Is your office embroiled in email warfare, with people sending passive-aggressive messages or getting worked up into a froth after taking an email the wrong way? Email can be a hotbed of miscommunication, but there are ways to ensure your emails are clear, effective, and are interpreted the way you intended. In today’s Communication Q&A…
Have you ever sat in a meeting wanting to pull your hair out in frustration? You are far from alone. Between work and volunteer committments, many of us spend inordinate time in pointless or ineffective meetings, wasting precious time, energy, and money. Today on Talk Shop I’m sitting down with the master of meetings, Gord…
Productivity is a top-of-mind issues for many of us. But “productivity” is also a rather nebulous concept and tends to be more easily said than done. But there’s someone who knows how to really cut through the crap to help you become more efficient and effective in work and life. On this episode of Talk…
Recognizing the skills, contributions, and overall awesomeness of ourselves and others can be remarkably hard to do! Many businesses and individuals have competitive mindsets where recognition of contribution is seen as weak or even personally detrimental. Others feel that talking about their own greatness is morally wrong – the equivalent of shameless self-promotion or uncouth…
I had the pleasure of being Master of Ceremonies at the Western Sponsorship Congress on November 23 & 24th. MCing is delightful – it really is heaps of fun helping delegates at an event relax, connect, and engage with the program and with each other. It also positions me to meet the interesting, smart…
Despite all best efforts, some people are simply difficult to communicate with. You’ve probably met this person; no matter how hard you try, they seem to miss chunks of conversations. No matter how clear the note, they still twist the message. No matter how explicit the instructions, they still manage to screw them up. It doesn’t seem…
The message doesn’t always have to be new to have impact. How often do we go looking for information on the same old topic? How many times can we hear a similar message from different people and still be interested? Sometimes we don’t need new information – we just need to hear it from a…
You may be aware that I am a bit of a Seth Godin fangirl. It takes a great deal of restraint for me to not share nearly every one of his daily blog updates here on my own blog (Twitter is a better vehicle for sharing that sort of thing). Every now and then, though,…
Have you ever been in the desperately uncomfortable position of having a “buddy” conversation with your supervisor, or being in charge of an employee who treats you more like a therapist than a manager? I’ve never experienced the latter, but know several colleagues who have. The former has happened to me in a few situations,…
Today’s post is much shorter than usual. When engaging in business, in communication, or in anything else, please remember the following: Shortcuts rarely are. Terrible grammar aside, the above is very, very true. Shortcuts rarely save you time. They rarely save you money. They rarely spare you any work. In fact, saving any of…
