Controlling Your Technology
by Jeff Irby
Technology has been good for our country and economy. It can be very good for your life, if used properly. The key is to use technology to serve you, not the other way around. This requires you to make deliberate choices of when to engage with technology so that it aids in your accomplishment of what is most important in your life. You own it, it does not own you.

Employee Communication: 5 Ways Leaders Can Communicate Change
by Marcia Xenitelis
My contention is that no matter what the issue, there are five ways that your CEO can communicate with employees and achieve positive outcomes each time. Most of the methods listed involve face to face dialogue to ensure the greatest engagement.

Perfecting the Art of Silence in Negotiating
by Liz Tahir
Silence is the secret tool of power negotiators. Knowing when to listen, not talk. Using facial expressions, not your voice, to make a point. Here are five tips on how perfecting the art of silence can make you a better negotiator.

Employee Communication: Three Ways To Create Transformation In Organizations
by Marcia Xenitelis
There are two distinct ways to use employee communication; one is to inform employees about what is happening in an organization, the other is to engage employees in the process of change. In this article we are going to highlight 3 case studies that demonstrate clearly the different techniques and approaches to ensure that your employee communication strategies bring about transformation in your organization.

Stop Slingin' Slang! Prospects and Clients Leary of Loose Language
by Craig Harrison
Despite attention to four-color brochures, meticulous grooming and letter-perfect newsletters, consultants constantly undermine their hire-ability and employees hurt their promotability through sloppy language skills and inappropriate word choices in their communication. What point is shined shoes and polished purses if you're constantly shooting yourself in the foot with your own words?

Employee Communication:  5 Ways To Measure The Impact On Business Outcomes
by Marcia Xenitelis
If you are involved in employee communication then you already know that one of the most important aspects of employee communication today is measurement. Here is a low cost yet highly effective approach to ensure you can measure your employee communication strategies against business outcomes.

Employee Communication: 5 Tips to Engage Employees
by Marcia Xenitelis
Employee engagement should always result in some positive change of behaviour which will then lead to the achievement of organizational goals. Just distributing information by any of the above methods will not achieve the change in employee behaviour and organizational outcomes you are looking for. Here are 5 tips that will ensure that your employee communication methods do achieve those outcomes.

How to Improve Your Writing by Standing on Your Head
by Philip Yaffe
You may not have thought about it, but newspapers provide the best examples of clear, concise, dense (factual) writing you can find anywhere. Journalists not only write superbly well, they do so extremely rapidly. They don’t have the luxury of spending several days to put together their text. At best, they have a few hours. Learning how journalists work their “daily miracles” can help you write better at your much more leisurely pace.

The Technology Trap For Talking Takes a Toll
by Eileen McDargh
Talk is not cheap - it's priceless. The competitive edge does not have to be more bells and whistles on a CRM system or another layer of voice mail doom loops.  For once, it's not sophistication that's required but rather a remembering that at the end of the day, people want to work for and buy from people with whom they have a relationship.

Leadership Conversations Through NLP
by Raju Mandhyan
If you trust your learner’s capacity to learn then he will learn and learn fast. If you trust your colleague to do and deliver with excellence then she will do and deliver with excellence. This authentic and deep trusting by you translates into a powerful and profound internal motivation for your partner.

Communication is a Beautiful Thing
by Liz Weber
A beautiful thing happened during a client work session this week: the management team experienced the value of clear, honest communication. If your managers talk but don't communicate, just show them how!

Fast-tracking Foreign Languages: How to Meet the Linguistic Challenges of Working Abroad
by Philip Yaffe
Native English-speakers are increasingly exhorted to learn foreign languages to play a more effective role in globalisation. How should you go about learning a foreign language with the least pain and most gain? In my personal experience, the secret lies in changing your mindset. Here are several powerful strategies you can use to make the job considerably easier.

The Mathematics of Persuasive Communication
by Philip Yaffe
Mathematics is all about precision. It is therefore not so odd to think that applying some of the concepts of mathematics to communications could make them substantially more effective.

The Six Hats of Creative Communication
by Amir Elion
The purpose of this article is to discuss and demonstrate the use of De Bono's Six Hats Method as a powerful and creative approach for communication. Have a great and creative day!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. - Your Client's Communications Preferences
by Lydia Ramsey
Are you dodging business success by ignoring your client's preferred method of communication?

Be the Face They Trust When the Crisis Hits
by Kare Anderson
More than ever, every organization needs a plan. Responding quickly, fully, and truthfully is the only way you can keep the faith of the publics you serve, inside and outside your organization.

