The holiday season has officially arrived, and with it comes many annual office and professional organization holiday parties. These events can be a mixed bag—equal parts excitement and dread. While it’s tempting to see them as an excuse for free food, drinks, and awkward small talk, they truly can be golden opportunities to build relationships, […]
As leaders, we focus a lot on what we say: preparing for meetings, writing the perfect email, or rehearsing for presentations. But the reality is, that some of the most important messages we send don’t come from our words—they come from our nonverbal communication. Things like your body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, or […]
I never learned how to avoid conflict as a kid, but I did learn a few things about conflict that I think are interesting. For example, most of the conflicts I have experienced in my life, both first and secondhand, have not been the result of factual disagreement, but of differing perceptions. Every day we […]
Every time I teach a “Making Meetings Work” workshop, I ask the group, “How many of you enjoy going to meetings?” Can you guess how many hands go up? You’re right — none! Since so many of us don’t like to go to meetings, I think we’ve developed some bad habits as a subconscious rebellion. […]
In a previous post, I discussed how to Improve Your Listening in Six Easy Steps. However, sometimes the first step to improving your listening skills is to eliminate any bad habits you’ve developed.Here are some of the most common poor listening habits. I’ve been guilty of several. What about you? 1. Interrupting You’re basically telling […]
No matter where you work or what you do, possessing at least “good” communication skills can make or break your career. Just think about the job ads you see online and even your own job description; they all include some requirement related to communication skills. “Great oral and written communication skills a must.” “Excellent interpersonal […]
Would you fly on a plane knowing that the maintenance crew and pilots were “sort of” trained, didn’t use checklists, and were allowed to do things however they wanted? Would you want a surgeon operating on you who was “told” how to operate by someone a few years back but didn’t have a clear procedure […]
Imagine if you worked in an organization where staff members have no idea what other staff members are doing, management has no idea what staff is doing, standard operating procedures aren’t followed, important things often “fall through the cracks,” there’s a lot of redundancy of effort and communication, and any improvements implemented quickly go by […]
Imagine if you worked in an organization where staff members have no idea what other staff members are doing, management has no idea what staff is doing, standard operating procedures aren’t followed, important things often “fall through the cracks,” there’s a lot of redundancy of effort and communication, and any improvements implemented quickly go by […]
As someone who has trained leaders for more than 25 years, one of the biggest challenges I see leaders facing is making the transition from team member and subject matter expert to leader. This transition is further complicated when organizations make the mistake of selecting new leaders based on length of employment and/or technical skill. […]
