A large part of your job as a Project Manager is communication; arguably the largest part. So, only focusing on technical skills will never be enough. You must have excellent communication skills. Luckily, there are many great books to help you.
This has always been an area my training business has emphasized. Many of my clients understand the value of helping their project managers – and general managers – develop great communication skills. And my experience as a project manager taught me two things:
- Your success as a Project Manager depends more on your ability to communicate well (with stakeholders, team members, and bosses or clients) than on anything else.
- There is no better context than Project Management in which to learn, practice, and hone your communication skills.
So, in this article, I have set out to share some of the brilliant books that have helped me learn along the way. In reviewing them, I have selected the ones that are most likely to help you, today.
What Type of Communication Skills?
We can start to break down the topic of communication skills for project managers by making the split between:
- Project-specific communication skills – stakeholder engagement
- General communication skills that project managers need… and so does everyone else
I will focus on the second of these. There are surprisingly few books out there on stakeholder engagement for project managers. So I will start with that.
Among general communication skills, I have split my review into five sections. So, in total, we have six categories:
- Stakeholder Communication
How to plan and deliver excellent stakeholder engagement on your project. - Spoken Communication
How to get your point across in a compelling way, in person. - Presenting and Public Speaking
How to speak in public and make presentations that people will want to pay attention to. - Written Communication
How to write effectively for the kinds of readers you’ll encounter as a PM. - Persuasive Communication
How to influence and persuade others, and win arguments. - Difficult Communication
How to communicate when the stakes are high, disagreement or conflict is possible, or when behaviors are less than ideal. - Specialist Communication
I look at my favorite books about facilitation, coaching-mentoring, and Negotiation
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some books…
Stakeholder Communication Skills
The Influence Agenda: A Systematic Approach to Aligning Stakeholders in Times of Change
Mike Clayton
Top Pick for Project Managers
I genuinely believe that this is the best book of its kind on the market. If you need to take a structured approach to stakeholder engagement on your project, and if you want to know all the basics and some of the advanced techniques, this is a comprehensive reference work. No serious project manager should be ignorant of the range of stakeholder analysis tools, how to plan your communication campaign, and the fundamentals of influence at all levels.
Making Projects Work: Effective Stakeholder and Communication Management
Lynda Bourne
This is the nearest competitor book to The Influence Agenda. Lynda Bourne is a deep expert in Stakeholder Engagement, who has her own trademarked methodology. I’ll be honest and say I’ve not read this book, but her articles are always informative and thought-provoking.
Engaging Stakeholders on Projects: How to Harness People Power
Elizabeth Harrin
Top Pick for New Project Managers
I think this is the best simple introduction to Stakeholder Engagement. It is ideal for new project managers who want a more detailed introduction to stakeholder engagement than a basic course or general project management book can offer. It provides all the resources you’ll need, to understand the process and take it on confidently.
Made to Stick
Chip and Dan Heath
Top Pick for Project Managers
This is a huge bestseller about why some ideas ‘stick’, and how to make your messages sticky. I’ve placed this under stakeholder engagement, rather than persuasive communication, because, to me, it reads as a playbook for planning your stakeholder engagement campaign, when you need to win commitment to your ideas.
This has become something of a business classic in the years since it was first published in 2007. So I highly recommend you read this.
Spoken Communication Skills
How to Speak so People Listen
Mike Clayton
Top Pick for New Project Managers
I’ll start with one of my own books, because it is so wide-ranging.
How to Speak so People Listen touches upon just about every component of spoken communication. It distills everything I have learned about conversation, difficult conversations, presentations, meetings, phone conversations, and even influencing. What I love most about it are the wonderful illustrations by artist and friend, Toni Goffe.
How to Talk to Anyone
Leil Lowndes
Top Pick for New Project Managers
I love Leil Lowndes’ books. They have great titles (try How to Make Anyone Like You, or even How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You).
But this is the one for good solid relationship-building conversation. All her books have lots (this one has 92) of short chapters, each giving a valuable tip in a clear way. And she has a talent for naming her tips so they will stick in your mind: ‘the big baby pivot’, ‘never the naked job’, and ‘commYOUnucation’ stuck in mine.
Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time
Susan Scott
This is a serious book for serious professionals. Of all the books I read when learning about excellence in communication, this one had the most profound impact. It won’t give you easy tips and hints. Instead, it will take you deep into how to make your conversations more profound and powerful. If you want to be a deep listener and make individual conversations transformative, this is for you. It’s a book for people committed to a respectful style of leadership.
Presenting and Public Speaking Skills
Khrushchev’s Shoe, and Other Ways to Captivate an Audience of 1 to 1000
Roy Underhill
This was the first book I read on presenting and speaking to an audience and it blew me away. It’s out of print now and can be hard to get hold of, but if you want to learn how to speak effectively, you should consider this for your collection.
What does the title mean? It’s a piece of history: Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the former Soviet Union, took off his shoe and banged it on the table at the UN General Assembly, to get attention. It worked.
You Talkin’ to Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama
Sam Leith
I like books on formal speaking: standing in front of an audience with no slides, and letting the power of your words carry your message alone. This book won’t be for everyone. It was a close call between this and Max Atkinson’s ‘Lend Me Your Ears’. I chose this book because it is more about the subject than a how to.
The Presentation Book
Emma Ledden
Top Pick for New Project Managers
For most Project Managers, the key skill of public speaking is giving a business presentation. And I know of no better guidebook than this. Short, easy to read, lots of graphics, and sound advice.
This book is not for mastering the art, but for taking it on. It’s in its second edition, which is always a good sign.
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Carmine Gallo
Top Pick for Project Managers
This is the first of two mastery-level books on business presentations.
Here, Carmine Gallo (also author of ‘Talk like TED‘ – but we prefer the book below) looks at what made Steve Jobs’ Apple product launch presentations so mesmerizing.
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
Chris Anderson and others
The TED organization (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) challenges experts in every field to give the best talk of their lives.
For the main TED conferences, speakers get extensive coaching. Largely, they perform at the peak level of professional speaking. So, here is a book on how they do it, by the founder of TED, Chris Anderson.
And, lastly, as a bonus… Two Books about Building Great Presentations
Do you need to do presentations, using PowerPoint, Keynote, Slides, Prezzi or anything like that? And, do you want to incorporate great design, avoiding the dreaded ‘death by PowerPoint’? Here are two wonderful books…
Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences
Nancy Duarte
Top Pick for Project Managers
Nancy Duarte – and the business she founded – are absolute masters of the art and science of business presentations. You’ll learn far more in this book than just about how to create great slides. You’ll learn how to craft a compelling – even transformative – story. I love this book.
Presentation Zen
Garr Reynolds
Almost a coffee table book. This is a man who knows how to make beautiful slides. And he’ll show you the secrets.
But he’ll also show you how to prepare your presentation and how to deliver it. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the craft of presenting… or anyone who wants to make a positive impact with their slides.
Written Communication Skills
The Pyramid Principle
Barbara Minto
Top Pick for Project Managers
If you need to draft structured, compelling business/organizational writing (and here’s a clue: you do) – this is THE book to read. I was trained in this back in the late 1990s, and I still apply the ideas whenever I write or prepare a presentation.
No ifs. No buts. This is GOOD.
HBR Guide to Better Business Writing: Engage Readers, Tighten and Brighten, Make Your Case
Bryan Garner
The Harvard Business Review guides are typically excellent – as you’d expect from the premier academic business journal. In researching a book that would have good, basic advice that is widely recommended, this one came up again and again. So, sight unseen, and relying on recommendations and Amazon reviews, I offer this to you.
The Elements of Style
William Strunk and EB White
There’s a part of me that really wants this book. It’s one of the few here that I don’t own, but it is so widely used and recommended by professionals and business people in the US, that I cannot not include it.
So, why don’t I buy it, as a professional writer? Because I’m British, by George! And I have my trusty copies of Fowler’s Modern English Usage and Partridge’s Usage and Abusage.