How Mixed Messages Can Derail Organizational Success: Why You Need an Internal Communications Strategy
by Renate C. Rooney
A customized, well-designed internal communications strategy helps organizations build employee morale, foster teamwork, increase efficiencies, build customer loyalty and support strategic business objectives.

Communicating Change - The Essentials!
by Bob Selden
The path for organisations undergoing change is a lot smoother if they get their internal communication processes right.

Jest Practices! Best Practices for Humor in the Workplace
by Craig Harrison
Most agree that humor in the workplace can have beneficial effects. Yet not all humor is good humor. When used appropriately, humor can work for you.

We Are All Literally Two-Faced
by Kare Anderson
Your face is your shorthand to your body language. Your expressions, in repose, are icons of your attitudes toward life.

The Role of Communications in Corporate America: More Complex and Critical Than Ever
by Barry Shulman and Gordon Chiang
Senior communications executives have become one of the most important and trusted advisors sitting at the table in the c-level suite. This article looks at the increasing complexity and provides advice on how to find, reward and retain the right talent to meet this challenge.

Asking the Right Questions
by Liz Tahir
Knowing the right questions to ask can have a dramatic effect on our success. Having good information is critical in business today. It’s yours for the (right) asking!

What's Not Revealed is Often Most Revealing
by Kare Anderson
Here are four ways to learn more about underlying feelings -- yours and others -- so you can be more thoughtful, clear and genuine in your choices and your communication.

How To Make "The Ask!" Tips for Effectively Recruiting Your Team
by Craig Harrison
Many times in your life you will make requests of others: to join a group, committee or team, to perform a task or to assist with a project. How do you make the ask? Follow these ten tips to hear those magic words: "YES, I'd be glad to!"

Be More Frequently-Quoted Than Celebrities
by Kare Anderson
Here are ten quick tips for becoming the most frequently-quoted expert in your profession, organization, market or cause.

Principles of Good Writing
by Paul B. Thornton
The process of good writing involves three basic steps - preparing, writing, and editing. Practicing the following 16 principles will help you be a more effective writer.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words
by John Boe
By teaching your agents key body language gestures they will be able to reduce conflict, build rapport with their customers and dramatically increase their sales effectiveness!

Strategy Without Tactics is Futile
by Helen Wilkie
In today's complex, many-faceted workplace, too many laudable communication strategies fail, or at least achieve limited success, because of lack of attention to tactics. By tactics, I mean the way we use applied communication every day to get the work done.

Who Said So? Proper Attribution Enhances Credibility
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Attribution, which is a fundamental component of academic and journalistic writing, should be used prominently in business writing as well.

Communicate and Prosper
by Helen Wilkie
How much has poor communication cost your company in the past twelve months? Chances are, you have no idea. Chances are even better it's a lot more than you can afford.

Purposeful Inquiry - Using Inquiry in Tense Conversations
by Jamie S. Walters
We've all been in situations where someone else's words or manner seems very challenging, or even hostile. One way to skillfully respond to aggressive or passive-aggressive communicators is to inquire -- or ask questions -- instead of reacting and shutting down.

Overcome Writer's Block by Interviewing Yourself
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Writer's block often results either from stress imposed by a looming deadline, or from disorganization. When you're unsure where to begin, you may discover how to proceed by "interviewing" yourself.

More of the Truth About Lying
by John Boe
Fortunately, having the ability to sort fact from fiction is an important communication skill that can be learned.

Directness Takes Courage and Gains Respect
by Brady Wilson
Direct, face-to-face conversations are not always about being nice and they're not always easy. Being direct takes courage. And the upfront investment of discomfort is worth the eventual paybacks of respect, trust, collaboration and goodwill.

Quality Linked to Conversation
by Brady Wilson
"The quality of an organization is directly linked to the quality of conversations of the people in that organization." It's funny how a statement, read casually from a book or magazine can lodge inside you and goad you to embark on a journey that shapes the rest of your life.

Feelings Rule
by Brady Wilson
Regardless of the data or resources that change hands between you and others, feelings, in the final analysis, are what dictate the behaviors that contribute to your success (or failure).

Six Tips for Redirecting Highly Charged Conversations
by Jamie S. Walters
There are several tactics that can be pulled, as needed, from your "interpersonal-communication skills toolbox," so that a heated dialogue can be self-facilitated or cooled off to allow for a more productive, less harmful interaction.

