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We all know a Weasel. You know
that person that threatens to take down your organization by using every sleazy tactic in the book to advance their careers regardless of how it effects others. Warriors
Workers
Whiners
and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by entrepreneur Tim O'Leary takes a refreshing look at the different personalities we encounter and how to handle them.

The premise of the book is that essentially everyone fits into one of four personality groups – Warrior
Worker
Whiner
or Weasel. O'Leary defines each as the following:

Warriors
who confront change
see possibilities
innovate and manage to win!

Workers
who deal with the ups
downs and challenges of everyday corporate life dependably
and who can reliably implement the change and direction established by the Warriors.

Whiners
who get through life by complaining about everything they do
who profess negativism and dissatisfaction wherever they go
and blaming others for their own shortcomings.

Weasels
who lurk everywhere and threaten your career and life-goals through their own deception and insecurity and who spread these feelings quickly throughout the organization.

The book is designed to help you recognize what group you fit into
give you the necessary tools to get to the group you want to be in
and learn how to effectively deal with people in each group. The book really does a great job of forcing you to truthfully analyze yourself. O'Leary warns you that you might not like what you find
but also is quick to point reinforce that you are in control and that you can make the changes in your life to fit into the group that you desire.

Even more interesting (and fun) is visualizing the people you know and placing them into their appropriate categories. We have all encountered a Whiner or Weasel and it helps to know what makes them tick and how to effectively deal with them so that they don't negatively impact your life. O'Leary uses the analogy to the common cold – you can't completely eliminate Weasels from your life but you can take precautions to limit the frequency in which they enter your life and the damage that they do while they're a part of it.

O'Leary uses a mixes light-hearted humor with a fiercely intense attitude to combine a business book and a self-help book in an exciting fashion. One chapter might focus on a self-analysis
the next might be about personal stories from O'Leary's experiences
and the next about management. The book is well over 200 pages but reads at the speed of a book that's half that. I often found myself reading several chapters in a sitting
which is a testament to the writers’ ability to hold readers interest. If there's a downside (and it's not much of one)
it's that O'Leary is so brutally honest that it may rub some people wrong
especially those who fall into the Whiner and Weasel groups.

Warriors
Workers
Whiners
and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by Tim O'Leary is a must read for every entrepreneur
business owner
manager
and worker wishing to learn more about themselves
take advantage of their best traits
and protect themselves from those who could sabotage their career.