Essential Communication Skills

Top Ten Interpersonal Skills -7- Get and Give Feedback

August 17, 2009

Relationships have less to do with reality than with perception. Find out what you’re doing that you could do better, what you’re not doing that you should be doing, and what you’re doing that you should stop doing, and you can improve any relationship for the better.

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Building Relationship On Agreements (repost)

August 14, 2009

Every semester, the students change but the questions I hear remain the same. Where am I coming from with these agreements? Why do I think it so important to the well being of these students that I’m willing to spend precious time on it, time that I could just as well put into teaching other things that might be valuable for my students? What justifies the use of so much class time for these agreements?

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New Class in Healthy Communication Begins

August 10, 2009

Today is day one in my healthy communication class (Psyc 604) at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. This intensive is one of the most rewarding things I do each year, because I relish the chance to teach these future doctors

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Top Ten Interpersonal Skills -5- Listen To Go Deep

August 7, 2009

Understanding occurs on two levels: Emotionally—the person feels that you understand what they are feeling—and intellectually—the person believes that you understand what they are saying. If you make a habit of listening to go deep, you’ll find fewer problem people and more enjoyment of people in general.

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Top Ten Interpersonal Skills -4- Send Signals of Similarity

August 5, 2009

You get along better with people when you build on a foundation of similarities between you. The difference between conflict with a friend and conflict with a difficult person, is that with a friend the conflict is tempered by the common ground you share. Success in communication depends on finding common ground before attempting to redirect the interaction toward a new outcome.

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Top Ten Interpersonal Skills -3- Know What You Want

August 3, 2009

Everyone knows what’s wrong, what’s the problem, and what is their chief complaint. Everybody knows what they don’t want, including you. Complaining is easy. The third of my top ten interpersonal communication skills is Know What You Want. Call it your desired outcome.

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Changing Your Reactions

July 13, 2009