Assertiveness and Workplace Confidence
We are holding a workshop – Assertiveness and Workplace Confidence – at QUB, Belfast on Wednesday 18-19 February. The realities of modern work life – flat structures, tough workloads and the need to exert influence across traditional boundaries – ensure that assertiveness skills are not an optional extra. Aggression is unacceptable; passivity is ineffective. In this...
Read MoreHow to Be Brave: The Return
I’ve had a few positive comments and dozens of hits on a blog I wrote in July called How to Be Brave. The gist of it was that it’s possible to overcome the feeling of fear by first of all acting as if you were not afraid. If you can put on a good enough act, then the feelings will fall into place afterwards. While teaching a course in non-verbal communication recently, a...
Read MoreTo NLP or not to NLP
Maybe some of you will have heard of NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It’s all the rage in the sort of circles I move in – the realm of coaches, management consultants, trainers and professional communicators. Some academics and psychologists brand it as gimmicky, without an adequate basis in research, and productive of a cult-like mentality. To others, its a...
Read MoreWhat Do I Say in Conversation?
This is one of the questions I’m asked most often by people who have a hard time talking to others. They can accept my points about the need for interest in other people, the different ways of building up personal confidence, the skills of listening and questioning, and all the other principles of inter-personal training. But the issue they really want me to address is, ‘I don’t have...
Read More