Want to be more clear and persuasive in your professional communication? Here are a few rules lifted from my recent blog (http://www.purposeful.ca/blog) : 1. Keep still until your mind is clear. 2. Don’t assume that your listener can read your mind. Drop some hints. 3. Finish your thoughts. 4. Be sure you and your listener…
The sixth deadly communication sin is ill-timing, that is, saying the right thing at the wrong time. In effective communication timeliness is everything. Some wag put it this way: “The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.” Getting the cheese too soon, even slightly too soon, was deadly for the…
This week my Dad turned 100. At dinner he regaled us with stories from the farm, his war service and his many adventures. He reminded us again that his century has been one of rapid and accelerating change. When Dad was a boy, horses were more common than tractors or automobiles. His first “city job”…
During the US election campaign Donald Trump was mocked as a communication disaster, but today he becomes the 45th President. Maybe he got a little help from his friends and maybe he didn’t, but there’s no denying he won the hearts of millions upon millions of Americans, including many traditional rust-belt Democrats, and did so…
Oddly, in a language as quirky and illogical as English, the analysis of double negatives is almost straightforward: they cancel each other out. In ethics, two wrongs may not make a right, but in math, physics and English, two negatives produce a positive. So, the country song “My Dog Never Chased No Cars” is really…
It actually takes three or four seconds to ask, “Do you have one second for a quick question?” That should be your first clue. The truly “quick question” needs no wind-up– you just pop it: “Got change for a twenty?” “Going to the game tonight?”. Those are fair quick questions, and they have quick answers….
As professionals, we write and speak not only to communicate data, but to advance ideas and positions. While this is obviously the case for lawyers and sales professionals, it might seem less so for accountants, engineers and others who, at first glance, would seem to be completely data-centric. Nothing could be further from the truth!…
Do you like the taste of crow? I don’t. “I was wrong” may be the most difficult words to utter. But every strong communicator knows you need to eat crow from time to time if you want to maintain a reputation for integrity. Just to be sure we are all on the same page, the…
Way back in the last century when I attended Ottawa Teachers’ College, Professor Stewart taught Classroom Management. He had a handful of golden rules, the most important of which was “You must always be in control of your classroom. Love works best, but if you can’t make them love you, make them fear you. Nothing…
A friend recently showed me a neat little trick, and in so doing reminded me of some fundamentals of effective teaching. “Do you know how to add all the numbers from one to a hundred in less than a minute?” he asked. I knew that adding 1+2+3+4+5…….+98+99+100 would take much more than a minute, so…