If you’ve been on the planet in the last decade, you’ve no doubt been exposed to Simon Sinek’s video and book, Start with Why. Simon makes a tremendous case for the power of asking ourselves “What’s my ‘why’?” in an effort to communicate with clients, patients, and team members the emotional reason behind what we do rather than the more …
The Root of All Things
In preparation for writing my new book, Lead Yourself, Lead Your Team, which launches June 1, 2027, I did a lot of research and re-read some old classics on communicating effectively in challenging situations. I was reminded on all fronts about how easily we can get derailed when emotions take over for logic. There is a raft of research to …
The Great Sales Match
“Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch…” For some reason, I’m on a weird kick lately to re-watch all my old favorite musicals. Those famous lyrics from, Fiddler on the Roof, haunt my head as I write this week’s Monday Morning Stretch and think about how often we complicate the communication process with …
It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
A few years ago, on a 5-hour return flight from Honolulu, I watched the film, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, which is a thoughtful documentary about the life and work of Fred Rogers. The film showcased the deep dedication he had for reaching children through television to help build their sense of self-esteem and worthiness as well as convincing them …
The Choice is Clear
It’s only occasionally that I’m truly impressed with the level of client service extended to me by an individual. Even more rare is that level of extraordinary service delivered by an entire group of people. But, I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve had consistently excellent service delivered by an entire company nationwide over a five-year …
The Space Between
I facilitate an exercise with groups where I ask everyone to write down a quote from a book, movie, play, or song that had a profound impact on them personally. We use the quotes throughout the day in a variety of ways. So far, I’ve not met anyone who didn’t have one. Mine is easy to recall because when I …
Outside Voices
An outside voice can challenge and encourage our inside voice. “I bet your husband doesn’t have a chance if he gets in an argument with you!” That’s what someone actually said to me after a presentation I gave on mastering crucial conversations. I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about because my husband and I don’t ever have any …
Power Talking
There is an oft-quoted statistic published by a USC professor, Albert Mehrabian, which states that we communicate 55% of a message with our body language, 38% with our tone, pace, and pauses and only 8% with our actual word choice. As a student of communication, I find convincing evidence of this almost every day, but I believe it’s only relevant …
A Jar Full of Love
Pet peeves. We’ve all got ’em. I hate it when guys leave the toilet seat up and I fall right into it in the middle of the night. I hate it when someone takes the last of anything and doesn’t restock it or add it to the grocery list. I hate it when the express checkout lane of 15 items …
The Magic Confrontation Combo
Raise your hand if you love conflict or confrontation? I frequently ask that question in groups I speak to and teams I coach, and usually one or two people will raise their hand. These are typically people who love a challenge or, in some cases, love “the fight” as they see it. Nothing wrong with it, just not how most …
