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My Best Advice To Improve Your Communication Skills
When it comes to communication, there is no silver bullet. I share the communication strategies that have worked for me, but they may not work for you. Even if you find something that works well for you, it may not work in all circumstances. That’s why the best advice that I can give is to pay attention.
Book Summary: The Culture Map, By Erin Meyer
This book helps the reader to begin to understand how culture influences the way we think and operate across eight dimensions. Meyer maps several countries on a variety of dimensions and then explains the differences through stories, and concludes with practical guidance for navigating working relationships across cultures.
Book Summary: Zero To One, By Peter Thiel
This book is based on a course about startups that Thiel taught at Stanford in 2012. One of his students, Blake Masters, took extensive notes that were shared outside of class and outside of campus. They gained such popularity that Theil worked with Masters to turn those notes in to this book.
How To Be On Time To Meetings
When you are late, your actions you have told this group of people that your time is more valuable than theirs and it’s not. It doesn’t matter who you are. It’s not. If this is happening regularly you should examine why and think of some strategies to prevent it from happening in the future.
Book Summary: Limitless By Jim Kwik
This is a book about how to learn faster so that you can unlock your limitless brain. Kwik starts with explaining some of the foundational truths about how we learn and retain information and then he uses those throughout the book to help the reader learn and retain information.
3 Ways To Stay In Control Of Your Meeting
The skill of quickly getting to the problem and focusing the discussion to achieve a meeting objective is an advanced communication skill. These strategies are specifically designed for when efficiency needs to be prioritized because something has become urgent.
Book Summary: The Fire Starter Sessions, By Danielle LaPorte
This book was gifted to me and arrived to my house on December 31st, the perfect time of year for a book about contemplating who you are and what you want from life. I devoured it in three days.
Off The Cuff Doesn't Mean Off The Top Of Your Head
The majority of the time we spend speaking at work is not in formal presentations. These speaking opportunities are much more influential to creating buy-in for your idea than your fancy slide deck and polished pitch. Part of successfully navigating the internal spheres of influence in an organization is to always be prepared for spontaneous speech.
Why You Should Journal About Work
I’ve kept a journal for years, but this practice has escalated as I’ve learned more about the benefits of journaling on mental and physical health. Something I hadn’t anticipated was how journaling would help me at work.
Book Summary: Atomic Habits, By James Clear
The word atomic is nodding to foundational points of the book; that habits are a source of immense energy and power, they’re part of a larger system, and that you should start with an extremely small and irreducible unit.
Why You Need a Personal Career Path Message
Once you hit corporate mid-level and above, there is are two truths about career paths that are important to understand. First, career steps are not predictable, straight up climbs. A mentor of mine used to always say "It's not a ladder, it's a jungle gym". Second, by the time the open role is on a job posting board, it’s too late.
3 Ground Rules For Cursing At Work, And Why You Should Do It
Should you curse at work? Yes!…sometimes… with ground rules. I've heard people suggest that cursing is the lowest form of communication. That it's applied out of laziness by people who aren't intelligent or articulate enough to find other words. Studies have shown the opposite to be true, that cursing can be aligned to higher verbal fluency.
Podcast Episode 19: Giving feedback, getting feedback, and creating a learning culture, with General Tom Kolditz
To explore the topic of feedback and how to create a learning culture we’ve brought in retired Brigadier General and Leadership expert General Tom Kolditz.
The Inbox Zero Method
If you are a follower of Marie Kondo, you know her mission is to help people live a life that sparks joy. For me, I find sheer joy when I get to the gmail inbox zero screen.
The Best Post-Vacation Email Hack Ever
As I write this there are 3,092 emails in my work email inbox and 349 of them are unread. This is intentional and I'm not stressed about it in the least. The number of emails I respond to or file and delete has no correlation with my goals and achievements. Inbox zero is a vanity metric that produces a great rush of personal satisfaction, but no real business results.
Podcast Episode 18: Visibility, with Lesley Everett
In this episode Danielle & Kristy talk with Lesley Everett, a personal branding expert, on why having a personal brand is important and how to improve your visibility.
Zig Ziglar And The Ultimate Resolution Accountability
It's time to check in on those new years resolutions. How is it going? If you're already petering out, you may need some external accountability. One of my favorite authors, Gretchen Rubin, established a personality framework to better understand what motivates people to take action.
How to talk big at a party
Let me be on the record to say that small talk is important. It's part of building familiarity with people. It's also the level of conversation that is appropriate for festive occasions and it can be fun! A holiday gathering is not the time to debate politics or delve into negative personal drama, no matter how familiar you are with the guests.
Balance Is B.S.
The term 'work-life balance' is a triggering term for me. I don't often curse, but when this topic comes up I immediately and loudly declare "balance is bull $#%T!". Partly because I love alliteration, but also because I'm passionate about this topic and cursing is a great way to emphasize passion. The problem is the word balance.
How To Have Your Best Monday
Mondays get a bad wrap, but Mondays are by far my most productive day of the week and that makes me so happy. Shawn Achor describes happiness as "The joy you feel when moving toward your potential." This definition resonates so much and Mondays are the day I'm making the most progress toward my potential and therefore experiencing a happiness high.