Quotes About Communication

In the new world of sales, being able to ask the right questions is more valuable than producing the right answers. Unfortunately, our schools often have the opposite emphasis. They teach us how to answer, but not how to ask.

The purpose of a pitch isn't necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.

Extraverts, in other words, often stumble over themselves. They can talk too much and listen too little, which dulls their understanding of others' perspectives. They can fail to strike the proper balance between asserting and holding back, which can be read as pushy and drive people away.*

A genuine smile involves two facial muscles: (1) the zygomatic major muscle, which stretches from the cheekbone and lifts the corners of the mouth; and (2) the outer part of the obicularis oculi muscle, which orbits the eye, and is involved in "pulling down the eyebrows and the skin below the eyebrows, pulling up the skin below the eye, and raising the cheeks."7 Artificial smiles involve only the zygomatic major.

A few of us are extraverts. A few of us are introverts. But most of us are ambiverts, sitting near the middle, not the edges, happily attuned to those around us. In some sense, we are born to sell.

The longer it takes for a boss to respond to their e-mails, the less satisfied people are with their leader.

E-mail response time is the single best predictor of whether employees are satisfied with their boss, according to research by Duncan Watts, a Columbia University sociologist who is now a principal researcher for Microsoft Research. The longer it takes for a boss to respond to their e-mails, the less satisfied people are with their leader.1

Management isn't about walking around and seeing if people are in their offices

Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art." —TWYLA THARP

the more they chat and gossip—the more they get done

questions can outperform statements in persuading others.

So stark were the results that the authors do something rare in academic papers: They offer specific, practical advice. "[A]n important takeaway from our study for corporate executives is that communications with investors, and probably other critical managerial decisions and negotiations, should be conducted earlier in the day.

A]n important takeaway from our study for corporate executives is that communications with investors, and probably other critical managerial decisions and negotiations, should be conducted earlier in the day."11

Connection regrets sound like this: If only I'd reached out.

Every circumstance in which we try to move others by definition involves another human being. Yet in the name of professionalism, we often neglect the human element and adopt a stance that's abstract and distant.

E-mail response time is the single best predictor of whether employees are satisfied with their boss

According to the research, the most effective executives deployed humor twice as often as middle-of-the-pack managers.

and, in its own sweet way, more beautiful than we realize. The ability to move others to exchange what they have for what we have is crucial to our survival and our happiness.

The ability to move others to exchange what they have for what we have is crucial to our survival and our happiness.

The ability to move others to exchange what they have for what we have is crucial to our survival and our happiness. It has helped our species evolve, lifted our living standards, and enhanced our daily lives. The capacity to sell isn't some unnatural adaptation to the merciless world of commerce. It is part of who we are. As you're about to see, if I've moved you to turn the page, selling is fundamentally human.

Story represents a pathway to understanding that doesn't run through the left side of the brain.

McKinsey Global Institute estimates that the typical American hears or reads more than one hundred thousand words every day.

when both parties view their encounters as opportunities to learn, the desire to defeat the other side struggles to find the oxygen it needs.

The ability to move others to exchange what they have for what we have is crucial to our survival and our happiness. It