I taught a night class on Managerial Communication at Metropolitan State University for 10 years. Students would often ask me, “How do you have difficult conversations with employees?” The key to having effective and successful difficult conversations with employees is to take in the whole picture and get prepared. Brush up on some of the principles of emotional intelligence: […]
Often, when there are problems, people are so sure about what they think the problem is. You may sometimes wonder, is this the problem or is this a symptom? It would be a good idea to incorporate a proven process for problem-solving that guarantees that a rational decision will be made by the team.
As a team member, we should […]
Sometimes we wonder why certain people were selected to be on our team. Are they qualified? You may like them personally, but they are somewhat strangers professionally. You may have good attendance at your team meetings, (because attendance is required) however, you may not be cohesive.
Cohesiveness is the degree to which members feel connected with and committed to their […]
We love it when our team is in sync. Decision making seems easy. However, sometimes these great ideas don’t work so well in the field. It often helps to rotate the role of critical thinker and prevent the team from doing something dumb. Because there are times when people are so excited about an idea, they just go ahead […]
Of course we would like to get along with our teammates. So, sometimes when we think it’s a pretty good idea, we just simply agree. Also, because we certainly don’t enjoy people criticizing our thoughts, especially the areas of our expertise.
On teams, team members often would rather avoid conflict. I don’t think any of us go home at the […]