Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence


Book Description

Mastering Communication at Work is based on 45 years of research and working with over half-a-million clients around the world. From leaders of countries to leaders of companies to people just starting out in their career, Becker and Wortmann teach techniques that start with the essential wisdom of Aristotle and include the best practices in today’s global organizations. The book includes interviews with leaders who reveal the inside story of the communication secrets at: The White House Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author Google Laszlo Bock, Vice President, People Operations EMI Publishing Big Jon Platt, President IBM Jeanatte Horan, Vice President of Enterprise Business Transformation Harvard Business School Tony Mayo, Director of the Leadership Initiative The New York Giants Peter John-Baptiste, Director of Public Relations Mastering Communication at Work provides clear, actionable advice you can put to use right away and simple drills to practice during your next meeting, one-on-one conversation—or even sitting at your desk. Use Mastering Communication at Work as your coach and you’ll see immediate results in yourself, your people, and your organization.




Mastering Communication at Work, Second Edition: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence


Book Description

The classic international bestseller, updated for the hybrid work world, including a new chapter on virtual communication. Excellent communicating skills have always been crucial to success in leadership and management roles—and that’s one of the reasons the first edition of this book, Mastering Communication at Work, has been an international bestseller taught at universities and referred to by leading CEOs. In the years since it was first published, it’s been the go-to “communication playbook,” helping leaders develop strategic responses and communication tactics with clear, actionable advice. What’s changed in the last ten years? Well, nothing—and everything. The fundamentals of effective communication are the same, as are many of the challenges leaders face, generation after generation. You still need to “match your listener’s tendency” and “validate,” and you still need to guard against “defensiveness.” What has changed is how some of the fundamentals and challenges are applied and met in today’s world—both real and virtual, in remote and on-site working environments. Mastering Communication at Work, 2nd Edition features an essential new chapter on remote team communication along with additional content on equitable leadership and updated case studies. Throughout, you’ll find practical, hands-on advice and strategies that can help you reach your potential when preparing for big conversations and important presentations, help you reduce everyday stress and improve your organization’s performance at every level.




The Eight Essential People Skills for Project Management


Book Description

Zachary Wong offers practical strategies, skills, and tools to help project managers diagnose and solve their toughest people problems. Based on decades in the trenches, the book shows how to confront and correct bad behavior, increase team performance and inclusion, turn around difficult people and poor performers, get people to do what you want them to do, boost employee motivation and attitude, reduce change resistance and risk aversion, and manage difficult bosses. Wong believes that the best team leaders are problem-solvers and facilitators, so this book provides problem-solving models and tools to diagnose people problems, and facilitative methods, processes, and techniques to correct them. It's an approach that can be personalized to fit any person or situation. Each skill is explained with a well-balanced mix of case stories, examples, strategies, processes, tools, and techniques along with illustrations, graphics, tables, and other visuals to clarify key concepts and their workplace application. To reinforce the most important learnings, Wong includes a “Memory Card” and “Skill Summary” at the end of each chapter. Nothing is harder than leading people and managing project teams. Being successful takes a combination of knowing human psychology, organizational behaviors, and human factors; having supervisory, process, and communication skills; ensuring good teamwork, high integrity, and strong leadership; and having the ability to integrate and apply these skills to a diverse work team. The Eight Essential People Skills for Project Management is designed for individuals, team leaders, and managers who oversee and coordinate the daily performance of others and who are seeking solutions that they can apply immediately.




Leading Through Language


Book Description

Become a more effective leader—cut the jargon and say what you mean Leveraging. Strategizing. Opening the kimono. Unlocking human capital. Trying to nail that BHAG. All on a go forward basis. These are only a few examples of the jargon-ridden language that is too often the mainstay of business communication. Jargon frustrates, confuses, and generally alienates listeners. Yet it's also everywhere, and using it can often seem like a mandatory requirement for anyone who wants to establish credibility in a professional workplace. To be an effective leader, you must be brave enough to be the first to drop jargon in favor of simple, coherent language. This can be difficult if you've spent years immersed in business culture, but Leading Through Language will show just how much you've come to rely on jargon, why it's holding you back, and how to trim it away to more effectively convey information and ideas. Understand why jargon is reviled, yet ubiquitous Learn why "business speak" gets in the way of business Discover what kind of language influences and inspires others Convey ideas with clarity, energy, and conviction Approach all communication as an act of leadership Communication often falls by the wayside in favor of more measurable data-backed performance metrics; but good communication has the power to improve metrics in every area of an organization. Leading Through Language is the business world's much-needed guide to true leadership communication, showing you how to eliminate idle talk and master compelling communication.




