"As GMTV anchor, I interview hundreds of people every year. However well they interview, every single person would find it easier to explain their case by following these simple principles." EAMONN HOLMES, GMTV Presenter
" Drop the Pink Elephant]...tackle s] every aspect of personal communication in a crisp, entertaining style." THE PLAIN ENGLISH SOCIETY
"There can be no whitewash at the White House." (Richard Nixon). These nine words turned the American nation against their President. Why? Because people hadn't linked the White House with a cover up until Nixon himself made the connection. His own denial created the story.
It is perhaps the most famous Pink Elephant in history. But what exactly is a 'Pink Elephant'? Pink Elephants are the unnecessary negatives that clutter your conversation and meaning, sending out the wrong signals to anyone you communicate with.
In Drop the Pink Elephant, Bill McFarlan reveals how to avoid the deadly trap of allowing poor communication skills to obscure your meaning and reduce your effectiveness. Drop the Pink Elephant is filled with helpful, simple and practical advice on how to make your words count for more. Put these straightforward lessons into practice and you will notice immediately how much more effectively you are able to communicate with others.
Sharpen your conversation by:
* FIRST SPOTTING, THEN DROPPING THE PINK ELEPHANT
* GETTING RID OF THE JARGON
* LEARNING TO SPEAK IN PICTURES
* RECOGNISING WHEN YOU SHOULD APOLOGISE OR THANK PEOPLE
* CAPTIVATING AN AUDIENCE
N.B. No animals were hurt in the making of this book. (Can you spot your first Pink Elephant?)

Communication pervades virtually everything managers do. What most people mistakenly assume about communication can and does limit their effectiveness, professionally and personally. Communication is much harder work and more complicated than people realize. Concrete advice and thought-provoking questions show how to be a more effective communicator. Executives, researchers, and upper level and graduate students of management, human relations, and human resources, organizational behavior, leadership, and communication will find this volume instructive and illuminating.

The book explores and connects our uses of symbols and language, particularly metaphors, with how we think and act. It highlights a certain widely held metaphor for communication, called the conduit metaphor, and the inaction it implies. The book offers an alternative, opposing perspective, based on how human communication actually works. An appreciation of how communication works produces greater effectiveness--shared understanding and strong, productive relationships between people. Those lacking this appreciation will more likely communicate and act in ways that are ultimately self-defeating and self-limiting. Enabling communication activities that help executives in their responsibilities of leadership, empowerment, team building, and management of change and culture are explored in a comfortable, conversational style.

A comprehensive, up-to-date and relevant communication text which engages readers through both a theoretical and an applied lens. Blends technological awareness and ability with basic communication skills and practices. Provides numerous examples as well as video clips. Aimed at students and employees, including those at executive management level.

A solid interpretation of all the major marketing communication mix elements that focuses on the basic premises that are needed to employ these techniques in a cohesive manner.

Presents a planning framework to facilitate a seamless integration of all these elements in order to convey a consistent corporate image and brand offering.

Aimed at undergraduate marketing students, but will also be of benefit to postgraduate students and practitioners as a reference work.

How to make change happen in business.

A practical and revealing guide for anyone dealing with transformation, whatever their business or sector. Understand how to deliver digital change at the coalface, alongside the relevant management theory. With case studies detailing the successes and challenges they have overcome, you’ll learn from the experiences from managers, academics and relevant stakeholders in each chapter, including the FT.

Have you ever wondered why some public speakers are so successful while others are not? What do they know and do that is different from the rest?

Great speakers understand and employ many of the proven principles contained in this book. The good news is that you too can learn and apply these very same principles and improve as a public speaker.

Purpose-Centered Public Speaking helps you develop as a presenter by showing you some ways to deal with anxieties and fears related to speaking in public. It also demonstrates how to develop and deliver purposeful talks, speeches, and presentations that get planned results.

Here you will find a clear and systematic approach to speaking that is easy to follow. This simple yet comprehensive method will equip you with all you need to improve and enhance your public communication. Whether you are an aspiring speaker or an active presenter, this book will encourage and enrich you.

"In Purpose-Centered Public Speaking, Gary Rodriguez takes the fear out public speaking. Relating years of public speaking experiences, Gary provides a great game plan for you to become a fearless public speaker. His insights and wisdom will certainly make you a better public speaker. He will also make you a stronger communicator in all areas of your life." - Brent Jones, Former San Francisco 49er Tight End and Winner of Three Super Bowl Rings

"Purpose-Centered Public Speaking offers aspiring as well as active speakers valuable tips and techniques for improving their communication skills. In addition to the helpful instruction, you will also find this book highly entertaining. If you are a public speaker this is a book you should read." - Stephen G. Newberry, President & CEO Lam Research Corporation, Fremont

"Whether you are speaking for the first time or have a great deal of public speaking experience, this book is filled with grand advice." - Dr. Haddon Robinson, Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

