communication
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Is Your Agile Team Taking Every Opportunity for Communication? Scrum events are well-defined points where team members communicate, but they shouldn't be the only times. If you’re not considering coding, tests, and the delivery process as opportunities for a conversation, you are missing an important chance to leverage individuals and interactions, as the Agile Manifesto states. |
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Tips for When You Have to Deliver Bad News at Work Delivering bad news is rarely easy and never fun. But delaying and worrying often make it worse than it needs to be. Most people on the receiving end would prefer to hear bad news sooner rather than later, so instead of putting off the undesirable task, try some of these tips to deliver bad news as easily as possible. |
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Make a Point of Appreciating Others—and Yourself Offering appreciation is an easy yet powerful way to acknowledge a coworker’s efforts. It’s one of the best ways to say thank you. There are many ways to show appreciation, including verbally in person, over the phone or by email, or writing a note. And while you're at it, reflect on what you appreciate about yourself. |
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The 5 Levels of Listening: Which Does Your Team Practice? The ways we listen—and not listen—are detailed in the Five Levels of Listening model, which goes from most distracted to most focused. Ideally, we’d all practice the fifth level: empathic listening, where we try to understand what matters to the person who is speaking, delaying our problem-solving and responsiveness. |
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The Spectrum of Negotiation: Using the Right Skills for the Context Negotiation occurs on a spectrum, and different tactics apply in different situations. For instance, you’d treat a one-time transaction differently from an ongoing client relationship you want to nurture. Have you developed effective negotiating skills? Are you applying negotiating skills appropriate for the context? |
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How to Dissuade Your Boss from Making a Bad Decision If your boss is about to make a decision that you think is a bad one, it's important to be mindful of how you address your concerns. Even if all your points are valid, if you make them in a brash or condescending manner, it won't matter. Here are some tips for dissuading your boss from a bad choice in an effective way. |
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How Face-to-Face Meetings Can Heal Team Conflicts When distributed teams have a conflict, it's easy for one team to place the blame entirely on the other and even start to think of them as disagreeable, incompetent, and worse. This fault-finding can be especially bad when the parties have never met. Face-to-face meetings can make all the difference in improving trust. |
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During Times of Major Change, Keep People Informed During times of major change, readily available information can help reduce the fears of those affected about what it means for them. If you’re involved in implementing change, it’s wise to keep people informed—not just about the change itself, but also about its impact on processes, responsibilities, and expectations. |