Difficult Conversations


Book Description

The 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times business bestseller-now updated with "Answers to Ten Questions People Ask" We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. you'll learn how to: · Decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation · Start a conversation without defensiveness · Listen for the meaning of what is not said · Stay balanced in the face of attacks and accusations · Move from emotion to productive problem solving




The Language of Leaders


Book Description

Inspiring communication can make the difference between poor performance and exceptional results. This is why CEOs and HR professionals now believe that the ability to understand, motivate and inspire others is the characteristic that is most important when recruiting senior leaders. Many leaders wrongly perceive they have to become inspired orators if they are to inspire others. Wrong. Language is a system of communication, so the issue is: what system should leaders use to inspire brilliant results? This is the question Kevin Murray answers in The Language of Leaders. Based on original interviews with an extraordinary list of more than 70 top leaders from a wide range of business and public sector organizations, this book provides a unique insight into how these leaders have responded to the demands of a transparent world. It reports on what they have learned and creates a lexicon for successful communication. The message from these leaders is resoundingly clear - communication is now one of the most crucial skills of leadership. Filled with actionable lessons and insights from leaders of high-profile organizations, The Language of Leaders is an invaluable book for anybody in a leadership position, or who aspires to lead.




360 Degrees of Influence: Get Everyone to Follow Your Lead on Your Way to the Top


Book Description

SPREAD YOUR INFLUENCE FOR TRUE LEADERSHIP SUCCESS “The extraordinary power of influence is now within everyone’s reach. Recent graduates, executive assistants, project managers, and business leaders can all benefit from Monarth’s simple steps for ‘getting everyone to follow your lead.’” —MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, million-selling author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There “Monarth’s monograph is must reading for everyone who needs to build their personal brand and sell themselves—which is, of course, everybody.” —JEFFREY PFEFFER, Ph.D., professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and author of Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t “Your ability to influence and persuade others is the single most important skill for success in business and leadership—and this book shows you how with simple, powerful, practical, and proven techniques.” —BRIAN TRACY, author of Full Engagement “Finally! A book about influence that doesn’t tell you how to impose your position on others but rather illuminates ways to build authentic relationships that are mutually beneficial. Truly a 21st-century approach to a critical skill.” —LOIS P. FRANK EL, Ph.D., author of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office and Nice Girls Just Don’t Get It “360 Degrees of Influence breaks new ground. Harrison Monarth writes with fl air, passion, and insight. Even seasoned professionals will fi nd his advice practical and invaluable.” —HARRY MILLS, Managing Director of The Mills Group and author of Artful Persuasion and The StreetSmart Negotiator About the Book: Leadership doesn’t have to be a top-down proposition. In fact, the best leaders influence those who are below and above them, as well as people external to the organization, such as customers and partners. This 360 degrees of influence is what separates the good leader from the great leader. Founder of the global executive coaching firm GuruMaker, Harrison Monarth makes a living helping top figures in business and politics hone their influencing, communication, persuasion, impression management, and media skills. He teaches leaders how to operate without relying on spin or manipulation. Now, in 360 Degrees of Influence, Monarth provides everything you need to gain the trust and respect of those around you—no matter where they’re positioned in the organizational hierarchy—and expand your influence well beyond your immediate environment. Providing valuable insight into human emotion and behavior, Monarth reveals the secrets to becoming the most psychologically astute person in the room—so you can be the most influential leader in the room. Learn how to: Assess your current influencing power Overcome resistance to your ideas and proposals Know what people are thinking and feeling—even better than they do Avoid the most common decision-making pitfalls Create an influence strategy tailored to your organization’s hierarchy In addition to sharing insight he has gleaned during years of coaching leading executives, Monarth includes practice exercises, checklists, self-evaluations, and worksheets to help you tackle the challenge of influence and leadership head on. Right now, one of your own counterparts might be exerting influence over you and your boss. You can do the same thing. Apply the lessons of 360 Degrees of Influence to place yourself in the best possible position to lead the leaders.




