How to Become a Supercommunicator with Charles Duhigg

Aug 15, 2024

Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and bestselling author known for his works on habits and productivity, shares valuable insights on becoming a supercommunicator. He explores the complexities of communication, revealing the types of conversations—practical, emotional, and social—and how they can lead to deeper connections. Duhigg emphasizes the importance of storytelling and vulnerability in building trust, while also offering practical strategies for enhancing communication skills through self-awareness and thoughtful engagement.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

Navigating the Complexities of Communication

01:48 • 4min

The Art of Storytelling and Creating Connection

05:50 • 4min

Mastering Meaningful Conversations

10:13 • 18min

Exploring the Order of Influence: A Discussion on Essential Readings

28:24 • 2min

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.

In this What's Next Live, I welcome my very first Pulitzer Prize winner to the show. Charles Duhigg is a reporter and the author of The Power of Habit, which spent over three years on the New York Times bestseller list. His second book, Smarter Faster Better, was also a bestseller. He published his latest book, Supercommunicators, earlier this year, and it is (not surprisingly) also a bestseller.

Charles led the team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Exploratory Journalism in 2013 for the AI economy, a series that examined the global economy through the lens of Apple. He also received the George Polk Award, the Great Loeb Award, the Investigative Reporter and Editors Medal, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award, and many others.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… anybody who wants to improve their communication skills and learn how to connect with anybody - from colleagues to complete strangers.

TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE: We all want to walk away from conversations feeling understood, valued, and connected, but that’s not always the case. Charles Duhigg explores the ingredients of this kind of conversation and shares how to become a supercommunicator. The good news is that anybody can form these habits and bring this level of communication to any area of their life.

Key takeaways: - There are three buckets that all conversations fall into (practical, emotional, and social). A strong communicator will recognize and match whatever conversation they’re in - The ultimate goal of any conversation is to understand each other - You can prove that you’re listening by asking a deep question, repeating back what you heard in your own words, and asking if you got it right

WHAT I LOVE MOST… the story Charles shares about Felix, an FBI crisis negotiator who can connect with and disarm seemingly anybody simply by having a conversation. This story shows that being a thoughtful communicator really is a superpower.

Running Time: 30:46

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