Tag Archives: Communication

A View from the Inside

May 3, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Aana is  nine years old and bright. Really bright. I was interviewing her for a book chapter I’m writing about youngsters and their ideas about work and the workplace. She eased right  into our conversation and jumped at a chance to give me a crash course on Star Wars characters and the relative merits of becoming a Jedi Warrior. (She’s seriously considering the latter as a career choice. I was impressed.) We made a deal. Continue reading →

I Didn’t Tell You Because I Thought You Knew

April 26, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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A recent letter writer suggested that employees, the newly hired and the barely there,  would benefit from understanding that employers have some very basic expectations of them. I heartily agree. In fact, here’s one boss’s secret copy of Here’s What I Didn’t Tell You Because I Thought You Knew. This place is called “Work” Get to work earlier than on time (and that’s based on my watch, not yours). Get to work earlier than on time every day Continue reading →

A 360 Degree View

April 19, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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The trend toward 360 degree performance appraisals can be more of a jolt  than the faint of heart can handle. Back in the old days, which can be as recent as a few minutes ago, high ranking employees could stay in their jobs,  earn substantial bucks, and be as good or as bad as they always had been. That was when an annual review came around as often as a bicentennial event.It’s not that employees Continue reading →

Asking for the best

March 29, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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This is it, plain and simple: As a supervisor, manager, or business owner, your job is to direct the work of others, not to do their work for them. In order to achieve that in a timely and efficient manner, it’s your job to communicate your expectations in ways they understand. If your employees are unclear about the assignment or the manner in which you want it done, they’ll do one of three things: figure Continue reading →

Questions: The Customer is Always…?

February 8, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Q: How does a retailer, operating a very legitimate business, protect his/her company from misguided customers who are very clearly inappropriate in their demands and yet threaten all types of exposure and legal measures to get their way? Seems to me that this is a form of extortion… the customer isn’t always right! A: I asked several local retailers their take on the subject and received a variety of responses from them. Here’s a sampling: Continue reading →

Deer in the headlights

February 1, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Q: “I’m in my mid-forties. By now you’d think I’d have figured out how to get a job, but I’m still a deer in the headlights when it comes to interviewing. I review study guides, memorize websites, and I practice. I practice in front of the mirror, when I’m walking my dog, even on my commute to work. I think I’m ready, I go on the interview, and I feel like I did when I Continue reading →

Outside the Box Isn’t Easy

December 21, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Would all the do-ers, please, please, sit down? Stop fixing. Stop lifting. Stop starting. We’re tired of watching you do our work for us. And we let you get away with it, because you insist that it has to be done your way. Where’s the creativity in that? You thought we were lazy, procrastinatin’, good-fer-nuthin’s. No, we’re smart, somewhat lazy (unless really inspired, then we’ll drill through steel to get what we want), procrastinating on Continue reading →

Between a Rock and….

December 7, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Sometimes you feel like you’re stuck between a rock and another rock. You don’t have room to breathe or move. You desperately need air and space and don’t have the energy to push the rocks apart to get it. If you’re one of those people stuck in a merger that just can’t  seem to resolve itself, that may be how you’re feeling. If you’re in a job that is a bad match and you have Continue reading →

Too Little…Too Late

November 23, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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In the last few weeks I’ve had questions from four people, each from a different part of the country, all having an identical complaint: No one  is willing to say you’re in trouble until they’re ready to fire you. Four people are on the termination bubble: A senior vice president of a heavy machinery manufacturer; a manager of a retail outlet; a marketing director of a technology company; the head of housekeeping for a large hotel chain. Continue reading →

What Me Worry?

November 9, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Are you into lists? How about Ten Gonna Getchas for Managers: You’re always the boss. You’re an “in charge kind of person.”  Everyone comes to you with work site problems because you can fix anything. You wear your tool belt at work, home, and in public gatherings. No matter who has the problem, you have the answer. What can go wrong? Your colleagues pass their work off to you and then get offended when you do Continue reading →

Unexpected Challenges

October 26, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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“Am I out of sync with today’s workforce? What’s wrong with expecting a day’s work for a day’s pay?” The caller said he had an idea for a blog post, was I interested? “Always”, I said. “What is it?” Here’s what he told me: “My boss asked me not to work so hard. “Lighten up”, he said. Can you believe that? ‘Lighten up!’ He told me I was passed up for promotion because I expected too much Continue reading →

Feedback: Too Much, Too Little or Too Late

September 7, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Feedback. Too much or too little? It depends on who you’re asking: “Everybody tells me what to do; from my mother to my manager. You’d think I didn’t have a brain in my head. Why can’t people just keep their opinions to themselves and let me do my job?” “The only time I get any feedback is at my annual review, which I get every eighteen months to two years, if I’m lucky. Even then, Continue reading →

Jet Blue Column Generates Responses

August 20, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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The Jet Blue flight attendant event was the basis for my August 15, 2010 column in the Greenboro News & Record.  I receive a few emails about my suggestion that there were other things to try before emulating the actions of the frustrated Jet Blue flight attendant. An except from my column: Understanding the other person’s perspective and knowing their story enables you to frame the exchange and navigate the intersection differently than you otherwise Continue reading →

Conventional Wisdom Won’t Keep Your Employees from Leaving

August 17, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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“How can I stop my employees from leaving when I can’t afford to compete with the salaries and benefits the other folks are offering?” That’s the question many employers are asking. The problem is, they’re listening to Conventional Wisdom for the answers. CW suggests that people join companies and stay with them for salary and  benefits; that employees have no loyalty; if they can get better down the street, that’s where they’re going to go. Continue reading →

Dedicated to Teachers Everywhere

August 3, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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By the time we arrived at our old family home we were bone tired. It was good to get off the road and open the door to a safe place of summer reflection. It was the perfect occasion to reminisce… I was entering elementary school and I still didn’t talk. I was born into a family that was extroverted, emotional, musical, and exhausting. There was so much commotion in our house I had no desire Continue reading →

The Three C’s of Effective Communication

July 20, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Political pundits advise the President to have news conferences early and often. Why? 1. The public wants to know what’s happening and what the President’s doing about it. They want to know his command of the issues; how aware, involved, and decisive he is regarding critical events and breaking news. 2. The more often the President meets the press and the public, the more on top of issues he has to be. Political advisors aside, Continue reading →

Summer Employment for Teenagers

June 8, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Parents, from your calls and emails it sounds like finding summer employment for your teenagers is top of mind these days. Just be careful. If you get too involved, their search will become your search, and even worse, they could stop searching before they even get started. “I provide our family gracious living; a fine home, cars, vacations, club memberships, you name it. I’ve been in a family business for a long while so I’m Continue reading →

Advice for the Advice-Giver

June 1, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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If you’re a frequent reader, you know that I typically offer advice to job seekers, providing strategies for getting and keeping jobs. I often suggest they contact you, as possible references, networking contacts, and prospective employers, and in turn, ask that when you offer your wisdom and perspective you’re doing it to help them stay on the road and out of the ruts they inevitably encounter. It occurred to me that you might want a Continue reading →

Tough Questions Have Answers

May 25, 2010 by Joyce Richman
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Interview questions that are difficult typically ask about “why and how” not “what and when.”  They focus on demanding workplace issues, events, personalities, and the actions you’ve taken or didn’t take regarding them. When you do a good job responding to these questions you show self awareness and an ability to organize and articulate your thoughts in ways that are logical and understandable. You describe cause and effect and connect facts that may appear unrelated Continue reading →