Communicate Like a Leader: Connecting Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done

by Dianna Booher

Draw Them In, Don’t Drive Them Away!

People often get promoted to leadership positions without knowing how to communicate an inspiring strategic vision to the people who report to them. So they focus on what they tactics, not strategy. As a result, they become stuck in micromanagement mode.

Dianna Booher wants to prevent micromanagement before it happens by providing you with the right leadership communication skills. Grounded in extensive research, this book offers practical guidelines to help professionals think, coach, converse, speak, write, meet, and negotiate strategically to deliver results. In thirty-six brief chapters, Booher shows you how to communicate effectively to audiences up and down the organization so you can fulfill your most essential responsibilities as a leader.

Winner of the 2018 Axiom Award Silver Medal in the Networking Category.

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Business, Professional Development, Audiobook

208 pages, Paperback

Published June 5, 2017

About the author

Dianna Booher, MA, CSP, CPAE, is CEO of Booher Research Institute, Inc., a communication consulting and coaching firm.. She works with organizations to help them communicate clearly and with individuals to increase their influence through a strong personal presence--and sometimes with a published book!

She's the author of 49 books (translated into 62 foreign-language editions) and has published with Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, Warner, Penguin Random House, McGraw-Hill, and Berrett-Koehler. Her latest books include:

-Faster, Fewer, Better Emails: Manager the Volume, Reduce the Stress, Love the Results

- Communicate Like a Leader: Connect Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done

- What More Can I Say?: Why Communication Fails and What to Do About It

- Creating Personal Presence:
Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader

- Communicate with Confidence:
How to Say it Right the First Time and Every Time
(Revised and Expanded Edition 2011)

- The Voice of Authority:
10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know

- Booher’s Rules of Business Grammar:
101 Fast and Easy Ways to Correct the Most Common Errors

- Speak with Confidence:
Powerful Presentations That Inform, Inspire, and Persuade

- E-Writing: 21st-Century Tools for Effective Communication

- From Contact to Contract:
496 Proven Sales Tips to Generate More Leads, Close More Deals, Exceed Your Goals, and Make More Money

- Your Signature Work:
Creating Excellence and Influencing Others at Work

Dianna has been interviewed by Good Morning America, USA Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, FOX, CNN, CNBC, National Public Radio, Dr. Laura Radio Show, Washington Post, New York Newsday, Bloomberg, Boardroom Reports, Investor’s Business Daily, Industry Week, Success, and Entrepreneur, among other national radio, TV, and newspapers.

Her work has also won its share of recognition. Several titles have been major book club selections, and others have won national industry awards:
-American Library Association: Best Young -Adult Non-Fiction of the Year
-Executive Soundview Summaries: Best --Business Book of the Decade
--Axiom Award Silver Medal (2018)
--Richtopia's Top 200 Most Influential Authors in the World (2017, 2018)
-New York Film Festival—Cindy Award (nominee) (Corporate Training Division)
-Newbridge Executive Book Club—Main Selection
-Macmillan Executive Book Club Selection
-Fortune Book Club Selection
-Writers Digest Book Club Selection
-Business Week Book Club
-Book-of-the-Month Club (alternate selection)
-Money Book Club

Reviews

[Ying Ying · Rating 5 out of 5]

With valuable tips on communication, this is a book which I would re-read at a later point in time.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of wisdom about effective v. ineffective communication styles. Booher believes that integrity is the essence of leadership and strong communication is built on trust: "Effective leaders say what they mean and mean what they say. They never fear that others will find a mismatch between words and action -between values they communicated in an all-hands meeting, for example what they're planning to do at an executive retreat." (page 19).

She has a passage on intentionally creating a communication style, a brand, which allows for greater influence and effectiveness. There is a chapter entitled "hire based on core competency" that I will read when I'm making my next hiring decisions. This book would be valuable for private business, government sector, and non-profit. The lessons are equally applicable to all.

Without really knowing it, Booher is speaking the language of servant leadership. I found the following passage to be a lightbulb: "[Internal customers and external customers] don't want to be "educated" about what you're doing. They want you to be educated about what they're doing and then translate what you're doing for them. In other words, get aboard their train. Become a translator." (page 17).

