Rosalie Maggio - The Art of Talking to Anyone: Essential People Skills for Success in Any Situation

Other books by Rosalie Maggio

How to Say It
How to Say It Style Guide
The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Talking About People
Marie Marvingt: Femme dun Sicle
The Music Box Christmas
How They Said It
Great Letters for Every Occasion
Money Talks
An Impulse to Soar
Quotations on Love
Quotations for the Soul
Quotations on Education
Quotations From Women on Life
The Dictionary of Bias-Free Language
The Nonsexist Word Finder
The Travels of Soc

Copyright 2005 by Rosalie Maggio. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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To DAVID Liz, Katie, Matt, Nora

There is no reason why any one of us cannot
become a good conversationalist. It is
universal and it is one of the most decisive
factors in our success or failure.

LILLIAN EICHLER

If you have picked up this book, you most likely believe that being able to converse fluently and appropriately is a key factor in your workplace success and your personal happiness. You dont need to be convinced of its importance. The Art of Talking to Anyone rests on this shared understanding and offers you not the why of conversation, but the how.

The assumption here is that you can already converseyouve been doing it most of your lifeand that you are a much better conversationalist than you realize. But you are, if not a perfectionist, at least a striver, and you want to be better.

The Art of Talking to Anyone will prime your pump, jump-start your battery, provide the inspiration you need to attain absolute confidence in your ability to say the right thing to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

is your toolbox. Guidelines and strategies provide you with everything you need to become a more successful conversationalist: What is a good question? When should you not tell a joke? How do you get away from a nonstop talker? What verbal tics might you unknowingly have? How do you respond to a rude question? How, exactly, do you introduce two people to each other?

offers practical help making conversation in nine areas of your life. Each chapter includes suggestions on what to say, what not to say, what to do in special circumstances, and how you might handle various situations. The section If They Say You Say illustrates the back-and-forth nature of talking with others.

No one says being a well-liked and charming conversationalist is easy. More than a hundred years ago, Gamaliel Bradford confessed, Somehow I find talk very unsatisfactory. I never say the things I meant to say and am overwhelmed afterwards with the things I should have said and could not. Sound familiar?

Someone once asked a friend, How did you get to be really good at making conversation? The friend replied, By experience. Oh? asked the other. And how did you get your experience? The friend said dryly, From being really bad at making conversation.

The Art of Talking to Anyone will save you from having to make bad conversation on your way to becoming a self-assured, sought-after, successful conversationalist.

The Art of Talking to Anyone

Good mannersthe longer I live the more convinced I am of itare a priceless insurance against failure and loneliness. And anyone can have them.

ELSA MAXWELL

The art of conversing with anyone begins long before you arrive at wherever you hope to speak charmingly and intelligently. This chapter tells you what you need to know for every step of a conversation, from introductions to body language to ending the conversation gracefully.