Let’s be honest, most people know roughly what they want, but do not take the time to clearly think it through. Or worse, they know what they don’t want, not what they want. This is how we end up with ambiguous, muddled or unclear messages. Without a clear understanding of our desired end results, our thoughts are disorganized and we can easily confuse the listener. Once we are clear on the outcome(s) how do we make sure we are understood?
3 Tips on How to Observe What is Really Happening in a Room
For our leaders of tomorrow, and anyone else that desires to enhance their communications skills, one of the first skills to harness is the power of mindful observation. The value of training our observation skills is to bring the subtle or the nuance of what we are observing to our conscious awareness.
Wow, can you believe it – it’s hard for me to believe that it’s been one year! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for making it one amazing ride – What Your Body Says (and how to master the message) hit the bookstores one year ago. Happy Birthday (or is it Anniversary), what a difference a year can make!
Haggling is not part of the common culture, at least for me, in the United States. When I was encouraged to haggle here in China, it was really my first experience with hard-line haggling. Sure, “Is this your best price?” has left these lips before and I’ve asked for discounts back home — I’ve even haggled in Europe and Africa — but nothing compares to the art of haggling in China.
Have you ever heard things like, “She’s nice, but not leadership material.” He’s just not confident enough for the job” but you know you are confident and leadership material. I know how frustrating that can be – to be judged before they even know you, maybe even before you’ve even opened your mouth! Attendees of my trainings tell me those and similar sad phrases that keep them from getting ahead all the time.
Why does that happen?
A smile sends a message that endears someone to you or repulses you. It can express empathy, happiness, sadness or even embarrassment. There are real smiles and fake smiles and all sorts of smiles in-between. In his book The Face: A Natural History, author Daniel McNeill, suggests that “the first smiles appear two to twelve hours after birth and seem void of content.” As the mother of two, I assure you, even if my newborn sons had no content to their smiles, their smiles certainly had emotional content for me.
Meet Izzie…. my little “rescue” dog with a mighty wonder-lust for adventure.
Listen into my latest podcast (It’s just 3 minutes long) and find out what little Izzie taught me last night….
Then please share with me below ways you have found to get out of your own way….
Listen in to my crazy experience with cross-cultural communications and the use of nonverbal “jargon”…
If you do a lot of international business, it’s a good idea to study up on what is and isn’t acceptable in various countries and across different societies. Observe the local culture in different companies as well as varied countries. When in doubt — or if you don’t understand what you see — just ask. The answer might surprise you.
As the clock struck 12:40pm I walked into the salon. The young manager looked up at me and politely asked “how may I help you?”
“I have a 12:45pm appointment with Zack (a manager from another business branch who I was to coach), is he in yet?”
“No” she hadn’t seen him to which I replied “that’s ok I’m a few minutes early anyway”
I often hear women say that a good man is hard to find. Then there are those who say that it’s hard to find a man who is comfortable with a powerful and successful woman. They say that men are intimidated by their success. While I can perhaps sympathize with this theory, I can’t say that I really agree.
