Only connect

Happy New Year! This month's blog discusses the secret to making those crucial communications connections. Hint: It's not just your words that matter.

And check out this link for upcoming dates for my ever-popular workshop Executive Communications Skills: The One-Day Blitz.

Tips you can use!

Lose the need to win

The new year is a good time to assess where you fall on the continuum of confidence, over-confidence, and bullying. People love a "winner," but if that win comes at the expense of relationship-building, your success will be short-lived. So if your ego is intruding into your communication, you might want to give it a rest.

Resolve to prepare

Want to find extra time this year? It sounds counter-intuitive, but the more time you put in up front--like organizing a meeting status update into a succinct, cohesive, clear statement--the less time you'll spend after cleaning up the messes that result from misspeaking "on the fly."

Go to the light

When speaking to a group informally at events like receptions, be sure to stand in the light. People need to see you to fully understand you. And I mean that quite literally: if they can't see your mouth it's much harder for them to hear what you're saying.