The Chameleon: Life-Changing Wisdom for Anyone Who has a Personality or Knows Someone Who Does

This book takes profound lessons and compresses them into what you can call "light reading". You will be taken through a little over 20 fables that each demonstrate a core lesson followed by a short explanation of the lesson. The sum total of all the fables will increase your understanding of the four styles and how to use them in real life.That is much harder to do than one might think, and you really need to check out how the author does this. Going through the book is fun! Those who habitually read books on personality and self-discovery, like I do, understand that it is often slow going because the text is usually dense and requires heavy concentration. By contrast, this book is like sneaking a nutritious vegetable into a yummy chocolate cake without anyone knowing it is there.When read along with Taking Flight, the author's first book, you really feel like you can grasp the concepts. It is one thing to be able to list and understand the different personality styles intellectually, but that emotional *click* is what will make the information stick. With these fables, you get to see the styles in action and then recall times in your own life when you felt the same way. I can recall many times while reading this book where I had similar cases happen to me. Often I would laugh, because many of the conversations with the mentor in the book were similar to my own mentor in real life. "Yep, I remember that phone call!", was often what made me laugh while reading this book. That kind of experience makes the connection and produces the learning in you.As you go through the fables and start to understand the "game" of categorizing and predicting the actions of the book's characters before the answers are given at the end, you gain a skill readily applied to others. In essence, you start to see birds everywhere: That person is an Eagle. that person is an Owl, and so on. Once you have this ability to categorize and understand people, you can create a process for approaching them, and this is relevant to many aspects of daily life: sales, marketing, talking to your kids, etc.Now matter what style you are, this book has something for everyone.

I’ve taken several DISC assessments as parts of workshops or promotions. The fancy charts and somewhat complimentary reports have always been enjoyable reading. The days following start with excitement as I set out to change the world - my piece of it anyway. It doesn’t take long for the excitement to twist itself into, now what?!?!!Last summer, determined not to fall into that routine again, I researched and found this book. I loved it. I read it cover to cover, then reread it. I read some stories multiplie times, then shared them with co-workers.I bought both the physical book and kindle version and use it as a book club reading for my team at work. We know each other as birds now and it has helped me (eagle/parrot) better communicate with the doves on the team. The main owl on the team now understands the parrots better, and has made comments about how they’ve applied this in other social situations, resolving conflicts and looking like a miracle worker in her peer group.I even bought a second paper copy of the book and I sent it to the president of our company, and one of my favorite excerpts to HR as I began to embrace my eagle/parrot rather than succumb to social pressure to be more owl-like.I read “Taking Flight,” afterwards. My only complaint, which would be on this second book as it relates to the book: I wish the birds names were the same. I picked up on Sarah/Samuel vs. Simon; however, a weird thing happens when reading this book: you become attracted to the characters.

I found Merrick Rosenberg's books, Taking Flight and The Chameleon by accident, and am thrilled. I was certified to use the DiSC products in the early 1980's and have used them and their lessons ever since. While searching online for some refresher information to use in an upcoming Team Building session, I found The Chameleon. Giving the 4 personality types an identity is genius! But, I was sold on Mr. Rosenberg’s genius as I read the Introduction of this book with the conversation about Xanadu’s guiding principle or “Home Rule”: “Treat others how they need to be treated”. His explanation on the difference between the Golden Rule and his “Home Rule” is so important to understand and use in these confusing and troubled times: “When it comes to virtues such as kindness, respect, and fairness, you should treat others how you want to be treated. When you do that, those virtues will; be returned to you in abundance. But, when you share information, provide instructions, or offer praise, you should treat others how they want to be treated.” (The Chameleon, pg 11.)

When I speak or train on Leadership the most frequent question I get is "how do I motivate people?" This book will help you answer that question. People are people, and when you understand how they are wired - and how you are too - then you can communicate in a way that gets the results you want. Everyone ends up happier, goals are accomplished, and communication improves across the board. An investment you can't afford not to make!

This book is an easy read and helps me relate the different styles a lot better than the 4 letters of DISC. One thing I noticed about the stories is that they seem to always point to the same conclusion. Another issue I see is that it generalized the 4 different styles, since no one is purely a D, S, C or I, it is not as straight forward when applying the lessons taught in the book.

I enjoyed the author's previous book, TAKING FLIGHT! , but I enjoyed THE CHAMELEON even more. Both books bring the DISC Behavioral Styles to life through the use of fables, but the addition of the chameleon character in this latest book adds a powerful new "voice" to the mix which brings further clarity to the lessons being taught. I especially liked the "Chameleon Wisdom" section after each fable which summarized the main points and provided additional insight. If you would like to improve your interactions with the people you come in contact with---this is your book! I highly recommend it!

The metaphorical way this one is delivered caused to get into my subconscious. Kudos to that!! I recommended to a couple of friends, to help me understand myself more than to hell them

Value for money