22 Best Books on Communication

Senior management and leaders within companies embroiled in crisis, have learned the hard way what happens when the unthinkable becomes a reality – an accident results in death or injury; a failed company takeover causes share prices to plummet; or toxic food, medicines and drinks leads to mass hysteria. All attention focuses on the guilty parties – and the media can be expected to make this crisis headline news within a matter of hours.

No company or organisation is immune to crisis. Everyday, organisations run the risk of being affected. However, a crisis does not necessarily have to turn into a disaster for the business or organisation involved. Crisis Communication provides readers with advice on how to limit damage effectively by acting quickly and positively. Moreover, it explains how to turn a crisis into an opportunity by communicating efficiently, through the use of successful public relations strategies.

Providing information on accountability; crisis communication planning; building your corporate image; natural disasters; accidents; financial crises; legal issues; corporate re-organisation; food crises; dealing with negative press; media training; and risk managers, Crisis Communication is a thorough guide to help prepare your organisation for any future calamities.

Including international case studies, crisis communication checklists and sample crisis preparation documents, this book ensures that you are fully prepared for the absolute necessity of proactive crisis communication and proper planning, should you be confronted with a crisis.

The Manager’s Communication Toolbox focuses on management development by improving communication for new managers as well as more experienced professionals.

Powerful Communication Skills will show users how to speak clearly, listen accurately, and assert oneself effectively. Developing powerful methods of sharing information – whether it’s reading, writing, speaking, or listening – will result in higher self-esteem, clearer communication and a powerful professional image.Written in an easy to follow format, this guide shows how to bridge communication gaps, how to clearly ask for infomation needed, and how to deal more effectively with challenges. With easy-to-implement tips, users can immediately incorporate the content.

Master the art of communication, enhance your business relationships, and enjoy greater success.

English may be the language of international business, but when talking to colleagues or business partners it can be clear that we’re not always speaking the same language. This guide will give you the strategies you need to communicate interpersonally with colleagues at home and overseas in the increasingly diverse and complex field of international business. It contains clear and practical advice from experts in the field of international business and communication to ensure you can build and enhance the relationships you need to be successful. Part one covers fundamental communication skills, enhancing your presentation skills, and interactions with colleagues and business partners. Part two enables you to develop the specific skills needed for building and maintaining successful business practices and relationships, covering topics such as networking, influencing, and managing conflict. Part three focuses on improving your skills when working in teams and when communicating via email, telephone, and video conference, with a view to delivering measurable business results.

Previously restricted to cascading information and managing day-to-day conversations, internal communication is now essential to empowering employees to deliver business strategy. Strategic Internal Communication shows how to design and implement a strategy which will lead to engaged and motivated staff, increased productivity and consequently improved business performance. The book uses the author’s own Dialogue Box tool designed to help companies explore more thoroughly what kinds of conversations they need to have with employees to address internal and cultural challenges. It helps transform organizations into open and transparent communities to ensure that entire workforces are committed to the overall business vision.

This fully updated 2nd edition of Strategic Internal Communication includes new information on how to use Dialogue Box during times of transition and organizational change. It also gives advice on how to manage difficult conversations and avoid damaging miscommunication and misinterpretation. Supported by examples and case studies from the author’s own experience, Strategic Internal Communication is an indispensable guide to creating an integrated and collaborative culture which will take your organization to the next level of success.

Internal communication has previously been overlooked in standard approaches to public relations, both in theory and in practice. The second edition of Effective Internal Communication explores how this is changing as more and more organizations recognize that good communication with their workforce is vital for continued success and profitability.

In a practical and jargon-free style, Effective Internal Communication looks at how internal communication is conducted across different sectors and in organizations of differing sizes and complexity. Filled with practical examples and useful advice, the book contains many topical case studies that bring to life theoretical issues and complex issues.

This new edition looks at a wide range of issues related to internal communication, including managing internal communication, internal communication across sectors, legal frameworks, measuring results, effects of technology, and managing change. It also contains new chapters on communicating in a crisis, leadership by mid-level managers, and the future of internal communication.

This collection comprises the papers presented at the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism held in Montreal, Canada. The role played by information and communication technologies in the management and marketing of destinations, the convergence of communication systems and the integration of heterogeneous information systems, the designs of intelligent recommendation systems, the use of destination web sites by consumers, and the implementation of information and communication technologies in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises are addressed.

