Customer Reviews

Communication Miracles at Work: Effective Tools and Tips for Getting the Most from Your Work Relationships

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I found this book to be quite interesting. I liked and disliked this book at the same time. I enjoyed this book because it gave me some insight on situations that could occur at work that I never thought could cause communication problems. It made me realize how many miscommunications could occur at work, other than with the normal miscommunication with a coworker or manager.
Gilbert describes the various communicaton problems that occur not only with a coworker or boss but as well as with coworkers of the opposite sex and with customers. Gilbert also went into detail about how miscommunications can be caused by being the opposite sex from a fellow coworker, employees that feel that their manager or boss is with holding important information from them or by managers or boss's showing favortism to certain employees.
Miscommunication can also be caused by a long term problem that has not been resolved among two coworkers, employees who feel that tehy are superior to other employees and managers who speak down to their employees. All of Gilbert's examples made me realize that even though I have never encountered such communication problems with coworkers, but also to keep my eyes open about future miscomminications which may occur sometime throughout my working experience.
Although I really enjoyed this book and found it to be helpful, I also found some qualities about the book that I particulary did not care for. Before buying this book, I read the quick summary of the book. I felt that the book was a little different form what was written in the summary.
I was expecting there to be more examples related to the situation that Gilbert had discussed. I persomally feel that if Gilbert gave more examples, it would be more helpful when you find yourself in a similar situation. I was expecting the book to give actual ways to handle situations. Like how to confront a coworker. I guess I was expecting a little too much from this book. Overall, I found it to be helpful and interesting and I really enjoyed reading it.

This book is a quick read. It glosses over concepts that are covered in greater detail in "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. If you are looking for the fast read, this is your book. If you are serious about improving work relationships, I'd have to recommend Carnegie's book instead.

This is one book that should be circulated through business at all levels. Before writing or revising a company vision or value statement, upper management needs to read "Communication Miracles at Work." Although the book does not teach how to create these statements, it does make a person think about the relationships and communication channels necessary to create a successful corporate culture. The book does not present any new ideas for meetings in the chapter on working in groups but it sill could be very helpful in the development of teams. Most chapters present tools and tips on emotions, gender, and conflict that all new managers, supervisors, and team leaders need to be aware of when working with other people.

This book was a quick and easy read. It gave wonderful insight into the obstacles we face when trying to communicate at work. There were many lists of questions in the book that you could answer for yourself that allow you to be conscious of the personality of the corporate culture in which you are operating. It was especially good at covering the differences between the styles of the masculine and feminine personalities in the workplace, and the impact of the culturally diverse workplace. After raising your awareness, the book then gives you some steps for self-improvement that will allow you to communicate better at work. Increasing your communication skills should allow the others in proximity to you to increase their skills and create the environment for those precious communication miracles at work. The book was usually good in giving you tools to recognize when you are deficient in a skill and some things that you need to practice to improve on the skill. The main weakness in this book is that some of the skills, attentive listening for example,are identified and do not come with a clear recipe of how to obtain greatness. I would have liked to see some more exercises that I could put into practice to grow in these necessary areas. The author did add a resource chapter at the end with other websites and books. Perhaps the work of finding the additional readings or exercises to grow should fall on me as the enlightened reader. Special circumstances are also covered, such as communicating with workers up and down the ladder, communicating with customers and communicating in work groups. These make the book a comprehensive overview of workplace communication in a small manual. I can recommend this book for people who feel that improvement is always possible, that people are basically good and want to do well and who believe that great communicators are not born, but grown.