Monday Mornings with Madison

Category Archives:
Life Skills

January 4, 2016

Be a Better Writer in 2016 – Part 1

Issue #408

Despite the recurring diatribes about the decline of the written word, in truth, people write more now than ever. While few pen long letters on scented stationary anymore, people were pouring emails into the digital abyss at an estimated eye-popping rate of about 200 Billion per day in 2015. We also send text messages, tweets, and instant messages and write blog posts and comments, and otherwise fire off words at one another in a near-constant flow of communication. Written communication is a required skill for most any job or profession today. Whether it is composing a memo, preparing a letter, drafting a report, taking notes in a meeting, crafting a business plan, or just pounding out a quick text message, written communication is part and parcel of practically every occupation on a regular basis. People write PowerPoint presentations, business requirement documents, speeches, mission statements, position papers, standard operating procedures, manuals, brochures, package copy, press releases, and dozens of other specialized types of documents. Even salespeople and accountants – occupations often thought to be sans writing — must write reports and sales agreements.
Not everyone, however, is a good writer. The English language has many rules and just as many exceptions to those rules. It is a beautiful but challenging language to master. Nevertheless, business people in English-speaking countries are expected to write clearly, cohesively and concisely. Despite the growing use of slang, abbreviations and urban words, most professionals are still expected to be able to write in complete sentences. Spelling, grammar and punctuation do matter. Using the right words with their correct meanings is also important. Although there is an abundant supply of resources available online – such as dictionaries, thesauri, writing guides, blogs for writers, and the like – writing mistakes persist. Although anyone can make an occasional mistake, common or abundant errors can taint how a person is perceived. Poor grammar or spelling can even call into question a person’s professional expertise. To maintain a reputation as a professional, it’s important to write well. Here are some tips to improve one’s ability to write well in English. Continue reading →

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December 28, 2015

Boosting Creativity in 2016

Issue #407

Many people focus on make resolutions of things we want to do more, do less, do better or stop doing altogether. Obviously, the goal of resolutions is to use the commitment as an impetus to become a better person or live a better life. But, in truth, most people can just recycle resolutions year after year with little or no changes at all. Typically, those resolutions are broken or forgotten within the first hours, days or weeks of inception. Ideas for how to keep those resolutions fail. Perhaps what is actually needed are new ways to tackle old problems? What is really needed is creativity.

Creativity is the ability to make new things or think up new ideas. Creativity is the tool that is able to pierce the prickliest problems, tackle the most daunting challenges and dismantle the most difficult dilemmas. Armed with creativity, certainly every resolution can not only be kept but conquered. But how does one go about tacking old problems in creative ways if we have no new ideas? Is there really a way to boost creativity? Yes, there is. Continue reading →

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December 14, 2015

The Art, Skill and Gift of Speaking

Issue #405

The ability to communicate verbally is an essential skill for most any occupation. And yet there are a lot of idioms and expressions about wasting time talking, saying the wrong things and talking too much. Chewing the fat. Talking up a storm. Talking out of both sides of one’s mouth. Shooting the breeze. Speaking the same language. Running of at the mouth. Spilling the beans. Big talk. Talking a blue streak. Talking one’s ear off. There are even knick names for people who talk too much or speak when they shouldn’t. Chatty Cathy. Chatterbox. Windbag. Blabbermouth. Perhaps it makes sense that society has so many ways to criticize talk because of the increased amount of babbling that bombards us from all directions including radio, cell phones, television, robocalls, YouTube videos, etc.? Perhaps.

Nevertheless, the ability to speak is one of the greatest skills — and one of the most complex — that a human being performs. Although many animals do make sounds that allow them to communicate with one another, only human beings can manage the complex process of complex talk. After all, fluent speech is based on the interaction of various processing components. We must retrieve appropriate words, generate syntactic structure, compute the phonological shape of syllables, words, phrases and whole utterances, and create and execute articulated thoughts. And, as in any complex skill, there is a self-monitoring mechanism that checks the output. For any professional or business person, being able to speak clearly — choosing the right words and articulating thoughts meaningfully – is a key to success. Are you a good talker? Continue reading →

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December 7, 2015

How Business Sense and Scents Add Up to Dollars and Cents

Issue #404

Almost no one would argue that vision and hearing play a big role in one’s career and professional success. Any person without the ability to either see or hear surely has a harder time dealing with phone calls, reading and responding to emails, interacting with clients, driving to meetings, visiting job sites, reviewing product quality, etc. Vision and hearing are fundamental sense for most jobs.

