How can you communicate effectively and create meaningful interactions in an increasingly digital world? By teaching.
In Make Yourself Clear, educational experts and entrepreneurs Reshan Richards and Stephen J. Valentine explain the many parallels between teaching and business and offer companies, both large and small, concrete advice for building the teaching capacity of their salespeople, leaders, service professionals, and trainers.
The rise of digital communications has led to three emergent, often problematic, forces: automation, an increase in the speed and volume of information transfer, and an unmet need for people to feel more than satisfied in their interpersonal transactions, particularly between sellers and consumers.
Through a mix of research, anecdotes, case studies, and theoretical speculation, this book equips readers to build understanding within their current and future audiences by leveraging the tools, methods, and mindsets used by successful teachers. You will be equipped to understand others better, and in turn, to be better understood.
Make Yourself Clear is not prescriptive, nor does it suggest rigid steps, pillars, or frameworks. Instead, it provides immediately recognizable and relatable context, suggesting actions that can be tried, measured, tested, and iterated upon in any communication context that involves the exchange of information and ideas.
- Ground your business communications in proven techniques
- Profit from expert instruction given by those who have helped thousands of readers and workshop students
- Develop your sales career by applying effective teaching practices to customer and colleague interactions
- For educators, adopt the latest best practices into your teaching style
Backed by thorough research and extensive real-world testing, Make Yourself Clear opens a door to more productive communication and more effective interactions. It offers compelling and relevant insights to longtime fans of the work of Richards and Valentine and newcomers alike, leading to real and lasting benefits.
Table of Contents
Foreword xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
About the Authors xix
Introduction: Working at the Intersection of Teaching and Business 1
Part 1 Authenticity 13
1 Pursuing Win-Win-Win Scenarios 15
2 Recovering Human Judgment 27
3 Recovering Choice in Human Interactions 33
4 Adjusting to Hear and Be Heard 43
5 Respecting the Game 53
Part 2 Immediacy 59
6 Leveraging Momentum and Context 61
7 Generating Immediacy for Others 69
8 Rebuilding Teaching around Immediacy 75
9 Rebuilding Training around Immediacy 87
10 Communicating with Immediacy 97
11 Selling with Immediacy 113
12 Getting Immediacy Right 121
Part 3 Delight 127
13 Identifying the Conditions for Delight 129
14 Offering Choice 137
15 The Power of Engagement 145
16 Novelty Is Not Your Friend 155
17 Boredom Is Not Your Enemy 163
18 The Unit of Delight 173
19 After Delight 185
20 An Invitation 193
Conclusion: Closing the Class 201
Afterword: How We Designed This Reading Experience 209
References 215
Index 225
