Is one of your resolutions to improve at work?\u00a0 Maybe you’d like to be more organized, more proactive, a better manager, or a more inspiring leader.\u00a0 Improving your communication skills can help you improve in all of these areas.<\/p>\n

To help you meet your goals, here are five excellent books on public speaking (available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and other popular spots).<\/p>\n

I love these books because they are fun to read, full of great suggestions and ideas, and personal: \u00a0in each of these books, the authors tell their own stories with verbal pizzazz.<\/p>\n

In no particular order, or more accurately, in the chronological order in which I discovered them, here they are:<\/p>\n

Moving Mountains: Or The Art and Craft of Letting Others See Things Your Way<\/a>; \u00a0by Henry Boettinger<\/p>\n

Quote: \u00a0\u201cThe key to getting and holding attention lies in having something new happen continually. \u00a0If the sense of development dies, with it dies attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Articulate Executive: Learn to Look, Act, and Sound like a Leader<\/a>; by Granville N. Toogood<\/p>\n

Quote: \u00a0\u201cJust five minutes in front of the right audience can be worth more than a whole year behind your desk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strictly Speaking: \u00a0Reid Buckley\u2019s Indispensable Handbook on Public Speaking<\/a>; by Reid Buckley<\/p>\n

Quote: \u00a0\u201cCorporate prose is the pits. \u00a0It is uncivilized\u2026characterized by a half-educated inflation of language\u2026full of conceit\u2026the enemy of clear sense. \u00a0Where Shakespeare, in Hamlet, lugs the guts across the floor, \u00a0American business \u201cimplements the removal of the remains from the premises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Words Like Loaded Pistols: \u00a0Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama<\/a>; by Sam Leith<\/p>\n

Quote: \u00a0\u201cThe plain style to which we\u2019re accustomed is no less a rhetorical strategy than the high style that will strike us as hammy or false. \u00a0What seems to you \u2018rhetorical\u2019 today is, for the most part, rhetoric that isn\u2019t working. \u201c<\/p>\n

Notice that each of these wonderful books have elaborate sub-titles that attempt to explain what the book is about. \u00a0Those responsible for the titles were trying to be clever\u2014rhetorical, actually. \u00a0\u00a0They were using words to attract readers, to persuade them to do something, like buy the book! \u00a0But the clever titles might have made it hard for some people to quickly grasp what the book was about.<\/p>\n

The last book on my list is different. \u00a0It has no subtitle because the title tells you and the stocking clerks at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Powells, \u00a0Indiebound, and iBooks what the book is about. \u00a0Here it is:<\/p>\n

The Essentials of Persuasive Public Speaking<\/a>; \u00a0by Sims Wyeth \u00a0(yup, that\u2019s me.)<\/p>\n

Quote: \u00a0\u201dMy uncle used to take me to the Central Park Zoo in New York to feed peanuts to squirrels. \u00a0The squirrels were tame and stood on their hind legs begging with their paws hanging in front of their chests.<\/p>\n

I see speakers with squirrel paws\u2014limp hands devoid of life\u2014and no matter how good the speech, I am not impressed. \u00a0A squirrel-paw speaker doesn\u2019t look like a person who can get anything done. \u201c<\/p>\n

It is presumptuous, I know, to elevate myself to the level of the authors I\u2019ve mentioned above. \u00a0And I feel a bit squeamish promoting myself. \u00a0But if I don\u2019t, who will?<\/p>\n

Now that the new year is here, resolve to improve your ability to communicate and connect with the people around you. Read these books, or at least one of them. \u00a0You’ll be a smarter communicator, and bundles of goodness could ensue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is one of your resolutions to improve at work?\u00a0 Maybe you’d like to be more organized, more proactive, a better manager, or a more inspiring leader.\u00a0 Improving your communication skills can help you improve in all of these areas. To help you meet your goals, here are five excellent books on public speaking (available on… Read More »5 ways to get smarter about public speaking<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[960,144,336,24],"tags":[618,29,300],"yoast_head":"\n