Communication

180 Ways to Walk the Customer Service Talk

Eric Harvey

Performance Publishing Company, Dallas, TX (1999)

Businesses are losing customers every day because they aren't waling the customer service         talk...they aren't treating customers the way they say they will. That needs to change. It needs to          be turned around - 180 degrees. And that 's what this handbook is all about. It's a guide to help you meet one of today's most pressing business challenges: satisfying and keeping the customers that pay the money that pays your salary. That last part - paying your salary - should be reason enough to pay attention.

 

Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend

On being a mentor to students in Science and Engineering

National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine

National Academy Press, Washinton, D.C. (1997)

A useful guide on helping your advisies or students in their desired fields of science or engineering.  Offers advice on career services as well as skill building.   Bibliographical and Internet resources are also provided.

Better Business Writing

Susan L. Brock

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1987)

This is a practical and useful guide to help the average person improve his or her business writing.

Business Etiquette And Professionalism: Your Guide To Career Success

M. Kay duPont

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1990)

Good office manners may not be listed in your job description, but they certainly play a crucial part in your career. The ability to handle yourself properly today outweighs even your technical skills. If you know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it with grace and style, you'll have a competitive edge in your career. An October 1988 USA Weekend story emphasized that one of the themes for the 1990s is:"Good manners means good business." All the business experts agree.

Cooperation Among Strangers

David W. Brown

Kettering Foundation, Dayton, OH (1992)

Is large-scale cooperation possible among strangers without market incentives or government coercion? there is a widely held assumption that in so large and diverse a society as America, the grounds for large-scale cooperation are essentially economic and legal, and that cooperation otherwise is only possible in small groups among people who know each other. The convention model alone cannot solve public problems, but is does provide a framework for thinking about them and coordinating a response.

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen

Penguin Books, New York, NY (1999)

Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, the book walks you through a proven step-by-step approach for how to have your toughest conversations with less stress and more success. It shows you how to prepare yourself; how to start the conversation without defensiveness; and how to keep it constructive and focused regardless of how the other person responds.

Dinosaur Brains: Dealing With all Those Impossible People At Work

Albert J. Bernstein and Sydney Craft Rozen

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY (1989)

This book discusses why it is that people who get caught up in turf battles and power struggles are willing to destroy half the company just to prove they are right. This book will show you how to deal with primitive behavior in today's business world. The first step is understanding what a "dinosaur brain" is and how it can take control of people, and what to do when one attacks, even if it is the one inside of you.

Effective Presentation Skills: A Practical Guide For Better Speaking

Steve Mandel

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1987)

This book will show you how to: assess your skills - evaluate yourself and set your goals; deal with anxiety - tips for reducing anxiety; plan your presentation - develop objectives, analyze the audience, organize your presentation; develop and use visual aids - placement of equipment and where and how to stand; prepare your presentation - how to practice and control the environment; deliver your presentation - posture, movement, gestures, eye contact, voice and question-and-answer techniques.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Learning To Give, Take, & Use Instructions

Richard Saul Wurman

Bantam Books, A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., New York, NY (1992)

Instructions are the key to communication and understanding - the building blocks of convenience, accomplishment, and success in today's home, school, and office, From programming a VCR to training a sales force, from assembling a ten-speed bike on Christmas Eve to operating high-tech equipment in the modern workplace, the difference between getting by and getting ahead is knowing how to give and take instructions.

Gendered Lives

Julia T. Wood

Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, CA  (1999)

"Because studying communication, fender, and culture is unsettling, it is not easy. Yet, it can be very worthwhile. By questioning constructed inequality, we empower ourselves to do more that reproduce the cultural patterns we inherited. By involving ourselves in communication that enlarges others' awareness and revises cultural practices, we assume active roles in creating personal and collective lives that are more fair, more humane, and infinitely more enriching than what might otherwise be possible. That is the goal of Gendered Lives."

How To Write An Effective Resume

Bobbi Linkemer

American Management Association, New York, NY (1987)

This little book will teach you how to: take inventory of your goals, skills, and accomplishments and incorporate them into your resume; determine which of the four basic types of resumes will achieve your career objectives; coordinate the verbal and visual elements of your resume into an attractive and attention-getting whole.

Influencing Others: A Handbook Of Persuasive Strategies

William L. Nothstine, Ph.D.

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1989)

This book is about: persuading others, identifying resistance to persuasion, sources of resistance to persuasion, and overcoming resistance to persuasion.

Listening: The Forgotten Skill

Madelyn Burley-Allen

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY (1982)

This guide clearly demonstrates how you can master the essential but often-neglected art of listening. Aided by examples, exercises, and drawings, it takes you step by step through a 12-point program to acquire active, productive listening skills and put them to work for you professionally, socially, and personally.

Mastering The Power Of Persuasion: How To Get The Results You Want On The Job

Thomas L. Quick

Executive Enterprises Publications Co., Inc., New York, NY (1990)

No matter whom you are trying to persuade, using the techniques demonstrated in this book will optimize your chances of success. They offer the smoothest path to any possible agreement. The more you apply them to your dealings with others on all organizational levels, the more skilled you will become at defining and achieving goals that make both parties to the process winners.

Please Understand Me

David Kiersey and Marilyn Bates

Prometheus Nemesis Book company, Del Mar, CA  (1978)

The point of this book is that people are different from each other, and that no amount of getting after them is going to change them. Nor is there any reason to change them, because the differences are probably good, not bad.

