How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie Dale - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ By Carnegie Dale Introduction and Brief Overview of the Book: The book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ written by Carnegie Dale is mainly about building the relationships between people so that they can ensure business and personal success. According to this book, making friends is not at all a difficult or time-consuming job; the only requirement is the guts or the skills, which any person should possess. There are many principals, which are highlighted in the book, which actually helps a person to become friendlier towards others and thus maintaining good relationships. Criticism is the biggest tool to kill relationships therefore a person should avoid irrelevant and unnecessary criticisms on the matters. Appreciation is the tool, which can enhance or sometimes even doubles the happiness of achievement or success. Therefore as manager, one should adopt this rule to give appreciation where it is required. Another important thing is the availability of the person at any time if needed. This means that we should not refuse to help anyone rather we must be readily available as a volunteer. Smile is an important tool to kill the sadness and the sorrows. Therefore, we should keep this tool always on our face. This will definitely solve many of our problems. Another important thing is the identity of a person. An employee feels good if the manager highlights his name in front of other employees. Therefore as a manager, we should keep this tip in our mind that this personal identity can even motivate the employees. Using all of these tactics, anyone can be a good manager or the leader of his organization, here it is important to note that every person can be a manager but not everyone can be a leader. There are many other characteristics, which are required for being a good and impressive leader. Only a leader is capable of maintaining good relationships between the management and the employees. The maintenance of the good and sound relationships is very necessary because it is the actual key to success. Applications to the Organizational Behavior Concepts: The full book covers many of the topics, which are aimed at the maintenance of good and sound relationships with the people. The second and the important part of this book is the way to make people just like ourselves. In this part of the book, the author tells us different ways to shape people according to our own way. In my opinion, this is a good technique because every time we want our sub ordinates to perform or to behave just like the way we perform and behave. Nevertheless, in actual settings, it is quite a difficult task to force any person to act like us. We cannot say or ask this to anyone directly. Nevertheless, according to the research there are many other indirect ways and tactics, which can help us to make people just like the way we want them (Greenberg, 61). There can be different ways through which we can compel anyone to behave, as we desire. The only requirement is the soft attitude and definitely good relations with him or her. The very first rule of this technique is to accept others, as they are (Carnegie, 98). If we want to mould or shape people according to our desires then at first we have to accept them as they actually are. This is the best representation of giving respect to their personal identity and personality. Another author is of the same opinion that for a good result we must have to accept the mistakes and the wrong deeds of the people (Greenberg, 255). In this way, we can devise the ways to correct their mistakes. If we deny their identity or personality at the very first day then we will lose their trust and loyalty and this it will not a good symbol for the maintenance of the good relationships (Greenberg, 255). A manager should be a good listener because if he listens to everybody and give a fair and equal chance to everyone to speak and thus give his opinion, then he can better analyze the situation. In this way, all the employees will think that they are an important part of the company and their opinion is considered and valued. This will definitely enhance their motivational level and loyalty. Sincerity towards the job is the actual key to success and satisfaction. Therefore, without considering the job nature, every person should be loyal and sincere towards his job for successful accomplishment. Not even a single entity is perfect in this world, therefore it is a fact that anyone can commit a mistake either he is a leader or a manager or even an employee. It is not a hard and fast rule that managers or the leaders cannot be wrong at any position. Nevertheless, the good and the positive thing is that if the leader or the manager is at mistake then he should immediately accept it rather making lame excuses (Carnegie, 96). The immediate accepting of the mistake will caste a positive image on the employees. They will consider this as a role play for them. They will also accept their mistakes in the future just because of the reason that their leaders also accept their wrong deeds. The acceptance of mistakes is an opportunity to search for the actions to correct the mistake. However, if we do not accept the mistake then definitely we will remain unable to find solutions to the problems (Greenberg, 98). Appreciation is the most important rewards in addition to the happiness of the achievement. Therefore, the leaders should adopt the strategy of giving credits to the people. The leaders should behave in the way that employees think that this particular idea is his or hers and it will be a successful one if properly implemented. In this way, he will feel a sense of responsibility and duty towards the proper implementation of any idea or the strategy. This will be good for the company because employees will be more concerned towards the organization. However, it is not easy to fit our feet in someone others’ shoes but if this rule is applied then it will help the manager or the leader to analyze the situation form different perspectives. It is a famous proverb to fit your feet in others shoes and it is hundred percent true that if we shape our vision in the way that we can analyze any matter from both sides then it will be very easy to take the final decision without any biasness or partiality. Therefore, a leader should be vigilant enough to view the situation from others; perspective, in this way he can feel the emotions of others too. The only requirement of this tool is the honesty of the manager. He should be honest while taking any decision that he has truly analyzed the situations from both perspectives i.e. from management side and from employee’s side (Weiss & Brief, 291). All of these tools and tactics will help us to maintain our good relationships with the employees in the organizational work place. Practical Implication of the Concepts in the Book: If we closely analyze the concepts presented in the book, then many of them are actually applicable in our organizational settings. If properly implemented in the organizational setting then these concepts can be very beneficial. All of the tips and tactics are about the maintenance of the work place behavior. This work place behavior is highly related to the ethical and social responsibility of the employees. Therefore, we can say that any employee if practically imposes these tips on himself then he will be ethical and socially responsible towards his work place. There are many things, which are truly highlighted by the author, which can help any person to become a true leader for his organization. These principals if properly implemented can reduce the work place stress and frustration because every employee will be on good terms to each other. Conclusion: In short words, we can say that maintenance of good and sound relationships us very necessary because it can solve many of the organizational problems. Because if a person truly follow these rules then he will be very much ethical towards his employees and thus there will be a more comfortable work place environment for the employees and also for the management. If employees will feel comfortable then they will freely participate in the organizational discussions and thus there will be a variety of unique and creative ideas. In this way, people will feel a sense of empowerment and thus they will be more loyal towards the company. This loyalty and active participation will help to increase the performance level and thus the overall organizational productivity will be in a positive direction. Works Cited Carnegie, Dale, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, (January 1, 1937), Cornerstone Publishers, First Edition, page 65 – 112 Greenberg, Jerald, ‘Beyond Ethics: Corporate Social Responsibility’, (October 23, 2005), Managing Behavior in Organizations, Pearson Prentice Hall, page 60 – 64 Greenberg, Jerald, ‘Organizational Communication’, (October 23, 2005), Managing Behaviors in the Organizations, Chapter Number Eight, Pearson Prentice Hall, page 255 - 265 Sherwood, Ben, ‘Health: Why Stress May Be Good for You’, News Week, (February 17, 2009), page 2 -11 Weiss, Howard & Brief, Arthur, ‘Organizational Behavior Affecting the Work Place’, (February 2, 2002), Annual Review of Psychology, Issue 3, page 279 – 305 Read More