How to Communicate with a Get-it-Right Person

Meet Chloe. Chloe is a thinker. She understands the value of solid preparation. For example, Chloe writes her to-do list at the end of each day so that she is organized for the following day. She sometimes reviews her to-do list in the morning to make she didn’t miss anything. She wants to get it

How to Communicate with a Get-Appreciated Person

Meet Nancy. Nancy likes excitement. She loves to spend time chit-chatting with coworkers and is highly energetic. Although she can appear disorganized sometimes, she thrives on variety and spontaneity. Sometimes others get frustrated with her because she wants to spend more time thinking up ideas rather than executing them. If you asked Nancy’s coworkers what

How to Communicate with a Get-Along Person

Meet Jennifer. Jennifer is a really friendly, likeable person. She’s the first person to check in on her coworkers just to see how they are doing. In meetings she is agreeable (except when she takes her frustrations “off-line” and vents to people who are not on her team). Everyone likes Jennifer. If you asked those

  • Professional woman with serious look on her face

How to Communicate With a Get-it-Done Person

Meet Kelly. Kelly likes results. When Kelly arrives at work she gets right to business. People who work with her think she is a little cold and intimidating. She sees herself as efficient. Kelly rarely chit chats with co-workers because she thinks it is a waste of valuable time. Sometimes her team gets frustrated when

Are You Making Your Team Crazy?

Last week I worked with a group of 28 professionals to help them discover how they might be making their coworkers crazy and how to stop it! The topic was better interpersonal communication. It has been one of my most favorite skills to help leaders and their teams learn for the past 27 years because

Setting Boundaries

We establish what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t by what we permit. This is true in relationships, and it is true in communication too. When someone talks over you, do you just wait until they are done? If someone uses language that makes you cringe, do you stay silent? What about letting someone take

The Art of the Pause

Have you ever … stuck your foot in your mouth? wished you could go back and say it differently? confused someone with what you said? filled space without adding value? overwhelmed someone with information? Our brains process speech in 600 milliseconds. Wow! That’s fast. It’s so fast that it makes it incredibly easy for you

When It’s Not What You Think It Is

  What an amazing and stunning beautiful natural spring this is: the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. From a distance it is a multi-colored wonder of water that took my breath away. What a pleasing sight for my eyes! When I got closer, it suddenly looked like a steaming, hot, bubbling mystery. Monday

Why I Care About Psychological Safety (and what is it?)

I had a coworker who rolled his eyes when I talked and would “humph” under his breath. I remember feeling insecure and afraid to speak up. This was almost 20 years ago, and the problem was a lack of psychological safety on our team. I want to prevent this problem on your teams because it

5 Interpersonal Communication Competencies

I taught inmates in a prison several years ago.  One of the men in my classroom told me that when he was 11 years old, his parents taught him how to cook, cut, and sell crack cocaine.  It may come as no surprise to you the reason he was in prison – drug dealing. This