 

Public Speaking

Steven A. Beebe, Susan J. Beebe

A Viacom Company, Needham Heights, MA  (1997)

This text covers the many areas of public speaking and the rhelm in which we see it today.  Using all resources available, it will go through the fundamentals while building a strong knowledge of what a public speakers needs to be looking for in an audience and environment. 

Put It In Writing

Albert Joseph

International Writing Institute, Inc., Cleveland, OH (1986)

This course has three major objectives: clarity, speed, and image. By the time the course is over you should be able to write more clearly so clearly your reader cannot possibly misunderstand your message. You should be able to write faster perhaps twice as fast in many cases without wasting time fumbling over false starts and rewrites. And you should be able to present your valuable ideas in a way that pleases the reader and presents a pleasant, dignified image of you and your company.

Sex and Gendered Differences in Personal Relationships

Daniel J. Canary and Tara M. Emmers-Sommer

The Guilford Press, New York, NY (1997)

How men and women communicate in their personal relationships has become a "hot" topic in both academic and popular discussions. A common assumption stresses differences between men and women that might explain problems between the sexes, which is conveyed in generalizations that take the form "Women want this, whereas men want that." Such view also suggest that people have only one brand of each sex to choose from; that is, all men are alike and all women resemble each other. In this book, we attempt to counter the prevailing notion that differences between the sexes are constant and reveal separate molds, and we present an alternative to categorical thinking about men and women in their personal relationships.

Successful Self-Management: A Psychologically Sound Approach To Personal Effectiveness

Paul R. Timm, Ph.D

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1987)

This book will introduce the critical building blocks of self-management which ultimately determine our personal and professional success. Using the simple yet sound techniques presented can make a dramatic change in one's productivity, accomplishments, and life satisfaction.

Technical Presentation Skills: A Practical Guide For Better Speaking

Steve Mandel

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1988)

This book attempts to answer the fundamental questions of how to prepare and deliver technical material effectively . Proven techniques are presented that will give a reader the necessary skills to give more confident, enthusiastic and persuasive presentations. Topics such as: how to use body language effectively; how to organize thoughts and data for maximum impact; how to develop and use visual aids, as well as how to deliver what you have prepared. The problem of delivering a technical paper at a professional meeting is also covered.

Technical Writing In The Corporate World: Basic Strategies For Success

Herman A. Estrin, Ph.D.; Norbert Elliot, Ph.D.

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1990)

This book will enable you to improve your writing skills so that you may deal confidently with even the most technical subjects. The goals of this book are to allow you to: understand the unique nature of technical writing, develop strategies for communicating technical information, and , revise documents with confidence.

The Art Of Communicating: Achieving Interpersonal Impact In Business

Bert Decker

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1988)

This self-instructional, self-paced book introduces the reader to the concepts of interpersonal communication. By using the techniques presented in the book, dramatic changes can be made in the ability to achieve excellence while interacting with others.

The Business Of Listening; A Practical Guide To Effective Listening

Diane Bone

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1988)

This is a book that teaches why better listening skills lead to greater productivity and happiness, both on the job and at home.

The Community of the Future

Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard, Richard F. Schubert

Jossey-Bass Publishers, Inc. (1998)

The authors powerful essays explore what our communities will look like tomorrow - how we will live, work, communicate, educate our children, and govern ourselves.

The Hero Within-Six Archetypes We Live By

Carol S. Pearson

HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY (1986)

In this book, the author combines literature, anthropology, and psychology to define and understand the six heroic archetypes that exist in all of us and she has identified them as: "Innocent", "Orphan", "Magician", "Wanderer", "Martyr", "Warrior". This expanded edition features exercises designed to awaken and illuminate these archetypes so that we may make better sense of ourselves and our life-journeys.

The Magic Of Rapport: How You Can Gain Personal Power In Any Situation

Jerry Richardson

Meta Publications, Cupertino, CA (1987)

This book is for anyone whose success, both personal and professional, depends on his or her ability to influence other people. Managers, salespeople, teachers, counselors, administrators and supervisors in and other professionals will gain immeasurably from learning the strategies and techniques covered in this book as well as those who seek more effective communications with partners, spouses, children and other family members.

The Write Stuff: A Style Manual For Effective Business Writing

Richard Anderson - Helene Hinis

National Press Publications, Shawnee Mission, KS (1990)

Guidelines for getting it right whenever you write. Get quick answers to common questions about grammar, usage, diction and more. Avoid embarrassing mistakes that make you look bad. Improve the quality of everything you write.

Type Talk-The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, And Work

Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen

Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., New York, NY (1988)

What's your type?:

Winning Numbers: How To Use Business Facts & Figures To Make Your Point & Get Ahead

Michael C. Thomsett

AMACOM, A Division of American Management Association, New York, NY (1990)

This book gives non-financial managers ammunition to influence decisions that affect them. This book explains how to use various ratios and report formats to translate your departmental data into practical information.

Write To The Point! Letters, Memos & Reports That Get Results

Rosemary T. Fruehling, N.B. Oldham

McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY (1988)

Effective writing at work and at home; typical business letters: providing information; seeking information; selling; letters of introduction; making a reservation; confirming a reservation; asking; agreeing; declining; offering credit; refusing credit; seeking payment; offering a job; rejecting a job applicant; resigning; writing for pleasure; writing for action; writing for a job. It is all in this book.

Writing Fitness: Practical Exercises For Better Business Writing

Jack Swenson

Crisp Publications, Inc., Los Altos, CA (1988)

The objective of this book is to help improve the quality of business writing skills by providing concepts and allowing the readers to practice what they have learned.