Connecting Clearly in Communication

by Brent Combrink, executive coach and business mentor

For some reason, the word “reactionary” is becoming popularly misused to mean reactive or responsive.  It’s fairly obvious what the latter 2 words mean, but it’s perhaps surprising to know that reactionary is, in fact, a reference to a political or idealogical stance.

by Marion Adamson , expert life skills coach and facilitator

As a business owner or professional, many a headache is quelled with asprin, a glass of wine, or something stronger, perhaps a mountain bike race.  How wonderful would it be if you could start your project with this wish list..?

by Gill Baronetti , project management coach and mentor

These days, without the advantage of a Ph.D. in Psychology, project managers are faced with the need to equip themselves with vital skills to deal with the “people stuff”. I have witnessed countless projects going pear-shaped mainly because of a project manager’s poor communication, inability to nip conflict in the bud and reluctance to deal with the inevitable people dynamics as part of the project lifecycle.

by Brent Combrink , executive coach and business mentor

From the personal stories shared, our approach to looking at people and business from new angles was well-founded: instead of another boring time management sermon, we took a fresh look at mastering time by exploring our biased perspectives of time.

by Brent Combrink

Luke: “All right, I'll give it a try.”

Yoda: “No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.”

Perhaps Yoda, in Star Wars Episode V, has been over-quoted lately, but “try” is not always negative. True, trying something is different from committing to it, yet trying something out is also accepting that failure is possible -- we are open to experimenting and taking a chance on success.

When you catch yourself using “try”, check what this means for your intentions and expectations: are you lacking commitment or are you open to surprise and serendipity?

A useful place to use “try” is in sales: inviting your client to try out your product or service suggests that the commitment is not carved in stone. Like wine-tasting: if you don’t like the “try”, you don’t have to drink the whole bottle!

Try a different perspective of “try”!