I’ve always wanted to plant a garden, so several years ago I did. Since I wanted it to be successful, I really gave my garden a lot of attention. I watered every day, fertilized, fussed, and worried over it. My reward? A whole lot of nothing. I harvested one zucchini from my zucchini plant before […]
Whether it’s listening talking to someone and assuming that because they say, “uh huh,” that they understand or sending an email and deluding yourself into believing because you received a read notice, that the person actually read your message, none of us can afford to ASSUME that communication has taken place in any situation. We […]
I’m five days into my trip to England and other than the obvious differences, such as their very fine British accent and the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road from those of us in the US, I’ve noticed another interesting difference in British communication- they’re awfully polite, but still clear in […]
Think about the last time you tried to get a refund at a store, get an extension on a deadline, or even asked a child why he didn’t complete his chores? It’s unlikely that the response was something you wanted to hear. As such, we go into such discussions defensively as if we know conflict […]
This weekend I saw a news piece about a video that’s gone viral on YouTube. “Every Opportunity,” published by the Atlanta Speech School, contains a powerful message about how adults talk to children. In some instances, the adults in the video ignore the communication efforts of the children and we can see how dejected they are. Sometimes, it’s not […]
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 […]
Interpersonal Skills are the emotional, verbal, and nonverbal skills necessary to successfully interact with others and build one-on-one relationships. Since interpersonal skills aren’t generally taught in school, we take what we learned in childhood from our parents, and go forth into our lives doing the best we can. However, sometimes our best isn’t good enough […]
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 […]
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 […]
Self-talk is the act of communicating to oneself, either aloud or in your head. Self-talk can be positive, such as when we pump ourselves up for a job interview, “This is the job of my dreams and I’m going to get it,” or negative, “I’m never going to get the job. I don’t have enough experience.” […]
