Joyce Weiss

I work with organizations and individuals who want to kick conflict and chaos to the curb - Queen of Conflict Resolution and Communication Coach

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Strong Communicators Know The Power of Questions Versus Giving Orders

The Power of Questions

Claude Levi-Strauss understood the power of questions. Coaches immediately learn the value of asking the best questions to their clients. This helps clarify issues and allows them to think of their answers to their conflicts.

Empathetic leaders know that employees want to be heard and feel comfortable using their voices. These leaders don’t tell or direct; they listen to golden nuggets coming out of the mouths of their direct reports. 

The power of questions greatly impacts morale, especially in keeping employees from leaving.
This one idea can make a difference in your company.

  • Do your leaders know the power of questions instead of telling others what to do?
  • Are your employees listened to or ignored?

This seems obvious to many of you. I know firsthand that it’s not. My coaching clients share how they are thinking about leaving the company. They want to work where they are taken seriously.

Let’s Stay Connected

Discover the Impact of The Conflict Dynamic Profile for You or Your Direct Reports to reduce stress and improve relationships.

Are you ready to explore how you react before, during, and after conflict?

Do you want to reduce your inner stress by discovering blind spots and what triggers set you off? 
Please email me, and let’s discuss how the Conflict Dynamic Profile can help you resolve your conflict and improve relationships.

It’s your turn

Please comment on how your leaders make employees feel like their ideas matter.

Until Next Time – Have a great week!

Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP, CVP
Communication Coach
Queen of Conflict Resolution

Thanks for reading, and remember: You get what YOU tolerate!

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Let’s Talk About YOUR Biggest Communication Challenge

  • What is your biggest communication challenge?
  • Would you like to figure out how to change this to make your life a bit easier?

If so, please don’t move! 🙂

Coaching clients share their communication challenges with me. Not feeling heard seems to be the winner with many of their responses.
The second communication challenge is when others interrupt them.

This article will give you a couple of responses to use when others can’t help themselves from interrupting you or taking over the conversation.
Let’s get started!

Communication Challenge Strategy #1: Think of a Clever Response Communication Challenges

I’ve used the same words as the poster when I’m with friends or colleagues. I actually say, “Excuse me for talking while you are interrupting.” I usually get a smile or an apology. This is a good thing.

I don’t suggest that you use this idea with your boss or someone really serious.

Communication Challenge Strategy #2:  Take a Breath Before You Open up Your  Mouth

You will not hear me ask you or anyone to stay silent – unless you are staying silent for a reason and not just letting others roll over you! If you know me, this is not an option!  I have said the following to the interrupter – without anger or frustration: “I want to hear what you have to say after I finish my thought.” This usually gets a great response from the other person.

There will be times when the interrupter gets mad or frustrated with you for saying these statements. I don’t care. Why is it ok for bullies or others to feel their rude behavior is ok and they get angry with you for speaking your truth? Stick with this idea. The more you use it, the easier it will be for you to have a decent conversation with this person.

Let’s Stay Connected

What is your worse communication challenge?

  • People interrupting you?
  • Sarcasm?
  • Others talking over you?
  • Please add your pet peeve in the comment section.

You can reach out to me anytime to ask a question or share your communication concerns.
Send your email HERE

Until next time,
Joyce Weiss, Master Coach
Queen of Conflict Resolution

PS Please share any of the Kick Conflict to the Curb Weekly Updates with those who can benefit from the messages. You have my permission to share it on any of your social media platforms as long as you give me credit for the content.

PPS Visit KickConflictToTheCurb.com for your FREE communication assessment. You will see how your communication impacts your success at work. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

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Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication in the Workplace

How to improve communication is always a topic that my clients want me to cover in training or coaching projects.
Here are 3 questions to get us started:

  1.  Have you ever hired a loser?
  2. What did you learn from this experience?
  3. What are your favorite interview questions?

The answers to the questions above were discussed in my last group coaching training with Department Managers and Leaders.  This article will cover all 3 questions.  I look forward to hearing about your own best practices that work for your company.

Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication #1:  Know the Cost of a Bad Hire improve communication

  • Interview time
  • Reference checking time
  • Manager training time
  • Potential customer problems

The important thing is to realize the cost of a bad hire.  This happens to all of us at times.  We were caught off guard because the person came so highly recommended or you may have needed a body immediately because of a timely project and the person in charge just quit.

Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication #2:  Learn From the Experience improve communication

Participants in the training shared the following mistakes and what they learned:

  • To evaluate the candidate even if he or she is a close friend
  • To put your ego aside and don’t hire a candidate just because he or she is like you
  • To look at both the personality and skill set of the candidate
  • To make sure that the hiring manager has enough information about the job

I can see many of you shake your heads right now, because you may have made the same mistakes.

An HR Professional told us that he hired someone because he was so impressed with the resume and missed obvious flaws in the candidate’s personality.  We can teach skills, it’s a challenge to show someone how to be a good team player.

