All guides

Every guide, case and review on the site, by topic.

Career & Status

• Complete guideOffice Politics: How to Win Without Becoming a SnakeOffice politics is real, and ignoring it costs you. Learn to read the game, build allies, protect yourself and win while keeping your name clean.
• Complete guidePower at Work: How to Get Respect, Status and InfluenceA plain guide to real power at work: how people judge you, how to show strength with warmth, stay calm, and move things without a fight.
• GuideHow to Deal With a Difficult Boss (and Keep Your Spine)A five-step way to work with a boss who is hard to read or hard to please: understand their style, name the real issue and ask for what you need.
• GuideHow to Find Your Blind Spots at Work (and Fix the One That Matters)Most successful people cannot see how they come across. A five-step way to ask for the truth, hear it without a fight and change one habit.
• GuideHow to Get Promoted: Skill, Sponsors and the AskHow promotions really happen: build rare skill, make it seen, find a sponsor, ask clearly, and know when to move. Clean moves only.
• GuideHow to Make a Strong First Impression at WorkPeople judge you in seconds and rarely revise. Five honest steps to start well in a new job, meeting or interview, for women and men, with no faking.
• GuideHow to Stay Calm When Attacked in a MeetingA boss or colleague cuts you down in front of others. What to do in the first ten seconds, in the rest of the meeting, and afterwards.
• GuideWhen Someone Takes Credit for Your Work: What to DoA colleague or boss took credit for your work. How to prevent it, respond calmly, escalate if needed, and know when to let it go.
• Case studyFouquet and the King: What Happens When You Outshine the BossIn 1661 Nicolas Fouquet threw a dazzling party for Louis XIV and was arrested soon after. What it teaches an employee who outshines a boss.
• Case studyThe Invisible High Performer: Why Great Work Gets OverlookedA composite story of a skilled analyst passed over for promotion, and the three changes that made her work seen, trusted and wanted.
• Book reviewDifficult Conversations Review: Does the Method Work?Our review of Difficult Conversations: the three layers of a hard talk, the Third Story opening, where the evidence is thin, and how to use it at work.
• Book reviewThe 48 Laws of Power Review: What Holds and What BreaksOur verdict on Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power: what is true about power, which laws backfire at work, and how to use it cleanly.

Money & Negotiation

• Complete guideNegotiation Guide: How to Get a Better Deal Without Burning AnyoneA practical negotiation guide for salary, deals and everyday asks: know your walk-away, build options, read the feeling, and keep the relationship.
• GuideHow to Ask for a Raise (and Get a Real Answer)A step-by-step plan to ask for a raise: know your number, build options, make the ask, handle no, and keep the relationship strong.
• GuideWhat Is a BATNA, and How to Build One Before You NegotiateA BATNA is what you will really do if the deal fails. Learn to build a real one in steps, and why it is your true power in a salary, price or contract talk.
• ListBest Negotiation Books: Which to Read First, and WhyThe negotiation books worth your time: Getting to Yes, Never Split the Difference and You Can Negotiate Anything. Who each is for and what to skip.
• ListNegotiation Tricks and How to Answer Each One CalmlySix common negotiation tricks, from the extreme first offer to good cop and bad cop. See each one, name it without blame, and answer it in plain words.
• Book reviewGetting to Yes Review: The Harvard Method, Tested HonestlyAn honest review of Getting to Yes by Fisher, Ury and Patton: four rules, the BATNA idea, where it breaks, and how it compares with Chris Voss.
• Book reviewNever Split the Difference Review: What Works, What BreaksAn honest review of Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference: the five ideas that matter, three places it breaks, and how to use it without being a jerk.
• Book reviewYou Can Negotiate Anything Review: Cohen's Tactics, TestedAn honest review of You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen: power, time and information, what still works, where the stories fail, and what to use.

Social Power

• Complete guideHow to Spot Manipulation: 12 Tactics and Calm AnswersThe common manipulation tactics at work and at home, how to spot each one, and a calm line you can say back. Defence only, no tricks.
• GuideFrame Control: Who Sets the Terms of the ConversationFrame control is deciding what a conversation is about before it starts. How to hold your frame calmly, spot a rival's, and keep it honest.
• GuideHow to Apologize and Keep Respect: Short, Clean, DoneA plain apology is a power move when it is short and followed by action. Three parts, one worked example, and when an apology backfires.
• GuideHow to Be Respected and Liked: Warm and StrongOnly-nice people get walked on, only-tough people get resented. How to be warm and strong at once, with scripts for work, friends and family.
• GuideHow to Judge People by What They Do, Not What They SayCharm and promises are cheap. Five steps to read people by their pattern of behaviour, at work and in dating, without labelling everyone a villain.
• GuideHow to Say No Without Losing Respect (Scripts That Work)A clear, polite no earns more respect than a vague yes. Five steps, short scripts for work and home, and the cases where a no costs too much.
• GuideIs The 48 Laws of Power Evil? An Honest AnswerIs Robert Greene's book evil, or just honest? Which laws are tools, which are traps, and how to use the book without turning into the person it describes.
• ListSigns Someone Is Manipulating You: 7 Patterns and AnswersSeven signs that someone is working you, from vague answers to guilt that arrives on cue. For each: how to see it, name it and answer it calmly.
• Book reviewIn Sheep's Clothing Review: Does Simon's Model Hold Up?Our review of George K. Simon's In Sheep's Clothing: what it teaches about covert aggression, where it is too simple, and how to use it safely.
• Book reviewInfluence by Cialdini Review: 6 Shortcuts and Their LimitsOur review of Robert Cialdini's Influence: the six triggers behind a quick yes, where the evidence is thin, and how to use them honestly.
• Book reviewThe Charisma Myth Review: Is Charisma a Learnable Skill?Our review of Olivia Fox Cabane's The Charisma Myth: presence, power and warmth, what is solid, where the evidence is thin, and how to use it honestly.

Attraction & Relationships

• Complete guideDating Power Dynamics: How to Read Who Holds the PowerEvery early relationship has a power balance. Learn to read it, stay warm and strong, spot control early, and leave when it is unequal.
• GuideHow to Be Confident Around Someone You Like (No Tricks)Nerves around a person you like are normal. Five honest steps to stay present, warm and yourself, for women and men, with no pickup lines and no games.
• Book reviewKing, Warrior, Magician, Lover Review: Useful Mirror, Weak ProofOur review of Moore and Gillette's King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: the four mature energies, what holds up, where the proof stops, and how women can use it too.
• Book reviewNo More Mr. Nice Guy Review: Good Advice, Thin ProofOur review of Robert Glover's No More Mr. Nice Guy: why giving with strings backfires, which exercises hold up, and where the evidence stops.
• Book reviewThe Art of Seduction Review: Charm, Power and Where It BreaksAn honest review of Robert Greene's The Art of Seduction: what it gets right about attraction, where it turns manipulative, and the clean version.