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Category: Communication

Make It Safe

Recently I finished reading Crucial Conversations . The book is subtitled Tools for talking when stakes are high. One of the best takeaways for me from this book was this idea. “When it is safe, you can say anything.” Open and honest communication takes trust and a great measure of value and respect for the other person.  Learning to be aware of how people are responding to your communication is a key way to know if you…

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I’ve Got a Dream

Are you familiar with the Disney Movie Tangled? … My youngest girls and I can watch it over and over. The singing, the dancing, the crazy hair we love it. Recently, at the ICC IGNITE mid-winter Leadership Retreat a bunch of clever ladies did a fun spoof  using the song I’ve got a dream. If you can’t make fun of yourself who can you make fun of?? Another touchpoint with dreams was listening to a TED talk by Diana Nyad about her…

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Model UN

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy, speech prepared for delivery in Dallas the day of his assassination, November 22, 1963 What do terrorism and ICC Students have in common? Okay before parents start answering that let me say Model UN!! On 11/11/11 over 40 students from seven chapters in Maryland gathered to participate in a version of Model UN that was packed with twists, turns and fun! With country placards waving,…

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Fear Factor

In the language of our ancestors there was a word, affray, which meant to “startle or frighten”. The present tense of this verb is not used anymore, but the past tense has come to be our word afraid. I see alot of fear in communication training… no surprise there. Although different surveys may have varying results a common top ranking fear is the fear of public speaking. To many of us this fear isn’t worth overcoming but how…

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slightly better by the Grace of God

“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.” – Andrew Jackson Recently, like really recently, I spoke some words to my husband. Words that I thought were just expressing something I wanted him to do for me. Well,he turned around a little later in the evening and essentially spoke them back to me.…

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A Grain of Salt – First Post

“A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.” –Helen Rowland quotes (English-American writer, 1876-1950) You could substitute teenager or a whole host of others to include and expand beyond men in this quote but let me start with the main audience I anticipate for this blog and that is women. It seems that I and perhaps by…

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