Persuasive Communication Skills
Influence: Science and Practice
Robert Cialdini
This one is an absolute classic. I’ve written my own book on Influence (see below) which is good. But, if you want the science, from the man who has done more research into the psychology of influence than anyone else, get this book. It is excellent in every way. It’s readable, rigorous, and has loads of mini case studies to bring the book to life.
Beware: there is another book still in print called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. This is an earlier edition of the same book. The newer book, Influence: Science and Practice has more information, is printed on better paper, and is the one Cialdini recommends on his website.
How to Influence in Any Situation (formerly Brilliant Influence)
Mike Clayton
Top Pick for New Project Managers
In this book, I took all I knew about influence, distilled down to the most useful parts for managers, project managers, and business professionals, and wrote about it in the most clear and straightforward way I could. It is one of my three best-selling books.
As a project manager, this is ideal for you. My former boss – a very senior project practitioner – says the book provides ‘pragmatic, easy to follow steps to achieving brilliant influence’. Maybe I influenced him to say that. Maybe he said it because that’s what he thought. Either way, it suggests the book has plenty to teach you!
Influencer
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzer
Top Pick for Project Managers
This is one of the most refreshing takes on influence and persuasion that I have come across. It was also the first book I bought by these authors (and two others are listed below).
This book is as much about behaviors as it is about words, but then… behavior is communication. What we do says as much as what we say. And, because a lot of the context of this book is around change, it is particularly valuable to Project Managers.
Thank You for Arguing (formerly Winning Arguments)
Jay Heinrichs
Here’s a book for a dedicated communicator. If you are someone who loves the power of language, then you’ll love any of Heinrichs’ books. And if you want to delve into the rhetorical skills of winning arguments, this is the best book on the topic I have found. It’s not a textbook, so it’s a pleasure to read. But you’ll learn a lot from this, I guarantee it.
Difficult Communication Skills
Crucial Conversations
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzer
Top Pick for Project Managers
As a project manager, you’ll often need to pass on uncomfortable messages, or confront awkward facts. If you want to learn from masters about how to prepare for and hold difficult conversations, there’s no better book than this one.
Strongly recommended!
Crucial Confrontations
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzer
This book is like a companion piece to the previous one on my list (and the third on this list by these authors). It steps up the pressure from difficult conversations to conflict resolution. And it’s another master class from which you can learn loads.
Dealing with Difficult People
Roberta Cava
Top Pick for New Project Managers
This is one of those ‘start here’ books. If you want the basics of how to understand and deal with difficult behavior in the workplace, here’s your starting place.
While the two books above are ideal for Project Managers with experience, if you are new to the workplace, leading your first project, or struggling to understand the dynamics of difficult behavior… Start here.
Specialist Communication Skills
In this section, I will pick out one favorite book for each of three vital skills in specialist communication.
Managers as Facilitators
Richard G Weaver and John D Farrell
Top Pick for Project Managers
This is the book that accompanied the first (and best) facilitation course that I did.
What I like about this book is that it has so much in it, but is not written for a ‘professional facilitator’, but for a ‘facilitating professional’. Which, of course, is what a Project Manager needs to be!
Coaching for Performance
John Whitmore
Top Pick for Project Managers
Not only was this the book that accompanied the first (and best) coaching course I attended – but that course was led by Sir John Whitmore. He (with others) introduced the business world to performance coaching and, after many revisions, this rightly remains THE best-seller in the sector. If you aim to coach your people, this book is a must!
How to Negotiate
Mike Clayton
Top Pick for Project Managers
Okay. Caught me! This is my new book, coming out on 3 May in the UK and a couple of weeks later around the world (May 27 in the US). And yes, it’s the reason I have updated this article!
This is THE guide a business professional needs to take away the fear of negotiating and provide all the skills you need to do it well. It is not written for professional negotiators, but for negotiating professionals. And I am very proud of it.
If you are reading this before it comes out, you can, of course, pre-order it with Amazon’s price guarantee. That way, you’ll be the first on your team to have a copy. Why not take a selfie with it, post it on LinkedIn, and tag me.
Have Your Say
Have you read any of these books? If so, what do you think of them?
And, are there any communication skills books that you would recommend to fellow Project Managers? Please tell us in the comments, and I’ll respond to every contribution.
