Human Skills and Better Communication
These exchanges probably sound very familiar :
Sam: Are you sure you want to go?
Jo: Yep. Totally… 110%
Mal: Is this a really committed relationship?
Toni: Absolutely… 5,000%
A mathematical impossibility – in both cases.
It’s also a valid language concern.
Have you ever fallen into the pit of poor pronunciation?
We’ll start with what is possibly the worst word to mispronounce; it’s a horrible irony.
(True story) I once overheard a language teacher say to her students:
‘It’s absolutely essential you get your pronounciation right’.
The intended advice was excellent but… ‘pronounciation’? No. No.
Continue reading “Pronunciation Pitfalls”
You’ve decided you want to work as a freelancer. You ditched the day job to go out on your own, and now you’re a contractor-sole trader-free agent. Your dream of freedom and flexibility has come true. It’s ideal… isn’t it?
Continue reading “You Want To Work As a Freelancer?”
Is the concept of ‘work-life balance’ not working for you? There could be good reasons for that. You might be buying into the work-life balance myth.
Like any myth, it’s tied up with belief. We all like to believe there’s a way to have it all.
It’s the real world, though, and you, your family and your staff are human beings. In daily life, you cannot totally separate the human and the personal aspects from what you might consider the ‘work’ components.
Continue reading “The Work-Life Balance Myth”
‘Like’, ‘such as’ or ‘as though‘? These are three options that seem interchangeable but aren’t. ‘Like’ is close to being the most overused word in the language and apart from the irritation value, it’s often used wrongly.
Continue reading “‘Like’, ‘Such As’ Or ‘As Though’?”
We’ve all heard about SMART goals. Have you ever considered the concept of SMART meetings?
Leaders and managers who make their meetings SMART are showing the qualities that employees value: respect for the time, the energy and effort, the skills and the dignity of the individual; and commitment to a human-centric approach, in which the individual human being is placed front and centre.
The SMART meeting is an indicator of a human-centred workplace.
Continue reading “SMART Meetings For Smart Managers”
Let’s talk about monster words. Can you think of some monstrously long words?
Apart from the name of ‘that Welsh town that’s almost impossible to pronounce’ (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch), which has 58 letters, you’ll probably think of antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters).
Continue reading “Monster Words”
Have you had ever had trouble deciding whether to use ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘myself’ in a sentence?
It’s pretty easy to make a mistake, especially when speaking. It’s also easy to avoid making an error when you know a couple of easy tricks.
Continue reading “I, Me Or Myself?”
How many times have you read, or heard in films, the phrase ‘The prodigal son returns’?
Not only is it a little tired and predictable, people tend to use it wrongly.
Continue reading “Prodigal? No Way”
Rain, reign or rein? People often make mistakes when choosing between homophones (words that sound the same but have different spelling and different meanings). I see errors in the use of ‘reign’, ‘rein’ (and, occasionally, ‘rain’) almost every week.
Here’s how to sort them out.
Continue reading “Rain, Reign Or Rein?”