~ Communication can't always follow the top-down model. With the fluidity of information in business today, leaders need to be masterful listeners; they need to be able to receive as well as send. ~
~ The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue. ~
~ My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying. ~
~ Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense. ~
~ Saying nothing... sometimes says the most. ~
~ One kind word can warm three winter months. ~
~ First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. ~
~ If you have nothing to say, say nothing. ~
~ All noise is waste. So cultivate quietness in your speech, in your thoughts, in your emotions. Speak habitually low. Wait for attention and then you low words will be charged with dynamite. ~
~ Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open-hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand. ~
~ Storytellers, by the very act of telling, communicate a radical learning that changes lives and the world: telling stories is a universally accessible means through which people make meaning ~
~ A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. ~