11 Communication Weaknesses that Will Kill Your Career
Technical expertise isn’t enough to ensure career success. You must have excellent communication skills to achieve career longevity.
7 Signs that You’re Probably a Blamer
Over the years, I’ve discovered that there are two types of people when it comes to the issue of accountability. The first is the accountable person. This is the person who is self aware and understands his or her role and responsibility in a problem situation. The accountable person is someone who learns and grows […]
The #1 Way to Avoid Misunderstandings and Conflict: Perception Checking
Most of the conflict I have experienced in my life, both first and second hand, has not been the result of factual disagreement, but of differing perceptions. Every day we interact with others, “notice” their behavior, and then proceed to draw conclusions about what it is, what it means, etc. Our interpretations, and thus our […]
7 Reasons Your Performance Appraisals Are a Waste of Time
Ah, performance appraisals. Some people hate them and the rest hate them too. As a result, many organizations are questioning the need for performance appraisals and others have stopped doing them altogether. When done properly as part of an overall performance management program, appraisals are an opportunity to reward top performers, help redirect and develop […]
6 Discipline Mistakes of Cowardly Leaders
When you accept the title of leader, manager, supervisor, or any other title that puts you in charge of a group of people, you also accept the responsibility of providing feedback to those people. Great leaders accept this and take steps to learn to do it well. Cowardly leaders find all types of ways to avoid […]
5 Communication Myths Busted
From advice that says you should imagine your audience naked to make yourself more comfortable when giving a speech, to the “fact” that 93% of all communication is nonverbal, communication myths abound. When I decided to do a blog post about communication myths, there were so many I had a difficult time honing in on […]
Why Laziness is the REAL Mother of Invention
While having lunch with my friend Beverly the other day, she was lamenting various employee challenges- from lack of personal responsibility to downright laziness. Case in point, the simple act of changing the toilet paper roll in the restroom. She just couldn’t understand how someone could be so lazy that they couldn’t take the 10 […]
The Most Challenging Question You’ll Ever Ask
Any parent can tell you the most annoying question kids ask is, “Why?” Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why do I have to take a bath? Although it may sometimes feel like kids ask these questions merely to annoy us, kids ask them because they’re trying to understand their world. […]
The Ripple Effect of Helping Others
The other day I was facilitating a workshop for a group of attorneys on the subject of employee motivation. We’d just finished discussing the importance of showing appreciation and giving praise, when we had a short break. During the break I mentioned my difficulty finding an artist to create a one-frame comic for the chapter about […]
Is the Art of the Handwritten Letter Really Dead?
As January is a time for reflection on the past and planning for the future, I decided to go back through every blog post I’ve written since I began the Practical Communication Blog on May 31, 2011. In reviewing where my blog began and thinking about where it’s going, I came across this particular post […]