Review: The Art of Influence

The Art of Influence is a very short and very punchy parable.  It tells the story of how a recent graduate from business school meets up with one of the leading business leaders of the time and is taught some valuable lessons.

This is a short story.  It won't take long to read.  What it will do though is give you food for thought and some really important life lessons.

While there are four obvious laws that are stated (without giving them away) there also plenty of other thoughts, stories and pieces of wisdom that wind their way through the book.  A lot like the fable of Hansel and Gretel this story weaves its way along a path and encourages you to follow it.

Chris Widener is the author and has done a great job on this book.  Interestingly this book reminds me a lot of the other parable 'Who moved my cheese'.

This is a book or audio story that is well worth investing in annd aharing with your friends.  A quick note - you can probably skip the first half of the book and start at the chapter where the first law is introduced by Mr Gold.  The introductory content before this chapter doesn't add a whole lot to the over all story.

My final opinion - four stars out of five,

Excellence and Peak Performance

It was while reading the book "The Sport Psych Handbook" that I discovered this great list of attributes for people that are determiners of their success. 

Charles Garfield compiled this list of peak performer traits -

1. A sense of mission.
2. A tremendous work ethic.
3. Use of resources.
4. A strong "preparation ethic".
5. A love of challenge and change.
6. Great "team people".

My question is how often do we seek these traits in others and how often do we exhibit them personally?  If sports people need these traits to be the best how much more should we as managers be exhibiting these skills and traits as well?

There a quite a few lessons we can draw from each of these points both corporately and personally.

Here is my basic summation for reaching your own peak performance level - do something you love, have lofty but attainable goals and prepare yourself to acheive task, ask and allow people around you to assist and enable you and thank them for all their help when you are done.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/travisty/4808046172/)