are often better than an individual's. But, think of pork-barreled legislation, and camels seem less appealing; there is a little known clause in the Homeland Security Act that absolves drug companies currently producing the MMR vaccines, linked to childhood autism, from lawsuits springing from its faulty product. So, to vote against the bill because of this clause would make a senator seem un-American, even if it were a vote against pork-barreled protection for unethical drug companies.

I have loved Blanchard's ideas for years, and this one a rare exception to the team's typical excellence. For a better treatment of teamwork, pick up"Gung-Ho,"another book from the Blanchard management training mill.

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