Jen Psaki, the former White House Press Secretary and current host of Inside with Jen Psaki on MSNBC, shares her wisdom on effective communication. She emphasizes the importance of knowing your audience to tailor your message. High-stakes situations require precision in wording, as every word matters. Psaki discusses the art of negotiation, the role of common ground, and the power of feedback in fostering emotional connections. With engaging anecdotes, she underlines that clarity and emotional engagement are key for impactful conversations.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Preparation and Listening
Do your homework and learn about your audience or interviewer.
Listening is an undervalued communication skill; follow up on interesting points.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Active Listening
Focus on a few key words or phrases when listening to someone.
Use those phrases for follow-up questions or summarizing the discussion.
insights INSIGHT
Engagement over Words
The goal of communication is to encourage further engagement, not to dominate.
Tailor your message to your audience to make it relatable and interesting.
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In this book, Jen Psaki shares her journey through various roles, including her time as White House Press Secretary under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. With her signature wit, Psaki writes about her experiences working with different bosses, such as Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama, and John Kerry. The book offers insights into effective communication, navigating difficult conversations, and building strong relationships. Psaki also discusses her approach to delivering messages, connecting with audiences, and the importance of active listening. The book is a blend of memoir, career reflections, and communications theory, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in improving their communication skills.
Know your audience and tailor the message for them.
In high-stakes communication, every word counts. For Jen Psaki, that means knowing who she’s talking to — so she knows just what to say.
As the former White House Press Secretary and current host of Inside with Jen Psaki on MSNBC, Psaki has discovered that communication isn’t about “saying the most words or saying them the loudest,” but about knowing your audience well enough to tailor the message just for them. “You need to think about how you're going to get your audience to listen to you,” she says. “The goal of communicating is to crack the door open so somebody wants to hear more.”
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Psaki and host Matt Abrahams explore her approach to strategic communication: identifying your audience and using what you know to engage with them and get them to engage with you.
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Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques 