Four Ways to Eliminate Toxic Communication
by Brady Wilson
Contribute to a better work environment where people will trust and respect you more, and offer you more of their goodwill.

Creating Powerful, Positive, and Potent Communication
by Sid Smith
To develop potent, powerful and positive communication in your relationships, you should focus on seven key elements.

Do You Mind if Someone Screams at You?
by Lora J. Adrianse
If your company is successful in spite of the way you treat your employees, just think about how much more successful you could be if your employees loved to come to work every day.

The Seven Worst Communication Habits
by Jamie S. Walters
The Big Seven worst habits of communication are bad enough when they happen occasionally. They become "big and bad" when they're practiced habitually. And they do, ultimately, exact a cost.

Harnessing the Power of Disagreement: A Five-Step Process
by Kevin Daley
Here's a process that can help your organization turn disagreements among employees into opportunities to foster creativity and improve the productivity of collaborative projects.

Workplace Communication Essentials
by Jamie S. Walters
Whether you own your own business, lead a corporate division, or simply need to collaborate with others in order to do your work, one thing is certain: you need to communicate, and communicate well, to truly shine.

Talking to the Generations
by Cheryl Cran
If we can begin to understand what is important to each generation and then learn to see things in a wider perspective we can begin to build bridges of communication and heighten tolerance towards the differences in values and ultimately collaboration.

Stepping Away From "Small Self" Communication
by Jamie S. Walters
Each of us can choose how we communicate, and we can choose how we respond. We can choose to be more skillful, more respectful, more calm and kind – even if we're feeling anxious or tired or stressed.

Five Communication Skills Every Business Owner Needs
by Dianna Booher
To improve results on all fronts, sharpen these skills in your own tool chest and then begin to improve this same skill set in your key employees.

Gadget Etiquette - Using Technology with Good Manners
by Paula Gamonal
Etiquette is basically about paying some attention to the convenience and comfort of the people that you interact with. Whether technology is involved or not, the basics of good manners apply.

What is 'Right-Communication'?
by Jamie S. Walters
An inspired-leadership perspective from Ivy Sea Online.

Top Ten Telephone Basics
by Shep Hyken
Phone skills are an important part of the job. The way you handle your phone is as important as a face-to-face meeting. So take the time to go over some of these basics.

Think You've Got Communication Problems?
by Susan Dunn
Here are some maintenance log entries from a major airline - or so the email says, showing the problems reported by pilots and solutions recorded by mechanics. "Whatever you say, assume it's been misunderstood," and it's probably a good idea.

Give Your Headlines the 'So What?' Test
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
No element of a piece of writing is more important, yet perhaps less appreciated, than the humble headline. While headlines are most commonly associated with newspaper articles, they're also essential in display and classified advertising, posters, billboards, newsletters, interoffice memorandums, and even in e-mail messages.

Prepare for Emergencies with a Crisis Communication Plan
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Effective communication can help prevent a mishap from degrading into chaos, can defuse inflammatory rumors, and can minimize or avert resentment or public loss of confidence.

Engaged Listening and Inquiry
by Jamie S. Walters
To be truly engaged in listening, we have to put ourselves in a receptive space rather than an active or action-oriented space. We can combine this receptivity with inquiry, to both significantly enhance the quality of our interactions and raise the level of our awareness and understanding.

Feeling' is Inadequate to Express Convictions
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
The language of decision-makers often reveals their reticence to take risks and expose themselves to potential criticism. The most effective approach is to clearly and unequivocally declare a conclusion derived from logical interpretation of relevant, indisputable evidence.

Voice Mail Hell
compiled by Martien Eerhart
Here are two pieces that offer a few tips on how to cut through the nonsense and get to the source.

How Not to Communicate a Major Change
by Sean Williams
If you want people - employees, community, the general public - to be critical of your decision, the best way to do it is to not tell them the reason. Now, what business-focused person would want that result in the first place? But we see this common sense rule of communication violated time and again.

Good Times or Bad Times - Communication is Critical
by Sean Williams
During a crisis, anyone would agree that effective communication is vitally important to management effectiveness. But the ongoing health and vitality of business requires outstanding communication at all times.

Shun 'Vanilla' Words in Quest of More Expressive Writing
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
While expecting 30 or more flavors of ice cream, sorbet and non-fat frozen yogurt at the local confectionery shop, many Americans are distressingly content with banal vanilla speech and writing.

Delivering The Task - "Deskside Manner" Counts
by Daniel S. Houck
The way the message is delivered is as important as the message itself sometimes, perhaps even more so.

