The Thoughtful Leaders Blog
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on May 15, 2012
We have written about the impact of technology on our lives and work numerous times, sharing our perspectives on how our constant need to email, text, tweet, and update status disconnects us from good old-fashioned face-to-face human interaction. We’ve shared our experiences about being bowled over by a fast-walking texter in Manhattan, observing a group of people around a table focused on their electronic devices rather than each other, coaching an executive about the perils of replying to emails during happy hour (or while driving), empathizing with the employee who spends most meetings with her boss wondering if he has heard a word she has said as he “multitasks” in her presence.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Lisa Kohn on March 15, 2012
 This seems to be very blatant, obvious advice, yet I think it’s advice we can all heed – both in it’s specifics and in it’s overall concept: to make sure we’re fully focused when we communicate with others, put things in writing, and send them out through cyberspace.
When you’re out drinking, when your filters may be a bit less engaged, it is NOT the time to answer emails, or IMs, or even phone calls, of a work-related nature. You may feel charged to get one last thing done, or inspired with a pithy response or brilliant idea, but it is easy to say or type the wrong thing, dash off a nasty-gram, or use inappropriate humor when we are not really focused on our best communication.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on November 7, 2011
“If you don’t give people information, they’ll make something up to fill the void.” Carla O’Dell
We highly recommend “overcommunication” to our clients. We tell our clients, repeatedly, that they should share with others what they know, what they don’t know, what they can disclose, what they can’t disclose, why they can’t disclose something, when they might disclose something – basically everything possible. Because if they don’t – if they leave a void – the people around them will make something up.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 10, 2011
“How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things, but how well we are understood.” Andrew Grove
How often do you have absolute surety that you’ve clearly, specifically stated what it was you needed to share. That you’ve posed simple questions, offered explicit directions, clarified unambiguous expectations, and communicated everything that you needed to. And that any misunderstanding is therefore completely and totally the fault of the people who simply didn’t hear what you so carefully said.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Robyn McLeod on September 22, 2011
Early in the development of our business we had a big meeting with a Vice President at a major bank whom we desperately wanted as a client. We created a well-organized presentation deck, thought through all that we wanted her to know about us, and set an intention to walk away from the meeting with a proposal opportunity. As the meeting progressed, we noticed that she was not saying much and did not seem fully engaged. So in wrapping up we asked if she had any questions for us and whether there was anything that would make her hesitant to work with us. Her response made me cringe. “It was great to hear about your work,” she said. “But you spent way too much time talking about yourselves and very little time finding out about me, my work, and what I need.” It was one of those palm slap to the forehead moments.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Robyn McLeod on September 8, 2011
In teaching a program on Managing Conflict recently I asked participants to name some of the sources of conflict in their organization. They offered many suggestions about the things that cause conflict to arise, and the strongest sources of conflict, the ones that seemed to generate the most nods of agreement and emphatic responses, centered around communication – lack of communication, miscommunication, conflicting messages, and misinterpreted messages.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on May 2, 2011
“Listen to everyone. Ideas come from everywhere.” Tom Peters
I have a client whom I challenge to listen more fully to people – even people, and especially people, in whom he has no interest. “Go ahead,” I urge, “See what you can learn from them, especially since you expect to learn nothing.”
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on January 25, 2011
As signs of economic improvement appear, leaders like you are asking themselves how they can be sure to retain their best employees – many of whom may be sought after by other employers and may be frustrated or dissatisfied with changes that have taken place in your organization over the last couple of years. Last week our blog post on rebuilding trust, The key word is TRUST, addressed this issue and offered ideas for getting ahead of the potential employee turnover and creating a climate where employees can once again be engaged, productive, and successful.
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Lisa Kohn on December 24, 2010
My clients never cease to inspire me – and each year, as the year draws to an end, I reflect on the lessons they have taught me. Here is what I learned in 2010:
- Nothing is more important than taking care of yourself – because if you don’t, you have nothing to give. Without the rest, exercise, space, reflection, food…whatever it is that fuels you, you are not able to lead, or take care of, others. As they say, “put your own oxygen mask on first.”
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Posted by Robyn McLeod on October 8, 2010
It is so easy to complain. Walk into any office or stroll through the halls, and listen in. It won’t take long before you hear griping and venting about something gone wrong or something blatantly unfair. People complain – about their co-workers, their bosses, their latest assignments, even the weather. What is the cost of lost hours and energy focused on complaining, I wonder? Easily in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Even more important, what if you could circumvent some of that complaining and help employees be more productive, simply by helping them think in a new way?
(Continue reading…)
Related Posts:
Leave a Reply
Older Posts »
|
|
View Robyn McLeod's profile
great thoughts, if we think of all the recent firings and abuses because of communication mishaps, this is sound advise. Didn’t know what to expect when I saw the title.
Thanks for your thoughts Dwight. It is too easy to communicate these days without thinking carefully through what we’re saying and what the ramifications, intended or not, may be.