One day last summer, as our family was finishing up our time at the pool, my son decided to walk away and wait patiently. He never said he was leaving. Just disappeared. We weren’t scared as much as we were confused. “Where did he go!?” Then we got frustrated. “What does he think he’s doing
Is becoming a better listener the solution to world and personal peace? Might it be the most important driving factor in your career and personal success? Sure, we have to account for things that are out of our control. But for what we can control in life, what if better listening was the key to
This is gross, but every time I reach under my desk chair, my finger presses into something soft and gooey. I’m pretty sure it’s food. This has been going on for weeks. I have done nothing about it. It bothers me, but not enough, I suppose. Perhaps this is one reason why it’s hard to
Are you experiencing any interpersonal tension with your new co-workers? Many of us are having to work with and around kids, partners, roommates, pets, and neighbors. Sometimes people can get really frustrating. For instance, a friend of mine said to me that she is super frustrated with her roommates who have disregarded social distancing. “They
On a Minneapolis radio station in the early 90s, a satirical disc jockey called the Chucker used to conduct hilarious interviews of famous people. The Chucker was obnoxious. The bigger the celebrity’s ego, the more the Chucker would frustrate them with his demoralizing behavior. Go listen to the recordings. They’ll make you squirm. Perhaps some
Complaining reached its peak in our house recently. Kids complaining about food, about homework, and about each other. Us complaining about kids complaining. Us complaining about work, about how busy we are and about something the other did or didn’t do. We have a lot of happiness and love in our family, but we’d slipped
I often wonder what meetings would be like if there were time limits on each person speaking. In professional basketball, for example, they allow each team 24 seconds to take their shot at the net. The clock resets only after a team has attempted their shot or turned the ball over to the other team. Think
Criticism: The expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes. Sometimes that’s a verbal punch to the face. It may be a facial expression of disapproval or a tone of voice that betrays annoyance. Perhaps it’s a passive/aggressive comment. You might not realize that you’re delivering criticism, but your expression
I’ll never forget feeling like an utter failure in my second real job. Since I had excelled in technology and process in my first real job, I thought this new role — which involved managing the development of a customer-facing website — would play to my strengths. But the job turned out to be much
The same woman has been cutting my hair for the past 20 years. Over the course of that time, I’ve come to know her as an emotionally resilient single mother. So I was surprised when she told me that she recently left a work-related meeting “feeling empty inside.” It also piqued my interest, because I
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE