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Mother teaching child how to listen

Teaching Your Child Listening Skills

A belief is floating around that says children today are ruder, more ignorant, and generally less respectful of their elders than they were in pre-electronic device days. “Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it”, said pioneering child psychologist Haim Ginott.

Are children’s listening skills declining as a side effect of the 21st century? More importantly, does a child of yours languish in poor listening and what can you do to improve their listening skills? Read more

Boss aggressively shouts at lady

How to Manage and Deal with an Aggressive Boss

Abuse is painful enough. When the abuser is a boss or someone else with authoritative power, it is even more confusing how you should manage and deal with the aggression. Your boss can trick you into doing nothing in fear of repercussions.

The law does little to protect victims of workplace conflict. Nearly all laws do not take into account verbal conflict, but if the verbal and other emotional abuse approaches physical abuse, the issue can become a legal concern. The typical employee who faces a difficult manager, however, needs to handle the workplace bully through a series of skills in this article.

People who lack the communication skills to deal with a bad boss either: Read more

Girl starting a conversation

How to Start and Keep a Conversation Going with a Guy

It is hard enough starting a conversation with a stranger, but try to start a conversation with a guy you think is hot! You don’t know what to say. You wonder if he likes you. You want him to like you. You’re nervous! All this is just the start of what runs through your head.

If you want to start a conversation with an interesting guy, whether it is online through sites like MSN, Facebook, face-to-face, or text, I have a two-step formula.

The first step is to overcome your fears, anxiety, and other “inner-game” problems. You reading this article wanting to know how to start a conversation with a guy tells me you need to solve inner-game problems rather than have me write you a few magical lines to use on a guy you like. The second step defines what you say and how you say it. When you follow this simple two-step formula revealed below, you will know how to start a conversation with a guy and keep the conversation going. Read more

Bullseye on a target

Setting SMART Achievable Personal Goals

Goal-setting is the framework for personal achievement. It is the backbone of becoming the person you desire to be. Setting and achieving personal goals will guarantee you success because it is success.

Most who set goals have little-to-no understanding of goal-setting – and so fail to become or get what they want. We frequently hear of people’s goals (I should say “hopes”) to find a perfect partner, lose weight, or help people in need. Many have hopes yet few achieve them. Why is this and what can you do to get what you want unlike the 95+% of people who fail to achieve their ambitions? Read more

Smart student studying

Why Smart People Have Poor Communication Skills – and What to Do About It

On October 23, 1990, David Pologruto, a high school physics teacher, was stabbed by his smart student Jason Haffizulla. Jason was not a teenager you think would try to kill someone. He got straight A’s and was determined to study medicine at Harvard, yet this was his downfall. His physics teacher gave Jason a B, a mark Jason believed would undermine his entrance to Harvard. After discovering his B, Jason took a butcher knife to school then stabbed his physics teacher before being reprimanded in a struggle.

Two years following the incident in a New York Times article, it was reported Jason raised his grade average to 4.614 (exceeding the perfect average of 4) by taking advanced courses and graduated with highest honors. He was smart.

Jason got better than perfect grades and still emotionally lost himself by trying to wound or kill his teacher. He could never improve his grade by stabbing his teacher. How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb? Read more

Nonviolent Communication

Review of Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg

This is a book review of Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values.

I’ve stumbled on few books that I refer to as a must-read for everybody. Nonviolent Communication is one of those rare books you need to read because it will help you build understanding and compassion – two keys that if you only had, you would be a great communicator in good relationships. Read more

Difficult Conversations

Review of Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen

This is a review of Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen’s Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most.

Have you ever struggled to negotiate something important to you like a pay raise? Have you ever felt anxious talking something over with your partner? Are there issues you ignore because you’re too afraid to talk about it? Are you sick of arguing, feeling ignored, and getting no where in a tough conversation? Difficult Conversations is a solution to these conversation problems. Read more

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Review of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This is a book review of Dale Carnegie’s all time international classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is a large review with the occasional diversion from the topic because I feel it is appropriate for this classic book.

The original version of this book was written in 1937 with 5,000 copies available. Word quickly spread the globe about the lessons in the book and now there is over 16 million copies in print. Read more

Father points his finger at his worried son

The Four Parenting Styles in Passive, Aggressive, and Assertive Behavior

Here’s the most common parenting question I get asked, which is a major parenting misconception: Is there one correct way to raise a child? The answer is there is no one right way to raise a child. Like buying a car, becoming friends with your neighbors, or hanging out your clothes to dry, there is no single way to raise a healthy-minded, love-filled, successful child.

Having said that, there are four parenting styles you need to be aware of when raising a child, which explain the best parenting styles for a child. How you use a parenting style is up to your judgment. No single correct way to use the styles exists because there are too many variables in parenting and your child.

The four parenting styles based on research in parenting are: Read more

Communicate

The Benefits of Communication Skills

What if I told you there was a secret to you being happy, attractive, popular, successful, in control, and loving? What if you could get these from one skill? You can.

The benefits of communication are mind-boggling. It goes beyond what you’re about to discover here. Any interaction with people or lack of interaction from things like shyness can improve with communication.

Rudyard Kipling said, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Kipling’s quote fails to communication because it is far more than words – communication is also nonverbal. Imagine the powerful benefits of communication now.

Here are a list of communication benefits that tell you the “what”, “why”, and “how” this amazing skill will change your life: Read more