Title: Accelerating Performance - Powerful new techniques to develop people
Author: Sunny Stout Rostron
Publisher: Kogan Page, 2002
Paperback, 254pp
ISBN: 0749436425
Buy this from the TrainingZONE - Blackwells bookshop.
Titles have a lot to do with whether I read any particular book. For a trainer and coach, this title might seam appealing. I know that many readers of TrainingZONE make their living this way. If you are in sales, or manage sales people, you might like to know about the secrets of peak personal performance. Get this book and put it on your shelf. It is so full of wisdom and good ideas that some of it is bound to leak out and settle on you, even if you don't read it.
I have come across other books that draw together the teachings of all the current and past experts on personal performance. None has communicated such a range of top material, in such an effective manner.
Each of the ten chapters is accompanied by descriptions of exercises and a list of books and tapes for further study. Rostron's writing is direct, interesting, and efficient. The book is very well laid out and easy to read. Dipping in at random is rewarding because of its structure and thoughtful organisation. For those who are serious about improving their performance, the book warrants comprehensive scrutiny and proper review.
While Accelerating Performance is organised for those who teach, its content and exercises are immediately applicable to individual circumstances.
The first chapter offers help on how to use the book. Chapter two is about defining personal mastery.
Chapter three deals with learner issues and is particularly useful for trainers. It also offers insights into learning efficiency for the individual.
Chapter four also seems to be about trainer issues but it is also about communication, charisma, and influencing other peoples thinking.
Chapter five is about mental fitness. Chapter six provides strategies for stimulating creativity.
Chapter seven is mainly about the use of music to aid
learning.
Chapter eight provides help with the very important subject of 'rapport'.
Chapter nine seems to be all about facilitating in a training context. A top facilitator helps people come to the right conclusions and make the right decisions; so this chapter does have much value for those of us in sales. Finally, chapter ten brings the messages of the
book together.
Sunny Stout Rostron has written an excellent book for trainers and performance coaches. At the same time, she has produced an outstanding manual for developing presence and influence. It is rare for talented sales people to have the ability to explain how they do what they do. Many of the secrets are laid bare in Accelerating Performance.
Clive Miller
clive@salessense.co.uk
www.salessense.co.uk
Tel: 0118 933 1357
