Talking Points: Communication Skills To Advance Your IT Career

By Tom Catalini

Advance Your IT Career Today!

Talking Points is full of simple but powerful tips for everyone in IT, from the Help Desk to the CIO.

This book reveals some of the fastest, easiest, and best ways to improve your professional communication skills.

Building communication skills is one of the fastest and best ways to accelerate your career development, particularly in the field of Information Technology.

Be seen as a leader. Get credit for your ideas. Inspire action. Influence others.
 
The Essentials

The book focuses on the most essential aspects of communicating effectively in three key areas of IT: 
  - Customer Service
  - Project Work
  - Executive Level Presentations

All of the ideas in the book are time-dested, real-world, proven techniques.

Tom shares concepts and strategies proven highly successful over the course of his career as a technician, engineer, consultant, manager, director, and CIO across a variety of industries, including retail, government, professional services, technology, financial services, and nonprofit. 

The book covers presentation skills for managers, teamwork skills for running successful projects, and professional communication skills required to excel at customer service. All of these are crucial for leading change, which is after all at the heart of many IT initiatives.

Clear, concise, and enlightening, Talking Points provides a unique perspective for IT professionals seeking to become more effective in communications. Learn to convince, cajole, and influence others in order to shape the future.

Read Talking Points now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Almianna Press
• Release date: Jul 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781507044445

Book preview

Talking Points

Talking Points

Communication Skills To Advance Your IT Career

Tom Catalini

Almianna Press

Talking Points: Communication Skills To Advance Your IT Career

© 2014 by Tom Catalini

All Rights Reserved

ASIN: B00LJCIDFW

Cover Design by Emmy Logan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without the express permission of the author. This includes reprints, excerpts, photocopying, recording, or any future means of reproducing text. If you would like to do any of the above, please seek permission first by contacting us at http://tomcatalini.com.

Published in the United States by Almianna Press

For Stephanie

Bonus Material

As a special thank you to readers of this book, I'm sharing the edited transcript of the IT Storyteller webinar at the following link:

http://tomcatalini.com/tpbonus

In January 2015, I hosted a webinar with world-class communications expert Dr. Nick Morgan. It was a compelling session that brought the power of storytelling directly to the field of IT.

The original 11,000 words were transcribed and edited to an efficient, flowing 5,300 words of easy-to-read content. You'll be able to read the transcript in 20-30 minutes while accessing all of the essential information presented during the webinar.

It was an intense conversation filled with tons of valuable insight. Enjoy!

About The Author:

Tom Catalini has an accumulated 25 years of experience in IT, working across a variety of industries including consulting, technology, financial services, and nonprofits. He currently serves as CIO of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. As former president and current trustee of Boston SIM, an association of over 500 IT executives, Tom is well-versed in the challenges facing today’s IT professionals. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of leadership, management, and social media. Tom is an adjunct lecturer at Bentley University, author of the popular blog People & Technology, and serves on the advisory boards of several CIO conferences. He holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University.

Preface

Chapter One - Customer Service

Introduction

Listening

Perspective-Taking

Gathering Information

Building Trust

Expectation-Setting

Summarize

Chapter Two - Project Work

Introduction

Learning

Cultivating Conversation

Drawing It Out

Chapter Three - Executive Presentations

Introduction

Leading

Presenting

Change

Practice

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

PREFACE

Many of us