Here is an excerpt from the Publisher’s summary on this book:

Don’t just let influence just happen to you. Instead, take charge of your life by grasping the science behind how influence works and by strengthening your own skills at using it to your advantage. In this dynamic 12-lecture series, you’ll discover how to tap into the hidden powers of influence – and use these powers to enhance your life in ways you never thought possible.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking ‘this is one of those “motivational, self-help…know yourself” kind of crap books that people are work are telling you to read…which probably explains a situation with zero research but a lot of rational thinking and comes to vague conclusions, which doesn’t really help me… and I probably won’t be able to make it all the way through the book… but I will feel guilty about NOT making it through… even though I will have already come to the conclusion that I don’t really care.’

Is that about right?

Well if it’s not, then at least you’ve got a window into my mind about how I view books like that.

Let me say though, that this is NOT one of these books.  It’s not some ‘motivational’ crap, It’s actually a series of university lectures by Professor Kenneth Brown recorded.  This is his chosen subject of study, having a Bachelor, Master’s and Ph.D all in Psychology, his Masters & Ph.D being in Organisational psychology.

Also teaching on Management & leadership development, motivation & self-regulation and a host of other related subjects.

Basically he’s a guy that knows his stuff.

Of course, considering that he has researched extensively about influence, he is a very personable character and it means that listening to the book is very easy.   Which for me at least, isn’t so easy for lectures.

As the publishers summary states you learn the science behind how influence works.  The professor states a concept and then gives multiple citations with examples of what researchers found and the experiments they conducted.  Honestly its all very interesting stuff.

Unlike many other books, he doesn’t just say here is the research… now figure out what the lesson is for yourself… he actually tells you what is the correct response, what is the correct lesson to begin to put into practice.

Very nice for a change.

For example a good handshake makes a world of difference in interviews, with him citing the case studies with practical experiments and the real world manager’s decisions.

Or being more personable with your manager rather than actually doing a good job creates more chances of promotion than just being good at your job.

To be honest this is the kind of book that 1/4 of the way through, I knew I would have to listen to it again at least another 2 times.

There’s just so many lessons in here with so much useful and demonstrat-able evidence, that it’s not enough to remember everything in 1 sitting.

Or at least not if you’re not taking notes.

I think this is a book that could benefit highly from named chapters in audible. so far there are 5 ‘chapters’ which are really the 5 individual lectures… however there is so much information covered in each of these, that these lectures should be broken down into topics.

It’s the kind of book that you want to refer back to, but in its audio book form, you really need some sort of reference labels, otherwise you don’t know which part is which.

Honestly I’m very impressed, I recommended this to my dad who is now listening to it.

It’s the first audiobook version of a lecture series that i truly enjoyed and will listen to again.

But I think because of the fact that you want to refer back to the lessons/ points in the book you really either need chapter titles or the actual book itself.

I think this book is practically applicable for anyone working in an office environment, and enjoyable as a good listen for pretty much everyone else.

There’s meant to be an advert below which is a link for you to get 2 free audio books….if you can’t see it, ‘allow ads’ or ‘disable adblocker’ from your adblocker software on this website.

Happy listening!

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