Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors: Hundreds of Ready-To-Use Phrases for Any Management Situation

Once again, Meryl Runion guides us expertly through the complexities of communicating with others. Just as in her Power Phrase series, this new book offers us multiple wording choices for any imaginable interaction between employer and employee. In giving us just the right words, she is also giving us a voice. Her phrases empower us to speak up in situations in which we may otherwise have passively held our tongue or aggressively said the wrong thing. I have been using Meryl's phrasing for years now, and teaching it to enthusiastic response in my own classes on communication. I truly believe that if every worker had just such a tool at their fingertips, it would make for a much more honest and productive work environment.

Mery Runion does a great service for people in any type of business. From her opening paragraphs that outline the manager's dilemma of no free time to learn how to manage, to the end where she advises such things as waiting 24 hours before saying something that seems risky, this book is packed with good information. In particular, her understanding of the difference between aggressive and assertive communication as well as the suggestion to use scripts were very affirming. I could not think of a single situation that Runion did not address. The Table of Contents makes it a snap to find the exact situation you may be facing and thus, the exact phrase. In addition, the phrases in this book, though designed for face-to-face communication, which is the ideal, can also be used for email and other, less formal electronic communication. I know that I will keep this book at my fingertips along with my dictionary, thesaurus, grammar and style manuals.

Like all of Meryl Runion's books, "Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisor's" provides an innovative but very practical approach to communication. All too often, this topic is obscured by platitudes and grand theories, and it is difficult to find any practical ideas that can be tested out - in business even more so than in personal life. We all accept the need to learn special vocabularies for increasingly new skills in our lives, little realising that it is even more important to have a specific vocabulary for communicating well. Good communication does not just happen: without the right words, good intentions are useless. I have found Runion's books to fill this gap admirably. And in this book she moves into the much neglected area of the workplace, one on which she is well qualified to speak. As with her first-class, interactive newsletter "A Power Phrase a Week" Runion opens the door to new ways (including finding your own)to "say what what you mean and mean what you say without being mean about it." Don't be misled by the apparent simplicity of the suggested formulas! Try testing them out, even modifying them if need be. You will find that your intentions to be more constructive are well and truly challenged. These ideas are the springboard for a better way of talking to each other, whether at work or at home, but this also involves continuing and conscious choices. On the other hand, it requires little thought to be unkind. Not just as business communicators, but also as parents, we would do well to ensure we are good role models to those for whom we are responsible. Just as our employees do, our teenagers take the lead from us. I unhesitatingly recommend this book for its proactive approach, as I do the all the earlier titles by Meryl Runion.

This book is a fantastic guide for communicating at the workplace. Often it is not enough for a manager to know what to say; it is equally important to know how to convey information in a way that does not create resistance, confusion, or ambiguity. Between the explanations in this book and the useful examples provided,the reader learns to build business relationships - not walls.

Invaluable Workplace Tool! This author really does her homework! I can think of numerous times in my management career where I have grappled for the right phrase when handling sensitive employee situations and personnel issues. Every manager and supervisor could benefit from this little book. It is easy reading, well thought out and provides the perfect words and phrases to get the job done! Thank you Meryl Runion!