- Secrets to managing difficult training session attendees
Leading training sessions can be great when you have an energized group that is ready and willing to contribute to the discussion, asks probing questions, and absorbs the material like a sponge. Unfortunately, most trainers have had the grueling experience of dealing with difficult attendees who seem to thwart the best-laid plans. Indeed, it is amazing how one truly problematic attendee can dampen and even destroy the learning experience for the entire group.
- Briefings Bonus: 7 common credibility blind spots
Beware your credibility blind spots. These bad behaviors are unintentional, yet they can derail your image. What’s more, you might be completely unaware of just how irritating and distracting these behaviors are to others. The good news is that once you identify your blind spots, you can take steps to eliminate them. Find out how in this month’ Briefings Bonus!
- 2012 Communication Briefings Special Issue
Leading from a distance: 6 lessons for success
Leading a team of diverse employees with different needs is hard enough. Scatter those employees across different geographic areas, where face-to-face contact is infrequent, priorities are constantly shifting, and there is little time to address their individual needs, and you can begin to understand why leading a virtual team is one of the most difficult jobs in business today ...
- Briefings Bonus: Earn authority as a project manager
For project managers, the team's support is critical for completing projects successfully. Yet a team's respect cannot simply be assigned like a task. Acquiring the respect and support of a team requires careful and skillful planning ...
- Briefings Bonus: Practical advice for applying 'The Character Triangle'
The Character Triangle is a personal guide and habit system for achieving success at work (and in life). It involves thinking and acting with intent, based on three values that are uniquely important on their own. These values become even more powerful when connected to become what I call the “The Character Triangle” ...
- Briefings Bonus: Understand your leadership style
At the risk of placing style over substance, all leaders must understand this simple truth: Style does matter. It is not about matching your belt to your shoes or accessorizing appropriately for the occasion, but rather understanding the way you go about leading.
- How clearly do you communicate?
- Tips for 25 commonly misspelled words
Follow the tips on this handout, and you'll never make a mistake with one of these commonly misspelled words again.
- Briefings Bonus: How to listen so people will talk
When we listen to others, we adopt one of three mindsets. Which one we choose—intentionally or not—has a dramatic effect on our relationships, because that determines how we respond to the speakers.
- Goal-setting worksheet
- Wage war on wordy writing
Are word counts the bane of your existence? Do you struggle to prune your sentences to the bare minimum number of words, balancing the urge to purge with the need to convey meaning and support data and nuance?
- Break down language barriers
The business world is becoming more diverse. Today, many of your customers may speak a language other than English as their primary language. If English is not their primary language, they may speak with an accent or have a hard time understanding what you are saying.
- Take a positive approach to employee complaints
Dealing with employee complaints is a common - albeit frustrating - part of any manager's job. Mastering that responsibility will enhance your performance and allow you to improve your work group's efficiency and effectiveness.
- Stop the meeting madness
A random survey of your friends and co-workers will confirm what you already suspect: We all spend too much time in meetings. In fact, when you add up the amount of time you and your colleagues spend sitting around the conference table, and multiply that by your salaries, the costs become staggering.
Word Usage
Don't use these common nonwords
Avoid using the following nonwords.
Phrases that undercut messages
Burying a message in executive buzzwords will sink your credibility.
Steer clear of these redundancies
Beware of using redundancies when you speak and write.
Make sense of these 5 word pairs
Don't make the mistake of using the wrong option in these tricky word pairs.
Dodge these common mistakes
Even more tricky word pairs to watch out for.
Words in Action
Disparity vs. discrepancy