5 Proven Ways to Deal with Conflicts

In my workshops,training sessions and coaching on communication, emotional intelligence, people skills and team building, I find that one of the key factors that gets in the way of companies and organizations being positive, productive and profitable involves how they deal with conflict. In this article, we will explore why conflicts start and how to…

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Grow Your Own Talent Pool

So let’s say there is a skills gap in your company. If budgets allow, your first inclination might be to hire someone from outside the company to close that gap. After all, there are some people who know how to look great on “paper”, and a stunning resume can make any company leader salivate over…

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Overcome Negativity … Focus on the Positive

The endless assortment of messages, feelings, and attitudes we bring from our past into our present influences how we see ourselves. It also directly impacts our ability to relate to others. While growing up, we learned to judge ourselves and our capabilities based on how others saw us. Whether their judgments were complimentary or condemning…

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Boost Your "Connect-Ability" by Building Confidence

“Building confidence in yourself helps you develop the right mindset to master life’s challenges, opening the floodgates for an outpouring of opportunities to make enduring connections”    If the thought of interacting with others sometimes takes you out of your Comfort Zone, you’re not alone. Most people are susceptible to moments of self-doubt. Nothing is…

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Are You Difficult? … It’s a Matter of Perspective

While most people don’t describe themselves as “difficult” (although some actually find pleasure in doing so!) difficult behavior can nonetheless come from anyone, anytime, anywhere; we all have the capacity to express it. What constitutes difficult or prickly behavior is very subjective,shaped by our personal perceptions. We each define individually what annoys or frustrates us;…

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4 Ways to Avoid Misunderstandings that Destroy Relationships

Assume the Next Message You Send Will Be Misunderstood In working with companies and organizations to assist them in improving customer and workplace relationships, I find that misunderstandings are one of the leading factors that cause people to lose respect, trust, cooperation and the derailing of relationships. The problem starts with the fact that there…

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"Sync" into others to build connect-ability and rapport

Boost your “connect-ability” with others by being synchronized, or “in sync.” This is the ability to tune in to others, to create a rhythm of similar movements and behavioral cues that orchestrate a wonderful harmony. Being in sync means having rapport; it means playing up your similarities to establish a stronger connection, to create that…

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Don’t Stink At Email

If you lose readership of your email, your influence wanes at work.  If you misuse it enough, you’ll turn partners into detractors.  If you mismanage it as a resource, you’ll force everyone to do more work and they’ll despise you for it.  To quote TechStars grad and Vanilla founder Mark Sullivan, “Don’t suck at email.”…

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The Best Teams Communicate in 3 Critical Ways

Research reported by Alex Pentland in the April issue of Harvard Business Review has revealed some interesting new information on effective teams. He and his group deployed “sociometric badges” in teams in 21 organizations. These devices are able to monitor on individual team members’ tone of voice, body language, frequency of initiating and responding, plus…

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Why Lunch Is A Bad Setting For Real Business

One of worst techniques you’ll pick up in business is “let’s do lunch.” It sounds like a great device for conducting business, be it a pitch or project work.  Often, your offer is accepted, after all, we have to eat!  It sounds less ominous than, “I’d like to setup a meeting to come talk to…

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50 Key Ingredients to Enduring Connections

In my workshops and training sessions over the last 20+ years on improving customer and workplace relationships  I have found that there are 50 key ingredients that play a major factor in everything from employee engagement, leadership and  team building to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and sales. To establish excellent customer and workplace relationships and…

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Communicate to Connect

“Good communicators are open to my ideas. They respect me. They know who they are and what makes them ‘tick’ and they want to know the same about me. They foster my growth while attending to their own. They are proud of their accomplishments and of mine-for our mutual benefit.”  A Get Along seminar participant…

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Build a Culture of Trust

By Derek Murphy If there is one thing movies about the workplace tells us is that Hollywood believes bosses come in all shapes and sizes, and they are all pretty terrible people. Why the bad rep for leaders? Well, it’s no secret most employees have been disappointed and let down at some point in their…

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