The, Rules of Work, 4th Edition

RULE 22

Speak well

So what does speaking well mean? Am I suggesting you walk around with a plummy BBC voice and say ‘hice’ instead of ‘house’ and ‘creche’ instead of ‘crash’? Of course not. You can keep your regional accent; that’s not the problem. Look at why we speak – it is to communicate, to convey information – rather than how we speak. Speaking well means getting information over clearly and effectively. It doesn’t matter how you speak, but it does matter that you speak clearly. And speaking clearly means just that – clearly. The things you must avoid are:

• mumbling – for obvious reasons, they can’t hear or understand you
• speaking too softly or quietly – again they can’t hear you
• using jargon – it’s unintelligible to others outside your ...