Writing Goofs are Funny - as Long as They're Not Yours
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Pause to enjoy a few chuckles resulting from disharmony in linguistic skills -- actual writing goofs we've encountered.

Using E-Mail as if People Really Mattered
by Mitchell Friedman, APR
The online world is different because we choose what we want to see, when, and in what format. Organizations must drop their egocentric ways and begin using e-mail as if people really mattered.

Poorly Written Meeting Minutes Waste Hours in Reading Time
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Business meetings, though often disparaged, provide a forum through which participants can authorize actions and present, debate and resolve problems. An essential part of the meeting process is documentation of proceedings in a written summary called the "minutes."

"Expectationville"
by Jim Stovall
More professional and personal conflicts arise from unfulfilled expectations than anything else. Conflicts, arguments, and disagreements do, indeed, exist; however, most of them can be overcome if we learn to manage our expectations and those of others.

Email - Good News and Bad News
by Norm Cadsawan
When distributed teams and virtual teams are the norm, and when we work from our homes, vehicles, airplanes, from different companies, countries, and cultures, what are we going to do to make sure we’re properly using one of the most popular technology tools – email?

Euphemisms Aren't Cute When They're Dishonest
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
The elevation of obfuscation to an art form has contributed to the level of cynicism that pervades contemporary society.

Listen Up ... and Speak Out! How You Can Use Conversations to Improve Organizational Effectiveness
by Judy Worrell
Bring the art of conversation back into your corporate life and move along the continuum from raw debate and polite discussion, to skilful discussion and dialogue.

Crisis Communication: Never More Critical
by Dianna Booher
Today more than ever, crises abound. The nation faces a challenge like none other. And many companies are facing similar trials - those that breed fear into the very fabric of the people and threaten to undermine a once-strong bottom line. How do we respond?

Communication Habit Traps
by Daniel Houck
"We have communication issues." Some habits are great and should be done with regularity. Here are some of the best ones.

In All Truthfulness: Achieving Support for Your Mission, Vision and Strategy
by Brian Ward
Your team has devised a mission, vision and strategy. Now comes the time to 'communicate' it to the world, and to ask key people to sign-up, support the strategy and develop tactics and plans to make it happen.

Avoid Quaint, Archaic Words That Are One-Phrase Wonders
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Some words, it appears, are one-phrase wonders. They appear only in specific idiomatic expressions or only when paired with another particular word. Out of that specific context, such "one-hit" words seem as out of place as a tuxedo at a beach luau.

"So Fun"? "So Not There"? So Icky!
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
So fun? If you have a reverence for the language, you know that sounds wrong, although perhaps you're not sure why.

Don't Let Contrived Words Clutter Your Language
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Technology has enabled multitudinous remarkable changes in the way we live, work and communicate. From the perspective of a writer or linguist, however, not all of those changes have been beneficial.

Deep Listening: How Can it Make a Difference for You?
from Ivy Sea Online
Hearing requires functioning ears. Listening, on the other hand, requires comprehension, minimal distraction and a release from your opinions while the other person(s) is speaking. And then there’s deep listening.

Job Talk - The Heart Of Productivity
by Eileen McDargh
Tools and the important steps to take to improve communications for increased productivity.

To Whom it May Concern
by Dianna Booher
Knowing your audience wil help you to adapt your words more appropriately. It is one of the most important components of the communication process.

Just Say "No"
by Dianna Booher
Saying "no" doesn't have to be an arduous, unpleasant ordeal; it can be a direct statement delivered honestly and professionally.

Making a Big Deal Out of Small Talk
by Dianna Booher
Don't underestimate the potential of small talk. Just because it's small doesn't mean it can't have big impact.

Gender Benders
by Dianna Booher
As the face of business changes  the necessity of narrowing the gender communication gap is growing.

The Need for Feedback
by Dianna Booher
The most successful executives not only want constant, credible, and constructive feedback, they know they need it.

There's No Communication Around Here!
by Dianna Booher
Managers can't manage if they can't communicate. Leaders can't lead if they can't communicate.  It's important, it's fundamental.

Bureaucratese: The Language of Insincerity
by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March
Before you write or say anything, think - about the most precise, simple, and clear way to express your thoughts.

Take Advantage of the Sounds of Silence
by Dianna Booher
There's more to hearing than meets the ear. What's the next silence you can turn into action?

Related Topics: More Effective Meetings | Presentations & Public Speaking

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