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How to Talk So People Listen: Connecting in Today's Workplace

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Our super-speed, electronically driven workplace has begun eroding our ability to talk and, what's more, to listen. Yet we must all keep presenting ourselves and our ideas verbally, in person, to make that final sale or get ahead. That means you need new verbal and visual approaches to everything from giving a presentation, handling a client, making an impact at a meeting, or just selling yourself. Sonya Hamlin is one of the country's leading communication experts. She tackles the new issues in the workplace, rewriting her previous best-selling How to Talk So People Listen to provide a host of new techniques for getting what you want at work today. She covers all your workplace communication needs to discover and return to every time you have to present yourself or your ideas. This book is written for everyone, from the entry-level employee to the executive. Hamlin delivers groundbreaking insights and solutions to some of today's major communication issues at negotiating the generation gaps, integrating a multicultural workforce, organizing your message and making it visual, and understanding what motivates today's audiences. She provides unique, innovative tools in an informal, practical style. This is an invaluable resource for achieving one's goals through skillful, compelling communication techniques.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

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Sonya Hamlin

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Ivanina.
10 reviews1 follower
August 14, 2012
The book is not bad - for people making their first steps in presentations, the book could be useful. But for me it was quite basic.

The first chapters are ok, especially the Pre-think chart, but these, specially for presentations - too many words and space wasted to say very basic and simple things.

In conclusion I'd say: good ideas that could fit into twice less pages :/
Profile Image for Erin.
799 reviews10 followers
August 5, 2014
This book gave so good insights on how to be a better communicator. The biggest point I took away is: "create dialogue, not monologue" which is difficult to do in this "me-centered" society we live in.
Profile Image for William Schram.
2,355 reviews99 followers
December 9, 2019
No matter what you do or how you put food on the table everyone has a need to communicate with others. With the development of both television and the internet, we have changed how we listen to messages and the very way we communicate altogether. The author points out that the attention span of the average American has shortened to about 90 seconds.

How To Talk So People Listen is written by Sonya Hamlin. The basic problem with communication is getting your partner to listen to your message. This has not changed even with the development of technologies allowing for quick communication between people.

This is an updated edition. The original book came out in the 1980s and this one came out in 2006. So the biggest issues that have come about are both the generational differences and the multicultural workforce of today. Attempting to navigate that sort of minefield unaided can be daunting.

So now that this is 2019 that I am reviewing this book the iPhone and other Smartphone technologies and products have become ubiquitous. This has only served to separate people even further. The book acknowledges three generations and describes when they were born and gives their rough ages. So the book talks about Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers, and Gen Y-ers. Each one is discussed with charts, graphs, and bullet points.

The only thing that really dates the book is that the technologies have come even further now. As I mentioned, the book is from 2006. Each chapter breaks down a part of a conversation or a situation that could come about at work. The book is well-done.
318 reviews2 followers
March 16, 2017
Fabulous. Lots of great stuff. Makes for a great career.
Profile Image for Natanail Stefanov.
6 reviews10 followers
February 8, 2022
A must-read book on communication skills for everyone with little or no formal/theoretical knowledge in the field.
68 reviews
March 15, 2020
Very helpful. Already used some of the techniques in this book on a PowerPoint presentation. This book will make you rethink how you approach meeting
Profile Image for Kamilan.
7 reviews
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April 7, 2011
Hadiah sebagai Penceramah dan Facilitator Kursus Teknikal Kawalan Malaria Peringkat Negeri Perak. Bertempat di Pusat Dakwah Jeli, Kampung Jenub, Bukit Bunga, Tanah Merah, Kelantan. 05 hingga 07 April 2011.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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