Soft voices are the bane of many people. As a soft talker, you may think it is not such a big issue. However, for your listeners, a voice that is not clearly heard is maddening. It causes people to interrupt or to tune out, especially if they are on a long conference call. Most people with soft voices feel it is just something they are born with, and there is nothing they can do about it. In fact, to them, their voice sounds plenty loud enough since it is bouncing off the gray matter in the skull. There are some solutions.

Every major corporation with a global presence relies on virtual teams to launch products quickly and gain a competitive edge. For any one launch, many teams are often involved. For example, a typical launch team may include marketing, sales, engineering, packaging, manufacturing, etc. Each of those groups may have their own teams working fast and furiously to complete their pieces. It is easy for the sub-teams to lose sight of how their work fits into the big picture since they may have different goals and objectives. When the end game is different for each functional team, collaboration suffers.

Listening is the number one skill for success in business today. Poor listening skills make people angry and make them feel you don’t value them. They affect all relationships, especially business relationships. Most people think they are good listeners. In reality, we listen effectively only 25% of the time. In fact, most people only listen […]

Picture that you have answered the phone and the caller begins with a raised voice. Without any seeming provocation, the person on the other end of the line starts making threatening statements and even swearing. How do you defend yourself against this mad, out of control caller? Should you just hang-up and hope that someone […]