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Why You Should Listen to Political Speeches
| You need to become a better communicator to large groups of people you do not interact with every day. If you can stomach the exercise, there is a lot to be learned during this prematurely-begun presidential political season. Free lessons in communication skills are being delivered every week by multiple experts. All you have to do is pay attention.
Presidential candidates make political speeches written by specialists. Listen to these speeches. Read the transcripts. See how the speeches are designed to connect to the audience. They present facts, yet acknowledge or stimulate feelings of the target group. Make notes. Use the techniques in your oral and written communications to the workforce.
The lessons are free and easily accessed. Go to the web sites of the individual candidates. Listen to short and long speeches. Go a step further and analyze some of the greatest speeches ever. |
Posted on: March 30, 2007 06:25 AM
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Get Out of That Meeting Before It's Too Late!
| If you need alternative solutions to solve a problem or to improve planning, forget the brainstorm meeting. A new study found that people have a harder time with alternative solutions when in a group. They do better by themselves. In fact, if a single option is spoken aloud in a meeting more than other options, participants will be less likely even to remember other options.
So now you have to adjust your approach depending on your needs.
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Posted on: March 29, 2007 06:28 AM
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The Awkwardness of the Age Difference
| Are you a younger manager with an older employee? Then you should have experienced the awkwardness that this workplace relationship brings. This article helps bring a little awareness to the situation now that the number of older workers is increasing at an amazing rate. Simply put, the work styles of older workers are very different from younger workers and this breeds misunderstandings if you are lucky and conflict if you are not so lucky. Most can be avoided, though, if you only pay serious attention to the issue. Also check out my related article on the site. I wrote it seven years ago (hard to believe) and the situation has just gotten worse since then This is a big deal! Something as seemingly innocuous as misunderstandings over work style can lead to dismissal! |
Posted on: March 28, 2007 08:02 AM
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Stop What You Are Doing and Eliminate Multitasking
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Can we please stop multitasking? It's just draining attention from the task at hand and causing more problems than it is worth. If you don't believe me then read this interview about the neural bottleneck found in a study completed recently showing the adverse effects. Read it while you look over a recent deliverable from a team lead and try to understand why the quality is so bad. Workers cannot do two or more things at once, even if they are 20-something. (One interesting result: older people, having more flexible brains, can switch complex tasks more effectively than younger ones.) |
Posted on: March 27, 2007 06:33 AM
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When the Fickle Finger of Fate Pointed at Me - Part 2
Categories:
HR Mgmt
Categories: HR Mgmt
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This employee was given a long leash, being seen as successful on many levels. Still, there were more incidences of unusual behavior. Once there was a meeting involving restructuring decisions where she was a participant. When discussion was not going her way at one point, she got down on her knees and started ranting.
Long story short: The employee exhibited operational successes and inexplicable behavior for a couple of years. I moved on to another department. Then a new accounting manager was hired. On a routine audit, he found classic expense report "double dipping" by the employee. She was convicted. Looking back, her behavior could have indicated a very strong desire to get her way. That may have suggested a potential to obtain more than she was due. I don't know. I do know that I learned to have a different view of what an "enlightened" supervisor is. I'm not cynical, mind you, just not so strongly a believer that employees will do the right thing. And I'm more pragmatic. I document everything, just in case a trend develops later. Even a weird trend. No matter what your definition of enlightenment is, document behavior of employees. Make it a habit. |
Posted on: February 20, 2007 06:20 AM
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