Stephen M. Pollan

Mark Levine

Communicating bad news Dealing with problem people Mending damaged relationships Negotiating your wants and needs Standing up for yourself Excerpt from Lifescript #1: Asking for a Salary Increase Icebreaker: I'd like to thank you for the opportunity you and the company have given me. I recognize that you've been very influential in my growth and advancement. However, I have a problem that I need your help with. Pitch #1: What has happened is that I've been concentrating solely on my professional growth and haven't been paying any attention to my stream of income . . . Pitch #2: I think my salary no longer reflects my contribution to the company . . . Pitch #3: I think my salary no longer matches my job responsibilities . . . Whether you need to ask your boss to stop micromanaging, terminate a subordinate, confront a backstabbing peer, or cold call a potential client, Lifescripts gives you the most effective approach—and the actual words—to use. The bestselling guide to workplace success, Lifescripts has been completely revised and updated, taking a sharp new business focus and adding more than 50 scripts that help you prepare for difficult on-the-job conversations. Each of the 109 Lifescripts gives you a plan that leads to the desired result regardless of the obstacles thrown in your path. You get an icebreaker opener, a pitch, an answer to every question, and a defense for every attack. You'll also find strategic pointers on attitude, timing, preparation, and behavior. From dealing with human resources to closing a deal, Lifescripts provides a road map to navigate successfully through the most perplexing, problematic workplace dialogues you may face in the course of your business life.

What to Say to Get What You Want in Life's Toughest Situations

Lifescripts

Offers scenarios for communicating needs in business and at home, including responding to a salary offer, justifying an expense report, asking a merchant for a refund, breaking a wedding engagement, and asking a parent for money

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

Expertly navigate any workplace conversation and come out on top When confronted with difficult situations in the workplace, many people are at a loss for words. That’s why New York Times bestselling authors Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine created Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in Life's Toughest Situations. Using two-color flowcharts, Lifescripts maps out 171 difficult conversations, guiding you through discussion openers and effective responses reach the desired result. This completely revised and updated edition includes nearly 50 new business-focused scripts covering everything from apologizing for a misdirected email to requesting better meeting manners. Inside, you’ll find scripts to fit any situation you’re confronting at work. Use the signature Lifescripts visual flowcharts to work your way through exactly how the conversation should go. Be it boosting employee morale or getting the raise you deserve, when the time comes, you’ll be prepared not only with the right words and phrases, but with the confidence you need to get what you want. Work your way through conversation scripts for terminations, performance reviews, negotiating job offers, asking for raises, and much more Learn a unique set of icebreakers, pitches, questions, answers, and defenses for each difficult conversation Easily develop a winning conversational strategy using the signature visual flowcharts unique to Lifescripts Get strategic tips on attitude, timing, preparation, and behavior to help make any conversation a success This revised Third Edition of Lifescripts is here to help employees and managers communicate even more clearly and effectively. Whatever the situation, Lifescripts provides a road map to navigate the most perplexing, problematic dialogues for success.

Fire Your Boss

An eight-stage strategy covers how to time the sale of a home, preparing the property, selecting and contracting a broker, setting a price range, marketing, negotiating a contract, and closing. Original. 30,000 first printing.

Stephen Pollan's Foolproof Guide to Selling Your Home

What to say in today's toughest workplace situations Whatever trust previously existed between employer and employee has been torn into millions of pink slips, thanks to the latest recession. As a result, the rules for how managers and employees can successfully communicate have been irrevocably changed. Whether you're a manager or employee, Workscripts explains what to say in life's toughest situations at work, including: • Negotiating severance • Performance reviews • Responding to a pay cut • Asking for a raise or promotion • Terminating a friend • Job interviews • Dealing with difficult bosses • And many more

Perfect Phrases for High-Stakes Conversations

Workscripts

This volume covers dealing with subordinates, peers, and superiors, including how to ask for a budget increase, turn down a raise request, deal with brown nosing, handle flirtation, and warn a superior of a potential problem. Includes 40 dialogue flowcharts.

