Communication is very important – 转载

Communicating With Respect

Paul Ooi posted on Monday, April 10th, 2006 at 20:51 in Motivation category.
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Good read. Communicate with respect.

Am I Communicating With Respect? 10 Steps To Communicating Respectfully

In order to improve communication with others you need to make sure you are always conveying that you respect them as a person. Sadly, I must say I often see this trait missing especially between employees and managers.

Here is a quick test that will help you know if you always convey that you respect the other person. Give yourself a point for all the ones you do consistently.

1. You bring pen and paper to meetings and take notes to show your interest and the importance of what is being said.

2. You respond to all phone calls and emails within 24 hours even if it is only to say you will not have an answer until later.

3. You sit up with your shoulders back, plant your feet firmly and make eye contact during meetings and discussions.

4. With management, you appropriately challenge ideas always looking at what can be done to improve things. You never challenge by saying things are “stupid,” “won’t work,” or by rolling your eyes.

5. You realize that bottom line your job is to support upper management in reaching the company’s vision. Therefore, you take it upon yourself to look at what you need from your manager in order to do your job better taking full responsibility for your job.

6. You do not interrupt while others are talking.

7. During arguments or heated discussions you repeat back what you think the other person said before you say your piece. That way you avoid misunderstandings or reading in to what the other person said.

8. Any disagreement you have with a person you take straight to him/her rather than gossip about it behind their back.

9. When listening to a person you make eye contact 70% of the time.

10. You believe that people are trying to do their best.

Score:

9-10 points You really try to make everyone you come in contact with feel valued. You are probably targeted as a leader and someone that people look up to.

7-8 points You will be respectful of those you feel deserve it but sometimes may be seen as not a team player. People may see you as “hot or cold.”

6 or less You probably come off as a person with a “chip on their shoulder.” People are more likely to take what you say negatively because they feel you don’t respect them so they are not going to want to respect you.

I recommend that you look at whether you are in the right workplace for you or if you need to find an environment where you can show a greater degree of respect for others. Life is too short not to be happy at work.
__________
Anne Warfield
Impression Management Professionals
http://www.impressionmanagement.com
contact@imp.us.com

Teamwork – 转载

今天面试的时候被问到Teamwork方面的问题，回到家里搜索到了这篇很精彩的文章。

The Genius of Teamwork

Paul Ooi posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 14:20 in Motivation category.
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Patricia Fripp, Motivation, Team Work

True teamwork is the rarest, most exhilarating, and most productive human activity possible. Every business wants to harness this incredible energy, but achieving such a level of motivation and esprit is not always easy.A team is not just a group of individuals who work at the same location or have the same logo on their business card. A real team is made up of people who may be unequal in experience, talent, or education, but who are equal in their commitment to working together to achieve the goals and good of the organization, each other and their customers.

If we are going to be successful, we can no longer look at our organizations as departments, divisions, or branch offices. We must look at the bigger picture and resolve to work together in ways we may never have done before.

We may even need to cooperate with the competition. Think of all the mergers and acquisitions in the past few years. Your number one competitor today could be your partner tomorrow.

Futurist Bob Treadway CSP, from Littleton, Colorado often gives the Mensa IQ Test to participants in his seminars. He has found that many “average” people, when working as a team, test at “genius” level or higher.

Participants contribute in different ways. Some brainstorm. Some work alone and then report back to the group. Treadway finds that a team “becomes a genius when everyone works together.”

Treadway also noticed that when a team is working at optimal performance, it is hard to know who the leader is. In other words, the team runs the team.

Such teamwork doesn’t happen by accident. It requires commitment and effort, a willingness to accept the uniqueness of others, and an appreciation of diversity. We build teams in our companies the same way we build relationships with our friends and coworkers.

High-functioning teams establish us and our companies as reliable, internally and externally. We then project this image to our customers, vendors, competitors, and communities.

With downsizing and restructuring, many managers today are responsible for as many as 250 people. More than ever, these managers need to build responsible and committed team members if they want the best performance from them. But how do they go about it?

A very dynamic, productive example was the team led by Mike Powell, when a senior scientist at Genentech. Because of its past successes, his ten-person team was given the most important assignments. I asked Mike how he managed to keep his people highly motivated in an environment with long hours and a great deal of frustration.

“I keep them happy,” he said. Now, every manager wants to do this, so I pressed Mike for details. “Ten years ago,” he continued, “I told team members only what I thought each needed to know. Now I tell everyone everything. It may slow them down a bit while they are filtering through all the information, but they get the big picture. Then they can then decide what it is they need to know and do.”

He added, “I also gave them lots of positive feedback via email and voice mail. One group at Genentech lost their leader, but they stayed incredibly productive. I left a voice-mail message for one of them, saying ‘Everyone in the company is talking about how well you all are doing.’ They were really effective as a team and appreciated knowing it.”

Building a real team gets real results, but it can’t be done with slogans and directives. Ed Stair, Senior Vice President at Gap talks about ‘Gap Heroes,’ everyone who uses innovation to find ideas to save money or improve productivity.

Start by respecting each person’s individual contribution, showing appreciation, exciting them about their possibilities for achievement, and sharing with them that their group effort has the potential for real genius. Good luck!
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Patricia Fripp CSP,CPAE is a San Francisco-based professional speaker on Change, Teamwork, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want! and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. http://www.fripp.com