 Have you talked to a friend today? A recent study published in Communication Research suggests that people who engage in meaningful conversations may be happier and experience better mental health.
Researcher Jeffrey Hall identified seven types of communication commonly found in social interactions: Catching up, meaningful talk, joking, showing care, listening, valuing others and their opinions, and offering sincere compliments. The researchers instructed over 900 participants to engage in any one of the seven types of talk on a given day. Some participants performed the tasks via online messages or phone calls, but most spoke in person. At the end of the day, the participants reported how good or bad they felt, as measured by feelings of stress, connection, well-being, and loneliness. The results showed:
While one conversation was enough to increase positive feelings, more than one was even more effective. And while conversations by text or phone call were helpful, in-person conversations yielded the best results. The final takeaway: Stay intentional about maintaining your relationships! Have you had a meaningful conversation with a friend lately, and how did you feel afterward? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.
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 Motivating employees is not about carrots and sticks, but about creating a culture that inspires people not only to do great work, but to feel great about the work they do. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Lisa Lai, moderator of global leadership development programs for Harvard Business School Publishing, says: “The better employees feel about their work, the more motivated they remain over time. When we step away from the traditional carrot or stick to motivate employees, we can engage in a new and meaningful dialogue about the work instead.” Her recommended strategies include:
Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Do you want to stand out at work? Visibility is crucial for getting recognized by management, bolstering your reputation, and increasing opportunities for career growth. But getting noticed can be more challenging than ever if you are working remotely all or some of the time.
In “Five Ways to Increase Your Visibility at Work" Forbes contributor Caroline Castrillon provides useful tips for those who want to be noticed and to overcome “proximity bias” (when managers treat workers who are physically closer to them more favorably).
How do you ensure that you get noticed at work? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Got a job interview coming up? Of course you’ll research the organization you’re interviewing with and probably find a bio of your interviewer. But, according to senior Forbes contributor Mike Murphy, job interviewees often make one serious omission: They fail to come prepared with highly detailed experiences from the past few years of their career.
When it comes to team or leadership experiences, you should be armed with specific details around moments of overcoming challenges, and of learning and growing. According to Hiring for Attitude Research, great candidates tend to give longer answers with more nitty-gritty details than lesser candidates. (Conversely, in the study Words That Cost You The Job Interview, it was discovered that low-performing candidates used 40 percent more vague adverbs ("very," "really," and "quickly") than their higher-performing peers. “You don't want to be the candidate that spews trite clichés,” writes Murphy. “It’s far better to wow the interviewer with great specifics about your past experiences.” To that end, start with some deep reflection about your past experiences. Identify the types of skills you'll need to have for this potential new job, and consider what you have done to prove you have those skills. Try not to exaggerate, says Murphy, “Puffery is pretty easy to spot…the fastest way to spot a liar is to listen for people who won't give direct and specific answers to your questions. If your interview responses don't contain enough specifics to convey your firsthand experience with an issue, your answers can end up sounding like they came from a book.” What kinds of specifics did you offer in your last job interview, and did they help land you the position? If you are an interviewer, have you noticed that specifics made a difference in your opinion of a candidate? To join the conversation, click "comments" on our Community of Practice Forum. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Whether you’re dealing with a supervisor who criticizes you in front of others, is dismissive of you, interrupts you, or otherwise frustrates you, giving negative feedback to the person you report to is a daunting prospect. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Tijs Besieux, a researcher at Harvard Business School, offers tips for deciding whether and how to proceed.
Have you ever given negative feedback to your manager, and did it yield the desired result? As a manager, can you remember when one of your employees successfully gave you negative feedback? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  You may have seen the letter “B” added to the three-letter acronym DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), which has become ubiquitous in the world of business, government, and academia. The B stands for Belonging. According to Forbes senior contributor William Arruda, “Belonging is critical for inspiring a productive, engaged culture within any team.”
The hybrid/remote work environment has diluted human interaction, along with people’s sense of belonging. More than half of American employees reported feelings of isolation in the past year, and, according to McKinsey, 51% of people who left their jobs in 2022 did so in search of belonging and connection. Great Place to Work revealed that when employees experience belonging, “they’re three times more likely to say their workplace is fun and five times more likely to want to stay at their company for a long time.” So, how can organizations foster a sense of belonging?
Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  The best leaders motivate and inspire people. Writing in Inc., contributing editor Marcel Schwantes characterizes four simple, accessible behaviors that consistently create impact and drive performance:
Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Without quality leadership, employee engagement and retention are endangered. Turnover hurts the bottom line, since hiring a new employee to replace an old one can cost anywhere from an additional 50 – 200 percent of the role’s salary. A far better solution, according to Katy Tynan, a principal analyst at Forrester, a global research and consulting firm, is to invest in leadership training.
According to a survey of more than 700 HR leaders conducted by Forrester and HR Executive Magazine, 65 percent of businesses spend up to $2500 per employee annually on such trainings. Consider that if five managers making $100,000 annually quit, a company might need to spend $500,000 replacing them. Of course, leadership development isn’t something you can simply throw money at, and there is no guarantee that one course will transform a person’s leadership ability. Tynan’s advice for retaining the best talent is to reinforce workshops and virtual learning programs with immediate opportunities for practice. For example, after a workshop on giving feedback, HR leaders could match attendees with learning partners to practice in simulated real situations. Time, of course, has its own cost, but creating a learning community of practice can have deep and lasting benefits. How much does your organization spend on leadership training, and how much time does it allocate for follow-up? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Each of us has a network of casual acquaintances and even near-strangers we encounter in our daily lives. We might not think of these as relationships, but it turns out that conversing with people with whom we cross paths has wide-ranging benefits.
