Saturday, February 02, 2008

How to Win Friends and Influence People

I was reading Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” …

It’s a great book, first published in 1937, which outlines how to handle people, how to make people like you, how to win people over and how to be a leader. Things don’t get any clearer than this …

How to handle people:
  • Don’t citicise, condemn or complain;
  • Give honest and sincere appreciation;
  • Arouse in the other person an eager want.

How to make people like you:

  • Become genuinely interested in other people;
  • Smile;
  • Remember people’s names;
  • Be a good listener;
  • Make people feel important.

How to win people over:

  • Avoid arguments;
  • Respect other people’s opinions;
  • Admit when you are wrong;
  • Be friendly;
  • Get people to agree with you;
  • Let others do the talking;
  • Let others feel that ideas are theirs;
  • See things from other people’s perspectives;
  • Be sympathetic to other ideas;
  • Appeal to the nobler motives;
  • Dramatise your ideas;
  • Throw down a challenge.

How to be a leader:

  • Begin with praise and appreciation;
  • Identify mistakes indirectly;
  • Talk about your own mistakes;
  • Ask questions;
  • Help people save face;
  • Praise every little thing;
  • Talk people up;
  • Use encouragement;
  • Encourage people to be happy at work

It's a great book. You should read it!

Chris

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