Customer Reviews

Leadership and the Art of Conversation: Conversation as a Management Tool

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don't let the first chapter discourage you from reading this amazing book. Although written with managers in mind anyone can benefit from its wise statements. Krisco delivers all he promises in his introduction. You will learn about listening filters, coaching others, couching your ideas so that people will listen. This book is full of insights and pithy sayings that will make you reflect upon your whole life not just your work life. You will learn to understand the "little voice" in your head and learn about listening filters. This book will make you a leader. A leader is described by Krisco as someone who consistently produces extraordiny results. I just completed reading this book and intend to revisit it many more times. I highly recommend this extraordinary work!

This book is an easy read and has step by step techniques that are easy to use. It focuses on understanding distinctions of why people say something and then tries to help put it in a catagory that you can handle with a leadership decision to motivate and coach. Many times I was able glean powerful tools off just one page. I am just finishing my first year as a successful sales manager. Thank you Kim

First of all, the book makes you aware of the "distinctions" and it is a powerful tool in managing communication. The next is the concept of shifting your emphasis from the "past" to "future" and then to "present", to enable effective actions and change in behaviour. This is a practiceable, effective tool that managers or team leaders can use and establish good control on conversational situations. The mere awareness of different possibilities itself can enhance one's competitiveness.

I can't stand our staff meetings!! They drive me to distraction. This book has helped me to understand why. Go-no-where conversations both one-on-one and in groups are a terrible waste of time. It has given me practical guidance on how to shift the focus of these meetings from the past, to future possibilities and then back to the present where real action can be taken. It has helped to clarify many things that should be obvious but aren't. For example, something as simple as understanding how to properly frame a "request" and knowing the only three valid "responses" to the request is invaluable. I'm not letting people off the hook so easily anymore.

This is a good basic book on how to be an effective leader through mastering the skills of effective conversation. Most communication takes place through verbally, therefore the way we carry out our conversation is very critical if we are to be able to resolve conflicts in the organization, the motivate teams, to negotiate effectively, to be good listeners, good coaches and to hold effective meetings.

The author presented effective techniques that should help managers and leaders to enhance their conversation skills. The author provides insights and practical advice that should help leaders and any other readers to examine how they carry out their conversation and how this can be improved upon.

This is a well written book that I found easy to read, follow and understand that helped me to improve my communication skills and therefore recommend it strongly.

This is a well thought out book. Most of its information is practical and useful. It takes a bit of time and work to begin to apply the material. Overall, the book's strength lies in its simplicity without becoming a cheesy "1,2,3" type book.

The author argues that management is communication, and a great deal of communication is in conversation. He analyzes different types of conversation, and has suggestions on which ones are most useful in motivating and gaining commitment. In particular, he urges that conversations be moved away from "past-focused" orientation in favor of a possibilty-focused discussion that can be used to encourage action. The only complaint I have is that I wish some of the material was more thoroughly fleshed-out. But I still found the book readable and useful

This book has ideas, concepts, and practical applications that should rank it up with THE SEVEN HABITS and THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE. But perhaps it is too small to be noticed by land-bound browsers, too casual for Kotter followers, and not avante guard enough for the Fast Company crowd.

You can't judge a book by its size, especially business books. So many authors take 600 pages to make the same point over and over with real world examples that suggest the author was "on the inside" as if we buy by the pound. Havard is the place to look for books grounded in theory and occasionally principal. And one out of twenty does influence business thinking. For the Fast Company crowd, a book offering scripts of what to say may sound too pedestrian. But for the seasoned leader looking to polish his skills, Krisco has just the buffer. And it is just the kind of book for beginners--not built on other theories, profound but not cumbersome. Like the Seven Habits, Leadership and the Art of Conversation rests on a few key ideas. One is a simple as you can't change the past. This is not a revelation but recognizing that is where most of us waste our primary tool for communication was an ah-ha for me. The straight-forward definition of leadership is free of concepts of power and more than hints at the core of leadership. Of course, to benefit from the book the reader will have to change deeper than a surface technique. Few are willing, as is usual when the rewards are great. Like Covey it puts the focus on the circle of influence by connecting today's conversation with what happens in the tomorrows. It's just a reminder that best sellers and best books are frequently two entirely different things. But hey, true leaders don't look for herds to follow. May this communication spark your interest in building a desireable future.

This is a must for anyone and everyone to read, it holds key factors in communciating to all levels of people. It also reveals how to address different areas of communication. Our Organization has adopted it as a must read to enhance communciation skills from the President down to the Supervisory level. A must for any library, but sometimes hard to find as it is out of print.

This book is hit and miss. Some of the advice it gives is valuable and concise. For example (p 51)

There are only four proper replies or responses to a request:
Accept
Decline
Counteroffer
Promise to reply later.

The author goes on to say that if you get anything else, you are likely to be disappointed if you expect something useful to happen.

However, an example of poor advice in this book, given near the end, is to use the sandwich technique when giving negative feedback, i.e. to put the negative feedback between other, positive or non-negative feedback. In practice if you do this you risk being seen an insincere and perhaps as being unable to give straightforward feedback.

The book is conversational in style and, for my tastes, inefficient in signal/noise ratio.

If you are a manager who wants to improve your conversational abilities, I suggest getting four to six sessions with a decent executive coach instead of reading any book, and contract with them to focus on improving your conversational abilities. It will be a worthwhile investment.

"EPICTETUS"