Swayed: How to Communicate for Impact

(Paperback)

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A must read for anyone serious about the positive power of persuasion, from a leading behavioral change expert.

The ability to sway others gives people the power to set new realities into motion. Yet most people could use some work on their communication behaviors in order to increase their long-term ability to influence the people around them.

Swayed helps decode the intricate system of influence that relies on mutual attention and understanding. Using her proven methodology as well as real examples and practices readers can put to immediate use, Christina Harbridge provides a detailed set of actions that teaches us to communicate so people really hear us. Swayed instructs us to both understand natural human tendencies around communication and to use new habits to communicate in ways that will bring us closer to our desired outcomes in business and in life.

With the Swayed model readers will learn to avoid being pulled into old, reflexive communication habits such as speaking in sweeping statements and using meaningless buzzwords, or emphasizing being right over being understood.

Reviews

A briskly presented program for improving the ways individuals speakand how theyre heard by others. CEO Harbridge (Your Professionalism Is Killing You, 2008) produces a management handbook with far broader applications, a manual for interacting that stresses sensitivity over pronouncements. Influence is not only based on how we talk, she writes, but also on how we listen and how we make people feel understood. This axiom is at the heart of her Context Model, a method of carefully gauging how you speak by meticulously evaluating your listeners. One of the central tenets of the Context Model is honesty, which Harbridge recommends in both ethical and practical terms. Most of us just arent good enough at being fake in the long term, she points out. We call this natural inclination our `operating system. Mapping this system onto the values and viewpoints of others is key to the Context Modethe realization that a persons core message radiates outward in steadily thinning and simplifying waves, moving from the isolated and specific to the general. This modeland the many stories Harbridge uses to illustrate her pointsemphasizes the overriding importance of context, both sensing it and providing it. Harbridge repeatedly reminds her readers that mastering the nuances of context in order to increase your influence on others is a gradual process of trial and error. Do not expect rainbows and unicorns to suddenly appear around you, she writes. Influence is iterative: The results will be inconsistent because every human is different. By reminding her readers of clear-minded actions like be a student or stay open, Harbridge actually broadens the applicability of her precepts to well outside the business world that is her obvious main concentration. Her writing is clear and full of easy, readable dictums. Perusers of business manuals should find some old paradigms offered in vigorous new ways. And general-interest readers will likely find much in these pages to improve their own daily dealings with colleagues and others. A holistic and refreshingly human approach to interpersonal communication. -Kirkus Reviews
Ive been waiting for this book for years! I am so inspired by Christinas ability to inspire people to act and, more important, her ability to teach others how to do the same. Now we can all learn what shes mastered for years - how to sway people and inspire them to move forward. Simon Sinek, Optimist and author of Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last
`Swayed provides thought-provoking ideas and real world examples on the power of context. More importantly, the book offers a wealth of deliberate practices for how to implement in everyday life. This is not just a business book, it is essential reading for improving communication and increasing influence. - Simon Cowell, CEO, bareMinerals

Author Bio

Christina Harbridge is the Founder and CEO of Allegory Inc., a San Francisco-based behavioral change company focused on helping individuals--such as politicians, CEOS, TED speakers--and corporate teams dramatically increase their influence and leadership effectiveness. Early in her career, Christina Harbridge founded a debt collection company based on one key and unusual principle: The Human Relationship is the True Currency. Her collectors focused on creating an empathetic relationship with debtors rather than on demands for payment. This unusual approach resulted in three times the industry average in successful results for her collectors. For four years in a row, her company made the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Businesses in the Bay Area list.