Much has changed in the world since the original publication of Leading Out Loud, Terry Pearce’s book on authentic leadership communication. Now, more than ever, the development of a leader’s message is as crucial to success as the delivery of that message. In the third edition of his classic book, Terry Pearce shows leaders in all sectors how to communicate their values and vision to inspire commitment.

In this important resource, Pearce continues to broaden the application of core principles, putting the spotlight on every day, spontaneous communication. New examples, covering the range of today’s multi-faceted communication, show the application of the sage advice Pearce offers. Readers will see how to develop a Personal Leadership Communication Guide that supports any venue, through any media and in multiple cultures. This completely revised and updated version of the bestselling classic is designed to meet the communication needs of today’s leaders.

• Pearce expands his exploration of the internal work necessary to create an honest and compelling vision. He emphasizes the deepening of emotional awareness necessary to inspire others
• This edition demonstrates how readers can find their authentic voices and articulate their messages with increasing confidence and empathy
• Some examples carry through across chapters, clarifying how one develops and strengthens the Personal Leadership Communication Guide over time
• The work presents new models that are applicable to the multi-cultural world in which we live. Readers, leaders of any organization, and teachers at any level will find practical illustrations of how differences can be bridged with universal principles
• Foreword by Randy Komisar, General Partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and author of The Monk and The Riddle

This new edition offers information, stories and experiences that demonstrate success in authentic leadership communication, in any technology, whatever the field or venue, local or global.

Does your business feel lifeless in today’s fast-paced marketplace? Tired of struggling to stand out? Can’t seem to clarify your message? You may be a zombie and not even know it.

Zombies are confused, haphazard, and indistinguishable. Businesses act like zombies when empty communications alienate customers, supporters, and partners. The Zombie Business Cure gets to the heart of many communication problems: identity. A lack of focus on identity negatively affects your bottom line and can damage your reputation.

The best organizations are simply more like humans and less like zombies. Humans realize the importance of having a strong sense of self, maintaining a consistent message, and communicating effectively to build relationships. The Zombie Business Cure will help you:

• Realize identity is the foundation for success.
• Discover identity problems that commonly lead to communication failures.
• Prevent zombie-like behavior by tackling the five most common zombie traits.
• Approach new communication efforts in a more mindful way.

You’ll learn from real-life case studies and also gain practical tips and exercises that will help your business. The Zombie Business Cure is the antidote for lifeless communication that repels customers. By using the principles in this book, you’ll attract the right audiences and increase your success.

In the tradition of The Elements of Style comes Trish Hall’s essential new work on writing well―a sparkling instructional guide to persuading (almost) anyone, on (nearly) anything. As the person in charge of the Op-Ed page for the New York Times, Hall spent years immersed in argument, passion, and trendsetting ideas―but also in tangled sentences, migraine-inducing jargon, and dull-as-dishwater writing. Drawing on her vast experience editing everyone from Nobel Prize winners and global strongmen (Putin) to first-time pundits (Angelina Jolie), Hall presents the ultimate guide to writing persuasively for students, job applicants, and rookie authors looking to get published. She sets out the core principles for connecting with readers―laid out in illuminating chapters such as “Cultivate Empathy,” “Abandon Jargon,” and “Prune Ruthlessly.” Combining boisterous anecdotes with practical advice (relayed in “tracked changes” bubbles), Hall offers an infinitely accessible primer on the art of effectively communicating above the digital noise of the twenty-first century.

A former FBI agent shares his simple but powerful toolkit for assessing who you can trust–and who you can’t.

After two decades as a behavior analyst in the FBI, Robin Dreeke knows a thing or two about sizing people up. He’s navigated complex situations that range from handling Russian spies to navigating the internal politics at the Bureau. Through that experience, he was forced to develop a knack for reading people–their intentions, their capabilities, their desires and their fears.

Dreeke’s first book, It’s Not All About “Me,” has become a cult favorite with readers seeking to build quick rapport with others. His last book, The Code of Trust, was about how to inspire trust in others as a leader. In Sizing People Up, Dreeke shares his simple, six-step system that helps you predict anyone’s future behavior based on their words, goals, patterns of action, and the situation at hand.

