Know How to Work with Prickly Personalities People with low emotional intelligence, also known as  EQ, are generally harder to work with — they can be grumpier, more negative, and more erratic than average. But a few tactics can help you collaborate with a low-EQ person: Be gentle.  Just because someone is unpleasant  doesn’t mean… Continue reading Know How to Work with Prickly Personalities

Recognize When You’re Being Too Stubborn Being stubborn isn’t always a bad thing. But if you’re standing your ground for the wrong reasons (like if you hate to be wrong), you’ll do more damage than good. Since it’s hard to recognize stubbornness in yourself, look out for these signs that you’re being inflexible: You keep… Continue reading Recognize When You’re Being a Jack Ass

Are You Acting Like a Pushover? You have to get along with others to get things done, right? Yes… to a degree. You want to be cooperative, but you don’t want to be seen as a pushover. Watch out for these signs that you’ve taken being the good guy or gal too far –  chances… Continue reading Don’ Act Like a Pushover

To Get People’s Attention, Cut to the Chase With people being constantly bombarded with requests, it can be tough to get your colleagues’ attention. That’s why it’s important to cut to the chase about what you need someone to do, when, and why. Whether you’re sending an email, making a presentation, or talking to your… Continue reading To Get People’s Attention, Cut to the Chase

Get Better at Remembering People’s Names It’s a problem many of us have experienced: You meet someone new and two seconds later you can’t remember his or her name. This is hugely important in building business connections, so here are a few tips: Get it right the first time. If you’re introduced to someone and… Continue reading Get Better at Remembering People’s Names

Set Aside Time for Your Team to Get Real Work Done As a leader it’s your job to make sure your team doesn’t get burned out. One way to reduce stress and help people focus on what really needs to get done is to schedule uninterrupted work time. When people get distracted, it can take… Continue reading Set Aside Time for Your Team to Get Real Work Done

Encourage More Debate at Work One of the myths about “great workplaces” is that conflict is rare. We believe that workplace disagreements are undesirable, that they’re distracting and hurt productivity. But research reveals that in many cases, disagreements fuel better performance. While personality clashes, or differences in values, can indeed be detrimental, conflicts that center… Continue reading Encourage More Debate at Work

Train Employees on How to Handle Abusive Customers Sometimes the customer is not always right. Certain customers – whether they’re unforgiving, obnoxious, or overly needy – can hurt employee morale, put your company’s reputation at risk, and prove too costly to serve. It’s important to clearly define your ideal and non-ideal customer, and then train… Continue reading Train Employees on How to Handle Abusive Customers

Enough with the Late-Night Emails Already If it’s 11 PM and you’ve just remembered something your team needs to do tomorrow, it might seem like a good idea to send them an email while you’re thinking about it. Well, it’s not. If you’re emailing late at night or on weekends, most employees think a late-night… Continue reading Enough with Late Night Emails