We Need to Get Better
In the last few days, I have coached two people managers who both expressed their profound dislike of managing what we generally refer to as “soft skills”. One manager only wants to focus on teaching technical or “hard skills” that relate directly to her work in finance. In contrast, the other manager wants to focus […]
This is basic, so why do managers miss it?
A few weeks ago, I ran a trust-building workshop for a team that is struggling. The team lead shared that he thought everything was fine and that the only challenge with the team was that they were hesitant to share their thoughts in a group setting. The reality is that problems on this team ran […]
How Do You Communicate With?
When starting a new job or getting a new boss, one of the most important things we can do for ourselves and our future success is “get on the same page” with the other person. Many clients I coach struggle to align with new bosses or team members because communication is difficult. We are all […]
How Effective is Your Communication?
A client said the other day, “I hate repeating myself. I have no patience for it, and so I don’t like to do it”. When you say something that the other person does not understand, you have a communication problem. The goal with all communication is effective communication – it moves both parties to connect, […]
How deeply do you connect?
Currently, I am coaching a few engineers and other professionals who are on a journey to learn how to better connect with people. While that might sound peculiar, not everyone has the innate talent to strike up a genuine conversation with new people.
Do you really listen?
While it does not surprise me, it saddens me that so many of the my clients and so many of my workshops include some discussion around listening. Overall, I would say that most of us are terrible listeners. When I led national sales teams, it was apparent that my sellers were lousy at listening and often missed the opportunity to connect with their clients. They thought that they knew better. The sellers would smile politely and nod, but then they would jump into their sales pitch, often ignoring what the client just said.
How good of a storyteller are you?
Stories are powerful. We all know that, and can easily recall a favorite movie or video, a song or book. So how come, in business, we rarely use storytelling techniques? We regularly talk in business speak, using a dry vocabulary and lots of facts to sound smart and impress our colleagues and clients.
How quickly do you?
How quickly do you trust another person? I would imagine that for most of us, it would depend on our life experiences.
According to Psychology Today, when addressing if most people can be trusted they wrote that “because motivations and responses vary widely across situations, it’s likely not possible to say whether or not most people can be trusted all of the time.