Guide to Managerial Persuasion and Influence 1

This handy little (104 pages) manual is an ideal how-to for cultivating the essential soft skills a manager needs. After breezing through it, you should be able to interact effectively with everyone from your boss—and of course your customers—to your subordinates. Chapters cover topics such as developing an argument, assessing and motivating your intended listeners, and operating effectively within different levels of myriad kinds of organizations. Readers with little time to spare on weightier tomes will appreciate the practical charts ("Soft Sell Versus Hard Sell Strategies" and a "reaction matrix" on the sorts of feedback you might receive, for instance) and sensible to-do lists. The author is a lecturer on business communications at the University of Michigan Business School.