What about the sense of smell? Most people don’t put much importance on their ability to smell or think they use it much at work. While it is vitally important for a chef, fragrance chemist, sommelier, or florist to be able to smell with discernment, the sense of smell is not considered as important to the majority of business people in most industries. Yet, aromas are powerful influencers of human behavior and people can distinguish between smells with greater specificity than they realize. So just how important is the ability to smell to career success and how much does scent impact business?
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November 30, 2015

Vision in Business

Issue #403

Every business owner, leader and manager wants to have ‘vision’ or be considered a visionary. But what does mean exactly? According to an April 2013 article by Dave Lavinsky in Forbes, “Vision in business requires that you clearly see where you choose to be in the future and formulate the necessary steps to get your organization there. Creating and sustaining a vision for an organization calls for discipline and creativity. A business leader must have the passion, strength of will, and necessary knowledge to achieve long-term goals. A focused individual who can inspire his team to reach organizational goals is a visionary business leader.” Lavinsky cites passion, discipline, creativity, strength of will, knowledge and focus as the skills needed to be a visionary in business. Others believe the qualities of visionary leaders include openness, imagination, persistence, and conviction. Harvard Business Review says a visionary leader is opportunistic, diplomatic, an expert, an achiever, individualistic, strategic, and an alchemist. Arguably, these are all necessary traits. But Lavinsky stated first that a business visionary must clearly see where he/she wants to be in the future. So the starting point of being a visionary is to see with clarity.

In this context, Lavinksy was not referring to physically “seeing” with one’s eyes. Most likely, what he meant was seeing “in one’s mind” the where, what and how of an organization’s future… having a mental picture, so to speak. But, for most people, actual vision – as in the ability to see physically with one’s eyes – probably plays a part of being successful in business and life. Probably even a large part? Sight is a blessing which many scarcely give any thought to at all. But, without it, how many would have the life or business career they are currently living? And what role does actual eyesight play in an individual’s success in business? How many business people can be visionaries without vision? Continue reading →

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November 23, 2015

The Blessing of Hearing and Power of Sound

Issue #402

In listening to the news, one might get the impression that the world is a terrible place. Global warming. Rampant pollution. Persistent wars. Growing income inequality. Epidemic diseases. Gun violence. Discrimination. Religious intolerance. We hear constantly about so many problems in the world. The thought of all these problems might make some wonder – especially at this is the time of year when most people stop to reflect and give thanks – just what is there to be thankful for?
There is always – always — something for which to give thanks. Loving family. Deep faith. A solid job. Liberty and freedom. Good friends. Kind colleagues. Even those who aren’t blessed with a good job, supportive family or friends, still have so much for which they can be genuinely thankful… if they just look beyond the surface. Consider the basic things that are often taken for granted. The gift of hearing. The blessing of sight. The delight of being able to smell. The present of being able to speak. The pleasure of being taking deep breaths of clean air. The ability to walk. The good fortune of health. Each of these gifts makes life richer, fuller and easier. What would life be like without just one of these gifts? What if you could not hear? Continue reading →

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August 10, 2015

Customer Service Begins with Coworker Kindness

Issue #390

In most any business, employees are surrounded by customers, both external and internal.
The external customer is the person who uses the company’s services. For Staples, it’s the parent purchasing back-to-school supplies for the kids. For Chase Manhattan Bank, it’s the real estate magnate taking out a $20 million loan to purchase an office building. On the other hand, the internal customer is anyone within the company who works with a specific employee or relies on a specific employee to get their job done. It is the coworker who needs a clerk’s help to track down a file, or the manager who asks an employee to follow up with a customer or the two colleagues who work together to deliver a service. Regardless of whether external or internal, each employee should treat every person with whom they interact with the same respect and courtesy.

However, often employees think that customer service begins with the external customer and ends with the company’s management. Indeed, coworker kindness is often reserved exclusively for the company’s C-Suite execs and other mucky mucks while most other coworkers are treated with an appalling lack of respect, courtesy or cooperation. The typical workplace has at least one employee who demonstrates some rude, aggressive or even downright mean behavior to certain coworkers. This bad behavior often goes unchecked for a number of reasons. But, even if an employee’s bad attitude and manners are only demonstrated to or directed at coworkers – and never to external customers or management – it can still hurt a company’s bottom line. Here’s how.
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August 3, 2015

Is It Ever Okay to Burn Bridges in Business?

