Do you love public speaking as much as public stoning? Do you enjoy giving a presentation as much as getting a root canal? Do you shut down when you’re asked questions, and avoid asking questions when you need information? If so, you’re in some scared but good company. Let’s face it. You don’t have to [...]
Communication and Feedback
Have you met Joe? He is the 8000 lb. gorilla and salesman extraordinaire who loved his customers but manhandled his colleagues. Joe’s boss finally had enough and called a halt to Joe’s behavior. Joe had been out of bounds for years. Why had it taken so long for his boss to blow the whistle? Avoidance, [...]
Q: How does a retailer, operating a very legitimate business, protect his/her company from misguided customers who are very clearly inappropriate in their demands and yet threaten all types of exposure and legal measures to get their way? Seems to me that this is a form of extortion… the customer isn’t always right! A: I [...]
Guest Author: Michele Woodward If you’re like me, there are times in life when nothing seems to make sense. And maybe, like me, you stew and fret and figure and mull – all in an attempt to get the nonsense to make a teeny little bit of sense. Because if you can understand it, you [...]
I’m getting used to calls about workplace stress. What’s gotten my attention lately are all the calls about workplace abuse. American business and industry are known for having more workplace stress, abuse, and violence than our counterparts in other developed nations. The simple explanation is that we are more competitive, entrepreneurial, and bottom line. We [...]
This is it, plain and simple: As a supervisor, manager, or business owner, your job is to direct the work of others, not to do their work for them. In order to achieve that in a timely and efficient manner, it’s your job to communicate your expectations in ways they understand. If your employees are [...]
In the 1980s, executives and organizational development professionals started to coin the term facilitation to describe the specific skills needed to design and run successful meetings. Meetings, whether in person or using technology, are now part of the 21st century work landscape and the use of a facilitator is often a key success criteria. Facilitators [...]
Removing the barriers that get in the way of success. Conflict is inevitable. A certain amount of it is productive. However, not many managers like it and few more know how to understand and manage it comfortably and confidently. Conflict often starts with a lack of shared assumptions. Resolving conflict begins with surfacing those assumptions [...]
In my various roles – strategy consultant, executive coach, mother of teen-aged boys, Board volunteer – I’ve run into people I don’t understand and with whom I can’t find common ground. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, you’re stumped. In talking with colleagues about this phenomenon, we could all describe what happens: there [...]
Feedback. Too much or too little? It depends on who you’re asking: “Everybody tells me what to do; from my mother to my manager. You’d think I didn’t have a brain in my head. Why can’t people just keep their opinions to themselves and let me do my job?” “The only time I get any [...]