Beyond the Babble: Leadership Communication That Drives Results

By Macy Boehm and Bob Matha

Book Overview

Discover how to connect with and inspire employees throughout an organization. Improve your leadership skills -- even if you aren't a "natural" communicator -- with a specific communication strategy that anyone can use. Authors Matha and Boehm present research showing that all managers can improve performance by using the principles outlined in Beyond the Babble . They explore why communication is crucial, how and when to do it, how to embed it in an organization's culture, and how to measure results. They also show how internal communications professionals can improve an organization's communication to the outside world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470200480
• ISBN13: 9780470200483
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Beyond the Babble hits the Nail on the Head

Having lived through a few reorganizations in my commercial real estate finance career, I've experienced my fair share of "babble". Of course, that's not the term I used then for all those acronyms, dull presentations, and "tours of duty" of corporate leaders through our regional office trying to reorganize and boost morale, but it certainly is a great description. Matha and Boehm have hit the nail on the head here. And they don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk. This book is straightforward, an easy read. No big acronyms or "leader speak". Just straight, simple and direct, as they advocate. Matha and Boehm mention the nonprofit world in their intro, which grabbed my attention. In my current role as a grant writer, I believe this book would be broadly applicable to nonprofits, whose leadership has been under the microscope lately. Need to improve your (nonprofit or for profit) organization's performance? Pick up a copy of "Beyond the Babble" and start taking notes!

Worthwhile Advice for Anyone with Employees, Corporate or Small Business

First off, some full disclosure: I'm a neighbor to one of the authors; our kids have played together, and we've socialized as couples and families. I do not, however, have any financial or professional connection to her--I teach in the first-year writing programs at two Chicago universities, though I occasionally teach business and professional writing courses--and am more inclined to read books that address the interests of workers rather than management. That said: Beyond the Babble really is quite a well-crafted book, and presents a compelling argument that corporate leaders should reconsider their approach to management-employee communications. Matha and Boehm call for a focus on action that they reinforce at the levels of structure and language. In the second chapter, they describe "the Action Equation" by arguing that "a leader [starts by] determining exactly what he or she wants the organization to accomplish and . . . what employees need to do to make it happen" (27). (In this sense, they begin by calling their readers' attention to the fundamental concerns of writing and rhetoric: the need to focus on "audience" and "aim" or purpose.) At the same time, they reinforce this emphasize on "doing" by assigning titles to their chapters based on the action those chapters discuss--"Do," "Know," "Feel," "Align," "Equip" and the like. They also organize their lists of tips and strategies according to the action on which each bulleted item is based--e.g., "clarify direction" and "prepare leadership to deliver" and "communicate to the larger organization about . . . ." (This is a fundamental principle for writing resumes, too, and it works equally well here.) They have also taken care to keep the book reader-friendly. Their section headers make for efficient reading and effective retention of content; their use of what I'll call "aphorism boxes" (short quotes that are highlighted in bold and presented in a sidebar) enables them to emphasize a crucial point on a particular page; and their occasional (but successful) use of charts and tables provide supporting data and interesting visuals. (The graphic for the "Behavior Chain" on p. 94 works remarkably well, in part because it allows for an easy comparison between the kinds of behaviors managers would want and the kind that they're likely to get.) All that said, I will admit that the authors could do more to advance their argument. As a reader and an educator, I would like to see them address the now-ubiquitous question of "how New Media can or should play a role in effective corporate communication." Yes, that question is sometimes asked simply as a matter of course; but, given the role of technology-mediated communication in everyday (much less corporate) life, I can't help but wonder how e-mails and texts and video-enhanced real-time communications and the like can serve the interests of Matha and Boehm's work. I also wonder if they could broaden their audience a bit, perhaps to include the co

Practical and compelling approach

Beyond the Babble is the first leadership communications book I've read that offers a compelling approach to enable communications to drive results. It's different than all of the other "communication" books and research studies that preach endless "messaging" processes that are unrealisitic, and frankly, create make work (and lose executive interest fast). Instead, this book shows how to leverage the communications function to gain greater clarity around stakeholder actions (the "do") as well as explanations as to why stakeholders don't act as they're "supposed to." It's full of examples that'll propel any communications function or leader to realize the true impact of "on strategy" communications. It demonstrates time and again why the communications function is arguably one of the most important functions in the organization, and best equipped to drive strategy execution. What's most compelling, though, is that this book isn't written as a list of "must do" steps or processes that become "yet another" thing to do ... instead, it's written in a way that inspires communication leaders to think differently about our work, approach, and how to truly drive business results.