"This book is so much more than a 'how to' on public speaking Rodriguez inspires the reader through compelling stories both deeply personal and at times universal. Anyone who wants to feel at ease in front of audiences will gain strength, encouragement and useful resources and tools on how to step into the spotlight and create rapport and connection with one's listeners." - Pamela Mclean, CEO, Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara

"Don't just read this book. Digest and practice the principles recorded here, and soon you will find an increasing ease in communicating and a more favorable response from your listeners." - Wayne Cordeiro, Founding Pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship, Honolulu

"Great book and a must read for new, as well as seasoned managers having difficulty with public speaking or just looking to hone their skills. Simplifies and lays out a format that guides you through the process of speaking to large groups or smaller defined audiences. The pointed real-life examples keep the reader engaged and interested from cover to cover." - A. Mark Walter, President, Christenson Electric, Inc., Portland

"Dr. Rodriguez provides this guide for the novice public speaker and helps the reader to understand the skills necessary to present a great speech while also showing the many pitfalls that aspiring public speakers fall into. Developing one's own style is a very important aspect of public speaking and Dr. Rodriguez helps the reader to understand how to accomplish this. A thoroughly enjoyable read " - Randy Hahn, San Jose Hockey Play-by-Play Announcer

"Purpose-Centered Public Speaking will inspire public speakers of any caliber. It offers practical tips to improve speeches and encourages those who fear it most. A must read for any person tackling public speaking " - Kanoe Gibson. Miss Hawaii 2003 and first runner-up at Miss America 2004

International Business (IB) is a complex and interdisciplinary field. It encompasses regular currency and political risks alongside fundamental uncertainties and variations in international development, collaboration, social values, and shared objectives. As globalization expands our markets across national boundaries, institutional innovation and experimentation is essential for countries to brand their products globally and develop internationally acclaimed products. The contributors of International Business Realisms analyze instances of interdisciplinary marketing and branding for the global market place and distill practical implications for effective international and domestic marketing.

Getting to the top can seem like an impossible mission to those in junior and middle manager ranks. Sometimes it can feel like top leadership is an exclusively male club, only accessible to those already highly networked via family and private schooling.

Stepping Up debunks the notion of what a typical leader should look like, or where they are from Leadership is an option for anyone with leadership ambition. Forget climbing the corporate ladder, nowadays success is more about criss-crossingacross multiple roles and companies, and possessing a continuous learning appetite for new opportunities and welcoming new responsibilities.

Follow the practical five point framework on how to step up and get to the top:

1.Vision - How to set out a clear and compelling vision of the future of the organization
2.Votes - How to create networks of followership, and alliances of equals, so that others rise with you and shore up a consensus/buy-in to your vision
3.Victories - How to establish a track record of wins with your teams to demonstrate success
4.Values - How to be authentic, how to bring out your key talents and strengths for benefit of all
5.Velocity - How to bring energy to every situation, and how to energize and enthuse those around you

Developed from powerful techniques consistently proven in the world of multi-million pound commercial bid writing, Persuasive Writing reveals the most efficient and effective ways to make your words work, time after time. Discover how to: Transform any document into something truly compelling and persuasive Understand what your reader really wants to hear and use this to get what you want Combine logic and emotion to convince even the most sceptical reader Whether you're writing for business or for pleasure, the longest document or the shortest email, with these and many more proven techniques, Persuasive Writing will ensure every word works for you.

Can you control a crisis? No - but with adequate preparation you can control the reputational consequences. Reputational damage is rarely caused by the crisis itself but, instead, by what the organisation does and says under the media spotlight. This PRCA Practice Guide describes how to invest in readiness and what to do when a crisis strikes. Coverage includes contingency planning, stakeholder identification, crisis communications policy, spokesperson training, the 'Red Book', dark sites, rehearsals and simulations, locations and resources, taking the initiative, and managing the aftermath. The book also covers in detail the role of the mainstream and online media, recommending steps to neutralise hostility and shut down ill-informed comment. Including numerous real-life examples, discussion topics and advice from PR experts, journalists and editors, Crisis Communications Management is intended as an essential guide for public relations professionals, and the people who work with them during a crisis, on how to navigate the turmoil and emerge from a crisis with reputation and credibility intact.

This book is an essential guide for anyone who wishes to develop successful business communication. It provides authentic and memorable workplace scenarios where learners become English communicators when solving authentic problems doing business together. The book aims to help learners: Use authentic workplace materials to solve problems using English Understand how language can be used as a lingua franca effectively when communicating Understand how intertextuality between shared spoken and written texts drives communication Improve communicative performance in spoken and written texts Become familiar with the communication realities of workplaces that are becoming increasingly technology driven and globalised This book will help learners become better equipped with communication strategies through its real life applicable and skills-based examples and will be a useful reference in the digital age.

