How to Respond When Someone Asks Your Opinion and You Have Nothing Nice to Say Have you ever been cornered by a colleague and asked a potentially incriminating question: “What do you think about the new boss?” or, “What do you think about the co-workers new hair cut?” or “What do you think about the CEO’s new (controversial) policy?” The…
“I told you so” along with “That’s a dumb idea,” “I knew you couldn’t do it” and “What were you thinking?!!” are just some of the nasty comments that may catch us off guard when they come our way. Even worse is when those well-intentioned, but hurtful comments come from people close to us such as co-workers or family. I…
Four-year-olds When my daughter was born [23 years ago] it occurred to me that I knew nothing about child rearing. Sure, I had been a working person and supervisor for many years, but my expertise on children was limited. Being the good educator that I was, I decided to do some research — a one year subscription to various parenting…
Evil Twin vs. Good Twin If you’ve attended any of my presentations, you’ve probably heard me refer to the “evil twin!” I half-jokingly refer to it as our dark side who would have us say things that get us in trouble…at work and at home. Here are some of my favorite “evil twin vs. good twin” phrases. I hope you’ll choose…
Ask for More: How to Receive Negative Feedback Without Getting Defensive We spend a lot of time and energy figuring out how to constructively GIVE negative feedback. How do we respond when we RECEIVE it? Do we respond gracefully or do we get defensive? One of my first mentors suggested that we ASK FOR MORE! I often share the example of…