Gravitas

Communicate with Confidence, Influence and Authority

By: Caroline Goyder

Narrated by: Caroline Goyder

Length: 7 hrs

Publisher's summary

Have you ever wondered why some people earn attention and respect when they speak and others don't? The secret to their success can be summed up in one word: gravitas. 

In this revolutionary new book, leading voice coach and speaker Caroline Goyder reveals how to speak so others will listen. Through simple techniques to build your natural gravitas, you will learn how to express yourself clearly, with passion and confidence, to persuade, influence and engage listeners. By being grounded in your values and capabilities, you will gain the authority needed to make people sit up and pay attention. 

Each chapter guides you step by step through practical techniques and exercises to give you the skills for great presentations, productive meetings and persuasive pitches. You'll overcome anxiety, learn how to deal with difficult people and feel calm and in control when public speaking. 

An essential tool for the modern workplace, Gravitas will transform the way you think about yourself and your powers of communication.

©2014 Caroline Goyder (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

This is not worth it - don’t spend the money

I am upset I spent my money on this. She has just repackaged a bunch of stuff and called it Gravitas. In fact, she keep saying the same stuff over and over, I am barely into the book. Gravitas sure sounds good though doesn’t it.

Amazing! Totally Recommend

Before reading this, I watched Caroline Goyder’s TED talk about the book. Over the past month this book has been influential in my confidence and interpersonal skills. Excited to apply this guide to future situations to elevate Gravitas.

The author makes the book come to life

I own a hardcopy and wanted to “reread” on audible. So glad I did – CG’s reading/voice made the material come to life.

Immensely useful

A great book for building your gravitas. Useful, easy to implement techniques to be taken more seriously.

Great start, bland towards second half

The book had some very strong chapters at the beginning, namely principles backed by research. Afterwards, felt very basic and bland. The comical over-use of famous quotes, including one from ‘US presdient Benjamin Franklin’, made the book hard to listen to.

Distilled personal improvement and a sublime voice

As soon as you finish it, you are tempted to start it over. This book MUST be heard from the author's own voice.

Fully Engaging

I loved the flow and pace of the book. The narrator was wonderful and kept my attention for all 16 chapters . I look forward to listening again . This was one of the best over all books I have listened to and or read this year.

Great concepts and tips

Caroline has provided a fantastic resource. Great descriptions of what gravitas "is," how it is developed, and tips and exercises to help have gravitas in a variety of applications where it may be needed. Listen carefully, there is alot packed in. Some things I already knew but I would have expected that; I'm a bit of a geek with regard to self development related books. However, I was impressed with the level of research she put into this and breadth of information. Something for everyone, I would think. The citations and quotes helped add validity to what was said as well as historical interest.

This book can change your life.

After 18 miserable months of failure, and a loss of trust and confidence, thank you so much for being a huge part of my recovery. Listening to, and reading GRAVITAS has been immensely useful in helping to rebuild confidence and to find my way through a difficult time.
In particular, having lost my sense of self, I have struggled to be able to present myself honestly and with integrity. This has particularly impacted on job interviews and professional meetings.
Thanks to you, I have been able to learn and really adopt the Gravitas equation because at last I could understand why knowledge alone was not enough. Last week I was successful and have started a new position in which I am able to build and grow.

Not much new here

Most of what is here is the same as is being said by many other personal development books on leadership etc.
I found the second half of the book most interesting and useful as that covered techniques for public speaking, and was more specific and had some nice practical advice in that area.
The book was a very long list of a advice tips. There were some good ones there and very useful in theory, but there were just so many without much holding it all together that it is hard to take much, if anything, away from it. I guess it would need listening to several times to pick out specific techniques to use, then write these ones down and try them out.

Wow...

Just avoid this mess of a book. There are far more meaningful and useful books to listen to.

Good information clearly presented

I had already read this as a book but wanted the audio version. I'm glad I did, it's a good book and the author is relatable and intelligent. I had found the print version hard to get started on but interesting and useful once I did.
I do feel some of the topics are covered more briefly than I would prefer but hopefully further depth will come with future books.
Altogether, a totally worthwhile purchase that has really got me thinking and practising how to have more gravitas. I'm definitely more flight attendant than captain. 12 years as cabin crew was a big clue to which side I firmly landed on. I look forward to bringing more captain/authority energy to my talks and presentations.

Absolutely spot on!

I chose this book as I was going through a difficult stage at work and it absolutely nailed it. Right from the beginning, Caroline practices what she preaches - the narration and pace of the book ensures it sinks into your bones and each paragraph is easy to follow and understand. I made notes as I went along and even on my commute to work, managed most of the exercises. Would definitely recommend if you are going through any sort of stressful situation that leads to an anxious mind. Not only does it explain what’s likely to be taking place subconsciously, the exercises are fun to try out - made me look forward to the Monday morning meetings!

How to appear more important than you are

Anyone who has been to a management training centre will be familiar with many of the concepts in this book by Caroline Goyder who is a professional voice coach. This is a great little refresher for anyone who is already familiar with some of this concepts contained. None of this is rocket surgery and, as Caroline Goyder points out, many of the techniques in this book were known and understood by the Romans. If you want to impress, influence or add credibility this is a good place to start.

For obvious reasons this works better as an audio book than the printed version. However, for the uninitiated, there is no substitution for the ritual humiliation of role play scenarios in a classroom at a semi rural conference centre with colleagues from Swindon, Basingstoke and Carlisle and coming away after three days with a DVD to watch back and cringe at your leisure.

Dynamic, Important, and Illuminating

Listening to this book was a pleasure. As someone with a background in performance, some of the material was not brand new to me, but that didn’t matter—the way the principles are set out, the “Try This” sections with practical exercises, and the simple but powerful knowledge that builds through the book makes it a great resource for anyone wanting to enhance their influence and become more genuine and weighty in the world. After all, that’s really what it means to have gravitas.

Great read for everyone

I am a constant joker! Most of the time there's nothing bad about this, but in a senior-level position in a big software company, some level of seriousness can be helpful. The power to be a great communicator lies somewhere in-between, doesn't it?

I decided to dedicate some time to find that sweet spot and picked up “Gravitas: Communicate with Confidence, Influence and Authority” by Caroline Goyder. It was a great choice! It's a combination of bite-sized chapters about multiple subjects involved in finding your own “gravitas”. A great read for everyone who is willing to enhance their influence, become a better writer or perhaps a public speaker or presenter. It is very well written but for fans of audiobooks, I can assure you that Caroline's voice on the Audible version is pleasant and easy to listen to.

https://pawelgrzybek.com/book-review-gravitas-by-caroline-goyder/

repetitive

I found it boring. She repeats the same thing over and over and over again.

Gravitas explained

Excellent book by Caroline Goyder. Step by step principles that are easy to learn and use. I really loved the content and delivery.