With all the articles out there preaching create content, more content, more content. There’s a few saying make sure you create good content. Good content. What is good content? Long form? Well written? Both well written and really long? Most people seem to forget the whole purpose of content. You could say to inform. As if more information is what we need.
No, it’s not to merely inform. The true purpose, the reason behind the madness of content creation, remains action. Getting the audience to take some form of action. To do that, an author, speaker, the executive must understand all forms of communication. Mastering speaking, writing, and one-on-one communication create a fluid skill to use depending on the crowd. It’s not to sound smart. It’s not to hear cheering. Its sole purpose remains moving people in unison towards a common goal.
Foundational Communication Skills
Influence: What It Really Means and How to Make It Work for You
It’s not effective until the audience takes action. This book uncovers the principles behind influencing action. The goal of all great communication isn’t merely getting a point across, it’s to move people to do something–to take action. If it’s a social cause, persuading a colleague, or energizing the troops, Influence will help weave in the science of persuasion to make communication more effective with less effort.
Dr. Cialdini uncovers the 6 basic principles of persuasion and how to use them. Perfect for communicators of all types.
What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People
Read this book and send your nonverbal intelligence soaring. Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence officer and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior, explains how to “speed-read” people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. You’ll also learn how your body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and strangers think of you.
Filled with examples from Navarro’s professional experience, this definitive book offers a powerful new way to navigate your world.
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Drawing extensively on psychosocial studies on memory, emotion and motivation, their study is couched in terms of “stickiness”-that is, the art of making ideas unforgettable. They start by relating the gruesome urban legend about a man who succumbs to a barroom flirtation only to wake up in a tub of ice, victim of an organ-harvesting ring. What makes such stories memorable and ensures their spread around the globe? The authors credit six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. (The initial letters spell out “success”-well, almost.) They illustrate these principles with a host of stories, some familiar (Kennedy’s stirring call to “land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth” within a decade) and others very funny (Nora Ephron’s anecdote of how her high school journalism teacher used a simple, embarrassing trick to teach her how not to “bury the lead”).
Universal Principles of Design
Whether a marketing campaign or a museum exhibit, a video game or a complex control system, the design we see is the culmination of many concepts and practices brought together from a variety of disciplines. Because no one can be an expert on everything, designers have always had to scramble to find the information and know-how required to make a design work—until now.
Universal Principles of Design is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary encyclopedia of design. Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, it pairs clear explanations of every design concept with visual examples of the concepts applied in practice. From the “80/20” rule to chunking, from baby-face bias to Occam’s razor, and from self-similarity to storytelling, every major design concept is defined and illustrated for readers to expand their knowledge.
Communicating Face-to-Face
Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition
The first edition of Crucial Conversations exploded onto the scene and revolutionized the way millions of people communicate when stakes are high. This new edition gives you the tools to:
- Prepare for high-stakes situations
- Transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
- Make it safe to talk about almost anything
- Be persuasive, not abrasive
Radical Candor by Kim Scott
From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it–and your obligation.
Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor.
Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring it’s obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging it’s ruinous empathy. When you do neither it’s manipulative insincerity.
This simple framework can help you build better relationships at work, and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader: creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism), building a cohesive team, and achieving results you’re all proud of.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
In studying the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way-and it’s the complete opposite of what everyone else does. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why.
Drawing on a wide range of real-life stories, Sinek weaves together a clear vision of what it truly takes to lead and inspire.
Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion
The time-tested secrets taught in this book include Cicero’s three-step strategy for moving an audience to action, and Honest Abe’s Shameless Trick for lowering an audience’s expectations. And it’s also replete with contemporary techniques such as politicians’ use of code language to appeal to specific groups and an eye-opening assortment of persuasive tricks, including the Eddie Haskell Ploy, the Belushi Paradigm, Stalin’s Timing Secret, and the Yoda Technique.
Whether you’re an inveterate lover of language books or just want to win a lot more anger-free arguments on the page, at the podium, or over a beer, Thank You for Arguing is for you. Warm, witty, erudite, and truly enlightening, it not only teaches you how to recognize a paralipsis when you hear it, but also how to wield the weapons of persuasion the next time you really, really, want to get your own way.
Writing Well
Yes, it’s a bad writer to recommend books on writing well. That doesn’t change the fact that these books work to sharpen the written word. Recommended by some of the top writers, these books are worth reading to learn to write.
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
For Abraham Lincoln, whether he was composing love letters, speeches, or legal arguments, words mattered. In Lincoln, acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan explores the life of America’s sixteenth president through his use of language both as a vehicle to express complex ideas and feelings and as an instrument of persuasion and empowerment. This unique account of Lincoln’s life and career highlights the shortcomings of the modern presidency, reminding us, through Lincoln’s legacy and appreciation for language, that the careful and honest use of words is a necessity for successful democracy.
