Executive Etiquette

Frances Cole Jones’s approach to workplace harmony.

by Tom Zoellner

In How to Wow (Ballantine), Frances Cole Jones provides readers with a reminder to eat their dinner rolls correctly, write thank-you notes, give good PowerPoint and avoid inflicting injury when speaking hard truths.

Befitting the book’s subtitle — Proven Strategies for Presenting Your Ideas, Persuading Your Audience, and Perfecting Your Image — most of the counsel here is geared toward creating a good impression in a narrow window of time. Jones reminds us that posture and tone of voice usually burn much deeper into the consciousness than the actual content of our conversations, and that keeping one’s hands hanging easily to the side (instead of being stuffed inside pockets) generally inspires greater trust.

Jones is at her best when analyzing those workplace verbal subtleties that often mean more than they should but that make a difference nonetheless. Instead of correcting — and embarrassing — a colleague during a meeting, she advocates channeling the old technique of improvisational theater known as “agree and add.” Upon hearing an error, saying something like, “Yes, and I’d like to make a clarification on that point” or “Here’s some additional background to that” makes for a much smoother meeting (and a less bilious after-meeting). Such tonics go a long way toward creating a healthier workplace.

One curiosity: Jones is the founder of something called Cole Media Management, and her biography indicates that she has conducted presentation-skills seminars for companies around the nation. But neither she nor her company has a Web site yet, and few references to her work crop up on the Internet. Her publicist explains that she usually gets word-of-mouth referrals and that her client list is confidential.

Ergo, no need for a Web site. This seems a strange omission, though, particularly for an author whose message is so deeply entwined with the idea of presenting oneself professionally and accessibly (her book even features a brief section on getting maximum bang from a Web site; the reader is left to guess how effective Jones would be at following her own advice). Despite this oddity, Jones has produced a gracefully written primer worth reading — even for those who think they already know the rules of the game.