Communication — and communicating well, in business and in all circumstances — is key for career success. It’s not always easy to know what to say, and it certainly isn’t always obvious how to say it. Jodi Glickman’s new book, Great On the Job, comes to the rescue. Known as a strong, strategic communicator with many successful examples to back up her words, Jodi, who’s landed jobs due to her interviewing skills, even though she’s been told she was the “least qualified” of all the candidates, outlines how to communicate well for professional success.

Jodi teaches readers how to re-think the basics. (When’s the last time you re-evaluated how you introduce yourself on a phone call? Do you ask the person if it is a good time to talk?) to more advanced communication skills, including how to manage in a crisis, communicate about a missed deadline or how to recover when you aren’t prepared for a presentation).

She focuses on four concepts:

Generosity – thinking about the other person before you consider your own needs and focusing on how to make that person’s life better.

Initiative – being proactive without creating work for others, thus moving your career forward by “engaging in meaningful and productive work that contributes to the greater good” (p. xxiii).

Forward Momentum – creating, nurturing and sustaining personal relationships, even when you have no specific “reason” in mind, other than to just keep in touch.

Transparency – being honest when you mess something up and admitting when you don’t know something.

In easy-to-follow case studies, she describes scenarios and outlines exactly how to respond in each situation.

As a bonus, the book includes details about how to sell yourself. I loved the section, “Different Person, Different Pitch,” where Jodi outlines how important it is to identify which of your stories will resonate with your audience members. She explains, “Just as you probably have multiple online profiles — Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter — you should also understand that different situations warrant different pitches of stories.” She walks you through how to focus on determining what elements of your story to develop and use later.

To top it off, there’s a “cheat sheet” section at the end, outlining advice from each of the sections and reminding the reader of the salient points in each chapter. What a great resource for anyone reading the book and a way to be sure it’s easy to implement Jodi’s advice!

I highly recommend picking up a copy of Great on the Job to learn “what to say, how to say it — the secrets of getting ahead.”