By Steve Adubato, PhD
The Billy Joel song says it all when it comes to communication—It’s “A Matter of Trust.” Think about it. When you don’t trust someone, how honest is your communication going to be? When you don’t trust someone, aren’t you likely to hold back important information for fear that it might be disclosed to someone else. Without trust, you don’t take risks; and when you don’t take risks in business, rarely if ever will you solve complex problems and meet the challenges all professionals face in these unpredictable and scary economic times.
By Steve Adubato, PhD
Public relations mishaps and communication crises can happen any time, any where. Just ask Plaxico Burress, the Giants and NY Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. By now the entire world knows that Burress was hanging out at the wrong place at the wrong time. You all know the story by now.
By Steve Adubato, PhD
In his thought provoking book “Thinking for a Change,” John Maxwell talks about how important thinking is to how well we manage in the world of business. Maxwell argues that too often academic institutions (as well as leaders of organizations) try to teach people “what to think--not how to think.” Yet, having information itself is not enough. Rather, taking that information and doing something meaningful with it—because of how you think—is where we often succeed.
By Steve Adubato, PhD
Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States for many reasons; among them are his exceptional communication skills. Obama will become the country’s “communicator-in-chief” in just a couple of months in large part because of the way he presented himself in a variety of challenging and stressful communication situations.
By Steve Adubato, PhD
Times are tough. People are getting laid off, companies are cutting back, consumers are spending less and overall there is a sense of insecurity in the marketplace. What does that have to do with communication? Everything.
By Steve Adubato, PhD
Feedback is a funny thing. We love it when someone tells us how great we are or what a great job we’ve done. It is easy to accept that kind of feedback. It reinforces how we want to be perceived in the eyes of others. But the truly great presenter, communicator and leader is a person who can accept and in fact embrace the feedback that is hard to hear. I am talking criticism from someone who is objective and candid and tells us that we stunk up the joint or didn’t get the job done. This can happen in a one-on-one situation with your boss who tells you that you gave a terrible presentation or the meeting that you lead was uninspiring. But it can also happen with an audience of hundreds if not thousands who communicate clearly that they just don’t like your act.
By Steve Adubato, PhD
Much of how we perceive people is about their non-verbal communication. In this much-analyzed and fascinating presidential campaign, it’s not just what you say that matters, but how you look or come off when you say it. Words matter, as does making cogent arguments. But particularly in debates or forums, be they in a campaign or in a corporate board room, body language and the way we carry ourselves has a significant impact on our audience.