Speak with Impact


Book Description

When you know what to say and how to say it, people listen. Find your powerful voice, and step into leadership. Speak with impact. Every day, you have an opportunity to use your voice to have a positive impact -- at work or in your community. You can inspire and persuade your audience -- or you can distract and put them to sleep. Presentation styles where leaders are nervous, ramble, and robotic can ruin a talk on even the most critical topics. As your performances become weak, your career prosects start to dim. To get ahead and make an impact, you need to deliver well-crafted messages with confidence and authenticity. You must?sound?as capable as you are. Public speaking is a skill, not a talent. With the right guidance, anyone can be a powerful speaker. Written by former opera singer turned CEO and TEDx speaker Allison Shapira, Speak with Impact unravels the mysteries of commanding attention in any setting, professional or personal. Whether it’s speaking up at a meeting, presenting to clients, or talking to large groups, this book’s easy-to-use frameworks, examples and exercises will help you: Engage your audience through storytelling and humor Use breathing techniques to overcome stage fright Strengthen and project your voice by banishing filler words/uptalk Use effective body language and build your executive presence Compose a clear message and deliver confident, authentic presentations Learn to conquer fear, capture attention, motivate action, and take charge of your career with?Speak with Impact.




Increasing Your Influence at Work All-in-One For Dummies


Book Description

Get ahead in the workplace by influencing others Influence is a timeless topic for business leaders and others in positions of power, but the world has evolved to the point where everyone needs these skills. No matter your job, role, rank, or function, if you want to get things done you need to know how to influence up, down, across, and outside the organization. Increasing Your Influence at Work All-in-One For Dummies shows you how to contribute more fully to important decisions, resolve conflicts more easily, lead and manage more effectively, and much more. Plus, you'll discover how to develop the most important attributes necessary for influence—trustworthiness, reliability, and assertiveness—and find out how to move beyond. Includes easy-to-apply information for influencing managers, peers, and subordinates Shows you how to build trust with your co-workers and cultivate reliability through consistency and being personal Illustrates how influencing others in the office helps you enjoy a greater measure of control over your work life Helps you advance your career more rapidly than others No matter who you are, where you work, or what your professional goals are, achieving more influence in the workplace is critical for success.




Leadership Is Language


Book Description

Wall Street Journal Bestseller From the acclaimed author of Turn the Ship Around!, former US Navy Captain David Marquet, comes a radical new playbook for empowering your team to make better decisions and take greater ownership. You might imagine that an effective leader is someone who makes quick, intelligent decisions, gives inspiring speeches, and issues clear orders to their team so they can execute a plan to achieve your organization's goals. Unfortunately, David Marquet argues, that's an outdated model of leadership that just doesn't work anymore. As a leader in today's networked, information-dense business climate, you don't have full visibility into your organization or the ground reality of your operating environment. In order to harness the eyes, ears, and minds of your people, you need to foster a climate of collaborative experimentation that encourages people to speak up when they notice problems and work together to identify and test solutions. Too many leaders fall in love with the sound of their own voice, and wind up dictating plans and digging in their heels when problems begin to emerge. Even when you want to be a more collaborative leader, you can undermine your own efforts by defaulting to command-and-control language we've inherited from the industrial era. It's time to ditch the industrial age playbook of leadership. In Leadership is Language, you'll learn how choosing your words can dramatically improve decision-making and execution on your team. Marquet outlines six plays for all leaders, anchored in how you use language: • Control the clock, don't obey the clock: Pre-plan decision points and give your people the tools they need to hit pause on a plan of action if they notice something wrong. • Collaborate, don't coerce: As the leader, you should be the last one to offer your opinion. Rather than locking your team into binary responses ("Is this a good plan?"), allow them to answer on a scale ("How confident are you about this plan?") • Commit, don't comply: Rather than expect your team to comply with specific directions, explain your overall goals, and get their commitment to achieving it one piece at a time. • Complete, not continue: If every day feels like a repetition of the last, you're doing something wrong. Articulate concrete plans with a start and end date to align your team. • Improve, don't prove: Ask your people to improve on plans and processes, rather than prove that they can meet fixed goals or deadlines. You'll face fewer cut corners and better long-term results. • Connect, don't conform: Flatten hierarchies in your organization and connect with your people to encourage them to contribute to decision-making. In his last book, Turn the Ship Around!, Marquet told the incredible story of abandoning command-and-control leadership on his submarine and empowering his crew to turn the worst performing submarine to the best performer in the fleet. Now, with Leadership is Language he gives businesspeople the tools they need to achieve such transformational leadership in their organizations.