When working with people, conflict is inevitable. It can can be challenging and even exhausting at times. As a recovering people-pleaser, I have a natural tendency to run away from conflict and hope that somehow if we avoid talking about things than the situation will eventually improve. Of course, the situation usually doesn’t improve and […]
Communication Challenges: Conflict Read More »
We are bombarded with email, video chats, webinars, conference calls, social media, in-person meetings, trainings, retreats, conferences and more. With all of these communication methods, it is easy to become overwhelmed – and to overwhelm others. When working in teams, nonprofits and coalitions, we face two big challenges. 1. How do we stand out so
Communication Challenges: Overwhelmed Part 1 Read More »
As we discussed last week, having someone dominate the conversation can be very challenging. It can be even more challenging to ask questions and try to encourage conversation and have no one respond. You definitely want to allow for short periods of silence so that your team can reflect and respond; however, if there are
Communication Challenges: Silence Read More »
We can be consistent, concise and clear, but if we are not candid, we will not be able to maintain the trust and engagement of our coalition or team. How many times have you been in a meeting where you sensed tremendous tension in the room but no one was willing to admit it? How
Communicate candidly Read More »
If we communicate consistently, but we don’t communicate concisely, we will lose our partners and team members. There is just TOO much information that comes our way every day for us to filter through three paragraph long emails (or more!) or hour-long conversations about a topic that could have been covered in 30 minutes. None
Communicate concisely Read More »
Every job description I have ever seen – and ever applied for – has said something like “strong communication skills.” This goes right along with “highly organized,” and while we all recognize that communication skills are important, when do we talk about the specific, practical things we need to do to communicate well? Over the
Communicate Consistently Read More »
Based on last week’s post, you know why it’s important to follow-up; however, you may be getting stuck when it comes to actually doing it. Even though we philosophically agree that follow-up is important, it’s easy to get so focused on our next project, meeting or commitment that the follow-up for what we just did
Follow-up on the answers: How? Read More »
We have spent the past seven weeks on “asking the right questions” and before that, we focused on “skillful listening.” The most important next step after listening well and asking the right questions to the right people at the right time in the right way is to follow-up on what you learned. This does not
Follow-up on the answers: Why? Read More »
This week, we are continuing to uncover more ways that we can ask the right questions of our teams and coalitions. As I emphasized in last week’s post ask the right questions, it is really important to understand your situation and your audience to determine the best way to get input from your partners. If
Ask the right questions: How? – Part 2 Read More »
We have gone through the many types of questions in order to ask the right questions. The why, what, who, when and now this week we are focused on the “how.” The way you ask the questions depends a lot upon your situation. Who are you asking and what is their preferred method of communication
Ask the right questions: How? Part 1 Read More »