How to Ask the SMART QUESTIONS for Winning the Games of Career and Life

EVER FEEL THAT YOU’RE BEING MOVED AS A PAWN IN THE CAREER GAMES OTHERS ARE PLAYING AROUND YOU?

As one federal executive put it, “You’ve got to be aware of the games that are being played. You don’t have to play the games yourself, but you do need to recognize when they are being played against you.”

GAMES ARE REALITY!

The reality is that games, probes, and subtle competitions—and not to forget office politics! —are facts of life in most organizations. These are serious, secret, games played not for fun, but for keeps. Covert career games that the opposing players don’t tell us are in play, nor what the rules are, nor even what “winning” consists of.

HOW TO ASK THE SMART QUESTIONS FOR WINNING THE GAMES OF CAREER AND LIFE, written by a lawyer and management consultant, provides a checklist of smart, savvy questions. Here are a few examples (though in the book they are fleshed out with real-world situations, mini-case studies, and other tools useful in getting perspective and drilling in for more detail).

• In this situation, what is “winning”? What is winning for the others, including hidden players operating through stand-ins? Am I being drawn into someone else’s problem?

• What is my best move at this point? Is a confrontation needed?

• Am I thinking enough steps ahead? Are there broader opportunities hidden within this situation?

• What can I learn from this?

• Am I receiving the recognition and compensation I honestly deserve? Why not? What can I do?

About the Author MICHAEL McGAULLEY, J.D. These smart questions--- part people skills, part communication skills, part career savvy--- are drawn from the author's work as a lawyer and as a consultant to organizations that included the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute, Xerox companies in the United States and abroad, U.S. Navy, Kodak, HUD, USDA, Citicorp, and others. Volume Two in this Career-Savvy People Skills Series is the related, How to Use Mental Pickpocketing to Get to the Truth Without Seeming to Ask Questions. He is also the author of a series of techno-thrillers that focus on the intersection of emerging science with our increasing understanding of the hidden potentials of the human mind. These include The Man Who Created Ghosts, A Remedy for Death, The Grail Conspiracies, Infinite Doublecross, and Joining Miracles. He is a graduate of the Cornell Law School, admitted to practice in NY, VA and DC.

Top Customer Reviews

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By westea on September 7, 2013

The clever use of the question makes the reader feel that the author has entered the deep recesses of his mind. It is a kinship and puts the reader at ease. The segments go to the heart of doing better. What are the rules, posted, rumored & actual and does my game-play fit in to the point of success?

Examine the goals put forward and how you relate to the client's perception of the program. What is his end game from which you can derive yours? Time, materials, funds, colleagues, and customers there are so many variables but there is one thing above all that must be maintained: focus. It is so easy to stray.

You must do the job, but is that all the boss is looking for? Others in the firm have won their match. Win yours and a little more. Plan in an added twist that hooks up to other or future visions you know the boss has in the back of his mind. He may be aspiring to play in a higher league. This volume of Michael McGaulley's, is a grand master of the game, which applies across the board, black or white, it matters not the side, he has the strategy to win. Asking myself the Smart Questions is why I bought the book, it gave me the keys⎯that's all I wanted.