Are you tone-deaf? I don’t mean musically. I mean – do you know how you sound to others? There’s a pervasive myth that 93% of communication is non-verbal. It’s incorrect, it’s been debunked any number of times, but it clings stubbornly on in most people’s minds, not to mention on the internet. (The original study that started the myth was …
Whether the weather…
There’s an old tongue-twister that goes like this: I can’t imagine what the people in the path of Hurricane Helene are experiencing or, as I write this, what havoc the rapidly-spinning-up Hurricane Milton will wreak. This is change on a monumental scale. Sadly, it demonstrates all too clearly how people on the outskirts of the change, people observing the change, …
Got change? Conversate!
I talk a lot about the importance of one-on-one conversations when change is underway. These one-on-one conversations are essential – people won’t always tell you what you need to know if they have to say it in front of a group. And these conversations are entirely different from the regular one-on-one meetings leaders should be (ahem!) having with their people. …
Did you “communi-tell” your team?
Communicate! It’s important! Explain change! Tell your people what’s going on! See what I did there? TELL. Tell your people about the change. Tell them about the goals and objectives. Tell them what’s expected of them. But telling ain’t communicating, it’s announcing. Even though that’s how so many leaders approach the all-important and admittedly essential need to … communicate. I’ve …
Do you conversate?
It’s weird. As I said to someone this morning, we just assume we know “how to communicate” because we know how to talk and how to write. Dare I say – HA! And as I’ve said before, too much so-called “communication” is actually telling, and not communicating at all. It’s all top-down telling, whether from leaders to managers and employees or, …
The power of Fuzzy Goals
Whether personally or professionally, we’re creating change all the time. Sometimes it’s on purpose. Sometimes it’s by default or by accident. Sometimes it’s because it’s been imposed upon us from outside of our control. But it’s happening all the time. There’s a lot (a lot!) we can do to get better at change, whether it’s a choice or it’s external. One …
A New Model for Change
I’ve often said that I’m not a fan of models and blueprints. And yet, despite that fact, I’m here to write about a model of change. Why? Because this isn’t a model of how to do change. It’s a model of the factors that impact change, regardless of what type of change it is, and regardless of whether or not it succeeds. …
Do you communicate?
Once upon a time, I met a business consultant who told me she never advises her clients to communicate about change. “Just do the change,” she said. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I excused myself and went to talk with someone else. Not letting people know about what’s coming and why – it is, as I’m sure you’re …
A Logophile Battles Buzzwords
Let’s start here: buzzwords aren’t the same as jargon, though jargon can become a buzzword. I wrote more about that here. Oh, wait. You’re probably wondering what a “logophile” is. A logophile is a lover of words and their meanings, and that is most definitely me. Which is why buzzwords bother me. A lot. Buzzwords. There are certain words that …
Do you trust YOU?
Something interesting came up in conversation with a friend last week. We were talking about communication, and the ways in which that word – “communication” – doesn’t mean enough. I’ll go into more on that in a future article, but for now, what I want to tell you about is something she said that kinda blew my mind. To truly listen, …