The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase
‘An informative but highly entertaining journey through the figures of rhetoric … Mark Forsyth wears his considerable knowledge lightly. He also writes beautifully.’ David Marsh, Guardian In an age unhealthily obsessed with substance, this is a book on the importance of pure style, from the bestselling author of The Etymologicon and The Horologicon. From classic poetry to pop lyrics and from the King James Bible to advertising slogans, Mark Forsyth explains the secrets that make a phrase – such as `Tiger, Tiger, burning bright’, or `To be or not to be’ – memorable. In his inimitably entertaining and witty style he takes apart famous lines and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde. Whether you’re aiming for literary immortality or just an unforgettable one-liner, The Elements of Eloquence proves that you don’t need to have anything to say – you simply need to say it well. `Sparkling … the book offers many pleasures … I laughed out loud’ Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph
Keys to Great Writing
If you’re ready to empower your writing but are unsure of where to start, let Keys to Great Writing Revised and Expanded show you the way. Award-winning author and veteran writing coach Stephen Wilbers provides invaluable instruction on every aspect of the craft, from word choice and sentence structure to organization and revision.
In this edition, you’ll find:
- Self-assessments to strengthen your sentences and paragraphs, evaluate your goals, and approach your writing with confidence.
- Practical and easy-to-understand techniques for utilizing economy, precision, action, music, and personality.
- Helpful tips and techniques for the writing process, including advice on prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofreading.
- Exercises, checklists, and more to refine your writing skills.
For more than a decade, Keys to Great Writing has helped writers of all experience levels infuse their work with clarity, grace, and style. With the revised and expanded edition at your fingertips, you’ll have the tools to invigorate your prose and develop a unique and effective voice.
Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects
This detailed guide encourages writers to recognize and use the grammatical and stylistic choices available to them and to understand the rhetorical effects those choices can have on their readers.
Rhetorical Grammar is a writer’s grammar – it presents grammar as a rhetorical tool. It provides a systematic way of discussing coherence and transition, reader expectation, sentence stress and rhythm, subordination and coordination, punctuation, and other principles, and of explaining – within the context of an individual student’s writing – why one phrase is “awkward” and another phrase “a gem of precision.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'”
Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content by Mark Levy
But what happens when we encounter problems where such conventional thinking fails us? How do we get unstuck? For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting, a technique he’s used for years to solve all types of business problems and generate ideas for books, articles, and blog posts.
Freewriting is deceptively simple: start writing as fast as you can, for as long as you can, about a subject you care deeply about, while ignoring the standard rules of grammar and spelling. Your internal editor won’t be able to keep up with your output—you’ll generate breakthrough ideas and solutions that you couldn’t have created any other way.
Levy shares his six secrets to freewriting as well as fifteen problem-solving and creativity-stimulating principles you can use if you need more firepower—seven of which are new to this edition. Also new to this edition: an extensive section on how to refine your raw freewriting into something you can share with the world.
Speaking
Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers
Ever wish you could captivate your boardroom with the opening line of your presentation, like Winston Churchill in his most memorable speeches? Or want to command attention by looming larger than life before your audience, much like Abraham Lincoln when, standing erect and wearing a top hat, he towered over seven feet? Now, you can master presentation skills, wow your audience, and shoot up the corporate ladder by unlocking the secrets of history’s greatest speakers.
Author, historian, and world-renowned speaker James C. Humes—who wrote speeches for five American presidents—shows you how great leaders through the ages used simple yet incredibly effective tricks to speak, persuade, and win throngs of fans and followers. Inside, you’ll discover how Napoleon Bonaparte mastered the use of the pregnant pause to grab attention, how Lady Margaret Thatcher punctuated her most serious speeches with the use of subtle props, how Ronald Reagan could win even the most hostile crowd with carefully timed wit, and much, much more.
Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History
An instant classic when it was first published a decade ago and now enriched by seventeen new speeches, Lend Me Your Ears contains more than two hundred outstanding moments of oratory. It is selected, arranged, and introduced by William Safire, who honed his skills as a presidential speechwriter. He is considered by many to be America’s most influential political columnist and most elegant explicator of our language. Covering speeches from Demosthenes to George W. Bush, this latest edition includes the words of Cromwell to the “Rump Parliament,” Orson Welles eulogizing Darryl F. Zanuck, General George Patton exhorting his troops before D-Day, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking on Bush v. Gore. A new section incorporates speeches that were never delivered: what Kennedy was scheduled to say in Dallas; what Safire wrote for Nixon if the first moon landing met with disaster; and what Clinton originally planned to say after his grand jury testimony but swapped for a much fiercer speech.
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This is part of a Real World MBA curriculum. Other parts of the curriculum include Management, Decision Making, Startups, Execution, Career Success, Finance, Dealing with People, Strategy, Ethics, Biographies, and Marketing.