The leaders in some industries thrive on sarcastic communication. Usually the reason for sarcasm is to lighten things up and inject some humor into a stressful situation. Sarcasm by definition, is when the tone and underlying message don’t match. Lesson learned: I remember back to my first supervisory assignment. My insecurity made me more sarcastic […]
Category: Communication
How to Avoid Being a Bad Boss
In the Front Line Leadership training program we ask participants to think back over all the managers and supervisors they have worked for and tell us what percentage of all those leaders were effective leaders. The consensus is that for most people, half of their leaders have been effective and half were ineffective. So it’s […]
Intergenerational Hardship Over The Years
Leaders think motivating millennials is a challenge. But one generation complaining about another has been going on forever. This short humorous video shows how today’s youngsters will complain in the future about how bad they’ve had it!
The Importance of Explaining WHY
Dr Ellen Langer, Harvard Psychology Professor, did an interesting experiment using lineups of students waiting to make photocopies in the Harvard University library. In round one of the experiment, she had one of her graduate students go up to the front of the line and ask, “Can I get in front of you to make […]
How You Can Offer Praise and Positive Feedback Effectively
Very common in leadership training programs, is the recommendation for leaders to give more praise and positive feedback. It seems like common sense to be more positive, yet many managers and supervisors still focus on the negative. Here are a few reasons why we don’t offer more praise: We don’t get much praise ourselves. We […]