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HBR's 10 Must Reads on Public Speaking and Presenting

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Command the room--whether you're speaking to an audience of one or one hundred. If you read nothing else on public speaking and presenting, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you find your voice, persuade your listeners, and connect with audiences of any size. This book will inspire you

192 pages, Paperback

Published May 12, 2020

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Harvard Business Review

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5 stars
36 (18%)
4 stars
72 (37%)
3 stars
72 (37%)
2 stars
12 (6%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Mike Azzalina .
105 reviews1 follower
August 10, 2024
2.25 - Wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be. Articles that weren’t necessarily in line with the real topic and some repetitive stuff within the text.
Profile Image for JournalsTLY.
499 reviews3 followers
Read
June 29, 2021
Very good and logical insights - and thus describe the very mistakes that I have made - on how to tell a story ; and why the story is so important when giving a speech.

Make time for the essay -"The Organisational Apology" - why it is so difficult to make one and often so badly done when organisations do apologise . The essay highlights the assumptions that hinder decision making when making apologies. Gives good guidelines but still leaves much room to cover if and when caught a thorny situation when an apology is needed. But when done sincerely and well, the apology may help build trust.

Profile Image for Arun Narayanaswamy.
514 reviews7 followers
January 31, 2023
HBR books somehow don’t really elicit the wow feeling of reading a book. It’s a summation of similar yet disjoint articles forced into one theme and bound together. Each article takes a diff perspective and sort of never works together.
Though this book gives good insights on diff topics like story telling, emotions, being skilful etc, it doesn’t give you a feeling of reading a good plot and being able to recollect those experiences when you actually need.
Ok, but there are way better ones on this topic.
220 reviews
October 11, 2026
A serviceable primer on some useful articles from HBR on public speaking and presenting. You will be able to review the thoughts of prominent authors on effective public speaking.

There is nothing ground breaking in this text for anyone who has spoken publicly before. Be able to tell a good story, use clear visuals, be authentic, and present with confidence.

That said, it's a quick read and the HBR articles are mostly snappy and succinct.

Recommended for someone who wants to brush up on public speaking in a few bite-sized chunks, but ultimately skippable.
92 reviews3 followers
January 15, 2022
HBR Presentations that Persuade and Motivate (RDM series). This book is a collection of articles containing few good ideas on how to catch audience attention in the beginning, how to keep the audience engaged during the presentation and how to handle Q&As. Earlier I had read a classic book on Crucial Conversations and I could connect both the books particularly on handling audience questions. Good short read. 3 stars.
Profile Image for Joseph.
852 reviews
December 22, 2022
The collection is a hodge-podge that goes from high-level strategizing to niche problem-solving. While a nice grouping of articles, it does not cover a large enough swath of the subject matter to be useful in a general sense. As such, it is not an exhaustive resource nor the practical primer one would hope. One might peruse the article titles first and see if something is useful before investing in the entire book.
32 reviews1 follower
January 28, 2022
The first part was the most helpful. It discusses public cleaning from a contributed at Ted. Quite honestly I didn’t think the rest was all that helpful at all. Be self aware, care about your audience, and communicate with them like they are an old friend who knows you.
Profile Image for Alberto de Vega Luna.
87 reviews2 followers
April 12, 2023
3.5 stars
As with other books including a collection of articles, there are some of them more interesting or useful than others. The two last articles are too short to be useful. Take a look at the list of articles before buying it.
Profile Image for Spencer Brauchla.
79 reviews
September 3, 2023
Majority of the book emphasizes personal communication rather than public speaking specifically. I wish the entire collection was more similar to the first two articles (speaking as someone looking for methods to improve my public speaking as I prepare for a business presentation).
Profile Image for Pelin Üstün.
28 reviews6 followers
October 20, 2023
Alıntılar:

"jestler sözcüklerden daha yüksek sesle konuşur...."

"Bir konuşma hiç durmadan kelimeleri sıralamak değildir.."

"Yaşam enerjisi karanlık taraftan, acı çekmemize neden olan şeylerden gelir. Bu negatif güçlere karşı verilen mücadele bizi daha derin, daha dolu yaşamaya zorlar.."

"Kendini tanıma tüm büyük hikaye anlatımlarının temelidir..."

"Çocuklarına dik durmalarını ve gülümsemelerini söyleyen insanlar bir şeyi iyi biliyorlar: Bu basit kombinasyon, belki de güç ve sıcaklığı aynı anda yansıtmanın en iyi yoludur..."

"İnsanları motive etmek için; yön verme, empati kurma ve anlam oluşturma önemli unsurlardır."

"Fikirlerinizi benimsediklerinde dünyanın ne kadar iyi olacağını onlara gösterin."
86 reviews
December 24, 2024
Great articles from HBR on effective presentations

Great articles from HBR on effective presentations and persuasion. Useful for anyone working in sales or leadership positions. I particularly enjoyed the last three articles.
Profile Image for Nell.
179 reviews1 follower
September 5, 2022
The first half of the collection has some solid essays and advise.
Profile Image for Joshua Waldron.
Author 1 book2 followers
March 27, 2024
I have loved all the HBR books. They are a collection of the best HBR articles on a topic. This one did not disappoint. Lots of great content.
Profile Image for Zhe.
46 reviews
September 21, 2024
Some good tips - took notes in my google drive. Honestly been doing well in my presentations for work and blew it out the water for some interviews with tips here.
Profile Image for Janet.
164 reviews
December 15, 2024
Helpful tips, but very business and management oriented
303 reviews
July 19, 2025
Worth the read. Lots of tips and applicable ways to improve public speaking.
Profile Image for Megan.
66 reviews
January 13, 2026
Really good, logical takeaways. I found a lot of the content was very applicable in day to day work.
41 reviews
May 1, 2022
There are some useful tips in this. Real world examples were given.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews