I must admit that I like to use self-assessment tools to find out what I am taking for granted, and ignoring. Complacency is a terrible foe! I found the exercises in this book to be the best that I have ever used. If you have read a lot of self-help books, you can skip right through to the exercises.
If you haven't read many personal self-help books, be sure to read his ideas first before doing the exercises. Basically, Dr. McGraw is pointing out that we become victims when we stop making conscious choices. He helps us surface those areas where we are operating on automatic pilot, and helps us to take the controls again, consciously.
I think that this book is one that everyone would benefit from, who wants to improve their own situation. If you feel particularly weighted down by failure in your own eyes, I also suggest you read Failing Forward. My review of that book will tell you how to find self-assessment exercises for that book, as well.
If you want to improve how other people perform, however, that is beyond the scope of this book. You'll have to look elsewhere. If you have read nothing on the subject, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The One Minute Manager will be good starting points.
I found Dr. McGraw's beliefs to match my own very closely, which is why I liked the book so much -- even the parts that paralleled things I knew already. If you skip the exercises, though, you will have made a serious error. That's probably 98% of the benefit of this book.
I first read the book four years ago, and keep the results of the exercises in a place where I can review them daily to help me stay focused on the changes I need to make.
If you like this book, be sure to also read, use and think about the questions in The Life Strategies Workbook.
