Reviewed By Philip Abelard
booksforbusiness@yahoo.com

Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business by Barry Maher (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $19.95)

Rating: $$$$$

Businesses often seem more concerned with the spin than with the reality, more concerned with what people think about the product than the product itself. Employees are constantly being told to be positive. "Negative attitude" on an evaluation can kill a career. Positive thinking shaman crisscross the country, delivering keynotes and writing books. With cosmetically perfect smiles and televangelist hair, they explain that everything is, after all, wonderful. Let's all think happy thoughts. And the glass is-as we all know--half full not half empty.
Reading the cover of Barry Maher's new book, Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business, you might expect more of the same. Maher is, after all, a prominent keynote speaker. And the cover blurbs are too good: "inspiring," "uplifting," "packed with useful practical advice," "enlightening," "entertaining," even "laugh out loud funny." Once you begin the book however, you'll suspect that Maher's teeth are less than perfect. He openly admits his hair is much too thin for televangelism. He says things like "With all the money we spend on self improvement in this country, you'd think we'd all be darn close to perfect by now." And, "If you're absolutely, 100 percent positive, without the slightest trace of a doubt that you can do something, get a second opinion."
Filling the Glass is a business self-help book with an edge: Chicken Soup for the Skeptical Soul. It's a book for the rest of us-for those who understand the benefits of a positive attitude but deep down inside don't really believe that chanting affirmations will make our dreams come true. It's a book for those who suspect that when the boss enthuses, "Jack has a positive attitude," he really means, "Jack kisses all the right posteriors and doesn't gripe about my stupidity."
Barry Maher doesn't seem at all concerned about who moved his cheese. He distrusts self-help books and business gurus. And when he holds them up to question, he holds himself up as well. Readers who loved Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, Maher writes, will find that Maher is "every bit as much an expert on seat-of-the-pants psychology as Attila was on rape, pillage and--I guess--twentieth century management technique."
To Maher, whether you call the glass half empty or half full, it's still only four ounces of water. The problem isn't whether it's half full or half empty, the problem is figuring out how to fill it up. Reality counts. To grow or change or improve a business, to motivate people for the long haul, you have to begin by dealing with that reality-rather than what you, the company, the CEO or the stockholders might wish were

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Philip Abelard writes the syndicated Books for Business column. He may be reached at booksforbusiness@yahoo.com.