Quotes About Communication

He was afflicted with what I call "Asshole Blindness," where people don't realize or underestimate how dire an asshole problem is, how much they and perhaps others are suffering, and how important it is to get out as soon as possible.

Ignorance, mediocrity, and mistakes run rampant when organizations fail to link the right people to the right information at the right time. This

smart talk trap."17 This a syndrome where companies hire, reward, and promote people for sounding smart rather than making sure that smart things are done.

Be repetitive and concrete. The things you say over and over have the most impact if they specify what to do and when to do it.

The best bosses break down problems into bite-sized pieces and talk and act like each little task is something that people can complete without great difficulty.

As a boss, you need to establish a pecking order where people who know the most about a problem wield the greatest influence over what is done. You especially need to watch who talks the most (and least). Don't let your people fall prey to the blabbermouth theory of leadership. At least in Western countries, people who talk first and most frequently usually wield excessive influence over others – even when they spew out nonsense.

Nolan Bushnell, the founder and former CEO of the Atari Corporation, remarks that "sometimes the best engineers come in bodies that can't talk

better to shoot the messenger than to learn about—and fix—the problems. In contrast to such constructive defiance, I know bosses who employ the opposite strategy to undermine and drive out incompetent superiors. One called it "malicious compliance," following idiotic orders from

A Lutheran pastor in Illinois writes: A great deal of the work in our church is done by non-paid individuals who, at times, hurt the feelings of fellow volunteers. Do you have any thoughts on what to do with mean people who volunteer their time?

In other words, that American asshole rattled the Israeli health-care professionals so much that it undermined their ability to treat sick babies.

las personas no se marchan de las organizaciones, sino que huyen de los malos jefes».

But an occasional strategic outburst seems to be effective because "targets" construe their temporary tormentor as trying to motivate them to try harder and to be smarter—they don't dismiss it as just the usual ranting from a certified asshole who berates them constantly

Be warned, however, that when groups work mostly through e-mail or conference calls (rather than face-to-face), they tend to fight more and trust each other less.

Another misguided trick bosses use to demonstrate their brilliance – at least to themselves – is to develop incomprehensible strategies. Unfortunately, if your people can't understand your strategy, they can't figure out what to do. And, even if they can comprehend the twists and turns, the complexity can scatter their attention in so many directions that they won't do any single thing well.

Every boss can't have deep knowledge of every follower's expertise. When that happens, a boss's job is to ask good questions, listen, defer to those with greater expertise, and, above all, to accept his or her own ignorance. Those who fail to do so risk making bad decisions and ruining their reputations.

Michael told me that he designs the "how" part of his actions "with the other person's point of view in mind." Even when breaking off with an asshole, he works to "convey the truth in respectful and empathetic ways.

Discuta como si tuviera razón, escuche como si estuviese equivocado».

Here's what I think we face. 2. Here's what I think we should do. 3. Here's why. 4. Here's what I think we should keep an eye on. 5. Now talk to me (i.e., tell me if you [a] don't understand, [b] cannot do it, [c] see

And a 2015 study by Trevor Foulk and his colleagues from the University of Florida shows that even a single exposure to a rude person (e.g., a mildly insulting email from a customer) can turn a person into a "carrier," who in turn infects others with the negative behavior—so it spreads much "like the common cold.

it's sometimes wise to add rather than remove communication barriers—and physical distance is one of the most protective barriers.

In the 1970s, MIT professor Tom Allen showed that the closer people sat to one another, the more frequently they communicated—not just face-to-face communication, but via all media including telephone calls.

He sought out and surrounded himself with people that he trusted to tell him the truth (rather than what he hoped to hear) about the severity and nuances of challenges that he and the company faced—and when he was screwing up.

We were taught that the more irate the debtor—the more he or she screamed, swore, and insulted us—the more long pauses we should take before answering questions and the more slowly and calmly we should talk.

A supervisor instructed me, "If you talk softer and softer and softer, they're going to have to stop to listen or they're not going to hear anything you're saying. The louder you get, the louder they get. And if you start to tone it down, they start to tone it down.