Many people hate office/organizational politics. But staying out of such activities may hold back your career. As a communicator, especially if you are head of the communication function, you are responsible for building productive relationships throughout the office/organization so you can influence people beyond your formal area of authority and beyond headquarters. This is even more important in today’s world, when many people are working remotely or in hybrid mode. There is no doubt that developing strong internal stakeholder relationships will benefit you in organizational politics and will benefit your own career at the same time.
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Are you piled high with workplace time demands, media deadlines or client expectations? Are you trying to cram too many activities into too little time? Has COVID-19 added more pressure to your workday time, whether in the office or working from home? You probably face this type of situation every day. But when you are overloaded, you can learn how to say “No” without upsetting people.
Read more‘Street-smart’ business people learn the importance of maintaining good professional relationships, largely through networking, which is defined as the creation, development and use of personal contacts for mutual benefit or the benefit of others. Adept networking is a ‘win-win’ activity – producing a positive result for you and the people you meet. Types of networking There are several types of networking opportunities for you: Arrange periodically to meet over coffee or lunch with friends ...
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In your workplace and at home you are inevitably tempted to lay the blame on someone for an action or inaction that is unsatisfactory. Laying blame is easy to do and difficult to avoid, especially if you tend to be judgmental. (Just observe Donald Trump in action!) However, the essential point is don’t blame others – or this will rebound on you.
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You have probably heard this type of statement: “Effective personal communication is 55% body language, 38% tone of voice and only 7% content of the words you use.” However, these widely quoted figures (181,000 results from a Google search) are just an urban myth and represent a fundamental misinterpretation of limited experimental results. The takeaway: Ignore the big 55%-38%-7% myth about nonverbal communication. Read more in this article.
Worldwide research has found managers drive about 70% of an individual’s engagement at work, but managers are terrible communicators, which severely damages employee engagement levels. This article outlines how you can fix chronically poor manager communication so your organization’s employee engagement levels improve.
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Whether you are a communication staffer or external consultant, this relationship model creates great results. It is a very effective tool to connect with clients and management to achieve deeper mutual understanding. It involves listening, building trust and creating rapport that will develop top relationships between you and your internal and external stakeholders. Asking key questions will improve outcomes from stakeholder relationships.
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Research on verbal and non-verbal communication has found that mirroring a person’s words and body language increases rapport dramatically. This finding confirms the results of previous research, especially in the field of social psychology: When you mirror verbal and non-verbal communication in this way you will build good rapport with the other person.
Read moreThe amount of influence workers have isn’t always reflected in their job titles. You can determine your own informal value to others by reviewing the extent to which people – your top internal stakeholders – help you succeed in your job, and in turn, by what you offer them. Start by listing the top 10 employees at any level who help you get things done. Give each a score from one to 10 based ...
Read moreThese thoughts on developing a brilliant ‘elevator pitch’ have been adapted from advice offered by Liz DiAlto, who provides a lot of useful career feedback to clients. Here are some top tips for a more effective elevator pitch – the important words you say to people who ask the key question: “What do you do?” DON’T just give your job title This is a cop out. There are no 2-3 word descriptions that do ...
Read moreManaging or supervising a hybrid PR team can be challenging when you want to achieve effective coordination and communication. It
Many people hate the idea of playing office/organizational politics. But staying out of such activities may hold back your career
The public relations field has changed remarkably in the past decade. Hiring practices have also changed as a result -
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