Letitia Baldrige's complete guide to executive manners.

Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to Executive Manners

by Letitia Baldrige (New York: Rawson Associates, 1985, 519 pp., hardcover, $22.95).

This new book is based on the notion that "good manners are cost-effective because they not only

increase the quality of life in the workplace, contribute to optimum employee morale, and embellish the company image, but they also play a major role in generating a profit.' Within the pages of Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to Executive Manners, readers will find the most comprehensive book yet written on social behavior in American business.

The Complete Guide to Executive Manners approaches executive social behavior from two perspectives: Part 1 deals with interpersonal relationships. Chapters cover such topics as the personal qualities that are valued in the workplace; men's and women's relationships at work; executive communications; dressing for business; and international business manners.

The eleven chapters in Part II deal with protocol, covering topics such as meetings, conferences, and seminars; executive stationery, business cards, and announcements; business entertaining; the receptionist, the administrative assistant/executive secretary, and the company image; the art of business gift giving; and more.

Throughout the book are charts, checklists, illustrations, and examples to help the reader to understand and apply the information presented.

The author, Letitia Baldrige, has worked in an executive capacity for over 37 years in the United States and abroad. Her experience includes public relations and consultation in education, the business sector, and government.

Baldrige indicates that the intent of this book is to help both junior and senior managers find a comfortable way through all kinds of situations. She believes that "A good attitude and a show of kindness and consideration are basic to good personal relationships at work just as in social life. Being aware, thinking shead and using common sense are integral factors in both an executive's success and his or her social development.'

This is a book about success. It will not tell aspiring entrepreneurs how to become rich, but how to behave. Reading this book can help managers of small businesses to acquire and improve the social skills that will enable them to handle themselves well in most any business-related situation. Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to Executive Manners is an indispensable volume that should be included in the personal libraries of both established and upwardly mobile executives.