The “I” in Teamwork

We’ve all heard the cliché that there is no “I” in teamwork.  Beyond 3rd grade spelling, the lesson is that we need to be willing to sacrifice our self-interests for the sake of our team.  All Things Workplace has a nice refutation of that myth.  We all have self-interests.  If we’re honest, it’s virtually impossible [...]

Giving Thanks

Yes, it’s cliche to talk about giving thanks on the day before Thanksgiving.  But I think that it’s something we forget far too often, and this week provides a not-so-subtle reminder. 
Be thankful for your job…there are many who would trade places with you. 
Be thankful for your coworkers…should they be thankful for you? 
Be thankful for your [...]

Organizational Systems

What you do affects everyone else in your organization and vice versa.  The communication theory that relates to this is known as Systems Theory.  Systems theory is based on the idea that we are interdependent with the people around us.  I’ve already blogged about equifinality, which is one result of that interdependence.  Another result is [...]

Workplace Bullies

Statistics say that one out of every four people has been the target of workplace bullying (Lutgen-Sandvik et al., 2007).  Unfortunately, just like kids on the playground, there can sometimes seem like no way out for employee being bullied, whether the aggressor is a supervisor or coworker.  What to do?  Documentation is one of the [...]

Give Good Feedback

One of the most important tasks that managers engage in is giving feedback to their subordinates.  How do you give good feedback?  First, it needs to be immediate.  Don’t wait for a monthly or quarterly evaluation.  Use those times to remind employees of the feedback that you’ve already given them.  Second, mix positive and negative [...]

Put Pride Aside

Sometimes, our pride really gets in the way of what we do at work.  Have you ever experienced times when a coworker succeeds, and you wish that he/she hadn’t?  That’s often your pride at someone else succeeding.  It even happens when you have a success but someone else’s victory is larger/more dramatic/more important.  A friendly [...]

Practicing Leads to Better Communication

There is an old adage that practice makes perfect, and that certainly applies to good communication habits.  A workplace communication tips blog makes several suggestions about practicing and improving communication habits such as awareness and acknowledgement.  Even mentally thinking through conversations, as strange as it sound, tends to improve your performance in conflicts (Allen & [...]

Bad PowerPoint Presentations

Students in my classes are frequently making presentations during this time in the semester.  Unfortunately, many of these incredibly smart students do presentations poorly.  At some point in their lives, these students had a teacher who was guilty of what I call “PowerPoint” abuse.  You may have experienced this as well.  I had a professor [...]

NonProfit Edition–Communicating with Volunteers

I’m submitting a research paper to a conference this week that reports the results of a study examining communication between volunteers and paid staff in a nonprofit organization.  Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofits, but they are also often on the periphery of the organization’s communication.  The study compared volunteer satisfaction to what volunteers [...]

Have an Agenda for Your Meeting

One thing that you can do to help your meetings go well is to push for an agenda.  Having a written plan for the meeting is an important step in making the most of your time together.  Part of making an agenda for a meeting is focusing on one idea.  That focus will help keep [...]