This week has been a very hectic week for me, and it’s only Wednesday as I write this post. I’ve had many competing priorities and others’ priorities have worked their way into my life as well. To make it through, I’ve had to say “no” a lot. I’ve told myself “no” when I’ve been tempted […]
One of my personal pet peeves is bad voicemail greetings. I can’t stand calling someone’s home and hearing a four year old giving a voicemail greeting. Having the whole family on the line drives me crazy too. In the workplace, it’s voicemail greetings like the ones below that make me want to hang up and […]
This past weekend, I was recovering from oral surgery that left it difficult for me to talk or to get much work done. As a result, I spent a lot of time sitting on my couch watching television. (Here’s a pic from my vantage point on the couch.) As I caught up on my favorite […]
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. Unfortunately, […]
Technical expertise isn’t enough to ensure career success. You must have excellent communication skills to achieve career longevity.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
