Managing Your Mouth: An Owner's Manual for Your Most Important Business Asset [Paperback]

Robert L. Genua (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 1992

"Foot-in-the-mouth" syndrome may sound like a joke, but the result can be disastrous in the workplace. "Managing Your Mouth" helps business people master the many aspects of one-to-one communication. The guide starts readers off with an in-depth personal assessment and then explains how they can: use verbal skills to move up the corporate ladder; say the right thing at the right time; judge personality and its influence on behaviour; and evaluate the role of non-verbal cues and meanings. The author's advice will help readers handle the most trying communication scenarios, including: controversy, bad news, networking, gossip, company secrets, proprietary information, meetings and interviews.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Practical techniques for avoiding the pitfalls of everyday office discourse.""

--Nickolas Davatzes, President, A&E Network"

Book Description

"Foot-in-mouth syndrome may sound like a joke, but the result can be disastrous in the workplace. Managing Your Mouth helps businesspeople master the many aspects of one-on-one communication and keep their feet on the ground--where they belong. This valuable guide starts readers off with an in-depth personal assessment and then explains how they can:

* use verbal skills to move up the corporate ladder

* say the right thing at the right time

* judge personality and its influence on behavior

* evaluate the role of nonverbal cues and meanings

The author's advice will help readers handle the most trying communication scenarios, including controversy, bad news, networking, gossip, company secrets, proprietary information, meetings, and interviews."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (October 20, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814478034
• ISBN-13: 978-0814478035
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,473,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for developing superior interpersonal skills., September 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Your Mouth: An Owner's Manual for Your Most Important Business Asset (Paperback)

This is a "one of a kind book" that deals with one of the most important aspects of one's personal development. Most people get in trouble because they say things that offend others. This book is a tremendous help in off-setting that tendency. It will help readers, in both, on the job performance and in their personal lives.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Managing Your Mouth, November 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Your Mouth: An Owner's Manual for Your Most Important Business Asset (Paperback)

A great book on managing one of our best assets! As a manager, I found the book beneficial as it addresses the ramifications of poor communication. It addresses using body language combined with speech and/or silence. Considering "words and movement are the basis of communication" between co-workers, this book is essential in reminding all of us the joys of having and working with individuals who have "a better managed mouth".

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars On Speaking- The High Risk Proposition, June 15, 2004

By 

Gregory McMahan (Tottori, Japan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Managing Your Mouth: An Owner's Manual for Your Most Important Business Asset (Paperback)

Speaking is very likely the most important interpersonal skill behind integrity, or being true to one's words in deed and action. Mr. Genua's book, Managing Your Mouth, presents diverse examples of the same idea: how thoughtless use of the spoken word can put a person between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Few of us understand, especially the young and un-initiated, that speaking is a high-risk proposition. One may wonder why that is so, and Dr. Robert Bolton, in his well researched book, People Skills, provides a simple answer: when we speak, we have no way of knowing in advance how the other side will react to what we say. That is why Dr. Bolton strongly recommends learning to listen, and many institutions (but not nearly enough) strongly emphasize clear and direct communication, preferably in the simplest terms possible and with an economy of words.

Mr. Genua advances thing a few more steps, and asserts that when we speak to others, not only do we not know how they will react, but we also do not know for certain how our words will be interpreted, and in a business setting with proprietary knowledge at risk, exactly what information we are consciously or unconsciously transmitting when we speak. Not only do our words communicate, but our posture, facial expressions and other body language can send unconscious signals, which to the trained observer can turn into important and useful information.

In seven quick and easy chapters, the author explains the importance of paying close attention to one's verbal and non-verbal communication, how to avoid certain destructive forms of verbal communication, and finally how to use verbal and non-verbal cues to maximum effect (as opposed to having them used against you to maximum effect), especially in business settings.

After using the preface and first chapter to lay out the reasons for paying close attention to what one says, the author gets to business in the second chapter by engaging the reader with an assessment of his or her current verbal management skills followed by a brief, detailed no-nonsense explanation of each assessment point. The third chapter assists the reader in identifying potential problems about himself or herself so that problematic speaking forms can be avoided, and also shows via vivid examples what can (and does) happen to those who utilize problematic speaking forms. Chapter four covers a variety of instances where unguarded verbal communication can lead to personal ruin, and devotes a considerable amount of space to successful navigating the job interview. The chapter concludes with a discourse on surviving and thriving in company meetings.

Chapter five elaborates on gossip, outlining in detail how bad it is and basically telling the reader to avoid it in all of its forms, such as the grapevine and the water cooler, like the plague. Chapter six explains the importance of not divulging secret or proprietary information, and reminds the reader to be on guard at all times and to use silence as a weapon. The last chapter (of bankruptcy fame) details the ins and outs of secrecy, and the effective use of deception.

My only criticism of this text is its failure to tell the reader to think carefully before he or she speaks. Most of us have to really train ourselves to do this, and work hard at resisting the urge to respond, either to demonstrate our intelligence or to counter a verbal attack (I have found that in many cases one demonstrates his or her intelligence by not speaking or responding to attacks). Most problems result because people fail to consider how their words will be received, and what exactly it is they wish to say. Merely reading about the pitfalls of speaking is one thing, but putting the author's advice to practice is quite another. All readers of this book should keep in mind that when we engage in verbal, we often pass through potentially stormy and treacherous waters.