In business, we tend to spend a lot more time thinking about the problems than the triumphs. People need to know that what they’re doing is making a difference, and that their leaders notice and appreciate their efforts.

Unless employees truly understand the issues [that affect the business] and make a meaningful connection between their jobs and those issues, their attitudes and behaviors will not change. To achieve engagement, three things have to happen: The business issue has to mean something to the employee personally, the employee has to understand the issue (and I mean truly understand it, not just read about why it is an issue), and most important, each employee must be made to feel a part of the change process.

Organizations may be ever striving to streamline and boost operational efficiency, but corporate English grows increasingly less effective as an everyday medium for doing what people need it to do, which is to inform, motivate, explain. What should be clear, concrete, and concise is vague, abstract, and wordy. The English that has evolved in the American management corps shares family traits with the mumbling of the politician, the blathering of the how-to author, and the sweaty homilies of the coach.J

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

The many interactions you have during your day, whether planned or unplanned, have the potential to become a high point or a low point in someone’s day. Each of these small moments is an opportunity to clarify the agenda and to influence the course of events. Each interaction is a chance to transform an ordinary moment into a TouchPoint.

The secret to mastering the touch is simply to increase your ratio of “that went well!” to “I blew it.”If you reflect on the TouchPoints you’ve engaged in during the past few weeks, what is your ratio? What would you like it to be?

It helps if you begin with an important premise: Leadership is not about you—it’s about them. Keeping that in mind, begin every TouchPoint with a simple question: “How can I help?” This opens up space for people to voice their ideas, concerns, and viewpoints. Those four magic words shift the focus from what you want to communicate or accomplish to finding out what they want and need from you.

The test of a good, powerful piece is when people say, “But it’s so obvious.” You agonize and agonize and then somebody says, “But it’s obvious.” When I was younger, I used to get so irritated by that. Now I think it’s the highest compliment you can get.

A truth spoken before its time is dangerous.

Most arguments, misunderstandings, confusion, and aggressive behavior are triggered by negative words, phrases, and attitudes. In situations of confrontation and controversy, at least one side of the argument needs the negativity of the other to continue operating effectively and pushing the argument forward. Eliminate that negative energy, and progress can actually be made, or a more peaceful resolution can be sought.

It's crucial to understand just how powerful this concept [focusing on outcomes] is. Fundamentally, it recognizes that everyone owns yesterday, last week, last month, and last year, from their own point of reference. That ownership is permanent. Even given a limitless amount of discussion, the past will remain as it was, owned by those who were there.

But no one owns the future—the next 15 minutes, the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year. Therefore, when we choose to be outcome-focused, we are choosing to enter, live, and build a future together.

When you’re not caught up in being right, then you have the ability to listen when an issue comes up - and I mean really listen.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers.

Many managers rely on deliberate cognition—that is, the ability of the human mind to process and analyze information—and an appeal to reason. By contrast, insurgents realize that audiences rely on automatic cognition, or shortcuts, to make sense of the world. Hence, they use symbols to communicate their point of view.

If strategy is indeed an invention – just one story about the future among many – then it is always contestable. Leaders must therefore persuade others of the compelling wisdom and superiority of the story they have chosen. They must, in fact, make the story seductive; in selling their strategy, they must, to put it bluntly, treat employees like ‘lovers’ instead of ‘prostitutes.’

It’s not easy to entice people into sharing an image of the future. After all, strategies in most industries today call on people to commit to something new and different, to step away from the security of what has worked in the past. This is never an easy sell, even for the most seasoned leaders. Like venturing into a new relationship, persuading others to share your vision works best when you issue an invitation instead of a command.

Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.

Continually ask yourself: 'Why the hell should anyone want to read what I am writing?' If you can't give at least three good reasons, stop writing and start thinking. Otherwise, you will be wasting everyone's time - principally your own.

If we...create pictures [by] breaking down any problem and its corresponding picture into distinct "who," "what," "how much," "where," and "when" elements, we can convey the "how" and "why" to anyone in a way they will understand.

Ultimately, it is the quality of the company's dialogue that will determine how it receives the incoming flow of rapidly changing information. Whether the information confuses and overwhelms, or informs and inspires will have a direct impact on the decision-making process, and by extension, on the performance of the company.

Bad news isn't bad wine. It doesn't improve with age.

Dialogue...is the single-most important factor underlying the productivity and growth of the knowledge worker...dialogue shapes...the corporate culture...faster and more permanently than any reward system, structural change, or vision statement.

Candor can be measured by the question, "How close are our public conversations to our private ones? How well do the water cooler conversations line up with the conversations we have in public meetings?"

An old rule of thumb suggests asking yourself before you speak: Is it true; is it kind; is it useful? If it is not all three, you have not found a skillful way to communicate.

Very few organisations can match the highly sophisticated five senses of humans. Many companies do not listen to their environment; they simply wait to speak. This means that 80 per cent of information flows outwards from the organization and only 20 per cent flows inwards. For humans, these figures are reversed.

Companies should have a team of "information-gathering personnel" who are constantly feeding information into the highest levels of the organization.

Communication...always makes demands. It always demands that the recipient become somebody, do something, believe something. It always appeals to motivation.

While the mind looks for proof, the heart looks for engagement. While the mind looks for information, the heart looks for passion. While the mind looks for answers, the heart looks for experience. The mind makes a decision, and it's the heart that makes a commitment.

When the first person said, "A picture is worth a thousand words," he or she permanently warped our understanding of pictures. The point of a good picture isn't to eliminate words, it's to replace as many as possible so that the words we do use are the important ones. (Rather than spending time verbally describing coordinates, positions, percentages, qualities and quantities, if we simply show them, we have more time to talk about what they mean.)