SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS REVISED & EXPANDED EDITION The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business...comprehensive title!

SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS REVISED & EXPANDED EDITION The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business
THOMAS ERIKSON
St. Martin's Essentials (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$12.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A fully revised and expanded edition of the runaway bestseller, Surrounded by Idiots—now with Text • Charts • Examples • Snark!

Master the four basic behavior types and change the way you communicate!

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy?

You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots,’ communication expert and bestselling author Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain personality types.

Erikson’s simple yet ground-breaking techniques will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage.

At a moment in time when understanding one another is more important than ever, Thomas Erikson revisits his most popular title, offering an updated and expanded edition that will make you a master of communication.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: If anyone reading this has not yet read SURROUNDED BY NARCISSISTS: How to Effectively Recognize, Avoid, and Defend Yourself Against Toxic People (and Not Lose Your Mind) I recommend you go do that.

Back so soon? Okay, here we go.

I didn't read the original version so cannot comment on whatever might be new in the presentation of the text. I can tell you it's easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to misuse. You are not going to be a mental-health professional after reading this book. I think anyone who feels frustrated and put-upon by the goofballs and simps surrounding them should go get a therapist. To be completely honest I think that anyway...go get a therapist! It will change your life for the better.

Absent that, reading this book is best done with the realization that at least a dozen people are reading it because of you. It behooves all of us to get better at communication with people not like ourselves, but from a place of non-judgmental desire to be better about our affect in this world.

I can hear y'all snickering, it's really quite rude. I already said it's best to read this (and all other books like it) in the full realization that others are reading them to detoxify your affect on them. I really mean that. Communication problems are always mutual. When you simply dislike someone you still need to be able to communicate with them to be effective in any social situation where there are other people...in other words, all of them. Talking to MAGAts or religious nuts is hard, but we all need to do it sometimes. I myownself keep interactions with them as short as possible and avoid eye contact the way an old pal of mine does with Mondays, for the same reason.

This particular iteration of the DISC / Meyers-Briggs system, using colors in place of letters, works as well as these things ever do: Not very, but useful as a quick issue-defusing technique. It's easy to internalize, comes with built-in shorthand, and can help you walk away from difficult conversations without creating more trouble.

It's not, and does not purport or pretend to be, a substitute for the hard work of therapy. Which everyone should do. But since there's no way in hell most lazy slugs will bother, and no way most people can afford it if they were willing (which they're not), and no easy way to find or know how to judge which therapist is the right one for you, we have books like this.

Use it the way he tells you to and you will do no (further) harm.

That alone is worth more than the purchase price.