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Wayne Turmel risks his cranky reputation by talking to Russ Edelman, author of “Nice Guys Can Get the Corner Office – 8 Strategies for Winning in Business Without Being a Jerk“. So how come you can’t Google any “nice” leaders other than Ghandi, and his own children hated him?

Of course, you could be really nice and order the Cranky MIddle Manager Book, “125 Quotes for Whacking Weasels- Centuries of Wisdom, Motivation and Snappy Comebacks From the Cranky  Middle Manager”

Russ Edelman, nice guy

Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. Thanks to all of you nice people who helped rebuild our archives. We have successfully dug up every past episode! Too bad we couldn’t find a single leader form the past on Google using “nice” and “leadership” as key words. Don’t despair. Maybe nice people CAN get the top job, we just usually don’t want to do what it takes to achieve it.

3:17 Quotes with the word “nice” are a scarcity, but gracious will work in a pinch. Are you a continent or an island? Francis Bacon wants to know….

4:35 Welcome Russ Edelman. Guys does not necessarily mean men.  Therapy for Wayne- being a “nice guy” is not always a compliment. On the positive side, Nice is positive, caring, ethical… on the downside it can mean you’re a doormat.

7:40 You have to define boundaries if you’re not going to get walked on…. of course you can do it nicely. And you can learn from the jerks. Really.

10:39 We want to work for nice people…do we want to vote for them too???  Russ tells a great story about the culture at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

12:11 You need to be self aware- and there are three things that make nice people unsuccessful:

Self delusion, Self Denial, Pattern UN-recognition

16:30 You have to actually DO things in order to change your behavior. Defining boundaries, for example.

21:04 Are you nice or just conflict averse? Can you learn to step up and be assertive?

25:23 Russ’ resources:

Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers

Blue Ocean Strategy (newsflash, we’re working on getting the author but it is a tortuous path)

Hey, i’m on Twitter now…. if you care to follow me I’m at www.twitter.com/greatwebmeeting

Don't let the weasels get you down!

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