Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in 101 of Life's Toughest Situations

By Mark Levine, Stephen M. Pollan, Mark Levine

Book Overview

Whether you're looking for a new job, leaving an old one, cold calling a new account, laying off a subordinate, confronting a back-stabber, dealing with sexual harassment, returning food in a restaurant, or calming an irate client, Lifescripts tells you exactly how to do it and what to say.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0020360487
• ISBN13: 9780020360483
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Direction When You Don't Know What To Say

Pollan and Levine have done an outstanding job assembling a wide variety of human relations challenges and dilemmas. My first action in assessing the book was to go directly to those scenarios in which I have had considerable training and experience. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the verbiage and the decision charts were spot on. One of the book's strengths is that each scenario is properly framed. The reader is fully educated on strategy and key concerns for handling the situation. The accompanying decision chart then becomes the road map for the situation. The ideal reader of this book is the new college graduate entering into his or her first professional position. There is simply a tremendous quantity of practical wisdom on human relations and office politics that I wish I had at that stage in my career. Additionally, the book is an excellent resource for the seasoned professional. It will reinforce and fine-tune many approaches already in use. Because it is relatively thorough, it will provide juicy tidbits and insights on some situations that perhaps the reader simply never identified. I highly recommend this excellent book for anyone concerned with ongoing professional and personal success.

Great reference

Everyone is faced with tough conversations at work and this book provides practical guides for dealing with bosses, peers, and subordinates. I see where these scripts can easily be adapted to personal conversations as well. The book is organized in a very readable format. Not only are the topics easy to find, but the twists and turns of a specific dialog are diagramed so you can follow the path to the desired outcome. It even gives tips on timing. I especially liked that several strategies were described to combat different types of emotional responses that may be encountered. Most books I've read give general advice on handling difficult verbal situations, but this book gives word for word scripts that can actually be used in the real world. It's like gaining the insight of someone else's experience.

useful for difficult situations

This is an excellent book to keep in your collection for reference. You never know what difficult situations may arise, and this book gives example conversations for how to handle those situations.

Need a graceful way to get out of a situation?

I wish I'd read this book long before I had. The authors present you with some of life's stickiest situations and then tell you exactly how to handle it with words. What makes this book so invaluable is that the authors don't assume that the situation always involves bitterness--for example, their suggestions for leaving a job actually admit that it could just be a peaceful exit. If you want to know how to disentangle yourself from an employer you're sure is going to hold a grudge, they give you elegant ways of telling your future employer about it. Use their method, and you won't sound whiny, belligerent, or even disgruntled! If anything, their methods make the former employer's words about you look questionable and stilted. I did use their ideas on this, and THEY WORKED.To be brutally honest, this book is all about spin and the power it holds. So often in communication with one another, we forget that what we say is just as important as how we say it. In the age of emails and faxes, we're losing our manners and making unintentional enemies in the process. This book will re-educate you on the finer points of being nice and, dare I say it, being emotionally neutral. The authors clearly illustrate that our emotions keep us from being objective about a situation, and this is why Lifescripts is so helpful. They teach you how to distance yourself just enough to see the whole picture and then give you the words/actions necessary to properly deal with the problem. They also teach about a long-forgotten nuance of communication--take a pause and think before you say it/do it/write it.It's an excellent book that any manager, employee, or senior executive could easily benefit from, and I think it's even appropriate reading for high school age. Knowing when to say what can save you a lot of trouble...

I offered this book to my son before he left home forever

I will never forget that day. Before Charles closed his bag definitely, I gave it this book as a sacred testament. Everything is so well thought of; situations are so clearly described that you cannot make the usual mistakes: making confusions between symptoms and causes. Scenarios (scripts) are listed as alternatives one to each other. Solutions are clever and ethical.