Hiring Strategies to Improve Communication #3:  Use Creative Interview Questions

  • Describe a typical workday at your previous/current job.
    This is the time when you can hear if there’s a lot of blame or negativity.
  • Tell me about the best boss that you ever had.
    You can see if there’s leadership potential.
  • How would your coworkers describe you?
    Go deep here.  Ask the candidate for specific examples when he or she tells you about the positive qualities.
  • Did you ever have to deal with a coworker who didn’t pull his or her weight?
    This question may uncover how the candidate handles conflict.

Share these 3 hiring strategies to improve communication with your team to discuss new ways to make the hiring process as productive as possible.  Stay tuned for future articles that contain information about interviewing strategies, orientation options, and performance appraisals.

I want to hear from you!
Send me your biggest mistake in hiring or interviewing candidates.  Let us know your best hiring practices. You can respond directly to the blog or send me an email HERE.  

 

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

 

Remember…You Get What You Tolerate!

P.S.  Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Team Building Strategies Knowledge Base

 

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A Motivational Quote: Advice From the Sea

I was snorkeling with my family over the holidays and saw the motivational quote below on a tree near the beach.  Those of you who know me or my work will see that the last statement is the one that caught my attention-Make Waves!

motivational quote| Joyce Weiss|Communication Strategist | Coach

This motivational quote is very powerful.  We make waves when we feel confident and use strategies to have tough conversations will almost anyone.  It takes courage and it’s always a risk to tell others what they need to hear and not necessarily want to hear.  🙂

Start making your conversation safe by using – I don’t want/I do want.  For example:  “I don’t want to cause stress between us.  I do want to discuss the importance of boundaries in our relationship.”  This sets the stage and hopefully, the conversation will be productive.  This is a great way to start off many of our difficult conversations.

Read more motivational quotes and articles on effective communication.

I want to hear from you

Send me your questions or comments on what is and what is not working when you have tough conversations.
You will receive a response from me because I enjoy connecting with my loyal readers! 🙂

Please share this and any article that speaks to you or your company.

Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts. Help us help them reduce conflict and improve leadership skills and quality of life.

Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Knowledge Base Page Conflict in the Workplace.

 

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

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How Effective Communication Affects the Bottom Line

Here’s breaking news –  Even the BEST communicators need to constantly work on their effective communication!   Larry Henry, Owner/Producer of Two Floors Down Productions interviewed me on why I created the patented strategy – Be Direct with Respect®.  This week’s post contains information on why effective communication affects the bottom line.  Please listen to the short podcast below.

      

I developed Be Direct with Respect because many of clients were having a hard time getting their team to speak directly with each other when there was a conflict.  Being honest in a direct way is difficult for some of them.  They were either too direct and didn’t know any other way to communicate.  Or they didn’t tell the truth due to fear of retaliation or getting fired.

It became apparent that effective communication was lacking for both leaders and employees. The biggest reason was that they didn’t know how to be direct.  They never learned this skill in school.  Some of them were told that it was rude to be blunt.

Ignoring conflict will affect the bottom line.  Do you work in a culture where every team member speaks directly yet respectfully to anyone on the team when a customer is treated with disrespect or phone calls are ignored?  Most of the people who I interviewed laughed when I asked them the question about effective communication.  They told me the team is silent during meetings because leaders don’t encourage honest communication. Ouch!

Leaders need to decide how to communicate effectively to their team with both good and bad news especially when there will be budget cuts or certain team members don’t pull their weight.

The next few sentences will be a review for many of you who are loyal readers.  After you read the examples decide if you need a refresher on how to use be direct with respect.  You will find more articles on effective communication by searching past blog posts.

Effective Communication Case Scenario #1 effective communication

Several team members are complaining more than ever.  It doesn’t matter if you are a leader or not.  The main idea is the negativity is starting to get old and becoming the norm.

Here is one possible effective communication strategy:
I am frustrated when I hear all the complaining because this is affecting the entire team.  Let’s reboot and start to look at what the company is doing for us.   

Effective Communication Case Scenario #2 effective communication

Certain team members roll their eyes when others speak at weekly meetings.  This negative behavior goes on way too much in the workplace.

Here’s one possible effective communication strategy:
I am concerned when ideas are discounted because we decided as a team to start accepting each other’s differences.  We need more work in this area.

Let’s Get Real

The two effective communication case scenarios are examples of how productive be direct with respect can be once the skill is mastered.  My clients ask me to coach their team and leaders to improve morale, communication, and even unproductive meetings.  I encourage them to practice these skills with each other during the training and long after our time together is over.  Companies have the best success when they constantly practice being open and honest with each other in a productive way.  Humor sure does help!

I want to hear from you

Please add your comments or send me your questions on what is and what is not working with your company’s communication.
You will receive a response from me because I enjoy connecting with my loyal readers! 🙂

Please share this and any article that speaks to you or your company

Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts. Help us help them reduce conflict and improve leadership skills and quality of life.

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

PS Learn how I can leverage my 30+ years of communication and leadership consulting experience to help your organization experience my customized workshops here.

 

Contact Joyce

Email: joyce@joyceweiss.com
Phone: 248-681-5831