Whether an actual letter, a card, or even a short sentiment written on a piece of scrap paper, there’s something very personal and meaningful about taking the time to communicate with someone using pen and paper. First, a handwritten note takes time to produce. There’s no spell check and no backspace key. You’ve got to get […]
I’ve written many articles and blog posts about when and how to say, “no.” I even have a chapter in my book, Practical Communication, on the subject. I’ve written extensively about saying “no” because too many people don’t know how to say “no” to things that are bad for them and people who don’t have […]
I wrote my first blog post on May 31, 2011. The title of the post was “What Everyone Ought to Know About Communicating Successfully.” In it, I stated that my goal for the blog was for all of us to grow our communication skills and that I needed you, my readers, to help with that. After I’d published […]
When it comes to communicating a message, we have a lot of channels to choose from: Face-to-face Phone Text messaging Email Skype/Facetime/GoToMeeting And more! With so many options, we sometimes choose the wrong channel for our message, resulting in miscommunication and sometimes conflict. In fact, we’ve become so reliant on written forms of communication, such […]
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to do a better job of showing more appreciation to those around me. While on vacation two weeks ago, I discovered that my phone charger for the car was dead. It provided a real challenge since I was relying on my phone for navigation. I mentioned to my […]
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 […]
Since today is Independence Day in the U.S., I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that hold us back in life and keep us from being truly free, especially things over which we have 100% control. If you’re tired of suffering under the tyranny of technology, being ruled by bad relationships, or being held captive by […]
In the almost 30 years I’ve been in the adult working world, I’ve found that people vary greatly in their ability to keep from sharing personal business at work. There are some people who have all types of personal problems or issues going on in their lives and no one at work ever hears about […]
If you look up the words explanation and excuse in the dictionary, at first, they appear similar. However, if you look closer, there’s a significant difference: Explanation: clarification, reason, details, an account of … Excuse: justification, defense, to try to remove blame from … When most people offer an explanation, they usually do so as fact—as […]
About a week ago, I was shopping in a retail client’s place of business doing some “recon” before preparing a customer communication program for their customer care employees. As I watched customers come and go with their various products they wished to return, I noticed a trend. The customers who were calm and politely requested […]
