Customer Reviews

Leading Out Loud: The Authentic Speaker, The Credible Leader (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Business coach Terry Pearce teaches you how to put the personal perspective back into your professional communications. With a credible and authoritative voice, he explains how authentic human connection is missing from today's communications, even though people crave it, especially as they evaluate who they trust to lead them through rapid change. He maintains that leaders who communicate authentically and passionately will inspire loyalty and make their mark. While Pearce is clearly convinced about the importance of inspiring your constituents, the pace of his book won't exactly move your spirit. He walks you slowly and carefully through the discipline he uses to help clients rediscover their authentic voices and craft messages that resonate. His corporate and political client list is quite select, but we find his communication strategies relevant for anyone who is leading change - whether you are building a small community or a large company.

As a professional communication consultant, and former White House speechwriter, I've read perhaps a baker's dozen books on executive communication. It's a faceted field, and some aspects are well-represented in the selection of books available.

But to my mind none has addressed the central need for (and subtle complexities of accessing) truth and heart in business rhetoric with simple clarity -- until this little volume appeared. It's been around awhile and is still a gem.

Terry Pearce teaches communication at UC Berkeley's business school (with side trips to the London School of Business and various corporate gigs), and he's spent time in the trenches at IBM. Perhaps he's best known for his work with Schwab CEO and co-chairman Dave Pottruck (see "Clicks & Mortar," a book they co-wrote). His graceful braiding of theory and practice, and clean style brimming with examples, make this a fluid read that sticks in the mind.

Pearce digs beyond style into substance, and even deeper, into conviction. As a writer who routinely interviews CEOs in hopes of helping them frame their thoughts, I daily encounter this core question: How do you coax and excavate substance from your client, and frame it with authenticity? Pearce spills the tools and techniques of how he does it. If you fret about making your speaker believable -- if you want to craft language that does more than disappear in the pool of rhetoric with scarce a ripple to show for it -- in other words, if you want to help folks communicate in a believable, sustainable way that makes a difference -- that's 'leadership communication.' And this book can help set you on the right road.

Sadly, most corporate speeches are forgettable. Maybe because most speakers are afraid to speak from the gut? If you intend to help raise the level of your own message, or your clients, this one's worth your time.

A speaker may be able to wow an audience with technique and entertainment, but if everyone walks out the door unchanged, than the speaker is not a leader. The speaker who truly engages an audience and makes them think about themselves, their roles, their company or their country is rare indeed. To engage an audience on this level, you must have true conviction in what you say. At the heart of leadership is the ability to tap your own values and experiences and communicate them to others. Audiences today have grown much more cynical. They can detect falsehood from the back of the hall. Authenticity is the only thing that will reach them anymore. Terry Pearce has the following advice for people who need to improve speaking skills, and communicate effectively as leaders.

· Discover what matters to you. Uncover your values. Make sure that you don't say anything in your speech that contradicts your core values.
· Create a structure for your speech with a beginning, middle and end.
· Use data effectively. Whenever possible, use specific information rather than talking generally. Use examples.
· Use your personal experiences to connect with your audience.

Mr. Pearce installs new lights on the path for those wishing to developing a clarity of intent for themselves, as well as guiding the direction of how to communicate that intent to all that one comes in contact with. One of the greatest tests of a business title to me is does the material offered affect me as a person in multiple aspects of my life -- am I introduced to a deeper understanding of myself and enabled to place that understanding into my actions. Leading Out Loud passes this test, allowing my colors to fly with new definition.

A MUST READ!

I am a seasoned exec, with 22 yrs of experience and success in the field of consulting, I read the book and realized that the only tools I have are those of language, and Pearce crystalized for me what I was missing in my leadership communication. I was fortunate to go thru the course a few weeks ago, and truly was changed by the experience. It was truly life changing! It has taken me a while to process the transformation, but my staff and others in the firm recognized it before I could name it. The book is clearly a turning point for those of us who grew up with a set of standards around communicating that has sorely needed re examining worth the read and the workshop experience

Leading Out Loud provides powerful insights into the challenges of communicating and living authentically. Who would have thought it would be so hard to have our "own voice" resonate fully for ourselves and others?

Pearce poses the questions that help us do the thought provoking work necessary to develop and refine our personal perspectives, communications and actions. I approached this book as someone interested in leadership and finished it with insights into all aspects of myself - business person, spouse, child, and friend.

Throughout the book, Pearce offers rich examples (from world renowned public figures to students preparing themselves to enter adulthood) that illustrate the struggles we all face with being authentic. The messages in this book will help anyone who has a passion to make things happen.

Fittingly Pearce doesn't speak from stage left. He is unafraid to use his own life, both its successes and struggles to illustrate and affirm his perspective.

We can hear you fine Mr. Pearce.

I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. I had to select a leadership communication book to review for a college leadership communication class I'm taking. This book seemed like the ideal candidate and it had such great reviews but...This book is so superficial. There's no depth to it at all. All his concepts are basic. I learned very little from this book. The only good thing about it was that the book's lack of depth allowed me to read it in one day and complete my assignment easily. Unless your a student needing an easy book to review, avoid this book.

Thank you Terry Pearce for your wonderful book of wisdom. For me, Leading Out Loud is a framework for meaningful and authentic living. It is that simple and that profound.

Terry shares his wisdom, drawn from his own experience with executives and students, and his keen observations of the world in which we live to give us a framework for addressing the important and age-old questions: "Who am I?" "What do I fundamentally care about?" "How can I express what I profoundly care about to inspire and move other people to action?"

Terry shows us that Leading Out Loud is at the very least a two step process. The first step focuses on the Leader. Me. I need to have the courage to engage in the reflection and the introspection to come from a place of authenticity and conviction before I can ever hope or aspire to lead anyone else. I need to be solidly grounded in who I am, what I believe, what I care about and why I care. This is perhaps the most difficult part, but it is also the foundation for any and all future speak and action.

Terry then shapes a very practical and useable communications framework to help me understand how I can connect with others (this is the Out Loud piece) by speaking to both their minds and their hearts - to engage the whole person, not just a part of them - to seek to inspire the whole human being. I use Terry's communications framework in my everyday conversations, especially the tough conversations - both personal and professional. It helps me to reach a much more profound level of clarity and depth in the quality of my conversations. I use the framework in my work as a coach and consultant to senior managers and executives to help them build their skills to lead and engage the people whose efforts they rely on for success. It is the most effective material and set of tools I work with. I trust it will be for you as well.

"Leading Out Loud is the most influential book I've ever read for improving my style of speaking to business audiences -- and I say this after almost 20 years as an international consultant, keynoter, and workshop leader. Pearce has done an incredible job of leading a reader through choosing to become an advocate, a leader of change, and then developing the knowledge and skills for doing that effectively. This book has even changed the way I write articles -- as an advocate rather than just an "information giver." Pearce's examples make everything clear and credible. His writing is succinct too -- you don't have to wade through chit-chat to get what you want. Outstanding!"

I needed to write the speech for the day after the downsizing, and this book helped me get exactly the right message across effectively. It's step by step guide makes writing on even the most difficuly topics possible. Every leaders hould have one on their bookshelf.