Straight Talk: Influence Skills for Collaboration and Commitment

by Rick Brandon

The costs of faulty communication are enormous for companies. Each year, billions of dollars are lost, precious time is wasted, innovation is thwarted, and morale suffers. But sharpening influence skills can address these challenges and create huge payoffs.

Collaborative and commitment-driven interaction is the key to overcoming the obstacles of ever-rising performance expectations, widespread stress, and remote work.

Drawing from 35 years of performance-improvement experience, Rick Brandon, PhD, trains thousands of people to improve their results and work relationships by improving the clarity and persuasiveness of their communication. Straight Talk is his “edu-taining” workshop-in-a-book for anyone who wants to develop direct, empathetic, and positive communication skills that will benefit themselves, their teammates, and their companies.

It’s common sense but not always common practice to work on improving interpersonal skills in order to achieve accountability and a more productive and harmonious work climate. Straight Talk shows how thoughtful changes to communication can create a ripple effect across teams and organizations. Each chapter is packed with practical tips, simple how-to instruction, real-world examples, involvement exercises, and humor, to help readers build positive influence skills with competence and confidence.

Straight Talk hones core Assertive Speaking and Empathic Listening skills, and then funnels them into step-by-step formats for six vital workplace situations: Gaining Commitments, Advising and Guiding, Recognizing, Reminding, Constructively Confronting, and Challenging Ideas.

Straight Talk will empower you to make interpersonal expertise your competitive advantage.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published May 10, 2022

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing which made me almost DNF/close this book is the way the book began. It just do not get to the point and the points given in the first chapter are way too vague and repetitive to want to carry on reading. Otherwise the rest of the book becomes better and has good practical advice.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It didn’t spend too much time on theory;’instead it provided practical exercises to increase understanding and tips to use this in your everyday life. If you’ve ever been accused of bulldozing people in a conversation, this would be good for you.

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thinking for a while how to approach a review for this book because it has multifaceted aspects on communication in general as it describes so many interesting applications and techniques that can be used in negotiations and life/business conversations alike. You will find frameworks and ready to use phrases, situations and dialogues with analysis, exercises for you to think and reflect on. In some cases I found a book slightly theoretical and in general it does equip you with useful ideas and instruments to use in every day business and/or private life.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Items of Note:
* When challenging a person's idea... I first listen non-judgmentally and state the merits of the idea or request before surfacing my concerns.
* We often judge ourselves by our intentions, but others judge us by our impact.
* You can have all the subject matter expertise in the world, but without effectively communicating your ideas, your expertise is useless.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A straightforward, commonsense guide to business communications. Too many acronyms, but the advice is sensible and good. Learn here how to be assertive, practice active listening, and dig your way out of any mess that passive or overly aggressive communications might get you in.