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Simply Said

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Simply Said

Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Wiley,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

The first rule of communication is to focus on your audience, not on yourself.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Applicable
  • For Beginners

Recommendation

Communication consultant Jay Sullivan teaches you how to write better, become a more compelling public speaker, run tighter meetings, compose better emails, and more. He deals with the mechanics of organizing content and writing clearly and correctly, but he doesn’t stop there. He also explains why good communication focuses on its audience, why simple words and sentences are more effective and why great communicators are also great listeners. getAbstract recommends his helpful manual to businesspeople and to anyone who wants to communicate persuasively.

Summary

Focus on Your Audience   

People generally focus on themselves, but that interferes with communicating with others. To get people to understand, appreciate and approve of your ideas, you must care about your audience. This means focusing on your listeners and readers, not on yourself. This is rule number one of all communications, for any purpose, and in any format or medium. Your content is less important than what the audience will do with it. If you focus on others, you will be a strong communicator. If you don’t, you won’t.

Owning Your Content

As a businessperson, you must craft specific messages to specific audiences, whether that means your boss, your employees, your shareholders or other people. Be very clear about the main points you want to get across – your essential content. Deliver your core thoughts clearly and succinctly. This advice assumes that you understand your message precisely. Many speakers don’t. Think about what you want to convey. Keep your message short and clear. Avoid jargon.

How You Say It

Telling a story is a great way to communicate. Every story needs “...

About the Author

Jay Sullivan, once a practicing attorney, is now the managing partner at Exec|Comm LLC, which helps global organizations customize their teams’ communication skills. 

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