The holiday season is a time when many people turn their attention to giving. Although this should be a joyful process, it is often one filled with stress, as we struggle to come up with ideas of what to give others. This year, why not focus on the gift of excellent communication? It’s something that […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
Every year, many people resolve to make the coming year their “best ever” by making resolutions for better behavior. The most common resolutions include losing weight, exercising, stopping bad habits (smoking, sugar, etc.), getting a better job, etc. As this is a communication blog, over the past few weeks I’ve been collecting reader-submitted suggestions for […]
Last week, I targeted advice givers and provided tips for offering advice in a way that makes it more palatable to the receiver. However, I know that not every advice giver reads my blog and even those who do will struggle to keep their opinions to themselves. Therefore, I thought I should follow-up this week […]
Okay, before I get started, I have to admit one of my many flaws: I DO NOT like being told what to do. My natural instinct when someone says, “You should. . .” or “You have to. . .” is to do the exact opposite. It’s not that I’m not open to advice or others’ […]
