Can’t decide what one business book to take on your summer vacation to accompany your “fun-reading” books? Consider David Grossman’s, You Can’t Not Communicate, 2.”
This updated installment of his previous best-seller with virtually the same title is an easy read and one you can finish in an afternoon when you are away from the Kansas City area.
More important, the book provides lots of practical, real-world, wise, straight-forward advice on how to communicate more effectively as a leader — all tips and techniques you can start to do when you return from vacation.
So, taking an afternoon to read this book even while you are on vacation will be well worth it!
Particularly helpful are the:
- Top 10 must-do strategies for persuasive presentations
- Five easy strategies for managing the company rumor mill
- Twelve must-have skills for effective two-way communication
Grossman also explains:
- the importance of having a “messagemap”
- ways leaders at all levels can build trust by aligning actions with words
- the four things you need to know about communicating with Millennials
Some of the more interesting facts in the book are:
- Nearly 50 percent of employees say they don’t understand their company’s business strategies or what is required for success.
- Only 11 percent of employees strongly agree that their managers show consistency between their
words and their actions. - Only 20 percent of employees have a clear “line of sight” between their tasks and the
organization’s or team’s goals.
Grossman also debunks these communication myths:
- I don’t have time to communicate
- People won’t interpret situations if you don’t talk about them
- Talking is communication
Grossman coaches leaders around the world and was recently named to USA Today‘s corporate management and leadership CEO panel. Prior to his founding The Grossman Group in 2000, he was director of communications for MacDonald’s.
His overriding philosophy on communication is:
- Every day, we make a choice–to communicate in a planful and purposeful way, or to wing it. We chose to help our staffs understand how they fit in and help us drive business results, or allow them to come up with their own priorities and conclusions. We choose to work on this learned skill (communication) and continue to develop ourselves, or make excuses about a lack of time, or how communications is a “soft” skill and not essential. In the end, my point-of-view on communication remains the same. Since we communicate whether we want to or not, it’s in our best interest to get good at it.”
Grossman speaks about effective communication around the country throughout the year and will be speaking in Springfield, MO toward the end of September.
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