Why learn to modify your communication style? After all, shouldn’t you be content to be who you are? That’s a reasonable argument. But your world consists of many different types of people — including colleagues, bosses, employees, and customers — and it’s to your advantage to understand exactly where they’re all coming from. Why learn …
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When we think of straight talk, we think of speaking candidly and openly. We imagine saying what we mean so that other people understand us perfectly. We imagine a world of insightful exchanges, where people from all backgrounds talk to each other in constructive ways. We imagine a world where everyone takes responsibility for clear, …
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Surveys regularly show communication to be the biggest barrier to successful relationships, whether with your spouse, children, friends or colleagues. Yet few people know how to get a handle on this issue. Health and happiness can only be strengthened by getting to the root of the problem – giving people advanced tools to communicate more …
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How do you deal effectively with nay-sayers? The executive branch manager of a large bank in California raised this question. One branch manager, who manages an office of 40 people, was unable to deal effectively with a couple of nay-sayers in her office. The executive branch manager told me: “Basically, whenever someone challenges her, she …
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Ground rules are the foundation of productive meetings. Using ground rules, teams can establish norms for what is – and is not – acceptable communication and create healthy environments in which to work together and deal with tough issues. We recommend that every team adopt ground rules similar to these to ensure productive meetings. Provide …
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Several trends are making competence in communication more important today than ever before. First, the need to respond quickly to market changes creates the need for a less rigid and bureaucratic work environment. Information must quickly flow up, down, and across traditional channels. No longer is it enough to have a few skilled communicators at …
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The key to highly effective meetings is not what you do during the meeting, but what you do before and after the meeting. Here are four of the practices that we teach: 1. Take ownership of the agenda. Before the meeting, decide what outcomes you want, what decisions need to be made, the time required, …
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The Straight Talk® survey (GoStraightTalk.com) is a great tool for helping new employees fit in. Once you understand a person’s style, you will be better prepared as a manager to coach them effectively. The basic premise of Straight Talk® is that there are four primary styles of communication: Director, Expresser, Thinker, and Harmonizer. People tend to favor …
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This tool outlines 15 habits that highly effective facilitators focus on. Facilitators organize the conversations that other people have. Their role is to guide the conversation by defining the desired outcomes, deciding the sequence of topics, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard, asking relevant questions, limiting non-productive communication, and summarizing the conclusions reached. Highly effective …
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