Category: Leadership & Management

As a rock musician, I don’t read music. I play by intuition. That is, I listen and react. That’s why I play better when I listen.

Feedback helps speakers understand what strengths they have and any areas of improvement needed. One of the best ways to grow your presentation skills is doing dry runs of your speech or workshop in front of an audience of colleagues. So when it’s your turn to observe, the act of giving feedback might feel awkward … Read On >

Strong leaders are understanding but assertive, patient while being persistent, and open-minded enough to accept new ideas while focused enough to accomplish finite goals. Strong leaders are compelling, humble, problem solvers with great listening skills. One trait that might be overlooked as a leadership quality is the skill to tell a story. Strong leaders are … Read On >

Three Steps to Welcome Change I looked at my list of things to change in 2018 and realized that less than half of the items on the list had been crossed off. This was supposed to be the year I made big changes. This was supposed to be the year to add more greens into … Read On >

Workplace bullying and microaggressions are serious issues that can significantly impact employees’ well-being and productivity. Bullying involves repeated, harmful mistreatment of individuals, characterized by threatening, humiliating, or intimidating behavior, work interference or sabotage, and verbal abuse. Addressing these behaviors is essential for creating a healthy, respectful, and inclusive work environment. Today we are going to … Read On >

During an Improving Communications workshop, I asked a question that immediately had hands flying up from participants in the room: “How many of you have ever wanted to be more assertive in the workplace but didn’t know how?” It became very clear that assertiveness is a skill many people want to master. Before anything else … Read On >

At Improving Communications, we ask professional musicians to tell us about their “money maker;” their ability to listen and interact well with others. We ask these gifted artists to teach us more about listening so that in business, we can use similar practices to be more successful. Below is what Jordan Rudess had to say … Read On >

What is proper Business Phone Behavior?   Have you ever made a phone call to a business and gotten the answer, “So-and-so isn’t here right now. Can you call back in 15 minutes?” Do you find anything wrong with that? In a tennis game, when a player hits the ball, the second player hits it … Read On >

Well lookie here… the Earth has revolved around the Sun once again! Three hundred sixty-five days have elapsed (or as the cast in the musical Rent would sing, “525,600 Minutes”). A year is a good marker for progress made. Once it’s completed, it all starts again.  Happy New Year.   Two thousand seventeen has been Improving Communications’ best year yet. We owe … Read On >