Personal Impact: The Art of Good Communication

Polls have demonstrated that many top managers and decision-makers, when asked what they most feared or disliked, admitted that it was having to speak in public or be interviewed live for radio or televison. Highly-qualified and able people may fail to be sufficiently recognized or promoted to high office because they present themselves poorly at interviews and in communicating with other people generally. In this book Michael Shea, who for ten years was Press Secretary to The Queen, argues that such personal impact is important and that our "presence" and "para-language" - the whole tenor and authority of our voice - is usually more influential than the words we use. Using examples ranging from John Major and Hillary Clinton to Madonna and Clive James, he offers hints on improving the impact we make for all kinds of business, professional, career or personal reasons.