According to Dr. Bob Waldinger, professor of psychiatry at Harvard and author of the book The Good Life, “brief but warm exchanges have a direct effect on happiness.” These kinds of seemingly trivial interactions can impact mood and energy throughout the day. And ongoing research initiated in the 1970s has shown “weak ties” contribute to a greater sense of well-being. Talking to those we hardly know may feel awkward, even daunting. But research shows that after people have conversations, they are liked more than they realize. Gillian Sandstrom, a senior lecturer in the psychology of kindness at the University of Sussex, who has led pivotal research on the positive effects of having frequent casual interactions with strangers and acquaintances, advises not to be put off even if, once in a while, you appear to get rebuffed. Sure, someone might be late for an appointment and cut your dialogue short; even so, “remind yourself that they don’t know you, so they’re not rejecting you based on who you are.” If you get back on the horse and talk to someone else, you might even learn something. Pretty much everyone has a good story, not to mention a recommendation for a new neighborhood restaurant. The fellow tenant on the elevator, the guy at the coffee shop, the fellow dog-walker all have the ability to “make your day.” Give them a chance, and see how you feel. When is the last time you struck up a conversation with someone you hardly knew? How did it go? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Are you having a conversation or delivering a monologue? According to Mark Goulston, MD, business psychiatrist and author of Just Listen, there are three phases of conversation. In the first, we impart relevant, useful, interesting information. In the second, we “get on a roll” where it feels good to keep talking, but we don't notice the other party is barely listening. The third stage occurs when we lose track of what we were saying and the other person loses interest.
“Unfortunately,” says Goulston, “rather than reengaging your innocent victim by urging them to talk and then listening to them, the usual impulse is to talk even more in an effort to regain their interest.” This happens not only because humans have a hunger to be listened to, but also because talking about ourselves releases the pleasure hormone dopamine. Gabbers become addicted to that pleasure. Goulston recommends a strategy called the Traffic Light rule, shared with him by fellow coach Marty Nemko. In the first 20 seconds of talking, your light is green as long as your statement is relevant to the conversation. But the light turns yellow for the next 20 seconds. At the 40-second mark, your light is red. Although there are times you want to run that red light and keep talking, it’s worth considering stopping. According to Goulston, “filibustering is usually a conversational turn-off, and may result in both people deteriorating into alternating monologues.” Have you ever been aware that your listener has started to tune you out, and what do you do about it? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Tommy Mello, writing in Inc., says he doesn’t relish having tough conversations with employees. He is certainly not alone. “A lot of leaders have a hard time having tough conversations, and that is one of the big reasons why companies fail.” Quoting Susan Scott, author of Fierce Conversations, he reminds us, "Never be afraid of the conversations you are having. Be afraid of the conversations you are not having."
So how can you improve your approach for tough conversations?
How did you recently handle a tough conversation with an employee? Did you initiate it or did they? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Life often presents us with good news/bad news scenarios. When we have to break such news to others, we tend to want to lead with the good stuff. But when Jeff Haden, contributing editor of Inc., polled his readers, most said they would rather hear bad news first.
The tendency to lead with good news is something researchers call “priming emotional-protection.” In non-research speak, this means: “This might go badly, so I'll ease into it.” If you have bad news to share, it's natural to seek to protect yourself from how other people may react. But often the goal of delivering bad news is to alert others about a potential issue, to resolve a situation, or to change a plan or direction. So take a moment to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Don't they deserve to know -- and the sooner the better -- of any problem that they are facing? Once people know that there is bad news, they can shift into problem-solving mode. And here is where the news deliverer can be especially helpful. What has already been done to fix the problem? For example, let’s say your company makes laptops, but one of your chip suppliers can’t deliver for a month. That's the bad news. But suppose the news deliverer now tells you that they have already alerted sales and customer service and have already reached out to alternative suppliers. That’s the good news. Now you can pitch in and offer suggestions. Do you tend to deliver bad news before good, or the other way around? Do you think you might alter your approach? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  “Meetings are stuck in the Stone Age,” writes Rebecca Hinds, organizational physician and entrepreneur, noting that most executives view them as inefficient and unproductive.
At her Work Innovation Lab, Hinds and research colleagues wanted to understand whether we could predict bad meetings before they even started. Based on their research, they identified three anticipatory questions that you can ask to assess whether a meeting could become dysfunctional:
By asking these questions, says Hinds, you can head off bad meetings and reclaim control of your calendar. Looking at your calendar, can you spot any meetings that might be problematic? How might these 3 questions offer a more effective path forward? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Research suggests that humor helps us build stronger bonds with each other, with links to greater satisfaction in the workplace. And although there may be times when spirited joke telling strikes the wrong note, a does of levity can be helpful in many situations. “Levity is a mind-set,” says Naomi Bagdonas, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, who advises executives on leading with humor and humanity. “It’s looking for reasons to be delighted rather than disappointed in the world around you.” Like any other skill, a sense of levity can be cultivated. Writing in The New York Times, Carolyn Todd offers suggestions from experts:
Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022.  Are you wanting to expand your influence and develop your personal and professional networks? Then it makes sense to consider what will naturally make you a more likeable person.
Writing in Inc., Marcel Schwantes, contributing editor and founder of Leadership from the Core offers these guidelines:
Do you engage in any of these likeability-enhancing behaviors, and which would you like to cultivate more? To join the conversation, click "comments" above. Learn more about creating a habit around masterful communication with our online learning courses awarded International Gold for Best Hybrid Learning of 2022. |
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