Reading the Room When Words and Body Language Don’t Match
When what someone says and how they say it don’t align, the mismatch itself is genuine information. Here’s how to read it well.
Emotional Intelligence
communication
Communication, Leadership, Management Skills
Delivering Feedback That Lands as Useful, Not Personal
The same feedback can land as a helpful signal or a personal attack depending on how it’s delivered. Here’s how to make it genuinely useful.
Communication
Communicating a Decision You’re Still Not Fully Certain About
A decision often has to be communicated before every doubt is resolved. Here’s how to do it honestly, without either false confidence or excessive hedging.
Communication
Explaining a Change You Didn’t Make and Don’t Fully Understand Yourself
Explaining a decision made above your level, without full understanding yourself, is a genuine communication challenge. Here’s how to do it honestly.
Communication
Communicating Uncertainty Honestly Without Creating Unnecessary Anxiety
Being honest about uncertainty and avoiding unnecessary anxiety can feel like competing goals. Here’s how to actually hold both together.
Management Skills
Setting Expectations With a New Direct Report Early
Clear expectations set early prevent far more problems than they solve after the fact. Here’s how to set them well with a new direct report.
Management Skills
The Manager’s Role in Compensation Conversations
A manager’s role in compensation conversations is genuinely more nuanced than simply delivering numbers decided elsewhere. Here’s how to navigate it well.
Communication
Reading the Room: Adjusting Your Message Mid-Conversation
A prepared message delivered exactly as planned, regardless of the room’s actual reaction, often lands poorly. Here’s how to genuinely read and adjust in real time.
Communication
The Skill of Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable
Genuine disagreement and interpersonal friction don’t have to travel together. Here’s how to voice honest disagreement while preserving the relationship.
Communication
Communicating Bad News Up the Chain, Not Just Down
Delivering difficult news to a manager or executive requires a genuinely different approach than delivering it to a team. Here’s how to do it well.
Communication
Writing Emails People Actually Read to the End
Most work emails get skimmed, not read, and the important part often gets missed. Here’s how to write emails that people genuinely read all the way through.
Communication
The Pause: Using Silence Deliberately in Conversation
Silence in conversation is often treated as something to fill quickly, and deliberate pauses are actually one of the most underused communication tools available.
Communication
Explaining a Delay Without Sounding Like an Excuse
A genuine reason for a delay can still sound like a weak excuse if explained poorly. Here’s how to communicate a delay in a way that preserves trust.
Communication
Communicating Across Generations at Work
Genuine communication preferences vary across generations in the workplace, and neither extreme, dismissing the differences or over-generalising them, serves teams well.
Communication
Communicating When You Don’t Have All the Answers Yet
Pressure to sound certain, even before you genuinely are, produces communication that erodes trust once the gaps eventually show. Here’s a better approach.