The book is divided into four parts:
• Setting Personal Goals
• Effective Goal Setting and People Skills
• Effective Goal Setting and Management Skills
• Achieving Your Goals
I found the first section to be the most helpful, because that’s the area in which I wanted to improve.
The second section had helpful chapters on recognizing passive, aggressive, and assertive behaviors and dealing with them. The chapter called “Changing People’s Behavior” was less helpful/interesting to me, because I’m not sure I believe in the effectiveness of changing another person’s behavior. I know that I’m different after dealing with an aggressive person. I avoid doing things to push that person’s buttons. I change who I am when dealing with an aggressive person, so I don’t have to deal with his or her wrath. But I have less confidence in my own ability to change another person’s behavior.
The third section on management skills was good. It included chapters on setting priorities, planning, delegating, and time management. The information was interesting, but I had more trouble applying this to my work life.
The fourth section has chapters called “Getting Help in Reaching Your Goals,” “Getting the Power to Get Things Done,” and “Project Management for Goal Achievers.” Although I enjoyed the chapter on getting power, this whole section seemed beyond the scope of the book. However, maybe the first section of the book was out of place. I was most interested in that section and most able to apply it to my personal/professional life.
This book is published by the American Management Association, so maybe I had a false sense of the topic of the book when judging it by the title only.
Overall, this book would be great for a new manager or for someone brushing up on management skills. The first section is good for anyone wanting to learn about setting personal goals, but there’s little follow-through on the personal part.