Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, and Jon Warshawsky.
An HR professional’s role is more than a legal one. You are often your company’s voice. And to help your company find its voice, you should read Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide
Their advice: Eschew the desire to sound like the smartest person in the room; avoid 10 minutes of pointless throat-clearing; and stop using 50-cent words to make five-cent points. Instead, be authentic. Be yourself. Be liberated.
Dump the general; focus on the concrete. Lose the jargon that hides the truth, and simply tell it. Embrace a point of view, and stick with it.
Fugere and company tell how “bull” leads to disaster, from NASA lingo surrounding the Challenger disaster to how Orwellian pronouncements from Enron Corp. led, in part, to its financial collapse. Read this book, and communication liberation is within your reach.
Michael Maslanka is the managing partner of Ford & Harrison LLP’s Dallas, Texas, office. He has 20 years of experience in litigation and trial
of employment law cases and has served as Adjunct Counsel to a Fortune 10 company where he provided multi-state counseling on employment matters. He has also served as a Field Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board.
Mike is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and was selected as a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Texas Monthly and Law & Politics Magazine in 2003. He was also selected as one of the best lawyers in Dallas by “D” Magazine in 2003. Mike has served as the Chief Author and Editor of the Texas Employment Law Letter since 1990. He also authors the “Work Matters” column for Texas Lawyer.