Issue #389

To ‘burn bridges’ is a colloquial expression that means to destroy one’s path, connections, reputation, relationships or opportunities…. often unintentionally or carelessly. It can be personal or professional. Sometimes a bridge is burned due to an emotional response to an unexpected, negative situation. Sometimes, it is a byproduct of a contentious, unsolvable dispute. It is a behavior that might be generally thought of as imprudent, impulsive and unadvisable. Yet, people burns bridges all the time. In fact, people – across the spectrum from politics to business – seem much more willing to burn bridges. Relationships that were carefully nurtured for years are suddenly allowed to end…and end badly. Why?

To begin with, few people see themselves as ‘bridge burners’. Some might see bridge burning as the result of a bad situation that was impossible to avoid. Someone who recklessly ruins a relationship might view themselves as irreverent, brutally honest, tough, shrewd, blunt or temperamental. In fact, some might even see bridge-burning as necessary for success. And, it is true that some of the most successful business people in history were known for being blatant bridge burners. For example, Cornelius Vanderbilt, considered America’s first tycoon, was known for his contentious character and legendary feuds. While his genius and force of will did more than perhaps any other individual to create modern capitalism, he was highly combative and didn’t care what bridges he burned in his business dealings. The question then is whether burning bridges is sometimes unavoidable – or perhaps even necessary – to be successful in business? Are there instances in which burning a bridge is acceptable? Or should savvy professionals always seek to build and preserve bridges? When it comes to business, is it ever okay to burn bridges?
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July 20, 2015

Open Letter to Employers: Here are the Key Skills Your Customers Really Value from Your Staff

Issue #387

Attention employers everywhere (that means any organization that has people in any department, any profession, and at any level providing a service to others): What comes to mind when you think about customer service? Patience. Attentiveness. Knowledge. Positive attitude. Cheerfulness. Speed. Accuracy. Intuition. Composure. Flexibility. Yes, these soft skills are important in delivering good customer service. But they don’t top the list of the most critical customer service skills. Whether it is in working with patients, clients or customers, the most successful people are those who consistently provide clear and complete communication, are genuinely compassionate, and demonstrate real kindness. Being ‘likeable’ is also important. That’s right: Communication. Compassion. Kindness. Likeability.

Yet, these skills or qualities aren’t taught in vocational programs, colleges or universities. Why? While customer service is considered somewhat important, it really isn’t valued as highly as hard skills at most organizations. Certainly, a world-renowned cardio-vascular surgeon is valued more for his deep knowledge and ability to perform cutting-edge surgeries with precision rather than his charm, gift of gab or bedside manner. His hard skills are why he is paid ‘the big bucks’. However, studies are finding a critical connection between great customer service and profitability in many occupations; even more important than hard skills. In fact, in some occupations, good communication, compassion, likeability and kindness is the difference between a thriving business and one that is drowning in expenses, lawsuits and complaints. If the name of the game in business is to make money, then employers need to hire nice, friendly, caring and communicative employees in order to enhance the business’ bottom line. The good news is that these skills can be taught!
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June 22, 2015

The Search for the “Right Fit”

Issue #383

Adding 280,000 jobs in May, 2015, the U.S. unemployment rate now stands at 5.5% and we are seeing more people return to the workforce. That’s below the average U.S. unemployment rate between 1948 until 2015 of 5.83%, and it’s about half of the all time highest national unemployment rate of 10.8% recorded in November 1982. In fact, U.S. companies have hired over 200,000 employees every month in all but one of the last 15 consecutive months, and over four million new positions were filled since the start of 2014. That’s a lot of hiring!

For most businesses, hiring is serious business. Perhaps more than ever before, it is imperative for a company to find the “right” person for the job. Hiring the wrong person can cost a company anywhere from 35% to 65% of the position’s salary plus a lot of time and aggravation to recruit, hire and train another person if the first hire doesn’t work. That is why managers carefully search for the candidate who is going to best “fit” with the work and staff. But what exactly does “fit” mean? Should the leadership look for the individual who has the best skills, training and experience: someone who is the right fit for the job? Or should they search for the candidate who best matches the organization’s style: someone who is the right fit for the company’s culture? Or should the hiring manager seek the candidate who will get along best with the person in charge: someone who is the right fit for the boss? When looking to hire, what or who should the candidate “fit” in order to generate the greatest productivity and results for the company?
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