A review of:
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, Jon Warshawsky

I was only five pages into this book before I started walking around my office showing sections to co-workers. It was such a sigh of relief to know that there are people out there fighting the good fight! They’re helping people talk like people, not like business school robots.

This book examines the 4 traps to effective business communication and gives simple ways to avoid them. Here’s a brief and admittedly shallow overview:

• The Obscurity Trap: Jargon, empty words, catch phrases, and all sorts of useless things are exposed and straight condemned.
• The Anonymity Trap: Are you a perfectionist? Do you love templates? Do you hate seeing people smile at work, especially in meetings? If you said yes to any or all of these, you are an idiot. Cut it out.
• The Hard-Sell Trap: You know how everyone hates infomercials and car salesman? Enough said.
• The Tedium Trap: How to get out of your own head and into the head of your audience. How to talk like a real live person with feelings, impulses, desires and everything! Basically, how to keep people from hating you and your meetings.

This book gives no nonsense, no holds barred advice that seems to stem from real world experience—one of the authors even admits to being a former “idiot.”

This is the kind of book that I’d like to see in the hands of every executive across the country. But until then, Bull-Spotters can read, have a laugh and commiserate.

Order a copy here or read the first section for free here.