The Four Elements of Success: A Simple Personality Profile That Will Transform Your Team

by Laurie Beth Jones

Book Overview

Laurie Beth Jones, management expert and business consultant extraordinaire, noticed that none of the personality/temperament profiles in the market today, none of them provided a tool that was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785208887
• ISBN13: 9780785208884
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Great Book!!!

This book has been very helpful in allowing me to understand my own personality and my co-workers. I recommend everyone read it!

excellent resource

Here is another excellent resource from Laurie Beth Jones in her mission to help people achieve success in their lives and in work places. Even though I appreciate the Christian perspective, I like the way Jones sprinkles it throughout the book in a way that it is able to be used by peoeple of other faiths. I would have liked to have seen a more indepth way for the reader to profile their own personality, as I guessed my way through Ch 1. Also, I would have liked the Contents page to have been more comprehensive, as the chapters were too long and I wasn't sure what the pop quiz was designed for. I am looking forward to the workbook that Jones will probably design to go with this resource. Anyway, on its on, its very informative and worthwhile, no matter what field one works in. Thank you LBJ.

How the elements reflect work styles

Life coach Laurie Beth Jones highlights the differences among individual work styles and categorizes them as elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. She explains that if you pay attention to the natural "elemental" ways that people respond to work demands, you can create a more positive and, thus, more productive work environment. The reasoning (perhaps more than the metaphor) makes sense, and certainly beats always asking square pegs to work in round holes. Jones' approach is a little simplistic but that may help make it easy to use. She also brings in warm references to Jesus and Christianity. getAbstract suggests that this book could be a helpful starting place for understanding work styles and improving team dynamics.

Great Material, Could Have Been Better Written

The material here presented by Laurie Beth Jones is excellent and provides tremendous insight for personality studies. Unlike other personality profile models which possess types difficult to grasp and to inter-relate, this model provides the user with common elements which are easy to understand and simple to intertwine. For example, we all understand the nature of fire, and we all understand the result of fire and water being mixed together. Other personality profiles models fall far short of this one. The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that the style is too "earthy." Being a fire/wind myself, I found it cumbersome to wade through all the detailed explanations and examples. Overall however, it is a great volume -- I recommend it!

The Four Elements

I have found this book to be life-changing in the sense of gaining an understanding of not only my personality traits and needs but also of those on my team. As a result, I have been better able to meet their needs and they in turn have been better able to meet the needs of our business. Having read and worked through Laurie Beth Jones book, "The Path", this book, "The Four Elements of Sucess", became a natural and necessary extension to our continuing growth and progress. I strongly recommend this book to anyone whether for business or personal life. If all it does is give you a better understanding or yourself or of those around you, that in itself can be priceless.