conversation skills

Focus on the benefits of having constructive conversations around disagreements and conflicts

The power of disagreement and conflict – Part 3 Be unwilling to accept the opportunity costs associated with not having these conversations skillfully. Even while most of us are uncomfortable with the challenge of conversations involving disagreement and conflict, we also recognize the potential benefit of having such conversations skilfully. Quite simply: some conversations involving […]

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Discomfort with disagreement is not a character flaw!

The power of disagreement and conflict – Part 2 Accept that your discomfort with disagreement is not a character flaw – it is just your brain doing its thing. Rather learn to use the discomfort as energy to hone your ability to engage skillfully in such conversations. It is easy to explain why conversations involving […]

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Conversations that leverage the creative power of disagreements

The power of disagreement & conflict – Part 1 “In great teams conflict becomes productive. The free flow of conflicting ideas and feelings is crucial; for creative thinking, for discovering new solutions no one individual would have come to on its own.” Peter Senge. How do you feel about conversations that involve disagreements, difference of […]

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Leading with intention and compassion

In a previous post I referenced Tony Schwartz’ post (here on HBR.org) on leaders cultivating mindfulness to deal with their crazy busy world. One of these leaders is Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company. The video offers some powerful leadership lessons – on how to stay on purpose in the face of challenge, […]

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Have a conversation – and become smarter

Research on teams has shown that the collective intelligence of a team depends on how evenly conversation turn-taking is distributed among the members. The more one or more people dominate the team’s conversations the lower the collective intelligence of the team. The more evenly everyone contributes by speaking out and getting listened to the higher […]

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10 signs that you’re great communicator

Here are three simple basic truths about communication: Communication effectiveness is crucial for leadership, team and organizational success. Communication is hard to get right and easy to get wrong. Dealing with communication “mishaps” can be very costly and frustrating. Given these simple truths, it is not surprising that enhancing communication effectiveness is high on the […]

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