13 Mar Speaking Business English Clearly
Navigating Language and Being Heard
14 Sep Tips for Leading Effective Meetings
Our coaching team appreciates the challenge of masterminding the right mix of talent, personalities, and action items.
Fortunately, easy tweaks often go a long way to enhance comfort, participation, and awareness of nuances in a team member’s behavior.
Recently, I worked with a senior leader in financial services who felt it was his responsibility to control the agenda and results of all meetings; in fact, he considered it part of his job. He was baffled that his group was quiet, rarely initiated topics, didn’t show passion regarding action items, and only engaged in small talk after the meeting.
He asked me how he could change the situation. Our team of communication experts developed easy-to-apply key strategies to help this and other clients develop more productive teams.
We advised:
- Begin meetings with small talk or each person sharing an observation or personal update to develop trust and increase interpersonal communication.
- Develop an agenda to which team members are expected to contribute. Research indicates that 1/3 of all meetings are viewed as a waste of time. Change that!
- Use meetings for discussion and problem-solving rather than just providing information. One of my favorite sayings is, “Go from information to inspiration and impact.”
- Try an approach like “round robin” or going around the room when possible. The goal is to keep the talkers from dominating and allow quiet people to contribute more. This is essential for equalizing talking time, a key ingredient for team success.
- Have some fun and novelty with a bit of partying, such as lunch meetings outside the office and/or appealing surprise guests. Refreshments always help. I had a client who wanted to tighten his budget by eliminating the snacks. I told him I’d give him the 25 bucks for goodies to save all the gains we’d made in coaching.
Try out these suggestions, and your team meetings will be more engaging, valuable, and productive!
16 Jan MLK – Changing the World Through Speech
Martin Luther King is known as the greatest orator in modern times– a man whose words and style created profound social change. Though few of us will transform society, we can elevate our professional world through the way we speak.
Here are three lessons: (more…)
1 Nov Getting your Message Across: Strategies for Conveying Technical and Complex Information
Communication excellence, the ability to speak clearly and convey ideas with impact, is highly associated with career and organizational success.
Yet, healthcare and technology leaders face a major challenge: how to simplify complex and technical information so that others “get it”, buy in, and take action for best results. (more…)
18 Oct Five Tips for Telehealth Professionals
Telehealth is here to stay! Eighty percent of patients had positive experiences during the pandemic, and the same number wish to continue their telehealth sessions when meeting in person is not necessary for treatment, or as an adjunct to in person visits.
No matter what the medium though, patients and clients judge healthcare providers on two dimensions:
1) Professional knowledge and expertise; and 2) Communication/relationship skills.