Posts Tagged ‘conversation’

Using Questions To Control Communication

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Through reading numerous books on communication and field testing hundreds of techniques, a few fundamental patterns have become very apparent to me. If you’ve ever been on a date, an interview, or a networking event, you may have noticed some of these social patterns as well.

Before getting involved in an interaction with someone, ask yourself a couple of questions:

How can you make a person feel important

» Continue

December 21 2007 | By Alex | Tagged: Communication, conversation, question | 6 comments»

Using Compliments To Control Communication

Over the past few years I have been reading books on personal development, relationships, communication, and the power of manipulation. I took things a step further, when I began to experiment with some of these techniques in real conversations. The thing to remember when your experiments involve other people is to have fun, treat it as a learning experience, and not be harmful or disruptive to other people as… » Continue

November 23 2007 | By Alex | Tagged: Communication, compliment, conversation, manipulation | 35 comments»

Advice for Students: How to Talk to Professors

A while back, I recommended that students get to know their professors. I realize, though, that many students are intimidated or put off by their professors. This is especially so when students need something — a favor, special help with an assignment, a second chance on a test.

It doesn’t need to be that way. Professors are people, just like everyone else, and if… » Continue

September 14 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: conversation, professors, students, talk | 17 comments»

Confrontation is the Big Brother of Productivity

No. I repeat this simple word many times each day, in a variety of volumes and with relative efficacy. My three young children are used to me saying no but are keen to keep me in line in case I abuse the word or just get in the habit of saying no under the banner of being a “good parent”. When I’m at home, no is easy… » Continue

July 26 2007 | By Mike | Tagged: Communication, confrontation, conversation, Productivity | 6 comments»

8 One Liners That Stick

One liners are the stuff of effective communicators and though we are seldom aware of it, each of us can use them to our advantage. The “art of delivery” is not just for a skilled politician who is running for reelection but can be mastered, over time, by just about anyone. A good one liner doesn’t click immediately but leaves its mark, silently accomplishing what the deliverer has in… » Continue

July 19 2007 | By Mike | Tagged: Communication, conversation | 31 comments»

How To Exit A Conversation

We’ve talked about making yourself more approachable and initiating conversation. Now, hopefully, you’ve gone and got yourselves into some conversations you wish you hadn’t.

There are 3 reasons you might stay in a conversation that you want to leave:

You’re too polite - Many of us feel like it’s rude to leave someone alone after talking to them for a few minutes. It isn’t. People have things to… » Continue

July 19 2007 | By Craig | Tagged: conversation | 42 comments»

How To Initiate Conversation

The hardest part of socializing, for many people, is initiating conversation. However, it is a big mistake to go about life not making the first move and waiting for someone else to do it [in conversation or anything].

This isn’t to say you must always be the first in everything or spark up conversations with everyone you see. What should be said, though, is once you get good at starting… » Continue

July 4 2007 | By Craig | Tagged: conversation | 83 comments»

The Art of Humble Confidence

To be confident or not to be confident, that is the question. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been a bit confused about all this discussion about the subject of confidence. Do you really need to be more confident or should you try to be more humble? I think the answer is both – you just have to know where to use it.

East VS West… » Continue

May 15 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: Communication, confidence, conversation, humble | 3 comments»

Smallest Presentation Hack Ever

Ready? Here you go:

Don’t. Read. Your. Dumb. Slides.

Long version:

I’m at a pitchfest of an event, and people have come up one after another doing this basic performance over and over again:

“Hello, my name is _____. I’m the CEO and founder of ShinyNewSite.tv. At ShinyNewSite.tv, we believe in maximizing your efficiency through enhancing your brand and building your… Our mission is…”

What? Hello? Where am I? Oh wait. I… » Continue

May 3 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: Communication, conversation, hacks, Lifehack, powerpoint, presentation | 24 comments»

How to Have a Business Conversation

Most of the time, small-talk conversation is required for networking in the corporate world. It requires a lot of practice, but having couple of tips to get started will speed you up with the progress. Ben Stein at Yahoo! Finance did a nice piece on how to have a business conversation:

Begin by knowing that the people you’re talking to mostly want to talk about themselves.
Establish common ground.
Say kind, generous

» Continue

April 17 2007 | By Leon | Tagged: business, conversation, talk | 1 comment»

Talk to Strangers

My friend, Noah Kagan, passed on an article written on his site by Jonathan Hudson about a topic I’m not all that talented in conveying: how to strike up a conversation with someone you don’t yet know.

It’s not a bunch of bullets and tips and how-tos. Instead, Jonathan writes from his own perspective about how he relates to people. In his case, Jonathan doesn’t prefer canned opening lines… » Continue

April 11 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: Communication, conversation, relationships | no comments»

What should I say?

What should I say? is a website that is the metafilter of giving advice. It works in the following way: users that are faced with a difficult conversation describe the conversation, then the readers leave their comments and give advice about how they handled similar situations. What should I say seems to be a great resource if you have a hard time initiating… » Continue

March 27 2007 | By Kyle | Tagged: Communication, conversation, Resource | 3 comments»

Meet People NOT Business Cards

It’s NOT about the business cards. It’s about making a connection to the people you want to get to know, and making an impact in what you say and think.

Cards are Paper

There’s nothing especially important about a business card. They contain information (often too much) that should help one get back to somewhere, but they are a bookmark. They are a way back to the conversation. But they… » Continue

March 21 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: businesscards, Communication, community, conversation | 12 comments»

When a Clarifying Question Isn’t

Recently an area director for a non-profit asked me if I would do a Malama session for a work team that was struggling to communicate with each other. He valued everyone on the team individually, however he could see that together they were not very effective.

Malama is the value of caring, compassion, and stewardship I speak of in Managing with Aloha. In a Malama session, we ‘talk… » Continue

March 15 2007 | By Rosa | Tagged: conversation, D5M, Daily5Minutes, listening, Management, questions | no comments»

Learn to Finish Conversations Well

We managers can get ourselves into far too many situations where we unwittingly set others up for disappointment because we haven’t learned to finish our conversations well.

Last week I encouraged you to add The Daily Five Minutes (D5M for short) to your management toolbox because it creates more workplace conversations. The intention of the D5M is to give your staff the gift of your attention, five minutes on… » Continue

March 8 2007 | By Rosa | Tagged: agreement, clarity, Communication, conversation, D5M, Daily5Minutes | 2 comments»