Predicting the behavior of others is an urgent need for anyone whose work involves relationships with others, whether it’s leading an organization, collaborating with a teammate, or closing a sale. But predictability is not as simple as good and evil, or truth and fiction. Allies might make a promise with every intention of keeping it, not realizing that they will be unable to do so due to some personal shortcoming. And those seeking to thwart your endeavor may not realize how reliable their malevolent tells have become.

Dreeke’s system is simple, but powerful. For instance, a colleague might have a strong moral code, but do they believe your relationship will be long-term? Even the most upstanding person can betray your trust if they don’t see themselves tied to you or your desired result in the long term. How can you determine whether someone has both the skill and will to do what they’ve said they’re going to do? Behaviors as subtle as how they take notes will reveal their reliability.

Using this book as their manual, readers will be able to quickly and easily determine who they can trust and who they can’t; who is likely to deliver on promises and who will disappoint; and when a person is vested in your success vs when they are actively plotting your demise. With this knowledge they can confidently embark on anything from a business venture to a romantic relationship to a covert operation without the stress of the unknown.

Improve your personal and professional relationships instantly with this timeless guide to communication, listening skills, body language, and conflict resolution.

A wall of silent resentment shuts you off from someone you love….You listen to an argument in which neither party seems to hear the other….Your mind drifts to other matters when people talk to you….

People Skills is a communication-skills handbook that can help you eliminate these and other communication problems. Author Robert Bolton describes the twelve most common communication barriers, showing how these “roadblocks” damage relationships by increasing defensiveness, aggressiveness, or dependency. He explains how to acquire the ability to listen, assert yourself, resolve conflicts, and work out problems with others. These are skills that will help you communicate calmly, even in stressful emotionally charged situations.

People Skills will show you:

· How to get your needs met using simple assertion techniques

· How body language often speaks louder than words

· How to use silence as a valuable communication tool

· How to de-escalate family disputes, lovers’ quarrels, and other heated arguments

Both thought-provoking and practical, People Skills is filled with workable ideas that you can use to improve your communication in meaningful ways, every day.

Improve your nunchi. Improve your life.

The Korean sixth sense for winning friends and influencing people, nunchi (pronounced noon-chee) can help you connect with others so you can succeed in everything from business to love. The Power of Nunchi will show you how.

Have you ever wondered why your less-skilled coworker gets promoted before you, or why that one woman from your yoga class is always surrounded by adoring friends? They probably have great nunchi. The art of reading a room and understanding what others are thinking and feeling, nunchi is a form of emotional intelligence that anyone can learn–all you need are your eyes and ears. Sherlock Holmes has great nunchi. Cats have great nunchi. Steve Jobs had great nunchi. With its focus on observing others rather than asserting yourself–it’s not all about you!–nunchi is a refreshing antidote to our culture of self-promotion, and a welcome reminder to look up from your cell phone.

Nunchi has been used by Koreans for more than 5,000 years. It’s what catapulted their nation from one of the world’s poorest to one of the richest and most technologically advanced in half a century. And it’s why K-pop–an unlikely global phenomenon, performed as it is in a language spoken only in Korea–is even a thing. Not some quaint Korean custom like taking off your shoes before entering a house, nunchi is the currency of life. The Power of Nunchi will show you how the trust and connection it helps you to build can open doors for you that you never knew existed.

Legendary Hollywood producer and author of the bestselling A Curious Mind, Brian Grazer is back with a captivating new book about the life-changing ways we can connect with one another.

Much of Brian Grazer’s success—as a #1 New York Times bestselling author, Academy Award–winning producer, father, and husband—comes from his ability to establish genuine connections with almost anyone. In Face to Face, he takes you around the world and behind the scenes of some of his most iconic movies and television shows, like A Beautiful Mind, Empire, Arrested Development, American Gangster, and 8 Mile, to show just how much in-person encounters have revolutionized his life—and how they have the power to change yours.

With his flair for intriguing stories, Grazer reveals what he’s learned through interactions with people like Bill Gates, Taraji P. Henson, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Eminem, Prince, Spike Lee, and the Afghani rapper activist Sonita: that the secret to a bigger life lies in personal connection. In a world where our attention is too often focused downward at our devices, Grazer argues that we are missing an essential piece of the human experience. Only when we are face to face, able to look one another in the eyes, can we form the kinds of connections that expand our world views, deepen our self-awareness, and ultimately lead to our greatest achievements and most meaningful moments.

