Clown Around . . .Nancy Weil of The Laugh Academy gives people she meets red clown noses and shows them how to use them. Promoting laughter as a cure for stress and negativity, she makes a positive an...
As soon as someone believes you cannot be trusted, you are stopped dead in your tracks. Whether this perceived loss of trustworthiness is true or false, the perception alone can be damaging.
When you ask people about themselves, are you just being polite or do you truly want to know? When you focus your intention and questions on them, it makes them feel special and valued. However, if yo...
Humor lightens our spirits, comforts us through the challenge, brings people together, and helps us to remember the positive sides of life. When your presence and personality bring this welcomed delig...
For leaders, trust can make all the difference in the viability of their teams. When there is mistrust or low connectivity, teams can falter and fight—making productivity and profitability suffer.
Follow your heart, but take your brain with you! After buying an armload of funny books filled with clean jokes, one-liners, and speech openers, I discovered how truly spot-on Joe had been. Inserting...
Be Personable & Friendly. People who are genuinely warm and sincerely kind are easy to talk to, easy to like and bring a positive vibe to new encounters and social situations.
Trust and rapport are the connective tissue for gaining and maintaining healthy relationships. They provide people with the comfort and reassurance that they are doing business with an organization wh...
This insightful quote I once heard stays with me: Tell me what gives you your sense of importance and I will tell you what you are. That is the most important thing about you. That is what determines...
Take steps to be humble, sincere, and authentic, and apologize if necessary. If a relationship is valuable to you, it is worth your concern and effort to make it right.
People consider trust differently. Some approach a new relationship with a degree of skepticism and want the other person to earn their trust before it is freely given. Their reluctance is often influ...
Let Sleeping Dogs LieWhen I hear someone expressing an adamant opinion which is diametrically opposed to my own, I have a strong temptation to try to convince them otherwise. But what value is there i...
Expand Your Repertoire . . .Professional humorists and comedians, like Jeanie Robertson, maintain joke files filled with assorted topics, anecdotes, and titles. When something outrageously funny happe...
Be a Discovery Expert. Be inquisitive. A wonderful way to get to know someone is simply by asking questions. The more you ask, the more you can learn . . . about people, work, life.
As you rock rapport, you will open doors, earn loyalty, establish long-term relationships, and promote mutually respectful interaction. How can you break the ice and move toward creating a positive co...
What are those behaviors that make us take pause to think twice about a person’s trustworthiness? Guarded body language, lack of eye contact, nervous fidgeting, interrupting, speaking ill of others, l...
Think of fun ways you can connect with your business or social circles. When you’re with your tribe—or like-minded people—they’ll laugh and learn right alongside you.
The romantic notion of opposites attract works well in fairy tales. However, science proves that like attracts like for healthy communication and successful relationships. Social psychologists have lo...
Make Others Feel Important. We all have an innate desire to feel important, be special, and feel appreciated. In your words and behavior help others feel important.
Commonality & Camaraderie. By identifying, developing, and connecting powerful points of reference to others, you will have a rich resource of information from which to engage in stimulating conversat...