The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace by Cy Wakeman - Book review

The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace

Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier

By: Cy Wakeman

Published: April 30, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
ISBN-10: 1118413687
ISBN-13: 978-1118413685
Publisher: Jossey-Bass










"Happiness is at your fingertips, yours for the taking. All jobs can be great jobs. All bosses can be exactly what you need. You can have success any time, anywhere", writes keynote speaker, executive coach, entrepreneur and leadership thought leader, Cy Wakeman, in her empowering and career transformational book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier. The author describes how employees hold the key to their workplace engagement and happiness in their own hands, and provides the rules for making the work environment a great experience.

Cy Wakeman recognizes that more workers than ever are feeling unappreciated and disengaged at work. The author presents a compelling case that work doesn't have to be an unpleasant place by offering an empowering alternative mindset for employees. Cy Wakeman points out that internally generated fears and disenchantment create a more adverse workplace that doesn't really exist. Instead of helping the employee achieve peak performance and a successful career, the false fears and disengagement hold them back. Cy Wakeman shares the good news that top performance and career advancement are possible through an understanding of the true workplace reality.

Cy Wakeman (photo left) understands that employees want to be happy and successful at work. Faced with challenging bosses, difficult coworkers, and a shortage of resources to complete their projects, many employees face frustration at work. Cy Wakeman provides real help for these employees through a revealing formula that evaluates the worker's value to the organization. With the resulting score in hand, the individual has a baseline from which to improve the overall score, becoming a more valued member of the team. With stronger performance, an employee finds work more enjoyable and a truly positive experience.

Cy Wakeman offers an alternative worldview in the form of her reality-based rules of the workplace. The key is that the rules consider the reality of the workplace insred of its imagined problems, impossible to work for and unappreciative bosses, and difficult coworkers. Cy Wakeman replaces imagined challenges with real world based solutions. The five reality-based rules are as follows:

* Your level of accountability determines your level of happiness
* Suffering is optional
* Buy-in is not optional
* Say yes to what's next
* You will always have extenuating circumstances

For me, the power of the book is how Cy Wakeman combines an overall framework for improving your career prospects, your engagement level, and your personal happiness with the practical rules for making them a reality. The author bolsters her premise with extensive research interviews that illustrate the concepts as they happen in the real world. Cy Wakeman takes an empowering and personal responsibility based approach to career success. By taking the position that the individual is accountable and able to create their own happiness, the author demonstrates that a person's career rests in their own hands.

Cy Wakeman doesn't gloss over the fact that today's workplace and economy present real and very tangible challenges. She takes the bold step that this upheaval and change also presents real opportunity for employee initiative and advancement. The author offers the personal choice to take ownership of your own career, and your personal success and happiness.In a time of constant change, both within and outside the workplace, and with so many coworkers disengaged from their employment, opportunity for providing peak performance, innovation, and leadership has never been greater than at present.

I highly recommend the career building and personal accountability based book The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace: Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills Your Chances, and Will Make You Happier by Cy Wakeman, to any employees, executives, new graduates, and potential leaders who are seeking an alternative approach to success based on personal empowerment. This book offers a road map to finding opportunity and achieving top performance in any work environment.