The Ultimate Guide to Business Writing is a comprehensive guide on how to write any kind of business document. Written clearly in an engaging voice, it explains in depth the whole process: from determining objectives to establishing readers' needs, conducting research, outlining, and designing a template; to writing the first draft; to editing for meaning, accuracy, concision, style and emotional impact; to creating glossaries and indices; to proofreading and working with reviewers. The book also explains how to exploit the psychology of perception and motivation, collaborate effectively with business colleagues, manage documents holistically across an organisation, and deal with the other everyday practicalities of managing knowledge in a corporate environment. Every section of the book is packed with questions to stimulate thinking and generate meaningful answers, and dozens of examples of what works and why. The book's also rich in practical examples drawn from real life, anecdotes, humour, and visual aids. But the advice isn't just practical and anecdotal: it's also rigorously supported by scientific evidence from notable linguists and psychologists such as Steven Pinker, Daniel Goleman and Yellowlees Douglas. And anyone keen to explore further will benefit from the bibliography and links to videos and other online resources. The book is ideal not just for professional business writers, such as editors, technical writers, copywriters and creative directors; it's also suitable for anyone whose job requires them to write, whether it's something as simple as an email or as complex as a set of policies or a handbook.

Social entrepreneurship increasingly assumes a position of strength in the dynamic milieu of late-modern democratic societies. A plethora of companies have now arisen-everything from mighty social enterprises like Warby Parker and TOMS to tiny outfits like Clean Slate and Bright Endeavors-whose business-focused approach to social problems is not merely additive but integral to their missions. These companies respond not only to a felt proliferation of humanitarian and environmental predicaments, but also to enormous shifts in in public feelings and technological sensibilities. These predicaments and make social entrepreneurships urgently needed and remarkably complicated. But if social entrepreneurs deal with that complexity with a business-as-usual approach to making the world better-imitating, for example, corporate social responsibility initiatives by transnational companies-they will lose their vital distinctiveness and efficacy. Drawing on a transdisciplinary perspective, close rhetorical analysis, and qualitative interviews with social entrepreneurs, this book argues that one good way to keep social business disruptive is to rethink how organizations model their communication. Instead of assuming a conventional theory of communication, neatly organized around the relations of senders and receivers, social entrepreneurship should enact a performative model of communication in which messaging and action are affectively woven. This book offers suggestions for making this performative model sustainably disruptive in relation to questions that pester social entrepreneurs: how to tell the company story, how to raise awareness, how to address complex audiences, and how to solve problems.

Visual thinking and drawing are both becoming increasingly important in today's business settings. A picture really can tell a thousand words. Visualization is a crucial part of the journey for companies seeking to boost enterprise agility, break down silos and increase employee and customer engage ment. Visualizing thought processes can help break down complex problems. It empowers teams and staff to build on one another's ideas, fosters collaboration, jump-starts co-creation and boosts innovation. This book will help brush aside misconcepti ons that may have prevented you using these techniques in your workplace. You don't need Van Gogh's artistic talent or Einstein's intelli gence to harness the power of visual thinking and make your company more successful. With the right mindset and the simple skills this book provides you the skills to develop your own signature and style and start gene rating change by integrating visual communi cation into your business setting.

Almost 400 years ago philosophers John Locke and David Hume implicitly defined communication as a tool for the transmission of pure ideas, stating that the ideas themselves are what matter, not the way in which they are expressed and exchanged. Now known as the transmission model, this form of communication is still the foundation for academic courses in communication theory and practice, and is embedded in most business literature and education that address subjects related to workplace communication, organization behavior and culture, leadership, and conflict resolution. But what if this accepted model of communication was incomplete? Re-Making Communication at Work argues that the transmission model of communication needs to be replaced by a new approach to communication. Sostrin challenges the status quo by exposing the most common myths that inaccurately define successful communication at work. These misperceptions are replaced by a set of core principles that deliver a clear mandate for re-making communication at work. Sostrin not only provides the theoretical foundation for this new approach, but he uses a straightforward model and exercises that demonstrate how managers, students, and consultants can powerfully improve relationships, decision-making, and collaboration with a few lines and circles.

Let 50 World Class Speaking Coaches Show You How to Keep Your Audience on the Edge of Their Seats and Turn Your Presentations Into Profits. The World Class Speaking In Action 6-Part System provides you with real life examples and case studies on how to... * Craft an unforgettable message that hits home with your audience * Deliver your speech in a way that keeps your audience on the edge of their seats * Sell your message so your audience members take the exact next step you want them to take * Master leading-edge technologies and speak to thousands without even leaving home World Class Speaking In Action is a definitive guide for the professional speaking and coaching industry. Until now, public speaking books have covered either the art of public speaking or the business of public speaking. World Class Speaking In Action shows you how to master both. World Class Speaking is the one-stop-shop for building breakthrough presentations and turning them into bundles of profits!