Category Archives: Communication

Traveling once again

So many people are traveling once again for work, pleasure, time with family, I guess it was time for us to do the same. We flew in early to Nashville for the Vistage Chairworld conference, and convinced my husband Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Judy to join us from their home in NE Tennessee. First up, we tried some of the local beers and enjoyed the music scene. By days end, when we returned to the hotel, Chairs were arriving from all over the world and the energy that comes from being with your most respected and loved peers was flowing.

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Get granular

If you want to brand your organization in a way that sets you apart from the crowd, if you want to attract new customers, get more business from existing customers and be one of the top 3 in organic SEO search, you must get granular. Vistage Speaker Stacey Crowley explained how to do this to my 3 groups this week. >

Avoiding the Conversation

Ah, the work-arounds we create when we are avoiding the conversation! A team member was telling me about an interaction where he was treated rudely by email. Before he addressed it directly he had an email interchange with another colleague asking for advice. He wrote a careful reply and received no apology, just a righteous justification. Is he going to address it directly with a phone call? No. He is avoiding the conversation. >

Yes, and…

Have you ever thought of using improvisational techniques (explained below) to improve the communication, the engagement and culture of your company? Vistage Speaker Chris Nielson brought them to my groups this week with great enthusiasm and success. Once engaged it is easy to connect, but how to engage? >

Paint the picture

When you are speaking to your team and you want them to remember a point and actualize the behavior required, do you paint the picture? >

Make it visual

The states shown in blue above have a smaller population than Los Angeles County*.

I was floored when I saw this visual that in one glance explained so much (good and bad) about my world. Yes, I knew that L.A. County was the most populous at 9.8 million and that Cook county in Illinois was second, but seeing it in a visual, that it had more people than 39 states? That is one powerful visual.
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Curiosity is a superpower

On Friday, my Vistage group was listening to Indra Nooyi, retired CEO of Pepsico, talk about Leadership in a Time of Crisis. She was laying out her 5 C’s of Leadership of which no. 4 was curiosity. It occurred to me that curiosity is a superpower. >

Don’t “wuss out”

On Friday, I attended a Vistage webinar featuring Patrick Lencioni, the writer of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, The Ideal Team Player, and The Motive. Lencioni has a new assessment he has developed called “Working Genius“. It is a great tool for assessing the “right seat on the bus*” for your team members. Assessment requires communication with the team member: letting them know regularly whether they are performing to your expectations. Lencioni said one of the biggest failures of many leaders is that they “wuss out.” I burst out laughing.

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People are people everywhere

On our first day in Cairo, the tour guide greeted us with an eye rolling cliche – people are people everywhere. He continued: we want you to get to know the people of Egypt, not just our amazing historical buildings. Our guide in Jordan echoed similar sentiments. >

Great simplifiers

General Colin Powell, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.” Are you good at this? >