How Easily Do You Take Offense? Seven Strategies for Maintaining Your Cool
Jane was sitting in an online meeting where current deadlines were being discussed among team members. At the close of the meeting, Jane’s manager asked if anyone had any other concerns that needed to...
View ArticleLeaders, How Do Begin Your Conversations? Nine Phrases NOT to Use
I really believe that what begins well ends well. It is important to begin a conversation in such a way that allows the other person to hear and think about your message. Recently, I sat and observed...
View ArticleHow Well Do You Do Empathy? The Secret to Understanding and Connecting with...
This summer my son, Matthew, and some of his mountain-biking friends decided to ride their bikes down a fairly steep hill. Matt, on a dare, decided to go first. As he sped down the hill, he hit a...
View ArticleHow to Know if You are a Fake Talker (Part 3)
Earlier in the year I identified 14 fake talk tactics (Part 1; Part 2) that people often employ that don’t improve the quality of our conversations. These were helpful in identifying a fake talker....
View ArticleCan You Help Others to Understand a Different Perspective? Seven Steps for...
Being in the business of leadership development, I frequently encounter individuals who believe that they know everything about a topic. This assumption of “I’m right, and you’re wrong,” has such a...
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Are You Mentally Tough? 8 Tips to Improve Your Success
A number of years ago, one of my sons tried out for the junior high basketball team. Unfortunately, he did not make the team. He returned home being even more deflated because he was offered a...
View ArticleAre You Answering the Call? 13 Questions to Improve the Quality of Your...
One day this week when I was working at home the upstairs phone began to ring. Since I was busy, I ignored the call, figuring the answering machine would pick it up. During the next hour, the phone...
View ArticleManaging Emotions in the Workplace
I recently had a team ask me if emotional displays were appropriate in the workplace. When I asked them what they meant, they shared with me that one member of their team would sometimes cry when...
View ArticleWill You Pay It Forward? Seven Tips for Making a Difference
This past week I was shocked to read about two passengers on a flight who evidently started a fight over their different political views. The pilot went on a rant over the plane’s intercom taking the...
View ArticleDo You Empower Your People? 10 Strategies for Empowering Others
When I was in my first job in corporate America, I had a one-of-a-kind manager. The first thing he did when meeting with me was to ask me what I wanted to become and what my vision of my future career...
View ArticleAre We Becoming Past Feeling? Eight Ways to Bring More Light to Your Holiday...
As the year comes to an end, I have become increasingly disturbed at some of the behavior that we have witnessed this year. How can we justify a person driving their car into a group of innocent...
View ArticleAre You Set to Succeed in 2017? Nine Questions to Improve Your Results
One of the greatest challenges of running the river in Grand Canyon is learning how to navigate the rapids. There is an average of one rapid every half mile from Lee’s Ferry, Arizona to Pierce Ferry...
View Article11 Telltale Signs That You Are Not Talking About What Matters Most
Recently one of my trainees went through her annual performance review. She received an unsatisfactory rating in one area because her manager told her that she was too argumentative. When she asked...
View ArticleAre You Creating a Culture of Inclusion? 12 Steps for Building a More...
With recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, among other places around the country, and with the election of Donald Trump, people’s positions and opinions have become more and more...
View ArticleHow Emotionally Intelligent Are You Really?10 Questions for Assessing Your...
A few weeks ago I was taking my son to school in the midst of a snow storm. As I pulled into the student drop-off at the high school, I noticed a woman who was getting into her car as I was waiting to...
View ArticleHow to Deliver Bad News to Your Boss: 13 Tips for Making the Best of a Bad...
I had a previous boss who would go off like a volcano anytime the results that we produced did not meet his expectations. He was so volatile in his reaction to bad news that other members of our law...
View ArticleDoes Your Nonverbal Behavior Box You In? 12 Tips for Improving Your Body...
I had just finished speaking at an event and a number of people came up to the stage to talk and to ask questions that they didn’t want to ask in front of the entire group. After a few moments I was...
View ArticleDo You Lose Friends and Alienate Others? 12 Suggestions for Talking about...
Although many people have had business communications training, some still approach difficult conversations with a degree of fear and trepidation. In fact, ever since Donald Trump won the presidency,...
View ArticleAre You Engaging in “Fake Focus?"
During the last several months, we have heard a lot about “fake” news or “fake” media. The frequent use of these terms made me think of the term “fake focus” and how it can cause problems in our...
View ArticleNine Ways to Communicate with Millennials
“Boy, these millennials are hard to work with.” That’s what an AT&T store manager told me the other day. I asked, “How come?” And, she said, they mostly do the bare minimum to get by. They don’t...
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