When we lift our eyes to look at the person in front of us, we open the door to infinite possibility.

Practical information for learning how to speak and listen more effectively.

With over half a million copies in print of his “living classic” How to Read a Book in print, intellectual, philosopher, and academic Mortimer J. Adler set out to write an accompanying volume on speaking and listening, offering the impressive depth of knowledge and accessible panache that distinguished his first book.

In How to Speak How to Listen, Adler explains the fundamental principles of communicating through speech, with sections on such specialized presentations as the sales talk, the lecture, and question-and-answer sessions and advice on effective listening and learning by discussion.

Have you ever left a nerve-racking challenge and immediately wished for a do over? Maybe after a job interview, a performance, or a difficult conversation? The very moments that require us to be genuine and commanding can instead cause us to feel phony and powerless. Too often we approach our lives’ biggest hurdles with dread, execute them with anxiety, and leave them with regret.

By accessing our personal power, we can achieve “presence,” the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we’re making on others and instead adjust the impression we’ve been making on ourselves. As Harvard professor Amy Cuddy’s revolutionary book reveals, we don’t need to embark on a grand spiritual quest or complete an inner transformation to harness the power of presence. Instead, we need to nudge ourselves, moment by moment, by tweaking our body language, behavior, and mind-set in our day-to-day lives.

Amy Cuddy has galvanized tens of millions of viewers around the world with her TED talk about “power poses.” Now she presents the enthralling science underlying these and many other fascinating body-mind effects, and teaches us how to use simple techniques to liberate ourselves from fear in high-pressure moments, perform at our best, and connect with and empower others to do the same.

Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.

“Presence feels at once concrete and inspiring, simple but ambitious — above all, truly powerful.”-New York Times Book Review

The success of a negotiation is profoundly affected by how well you read body language. How can you learn to read the subtle clues―many lasting a fraction of a second―that your opponent projects?

Body Language Secrets to Win More Negotiations will help you discover what the “other side” is revealing through body language and microexpressions, and how to control your own. It will help you become more adept at leveraging your knowledge of emotional intelligence, negotiation ploys, and emotional hot buttons.

Through engaging stories and examples, Body Language Secrets to Win More Negotiations shows you how to employ a wide range of strategies to achieve your negotiating goals. You will learn:

• How to employ your knowledge of body language to instantly read the other negotiator’s position.
• Insider secrets that will give you an advantage in any negotiation.
• Techniques to overcome common obstacles that hamper your negotiations.
• Learning to read and send body language signals enables anyone, anywhere, to gain an advantage in any negotiation, from where to go for brunch to what price to pay for a global corporate acquisition.

Ever caught a spouse, business partner, parent, boss, or child brazenly lying? What if you could tell someone was lying, just by listening and observing? Let decorated military interrogator Gregory Hartley show you how to do it.

How to Spot a Liar was the first book to give you the tools to figure out what’s really going on–to gain the upper hand in salary negotiation, move a prospective client toward the outcome you desire, or find out why you need to end a business or personal relationship.

This newly revised edition delves deeper into how and why people lie. In it, the authors respond directly to reader requests for more details on reading and using body language to your advantage.

Who needs How to Spot a Liar? Anyone with a cheating spouse or manipulative boss. Anyone conducting job interviews or cold-calling prospective customers. Anyone who has teenagers at home or works on Capitol Hill. Anyone whose success and happiness depends on clear communication with others. And anyone who wants to become just a bit more inscrutable, in business, in life…even at the poker table!

This innovative new work clarifies the misconceptions around body language while providing a scientific approach to understanding non-verbal communication at work. The authors explain why it is so important to understand body language in business, combining hard research evidence with unambiguous tips and practical applications.

The Secret Language of Business reveals the secrets of body language and nonverbal communication. Successful professionals need more than just good communication skills, you also need the ability to interpret the nonverbal signals that everyone displays. You’ll learn how to master and manipulate your own body language, read the body language of others, and influence people through your new skills and perception. No matter what business you’re in, this is a valuable guide to achieving more in life and business.