3 Social Skills We are Losing As with any skill, you use it or lose it. Knowledge can stick around. I still remember my best friend’s phone number from third grade. I no longer, however, can carry on a conversation in French like I could in third grade. (Loved...
The 5 Laws of Listening If your listening is effortless, you’re doing it wrong. You probably take listening for granted. To many, it doesn’t even seem like a skill—it’s something that just happens without even trying: Noises come out of a mouth in recognizable...
Say More with Less I’m reading a book called Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less which, ironically, uses an astounding number of words to say, “Use fewer words.” My friend recommended it to me, probably because I am a wordy writer. Why use 7 words...
7 Times You Should Probably Shut Up Awhile back I wrote I wrote a blog called “3 Times to Shut Your Mouth” which was—surprise, surprise!—about the nonverbal messages you send by literally closing your mouth. And while it is useful to know when to physically...
How to Be: Three Life-Changing Lessons from a Remarkable Woman About a month ago, I lost my mentor and dear friend, Mary Kogen. Mary was, on the surface, my college piano and pedagogy teacher. She taught me technique and chord progressions, how to break the...
What to do When You’re the Target of Anger In my last blog, I wrote about how to manage your anger at work. But (just a wild guess here) it’s not like you’re the only one who ever gets angry. It comes with the territory for humans, which means it’s normal for...
