Articulate Executive: Orchestrating Effective Communication

Essays discuss listening skills, barriers to communication, job interviewing, press relations, meetings, writing style, electronic mail, and nonverbal communication

Seventeen articles published during the past five decades in the Harvard Business Review are gathered here to form a meaningful, albeit uneven, work filled with philosophical ponderings and practical advice. Management professor Fernando Bartolome outlines problems plaguing managers (data overload and intercultural barriers). Former CBS executive and management consultant Chester Burger's advice on "How to Meet the Press" (understand the public's viewpoint; speak in personal terms; do not argue with reporters) should be required reading for executives. Also significant are business professor Chris Argyris's thoughts on the pitfalls of conflict avoidance and the late psychology professor Carl R. Rogers and human relations professor F. J. Roethlisberger's article on barriers to communication. Other noteworthy contributors include James M. Jenks and Brian L. P. Zevnik, respectively chair and editor-in-chief of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, on job interviewing; Video Arts head Antony Jay on conducting meetings and former Synectics head George M. Prince on power sharing. This work should capture the attention of managers concerned with communications.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It is a tribute to the wisdom of the Harvard Business Review editors that their selections survive four or more decades. Like others in the series (e.g., Seeking Customers and Keeping Customers), this book focuses on a specific subject, communications for managers, and presents more than a dozen articles on the subject. Few of the 17 excerpts need translation from business-speak; in fact, the late psychotherapist Carl Rogers' words about communications barriers, for example, are as cogent and valid today as in 1952. Included among the topics are those communications: in meetings, the art of listening, conversations with the media, writing, and uncovering hidden messages. Contributors range from the conventional (business professors and professional managers) to the out-of-the-ordinary (a creativity guru and entrepreneurs). Barbara Jacobs