Make the Connection: Improve Your Communication at Work and at Home

Adubato, a TV anchor, newspaper columnist and executive coach, provides a wide range of suggestions for improving public speaking abilities and learning to write without jargon. A useful chapter deals with communicating with kids—and teaching them how to communicate—but the focus is on building career competencies. Adubato's best points are made by the book itself: he excels at following his own advice, for example, using anecdotes and concrete examples to illustrate his points, keeping it simple and avoiding the use of jargon. Much of the advice for speakers, such as remembering to maintain eye contact with listeners, is hardly new. But sometimes he goes against common wisdom, as in his suggestion to avoid PowerPoint presentations and use low-tech ways of making your points (like the physical therapist who used a simple child's toy to illustrate how a spinal disc works). Adubato presents baseball manager Joe Torre as a model of good leadership for his supportive way of communicating with his players: "He knows when to push, prod, leave alone, or just listen." Adubato's engaging style makes this a cut above most communications-skills guides. (Nov.)