Setting The Tone From The Top: How leaders' conversations shape a positive culture

In Setting the Tone from the Top, Melinda Muth and Bob Selden examine how leader conversations shape organisational culture. They show how using appropriate words and language can tap the collective knowledge of the board and the senior management team to improve their working relationships, their collective decision making and ultimately positively impact the behaviour of the management and all employees.

Topics covered include: how word choice impacts leader behaviour; words to use and words to avoid to build effective relationships; difficult conversations in a group setting; and overcoming conversation stoppers.

This practical guide offers techniques, tips and strategies for navigating the conversations that directors and senior executives encounter on a day-to-day basis.

Muth and Selden unveil the secrets of how words and language not only impact the behaviour and feelings of the recipients, but also the speaker. Furthermore, they propose that the words and language leaders use regularly in conversation with all their constituents, also shape the culture of their organisations.

"The power of this book is that it is grounded in real-life examples the reader will easily identify with . . . we learn about a person in a hugely responsible job who was stripped of his power because he didn't anticipate the emotional impact of his language. This continues; real-life, documented illustrations naming names illustrate pretty well every point", Respected author and social psychologist Dr. Bob Rich commented.

Melinda Muth is an educator and consultant who specialises in personal and team effectiveness, principally with senior executives and leadership teams. She is a facilitator and guest speaker in a variety of executive education programs in Australia and has worked in Asia and the USA. She is a Facilitator and Fellow of Australian Institute of Company Directors, leader of the Governance Development practice with Peakstone Global and a Director of Streamwise Learning.

Bob Selden is a Senior Consulatnt for Family Business Central, an organisation that assists families to manage the "family" so that the family can manage the "business". He's the author of 'What To Do When You Become The Boss', a best-selling book (currently 75,000 copies sold and published in four languages) for newly promoted managers. The book reflects Bob's experience over many years as a line manager and organisational development consultant. Bob's worked internationally and has coached senior executives at one of the world's premier business schools - the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne Switzerland and all level of managers at the Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney, Australia.