How Good Are Your Communication Skills? (from Mind Tools)

Communication skills are some of the most important skills that you need to succeed in the workplace.

If you want to be an expert communicator, you need to be effective at all points in the communication process – from "sender" through to "receiver" – and you must be comfortable with the different channels of communication – face to face, voice to voice, written, and so on. Poor communicators usually struggle to develop their careers beyond a certain point.

❓ So, are you communicating effectively? Take this short quiz to find out!

💡 You may also be interested in the quizzes below:

• How Emotionally Intelligent Are You?
• How Good Is Your Feedback?
• How Approachable Are You? (from Mind Tools)
• The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale (from Mind Tools)
• HOW SELF-CONFIDENT ARE YOU? (from Mind Tools)
• Are You a Positive or Negative Thinker? (From Mind Tools)
• The Leadership Motivation Assessment (from Mind Tools)
• FREE PERSONALITY TEST: Which personality type are you?

The common words that companies are banning, by Mark Johanson (from BBC Capital)

Can banning some corporate terms and replacing them with buzzier or more positive-sounding alternatives do any good?

Apply for a job at Davio’s, a small chain of Italian-style steakhouses in the US, and you’ll never hear one extremely common workplace term: employee. That’s because CEO Steve DiFillippo has banned its use.

“I think ‘employee’ is an awful word,” he says. “Who wants to be an employee? It just isn’t something you strive toward.” Instead, those who work for DiFillippo are known as ‘inner guests.’

“A lot of servers and cooks go from restaurant to restaurant trying to find their way; we stop that,” he explains. “They come here and realise they’re in a different place where they’ll be treated differently.”

For DiFillippo, banning the word is both a way of empowering his ‘inner guests’ and explaining the company’s core values to its ‘outer guests’ (the diners). (Continue reading)

The secret to working overseas, by Maddy Savage (from BBC CAPITAL)

Is cultural knowledge more important than language skills?

Does cultural knowledge trump language ability in international companies and start-ups where English is dominating?

Learning the local language might seem an obvious goal for anyone moving abroad. But in an increasingly globalised world, whether this is an effective use of time is increasingly up for debate.

Growing numbers of multinationals and start-ups are adopting English as their official company language, even if they’re not based in an English-speaking nation. And internationally, millennials seem to have a much higher tolerance for using the global language than older generations, meaning it’s potentially easier to socialise with young locals by speaking English than in the past. The British Council estimates that by 2020, two billion people will be using it, well over a quarter of the world’s population.

Plus, while the idea that millennials are job-hopping much more than their parents is something of a myth, being able to work flexibly in different locations remains a core goal for many. In 2017, the Global Shapers Annual Survey, funded by the World Economic Forum, showed that 81% of respondents aged 18 to 35 from over 180 countries said they were willing to work abroad. The “ability to work and live anywhere” was one of the most important factors they identified in terms of making them feel freer in their society. (Continue reading)

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO, by Daniel Shogren

By Daniel Shogren, CPA, SPHR

I heard somebody the other day tell a group of his peers that he’s serving fewer clients these days and working far less than he used to. But, he says, he’s much happier than he used to be, and he’s making much more money.

His secret: he’s telling some of his long-standing clients that he cannot serve them anymore, and he’s sending them to somebody else – usually his competition. Mind you he’s not ridding himself of his best clients. He’s shedding those clients that don’t pay on time, that quibble about his fees, that drive his staff nuts with their nit picking, who have unrealistic expectations, or who are downright abusive and expect to get away with it because they are paying for the right to do so. Still, it’s tough to tell someone who pays, and who keeps coming back to pay again and again, that it’s time to hit the road.

He calls it ‘tough love’. Whatever you call it, it is a tough prescription for many to follow.

WHO DEFINES YOUR CHARACTER? - by Daniel Shogren

By Daniel Shogren, CPA, SPHR

Lot's of people talk about character, but the real question should be, "Where do we get character?" Or perhaps better said, "Who or what defines our character?" Before we tackle those questions, let's take a quick look at what character is. Character is about who you are when nobody is looking. Reputation is about who you are when people are watching. Reputation or image is what others think you are. But character is what you really are. Both matter, but of the two, character is far and away the most important.

Character is the basis for credibility and trust. And without credibility and trust, you can't lead anyone. Great leaders should have character, but should not be characters. A character is either a role, played by an actor, or someone who tries to attract attention to himself. When we play a role or we are showing off and trying to get noticed we are not showing our true character, and thus we won't be able to build credibility or trust.