Guide to Interpersonal Communication

HOW THIS BOOK CAN HELP YOU This book can help you if you are looking to improve your interpersonal interactions in any business relationship. For example: You have been told you don't listen to people, but you don't know why they have that impression. What can you do differently? You need to deliver difficult feedback to a valued colleague. How can you do that without damaging the relationship? Although you spend significant amounts of time on the phone with clients, you never seem to gather the information you need. How can you ask questions differently to achieve better results? You want to improve your relationship with your boss but have a hard time feeling at ease. How can you adjust your behavior to create more comfortable interactions? You need to hire several new people to build your department. How can you approach the interviewing process to increase your chances of choosing the people with the best skills for the jobs, as opposed to the most comfortable conversationalists? You have to negotiate a new contract with a challenging vendor and feel intimidated by the idea. How can you prepare for the negotiation? You feel uncomfortable about conducting performance appraisals for your staff and are unsure about how to approach the interactions. How can you plan the sessions? You want to improve your business relationships and want ideas on how to manage your behavior to facilitate interactions. You want to evaluate your interpersonal skills in anticipation of professional advancement: how can you hit the ground running for more challenging interactions like interviews, negotiations, or conducting performance appraisals? Read this book on its own, or use it as a reference when taking a professional course, college course, workshop, or seminar. WHO CAN USE THIS BOOK This book is written for you if you want a guide for improving your business interactions and relationships. Specifically, the book will... Give practical advice on how to improve the foundational, interpersonal communication skills of listening, feedback, asking and responding to questions, and adjusting to another's style. Offer step-by-step recommendations for approaching common interactions like interviewing--from the perspective of both the interviewer and the interviewee--negotiating, and conducting performance appraisals. WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN The thousands of participants in various management communication workshops and courses we have taught at universities and corporations in the United States and abroad have expressed interest in direct, step-by-step guidelines for interpersonal communication skills. They have found other texts in these areas too long, too theoretical, or too anecdotal for their needs. That's why Prentice Hall is publishing the Prentice Hall Series in Advanced Business Communication--brief, practical, reader-friendly guides for people who communicate in professional contexts. (See the inside front cover of this book for more information on the series.) Brief.This book summarizes key ideas only. Culling from thousands of pages of text and research, we have omitted bulky examples, cases, footnotes, exercises, and discussion questions. Practical:This book offers clear, straightforward tools you can use. It includes only information that you will find useful in a professional context. Reader friendly:We have tried to provide an easy-to-skim format using a direct, matter-of-fact, and nontheoretical tone. HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED The book is divided into two parts. Part I: Building Blocks Effective interpersonal communication is based on the building block skills of listening, feedback, questioning and responding, and awareness of others' styles. I. Listening:The cornerstonBaney, JoAnn is the author of 'Guide to Interpersonal Communication', published 2003 under ISBN 9780130352170 and ISBN 0130352179.