http://www.articlealley.com en-us editorial@articlealley.com Listening is an important communication skill that is widely underused. That's because although we consciously learn to write and to speak, somehow we think listening should come naturally. That's not always the case. Here are nine simple steps to impr... http://www.articlealley.com/article_254979_24.html 20th January 2008 I recently had a conversation with a director of a major law firm about morale among employees. It was low, and employee retention was beginning to be an issue. As we talked, it became apparent that while the lawyers had access to everything that would... http://www.articlealley.com/article_250073_15.html 16th January 2008 Did you know that we human beings are incapable of NOT answering a question? I just asked you a question, and you answered it in your mind --- either you knew or you didn't know, and it was impossible for you not to at least THINK your answer. Isn't that ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_226162_15.html 11th October 2007 If you want to stop feeling powerless at work, here's a good way to start: take responsibility for your own communication.What does that have to do with power? A lot, because many people handle their half of communication exchanges in a way th... http://www.articlealley.com/article_214429_15.html 18th September 2007 It's essential that you provide benchmarks in presentations when you are talking about the size, age, value or other attributes of a subject. I have a friend who owns a temporary placement agency. In conversation, she told me she had x-number of temps ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_210905_15.html 03rd September 2007 In learning how to write a business letter, you need to know and understand the eight parts that should be included in any business letter. Here they are: The return address: This is the writer's address. If you are writing on behalf of a company or or... http://www.articlealley.com/article_206572_50.html 26th August 2007 If there's one skillset that can help you position yourself for career success, it's presentation skills. That's because in today's highly competitive workplace, it's not enough just to be competent - you need to be seen to be competent. And the best way ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_203856_50.html 20th August 2007 Praise is often given to groups of people in recognition of a group achievement. This is a good thing. When we've all pulled together to meet an objective, that recognition helps extend the "feel good" moment that comes with achievement. Unfortunately,... http://www.articlealley.com/article_200660_15.html 13th August 2007 I sat in on a client meeting one day, and saw the leader make a classic communication mistake that never fails to cause resentment. Tom had decided on a course of action for the group to take. I don't know how much research he had done, or whether he h... http://www.articlealley.com/article_197674_15.html 06th August 2007 I'm often surprised when I hear people talk about "communication skills" and "writing skills" as if they were two separate attributes. Writing is a communication skill, and an important part of any communication skillset. Good writing skills are important... http://www.articlealley.com/article_194653_50.html 31st July 2007 People love to be praised. Good managers know this, and take every opportunity to reward good performance with a word of public praise. What many don't realize is that constructive criticism is also welcomed by employees. There are two reasons for this... http://www.articlealley.com/article_179100_15.html 29th June 2007 Have you ever come back from vacation, or from a business trip of more than a few days, to find an overstuffed e-mailbox containing a blow-by-blow account of everything that happened while you were away? E-mail overload at its worst! You know the kind ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_162290_15.html 21st May 2007 Look at any number of want ads, particularly for senior employees, and you will see that most of them ask for team players. We all think we are team players, but the problem is we don't all mean the same thing. Noticeably, men and women have different ide... http://www.articlealley.com/article_156801_15.html 08th May 2007 If you want to advance in your career, you can borrow the idea of positioning from the marketing world. Positioning has a simple objective: to make a target group of people see a particular brand of product as the best of its kind. What does this have ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_153217_24.html 30th April 2007 You're happily mixing and mingling at a conference, when you find yourself speaking with an expert in a subject that's totally foreign to you. What do you do? First, don't try to wing it, because you'll make mistakes and look foolish. Why would you wan... http://www.articlealley.com/article_150590_15.html 22nd April 2007 The Law of Social Proof. The Law of Authority. The Law of Contrast. Do these terms mean anything to you? They will in a moment! You won't find these laws in your country's Constitution or legal writings, but whether you realize it or not they affect yo... http://www.articlealley.com/article_147733_15.html 15th April 2007 Before you fire off that e-mail, are you sure your message is clear? Workplace communication often fails because in our written messages we inadvertently put up barriers between the message and the reader's mind. The commas in the first sentence tell us ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_144848_50.html 07th April 2007 The following sentences are grammatically incorrect in some way. Can you write them correctly? 1. We started small, but as the company has grown over the past ten years. 2. The reason we cancelled the picnic was because there was a thunderstorm. ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_142989_50.html 01st April 2007 Have I noticed a strange new language pattern creeping into people's speech? Yes. Does it make the message any clearer? No Does it annoy me? Yes, it annoys me a lot! Lately I've heard this strange speech pattern from many public figures being int... http://www.articlealley.com/article_139450_50.html 27th March 2007 Conventional management training typically consists of single, time-limited workshops or seminars. The length of the event varies by position level, function or business discipline, and size and structure of the employer organization. For new managers,... http://www.articlealley.com/article_136951_15.html 12th March 2007 The letter has traditionally been the central vehicle for written messages in the world of business. In fact, it still is. Even today, in spite of the continuing growth in e-mail, text messaging and other technologies, when we want to send important infor... http://www.articlealley.com/article_134394_15.html 05th March 2007 Employees' writing skills - or the lack of them - substantially affect the bottom line in ways you may never have considered. Here are just a few. * Badly written instructions can lead to incorrect procedures, lost time, damaged equipment, lost custome... http://www.articlealley.com/article_132481_15.html 27th February 2007 One of the main barriers to business communication, both in writing and in speech, is the inappropriate use of jargon. Is the reader a member of your company, your organization, your industry or profession? If so, a certain amount of jargon may be appr... http://www.articlealley.com/article_130223_15.html 19th February 2007 When you delegate tasks or processes, you transfer a certain level of freedom in how the tasks are to be handled. These levels range from simply giving instructions to be followed right through to handing over a complete project that then becomes part of ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_39877_15.html 01st April 2006 Burn-out --- it's become something of an epidemic in today's workplace. But sometimes we only have ourselves to blame. Often we overload ourselves with extra work, waste large amounts of our time and build resentment against others, simply because we d... http://www.articlealley.com/article_39737_36.html 31st March 2006 People often tell me about being angry at work. Well, anger at work is inevitable. If you work with others there will be times when you are angry at them—and if you work alone there will be times when you are angry at yourself! Learning to deal appropr... http://www.articlealley.com/article_39731_24.html 31st March 2006 1. Define your audience. The words you use, the content you include and even the format of your report will all be influenced by the intended readers. Who are they? Are they experienced in the subject matter? Are there different types of readers? What ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_39710_36.html 31st March 2006 We were having dinner with friends at their house. The husband, who had been a friend of mine for a very long time, had suffered from diabetes for much longer than I, and he had always pretty much taken it in his stride. But on this particular evening,... http://www.articlealley.com/article_39703_17.html 31st March 2006 Have you ever wondered if anything can get your employees to care about the work they're doing? Managers who are self-starters, who enjoy and are motivated by the work they do and the organization they work for, are sometimes puzzled by the perceived ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_39108_15.html 28th March 2006