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Booher offers practical tips for a range of business communications. Most memorable for me were her points about communicating with employees, composing emails, and handling extemporaneous speeches. Her tips for communicating with employees could help with employee retention:
- Customize your communication with employees; don't just send only blanket messages.
- Recognition matters; and it should be sporadic, not expected.
- Ask open-ended questions to get feedback.
- Don't ask employees what they were doing or whom they were talking to on the phone; don't micromanage.
Booher recommends following the TADA structure for emails.
- Top line: your main point
- Action: call to action regarding the top line
- Details: more details about the situation
- Attachments: more information
Her points about extemporaneous speeches were ironic: prepare for them and follow an organized structure. Anticipate occasions for speeches and what you would say. Take a minute to put your ideas into a memorized structure: 1. Headline version of your thoughts. 2. Your point(s) in more detail. 3. Anecdote/illustration. 4. Summary, restating your headline thoughts.
The book may not be super original, but it is helpful and worth revisiting.

[Christa Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways, a typical "business" book but in other ways, so much more. Booher has some great, straight forward strategies for improving your communication. Oddly, everyone puts "excellent communication skills" on their resume but often that isn't true. There is an art and a practice to effective communication, negotiation, and leading. Lots of topics are touched on in this book and done so in an cluttered, simple way that makes it easy to take something away from each topic. This is what you would expect from an expert and Booher delivers. Lots here for anyone to use even outside their business or professional lives.

[Kevin Eikenberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to be more successful in life and ask people for advice, two pieces of advice will show up early and often:

Become a great communicator.
Become strategic or intentional.
This is amazingly sound advice. And when you are in a leadership role, the advice is doubly true. It is a fact: the best leaders are both strategic and good communicators. So, it follows that if you want to improve your skills, these are two areas to focus on.

Enter Dianna Booher.

Read more...

[Olive · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am new to reading books of this type, so I don't have a lot to compare this book to. However, I thought this book was a good primer for improving leadership and communication skills. It gave me some things to think about and I appreciate the examples and non-examples. I wish the advice was more concrete and that she provided resources for learning more about specific topics, resources that were not of her own making. I am in the education field, so all the examples did not apply as they are all business related. I tried to interpret the examples for my own field and was able to do this for most things, but some examples, especially ones involving budget and social media, did not apply. For this reason, I hesitate to recommend this book to others in my field.

[Jennifer FitzPatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Communicate Like A Leader offers simple tips you can implement immediately to improve your communication as a leader. Booher's stories and examples are engaging and apply to nearly every industry. If you want to save time and energy while better communicating your message to colleagues and customers in an intergenerational workplace, get this book.

[Martijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was of great use to me. Of course, as in every management book you will have to translate the advice given to your situation. Some advice might work better for you than others. To me, this had a lot of great tips and ways of seeing things that were refreshing and yet logical. Will try a lot of these techniques.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was offered to me through our library at work. I myself am working towards a management title. While I thought there were some very good ideas, I felt this was geared toward someone managing a larger team. I myself work in a team of 4. However, if you have a larger team and are looking for a communication building book, I recommend this to you.

[Morgan Pinkston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like pretty generic advice. Book is for people in manager positions. I got the book before I read the synopsis and was a little mislead by the title. Thought it was going to be about how to communicate like a leader throughout your life, didn’t realize it’s just about business management. Even so, I don’t know how much I really learned. Some good stuff but would not read again.

[Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't talk at me like I'm ten years old. There are good ideas in this book, but I don't remember any of them because I don't want to be talked at like I'm ten years old. Perhaps the intended market is seen as stupider than me, because I don't want to be talked at like I'm ten years old. If a manager actually did this sort of stuff with me, I would probably find it obvious and obnoxious, and it would also seem like I was being talked at like I was ten years old.

In short, the book made me believe like they were talking at me like I was ten years old, and therefore I've forgotten any good ideas it may have had. This approach may work for some people, but I did not enjoy it.

[Ron Frampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book on how to become a good communicator which intern help you become a better leader.

[Stefanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly structured. Totally random. Utterly useless.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy as a Goodreads giveaway.
I found this book very good in concept but difficult to get thru.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book.learned many tips on leadership.will give to my son who is in the united states air force.

[Amanda Crumley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy as a Goodreads giveaway. Pretty good book , give courage to those who need more leadership !! Great for college grads.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not all the topics were applicable to education, but I did take away some food for thought about being a strategic communicator.

[Budi Arsana · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea is great but presentation/writing is bad made what the author said did not stick in my thought.

E.g: too many ideas written in short text like we are reading to do list rather than a story.

[Paiman Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking!!!

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful and short!

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stellar, approachable book that digs into practical guidance on communicating strategically.

[Crystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of this is common sense with few insightful points really made. Much better books out there with better concepts, content and thought provoking or strategies.