Being a conscious conversationalist is critical to a long-term relationship, whether with a coworker, customer, or friend—at least for me. I've encountered many people who are conversationally challenged. Since it is doubtful your friends or colleagues will...
Grow Your Key Talent Blog
The Path to Wisdom
I work closely with a tech company which isn't a client. They have thousands of employees around the world. Their headquarters houses a few thousand. Because I am a super-user of their site, I get asked to participate in special programs -- some beta tests,...
Humor, at Someone Else’s Expense, Can Cut More Deeply Than You’ll Ever Know
In my family caustic teasing was de rigueur. We would be teased about anything the teaser thought was funny, no matter how humiliating, and with no thought to how it would leave the receiver feeling. Didn't do well on a test? You'd be teased about being dumb....
Become a Time-Conscious Communicator
I've noticed a lot of people — maybe 90% — aren't very conscious of their conversational habits. The most common habit I've noticed is no awareness of the relevance of what the speaker is saying to their conversational partner. I began to wonder how much more...
Act on Your Curiosity
In the first chapter of Give and Take, author Adam Grant features Adam Rifkin, who was dubbed Fortune magazine's Best Networker (he has the most LinkedIn connections to Fortune's 640 most powerful people). I decided to invite him to connect on LinkedIn. Wanting to...
Commit to Continuous Personal Improvement
People I admire strive to become better as a partner, parent, child, friend, boss, coworker or human being. They are continually looking for ways to improve, whether for their relationships, or to create more effective habits for themselves. I've noticed three ways...
Is Your Superpower Recognizing Others’ Superpowers?
Photo: Rebecca Morgan, Chinese New Year lanterns, Hong Kong Identifying one's "superpower" has become a hot topic. We are encouraged to identify where we excel. This is not always an easy task. Most of us are either oblivious to how we stand out, or at the other...
Are You Difficult?
Have you ever been told you are difficult? When I've labeled someone difficult, they have been some of these: obstinate, uncooperative, inflexible, demanding, dictatorial undiplomatic, blunt, condescending, arrogant, caustic, hyper-critical, argumentative (often just...
Waves Are Like People
The morning was spectacular—a warm Gulf breeze brushed my cheeks. Waves scampered across the beach. Meditating on the waves’ delicious sound, color and dance, I observed that even as they were approaching the shore, they were retreating. A small berm lay between me...
