The Hard Work of Making Good Requests: Part II 

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The first rule for getting what you want is to Pay Attention to spelling out exactly what you want. Then make a request for it.

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The Hard Work of Making Good Requests: Part I

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Help people give you what you really want by making complete requests that use all 6 “journalist questions”.

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The Power of Promising: Listener + Do + Due 

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How to get yourself to Do something you don’t want to Do? Add a Listener and a Due date. Here’s how.

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Give Your Goals a Little “Infrastructure” for Success

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You can make a resolution to reach a goal – just include a communication plan to support your successful change.

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Time to Talk? Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

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Improve both efficiency and effectiveness with a clear and complete request.

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No Closure, No Accomplishment

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A normally upbeat and productive guy was suddenly downcast and discouraged yesterday morning. I went in to see Chuck and talk about progress on his most important project – implementing an employee development program – and he wasn’t even interested anymore. Wow. “This project doesn’t matter,” he said. “I thought it would make a huge […]

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Attitude Can Cause Blindness and Ignorance

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  After years of saying that a consultant’s job is not to change people’s attitudes, I might need to eat my words. Here’s what I learned from reviewing a Harvard Business Review case: a bad attitude can blind an employee – even a good one – from seeing who to communicate with and who needs […]

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Getting Other People to Do Stuff

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A recent review of manager comments on their workplace communication was very revealing: they didn’t get the idea of dialogue. Two-way talking was not recognized as a tool for getting things done on time and on budget. Here are two samples of their management “conversations” for getting people to perform: “I think we need to get […]

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On Getting What You Want

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The hardest thing about getting what you want is the problem of deciding what, exactly, you really do want. If the Lamp Genie offered you one wish, what would it be? Over 70% of people would ask for some time to think about it – which probably means they are living a pretty good life already. […]

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A Tip for Smarter Staff Meetings

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  A manager I know came up with the best idea I ever saw for having her staff meetings be short and smart. Her name is Sharon, and she has a staff of 14 direct reports. I borrowed her idea myself when I managed a conference, and I have recommended it to every manager I […]

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