Life-Changing Conversations:
7 strategies for talking about what matters most
By Sarah Rozenthuler
Foreword by Neale Donald Walsch
- A revolutionary 7-point programme to give you confidence and know-how for a transformational conversation
- Explains how changing your conversation with others—and with yourself—can change your life and career
- Includes real-life case studies of ordinary people who made significant shifts by finding a way to talk in critical situations
Have that Big Conversation – and change your life!
Talk is our key action tool for moving forward at work and in our personal life. Yet how often do you feel you’ve missed crucial opportunities or failed in your communication?
This book explains why effective talk can be truly transformative. It is a practical guide to the kinds of conversations that will turn your life around. An expert psychologist and executive coach, I offer seven keys to success: calling up your courage, creating a “container”, focusing on your intention, connecting with respect, speaking your truth, surrendering your “story”, and finding closure.
In the book you will find real-life examples of problem situations, including talking to your boss, resolving difficulties with colleagues and “speaking truth to power”. Using extended sample dialogue, I show how each challenging situation was worked through and a positive result achieved.
Improving your conversations is the single most important way to bring about positive change in your life. This informative, engaging and practical book shows you how.
I would love to hear your thoughts in response to the themes of the book.
March 2012, London
Dr Christiane Northrup, ob/gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers: Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause
William Isaacs, author of Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together and Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management
Robert Holden Ph.D, author of Shift Happens! and Happiness NOW
Dr Scilla Elworthy, founder of Peace Direct, winner of the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and three times nominee of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Neil Anderson, PhD, Professor of Human Resource Management and Director of Research Brunel Business School, Brunel University
Dr James Pritchard, Civil Service Learning, Learning Consultant
Graham Lee, author of Leadership Coaching and Director of The Thinking Partnership
free/unfree spirit.”
John Higgins, research associate at Ashridge Business School and author of Images of Authority, Organisational Consulting: A Relational Perspective and Organisational Consulting: At the Edges of Possibility
Sarah,
When I received your email today great feelings of admiration and love filled my being. I can’t say that I have ever been so proud. Yes it was a sense of pride in knowing you personally and having the opportunity to share with such a beautiful contributor to the awakening of mankind. In relation to that when I looked deeper into this feeling I realized it was much deeper than pride as each of us have from time to time and the experience we give ourselves from time to time as we have victories in our life. It was more of an acknowledgement of a creation larger than any personality but more a fulfillment of the divine plan.
May you always listen to the Great Presence that beat your heart and move ever closer to your full Victory and Ascension into the Light.
Blessed be,
Robert Stewart
Hi Sarah,
I hope you might find my comments below helpful, your book is fabulous. Thanks!
The personal stories the author shared in the “Introduction” were great and immediately created intimacy between her and me (reader). The juggling story was fun to read it. The commune story (the author taking a risk) was also well pitched. In general, the author sharing her personal stories (making herself vulnerable) set such a kind and engaging tone of the book which I felt throughout the whole text. If anything, it would have been great to perhaps interweave the other chapters with another couple of Sarah’s stories.
The author picked fantastic examples from her coaching practice to illustrate her points & strategies. Not only were they close to life and real but also very touching and more than once was I moved by reading what big issues Sarah’s clients had to deal with. People seemed to be stuck in a desperate fashion and these high-stake examples really made a point about her methodology, i.e. if it works for these very difficult situations, it’ll work everywhere. Another great aspect of these examples was that I as the reader stayed totally engaged in the book through the stories of her clients, i.e. the human drama.
The way the author anchors her work in that of Bohm, Isaacs, Kantor, etc. really made me feel at home. It was an easy entry for me into her strategies / world and I appreciated Sarah explaining these people’s work in a very accessible manner. Also, I thought there was just enough “theoretical” background in the book. Enough to share where her wisdom comes from but at the same time not distracting from what Sarah offers in terms of her distinct strategies.
The author’s strategies make a lot of sense and are easily accessible. The challenge is to use them often (always) to make life better for all of us. Many practical suggestions are offered to use her tools which is really useful. Sarah is not a consultant who simply says what “good” looks like, she takes the reader by the hand and shows her / him how to get there. That made a big difference for me reading the book. At the end of the day, as a reader, I am interested in concrete results (making life better) and intellectual insights are academic “nice to haves” (definitely interesting and important) but not the core, at least not for me.
Sarah’s writing style is engaging, down to earth and to the point. There is very little ambiguity in how she describes things which really helped me to stay focused. I also like the alliterations she “sprinkled over” the book, a nice touch and skillfully deployed.