Communications Skills

An important client texts you for advice on a critical decision, apologizing that circumstances don’t permit a better means of communication. You can’t see or hear each other, and time is of the essence. The decision can’t be deferred. A poor ...

She needs to just get on board,” Bob complained. “I keep telling her what to do, but she won't stop trying to second-guess me.” As I listened to his complaints, I wondered if he had even tried to hear what Mary wanted to say. She was pretty ...

It happens. You end up with a jury that is all one gender. That was the case in the trial of George Zimmerman, accused of second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin. Six women sat on the jury, and the prosecutor misspoke, addressing ...

A Roman walks into a bar and tells the bartender, “I’d like a martinus.” The bartender says, “You mean a martini.” “No,” says the Roman, “I only want one.” English is a funny language — in both senses of the word. English incorporates words from ...

What’s not to like about a large, highly targeted B2B market with low competition? Not much. That’s why SlideShare has become the Internet’s largest platform for sharing presentations. With 60 million unique visitors every month, it receives ...

Ask any parent of a small child, and they’ll tell you: Caillou is a whiny little puke. On the scale of fears for parents, seeing ...

The staff evaluation form lands on your desk, with instructions to return it within a week. It’s time for the dreaded annual performance review. And it's dreaded not just by those being reviewed. If you are giving the review, it raises ...

Feedback is constructive information you can use to identify problems you need to correct and strengths you can build on. It can also give you new ideas that will revitalize your practice. But getting feedback, even when you asked for it, can ...

Similar-sounding words can have very different meanings. Sound-alike words have tripped up many a scribe. Because you may be spelling the word correctly but misusing it for the context, spell-check is of no help. Watch out! Incorrect usage will ...

Theodore Bernstein created an analog to the economic maxim that bad money drives out good: bad words tend to drive out good ones. Bernstein, a journalist and professor, wrote or co-wrote seven books on grammar and usage. As an addict of grammar ...