If you take more than a second to start answering this question, then you probably haven’t put much thought to it before. And most likely you frequently find yourself being pushed by others to do things you don’t feel comfortable with. For example, it’s Friday afternoon and you’re looking forward [...]
The world is quite complex. In fact, it’s a lot more complex than our brains can handle. A LOT. Consider for a moment where you are right now. Consider the carpet of the floor you’re standing on. Think of the different strands of material in this, think of how many [...]
If you’ve ever lived in a foreign country, or worked in a foreign company, then you’ll discover that it’s not uncommon to hear complaints, or slightly negative comments about other cultures. When speaking with Western managers, I frequently hear the complaint “Chinese never speak up in meetings!”. When speaking with [...]
Have you ever received an email that was unclear? How about one that was so long you didn’t want to read it? And how about one that you read over and over again and still couldn’t understand it? Even though English is the global language of business, it seems that [...]
The difference between good communication and bad communication depends on where you think from. If you think from the wrong place then your communication can confuse, offend and even alienate other people. Think from the right place however and your communication is clear, concise and considerate. So where is this [...]
How do I grab your attention? By screaming loudly in your face? By phoning you every hour? By spamming your email inbox with lots of adverts? I’m sure you’ve experienced people using those tactics on you, and I’m sure they didn’t work. If anything they just annoyed you. To influence [...]
You probably have a To Do List. Whenever a new task comes in you just add it to the To Do List. This way you can rest assured that you won’t forget about it. But there is a very dangerous habit that can appear when we use To Do Lists. [...]
In comes an email. You open it up and the first thing you notice is it’s long. Real long. Should I read it or not? You decide to read it thinking that it must be important if someone’s gone to such effort to write such a long message. Unfortunately it [...]
Do you go to meeting after meeting without saying anything? Do you feel awkward as you notice people around you contributing to the discussion whilst you sit in silence? Do you want to contribute more? If you do, then you are not alone. From my experience, lack of contribution in [...]
I once complained to my bank about the poor customer service they were given me. As I was complaining, I decided to push my luck. I said that for the amount of time they’d taken of mine they should pay me back. I made a mental calculation that the number [...]