Lifescripts for Managers

Lifesecripts for the Self-Employed, written especially for those who are self-employed, provides dialogues for the difficult discussions this group is likely to face. Each lifescript features a flowchart with openings and rejoinders to a variety of potential responses. There are also pointers on proper attitude, timing, preparation, and behavior, as well as a summary of key points and a list of possible adaptations. Lifescripts for the Self-Employed covers scripts dealing with clients, investors, lenders, professionals, and suppliers, including: Breaking Bad News to a Client Cold Calling a New Client Approaching a Family Lender Explaining a Prior Bankruptcy Asking Your Professional to Reduce His Fee Explaining an Overstatement of Expenses to the IRS Closing a Deal Renegotiating a Lease with Your Landlord

What to say to get what you want in life's toughest situations

Lifescripts for the Self-Employed

Expertly navigate any workplace conversation and come out on top When confronted with difficult situations in the workplace, many people are at a loss for words. That’s why New York Times bestselling authors Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine created Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in Life's Toughest Situations. Using two-color flowcharts, Lifescripts maps out 109 difficult conversations, guiding you through discussion openers and effective responses reach the desired result. This completely revised and updated edition includes nearly 50 new business-focused scripts covering everything from apologizing for a misdirected email to requesting better meeting manners. Inside, you’ll find scripts to fit any situation you’re confronting at work. Use the signature Lifescripts visual flowcharts to work your way through exactly how the conversation should go. Be it boosting employee morale or getting the raise you deserve, when the time comes, you’ll be prepared not only with the right words and phrases, but with the confidence you need to get what you want. Work your way through conversation scripts for terminations, performance reviews, negotiating job offers, asking for raises, and much more Learn a unique set of icebreakers, pitches, questions, answers, and defenses for each difficult conversation Easily develop a winning conversational strategy using the signature visual flowcharts unique to Lifescripts Get strategic tips on attitude, timing, preparation, and behavior to help make any conversation a success This revised Third Edition of Lifescripts is here to help employees and managers communicate even more clearly and effectively. Whatever the situation, Lifescripts provides a road map to navigate the most perplexing, problematic dialogues for success.

Describes the general principles of going into business for oneself, and discusses structure, management, partnership, existing businesses and franchises, and the special situations of retail, service and home businesses

Field Guide to Starting a Business

Covers home selection, financing, real estate agents, negotiation, contracts, title, closing, insurance, and moving

Field Guide to Home Buying in America

A Radical Seven-Part Plan to Increase Your Net Worth and Afford You the Lifestyle of Your Dreams

Live Rich, Die Broke

Second Acts is a guide to reinventing your life. Whether you wish to change careers, move to a more desirable part of the country, start a business, write a novel, or drop everything to pursue a life dream, Stephen Pollan offers a powerful message ofhope and guidance that has benefited his own clients. Through a series of exercises, you will develop a comprehensive "script" for your second act—a step-by-step action plan that will lead you to the life you've always wanted.

Creating the Life You Really Want, Building the Career You Truly Desire

Second Acts

Fire Your Boss And Hire Yourself. Impossible? Not according to nationally bestselling author Stephen M. Pollan. As he says in this new and empowering book, "You don't have to accept your current work situation. You can be in control of your job and your stream of income, so you're never again subject to the whims, prejudices, moods, or circumstances of your so-called boss." In today's difficult work environment, gone are the days of finding satisfaction through your job, gone is the time when your job was secure, and gone are the days when your employer cared about you. This new environment requires new rules, and Pollan has provided surprisingly fresh and intriguing methods for finding "success" on the job. Pollan's bold and unique message begins with the idea that you must "fire your boss." By this he means you can no longer rely on your manager or your company for economic security. Instead, you must put yourself in charge of your working life. In this thought-provoking and counterintuitive career guide, Pollan presents a seven-step program and a series of exercises that give you the confidence, power, and will to achieve the life of your dreams. Once you have changed your mind-set and learned the new rules of the game, you can start the process of moving to a richer, more enriching, and more enjoyable life. And the best part about it? Your boss will love you for it.

Here are the simple truths that motivate people of any age to find and accept lasting happiness, illustrated with the stories of real people, and illuminated with the observations of spiritual leaders and great philosophers. For more than three decades, attorney, financial consultant, and life coach Stephen M. Pollan has been advising clients and readers on the business of living—everything from home buying and employment contracts to marriage and parenting. He has taught his clients and readers to Die Broke (use assets rather than build up an estate), to stage Second Acts (reinvent their lives), and, most recently, to Fire Your Boss (take charge of their own work lives). Throughout these books, Pollan stresses that attitudes as well as actions are essential to success. Indeed, over the years he realized that the happiest and most successful people he'd met were also those who were the most energetic and exuberant, regardless of their age. By noting these attributes and incorporating them in his own life, Pollan came to understand that our attitudes are not just one element of succeeding at the business of living, they are in fact the foundation of leading a happy life. Attitude is everything. Those attitudes most essential to our deepest satisfaction and happiness reflect what our spiritual leaders and philosophers from every major tradition have taught us. We don't have to look to external forces to validate us and give us self-worth. We already have within us all we need to find fulfillment and lead happy, satisfying lives—lives without regrets. To finally be happy we need to accept responsibility for our own happiness. When we know the secrets are already inside us, all we have to do is start living them. With this book, we can begin now.

Stephen M. Pollan

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