How to Say It For Women: Communicating with Confidence and Power Using the Language of Success

This book is applicable to both men and women. A group of us at work are using this book as a guide. I also bought them for my daughter and her friend moving into professional roles. Worth the time.

This book is relevant for all women in the workplace. Especially beneficial if you read the book "Talking from 9 to 5, women and men at work" by Deborah Tannen before reading this book.

This book is patronizing and outright ridiculous.

The author repeatedly drones on about the significance of the character Charlotte from the children's book Charlotte's Web. It's absolute drivel.

If your literacy level exceeds the fifth grade, don't waste your money.

It's not even worth donating to the goodwill - it's going directly into the trash.

I purchased this book because of the praise of other Amazon reviewers and I was not disappointed!

As a professional in a very male dominated field, this book truly hit home for me - so much so that a few of the points the author made were echoes of comments made previously by my boss about my own performance. Women fall into many traps that undermine their credibility and this book calls them out, one by one.

I can't tell you how often I'm on a conference call and use the words "I think..." or "In my opinion...". Men don't use these words. Besides, they know that's what you think - you're the one saying it! However, justifiers such as these portray you as insecure, whether true or not. This is just one example of the ways women inadvertently tarnish their credibility.

The author covers a vast array of topics and ways to become a stronger leader (and this doesn't necessarily mean you have to be just like a man!):

Weak words and grammar
Presentations and speaking in front of a group
Body language
Style and dress
Reading for Power (what you read and how)
Listening
Leadership and Management

The author includes many examples to illustrate her points and provides information that women can put to work to accelerate their careers. It is such a useful text that it was the recommended reading selection for a continuing education course a friend of mine recently attended. (She has already asked to borrow my copy.) The author has been conducting workshops on this topic for years and (sometimes humorously) includes her observances from those classes and participants in her book. Take advantage of her knowledge and invest in this book - you will not be disappointed!

In the course of a year, I met the two most articulate, elegantly spoken people I have ever encountered. One was a (male) CEO of a large company. The other was a (female) public relations person working in the entertainment industry. I did business with the former and became close friends with the latter. Both made me feel just a little inadequate about my use of language. I knew I was far more intelligent than my speech presented. One day, after listening to my friend say one of her gorgeously precise sentences, I asked her where she had learned to speak so powerfully, always able to find the most effective word, always able to form them into the most on-the-mark sentences. Her answer was this book.

I would never have picked it up on my own. The "for women" part would have put me off. I wasn't thinking of my "weak" language as a gender issue. But, even if you don't look at things that way, this book will help you.

Read it. Do the exercises. You'll think about language in a whole new way and find yourself being listened to -and believed- more than ever.