Dianna Booher's Blog, page 26

Are You Delivering Great Stories—Or Just Narrating Them?

In my coaching practice, executives often tell me they want to improve their ability to tell stories that inspire and persuade. But as we start work together, they often haven’t thought about the subtle difference in delivering a story versus narrating one.

Big difference. Let me illustrate here as best I can. Okay, I can’t really “perform” or “deliver” a story for you on the page. But the following will come as close as it gets. I’ll write it in “scene” as if I were delivering it live on...

5 Tips for Women Talking Techie to Technical Men

(My column first appeared on Forbes here.)

Communicating technical concepts to another technical person requires focus and discipline. Add to this picture other complexities in cross-gender communication. Then scratch below the surface, and you’ll understand why you’re in a difficult situation:

A technical communicator won’t let you off the hook with vague generalities. A technical communicator can cut through the jargon and buzz phrases to your core conclusion—or lack thereof. The techni...

Unusual Persuasion Tactics You’ll Find Hard to Believe

(This blog first appeared on Forbes.com here.)

Life unfolds as a series of persuasive interactions—to get a date, a mate, a job, a promotion, a sale.  What can you do to influence how others think or act as a result of your encounters? Here are 3 counter-intuitive principles of persuasion that most people find hard to believe.

 

How to Persuade: 3 Uncommon Tactics

 

Remember That Listeners Average Rather Than Add

Human nature leans toward excess. If pricing on the regular soft drink makes...

How to Boost Your Credibility at Work

(This blog first appeared on Forbes.com here.)

Credibility is hard to earn and easy to lose. People judge you not only based on your job performance, but also by your communication––how you talk and what you talk about when and with whom.

Words have to match actions. In addition to meeting your deadlines and hitting all your goals, it’s vital to establish trust. Whether you are speaking, writing, or using social media, a lack of trust will lower your hallway credibility.

If you mess up (as...

How to Stop a Micromanaging Boss

If you haven’t worked for a micromanager, you’ve heard about them. Employees buzz about these bosses over lunch, complain about them around the water cooler, and chew them up at the dinner table with their family.

At the worst situations, frustration leads to deep-seated resentment that triggers a job change or career move. (A Gallup study of 7,272 US adults found that one in two left their job to get away from their manager.)

You may recognize this bad behavior from your boss: the game of...

6 Differences Between Leaders and Managers

The distinction between leader and manager may have absolutely nothing to do with position or title. You can lead as a project team member, an association member, a parent, a researcher, a customer or an assistant.

The key difference: Leaders improve things. Managers maintain things.  But let me get more specific about how:

 

How to Tell a Leader From a Manager or Maintainer: 6 Ways

 

Information, Facts, and Skills Versus Reasoning and Judgment

Managers like information and facts. They may...

Communication Is About the Time, Not the Tools — Really!

(Special thanks to Microsoft Office, the sponsor of this article. Their Modern Workplace webcast  Organized Communication: Avoiding Information Overload  addresses the issue that faces us all, the email  inbox overflow. As always, all thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.)

Another one of those emails popped into my inbox today:  “I’m sending a reminder about X just in case my first email got buried at the bottom of your pile.” When emails start that way, two thoughts hit me: Eithe...

How to Communicate Like a Confident Leader

(My blog first appeared on Forbes.com here: 

As a keynoter, when I ask audience members to call out attributes of executive presence, they always mention confidence. As I drill down on the topic, the audience agrees that they can see it, hear it, and sense it in many ways—often in ways not always apparent to the person being observed. Strong, seasoned leaders have naturally incorporated confidence into their communication style, while other professionals struggle to appear confident.

For t...

4 Ways to Manage People You Don’t Like

Sooner or later, you’re going to be put in charge of a project, team, or department where you’ll discover that you’re working with someone who “rubs you the wrong way.” Sometimes you know why. Often you don’t.

When explaining that negative gut reaction to yourself, you may label someone “arrogant,” “slick,” “lazy,” “self-righteous,” “sniveling,” “dorky,” “helpless,” “weird,” “intimidating” (and I can think of worse labels). If you were building a case for a jury, you couldn’t prove the lab...

6 Ways Real Leaders Turn Insincerity Into Inspiration

The biggest barrier between leaders and followers is distrust. And the window dressing for distrust is insincerity. People put up with a lot of quirks in their leaders and coworkers just to keep the peace—but insincerity particularly grates on the nerves. It’s like trying to satisfy hunger with cotton candy.

A good question to ask yourself periodically: What communication habits sound insincere, and how can I become more inspiring and encouraging? Here’s a starter list:

 

6 Ways to Be More...