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Tag: communication (Page 3 of 3)

Why diplomats “lie”

31/07/2014 /

During a training seminar, Ruben Brunsveld of the Stockholm Institute for Public Speaking (StIPS) asked the question: “Which words do you associate with diplomacy and diplomatic language?”

He found out that the words commonly associated with diplomacy are intrasparent, unclear, vague and even lying.

Actually, diplomatic language can be extremely confusing if you are not used to the codes. It is essential to know the context of the communication and the relationships among the people involved to understand the meaning of a “diplomatic” conversation. So why don’t they just say what they think?

In the international arena, actors coming from different backgrounds meet each other, bearing different communication styles and value systems. Diplomatic language is used to avoid mistakes and to establish “the rules of the game”.

In a field where interpersonal interaction is crucial, those rules are needed to communicate without running the risk of offending your counterpart. For sure, you have to know and practice them, taking into account that diplomats do not lie. They just “soften”.

Read the full article at http://stips.se/why-diplomats-lie/

What they say

What they mean
We believe the Dutch proposal is very interesting What a strange Dutch proposal, we will not accept it!
We understand the general idea behind your proposal We have a serious problem with how you want to implement this
We believe this proposal deserves further examination We cannot accept it in this form
We have complete understanding for the French concerns, however we feel that we should …. We disagree with the French
I hope we can be pragmatic and work towards a constructive solution Please stop whining about technicalities
I am not quite convinced the German proposal reflects the best way out for all of us. We will not accept the German proposal.
By inserting this you make it hard for me to convince my colleagues. Stop making my position difficult.
I ask your understanding for the fact that this is very important for Sweden. It is important but I cannot tell you why. Ask me at the coffee machine.
I have been instructed by my government to propose the following solution. I know this is not acceptable for you. Do not shoot the messenger.
The internal coordination process is still ongoing We did not have time to look over the document.

10 Effective Ways To Get More Followers On Twitter

15/07/2014 /

If you aim at broadening your influence, it is very likely that you are already acquainted with Twitter. With over 500 million registered users in 2012, and 200 million active users, Twitter is quite a large pool to fish in. That is, if you get people to follow you. In order to maximize your twitting experience and to keep your followers counter on the rise, here is a list of 10 useful tips, drafted by Malika Rani:

  1. Come up with an effective tweet;
  2. Make sure your Twitter profile is complete;
  3. Follow followers of people that are like you;
  4. Ask for retweet;
  5. Follow back your followers;
  6. Be active on twitter chat;
  7. Include hashtags in your tweets;
  8. Use twitter searching sites;
  9. Post content on a regular basis;
  10. Explore “follow me on twitter” Links.

Twitter_Logo_by_Megachix

Image source: Megachix on http://goo.gl/pRMpkl

What We Can Learn From Marching Band Leaders

03/06/2014 /

Marching Band leaders during a parade represent a good example of how a leader should try to inspire others in order to support a particular dream or objective.  This is because every marching band leader, despite having its own particular style, is committed to keep the band members marching in perfect step and with gusto. Effective leadership is essentially about managing to empower others to stick to their mission. In her article, Terry Klass identifies a few ways which may help leaders in this fundamental task:

  • Clearly communicate the dream;
  • Ask for input about the dream;
  • Stay open in case a course correction is needed;
  • Keep everybody motivated.

Read the full article at: http://bit.ly/1icN9CL

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Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11223807@N04/7581144810/sizes/o/

Proposed by: Ruben Caruccio

The Twenty People Skills You Need To Succeed At Work

27/05/2014 /

Do you think you’re qualified for a particular job, fit to lead a team, or entitled to a promotion because you have extensive experience and highly developed technical skills? Well, it turns out that while those things are crucial to your professional success, it is imperative that you also have great soft skills, more commonly known as “people skills.”

Jacquelyn Smith suggests 20 soft skills we need to succeed at work:

  1. The ability to relate to others.
  2. Strong communication skills.
  3. Patience with others.
  4. The ability to trust others.
  5. Knowing how and when to show empathy.
  6. Active listening skills.
  7. Genuine interest in others.
  8. Flexibility.
  9. Good judgment.
  10. The ability to persuade others.
  11. Negotiation skills.
  12. The ability to keep an open mind.
  13. A great sense of humor.
  14. Knowing your audience.
  15. Honesty.
  16. Awareness of body language
  17. Proactive problem solving.
  18. Leadership skills.
  19. Good manners.
  20. The ability to be supportive and motivate others.

Read the full article at: http://onforb.es/1bKPpB7

8218844183_7eae5f9dd8Image source: http://bit.ly/1bkRUsa – Image by changeorder (License CC BY-SA 2.0)

Posted by: Maria Del Carmen Taschini Otero

The Six Rules for Disagreeing Agreeably

15/05/2014 /

The Dale Carnergie Training, a leader company in performance improvement, in a post on its own blog asserts that the way in which we communicate can elicit positive or negative emotions. If we don’t have the right tact or sensitivity, people might misunderstand the message we are trying to convey. An approach that combines strength and empathy can help us keep bad emotions at bay.

Read full article at: http://bit.ly/1fCJquo

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Image source: http://bit.ly/1ebFUuP – Image by Dushan Wegner shtikl (License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Posted by: Maria Francesca Dell’Apa

Effective communication in the 21st Century

28/01/2014 /

Public diplomacy is increasingly challenged by the transformative power of technology and the swift pace of digital progress: an effective online communication needs a careful and creative use of social medias. The UN foundation and the Digital Diplomacy Coalition have dealt with this subject at the end of October by hosting a half-day conference attended by people from all over the world, connected through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Livestream. Eight key – pieces of advice emerged throughout the conversation:

1) Meet people where they are, using multiple platforms to reach different audiences.
2) Listen: don’t just put out your messages, involve your audience.
3) Build a network of networks: a stronger community means a better exchange.
4) Tell stories: data are important but reaching the emotional level is crucial.
5) Tell your stories visually, images make words more powerful.
6) Be authentic, be accurate: being credible is even more important then being fast.
7) Engage your leadership to be active on line, thus helping to shape a social-media–friendly organization.
8) Spur action: specific and relevant reaction means your communication has been really effective.

Read more on:  http://bit.ly/IsTayB

411196422_343c0965a8Image source: Flickr – Paul Shanks

Five Presentation Mistakes Everyone Makes

20/08/2013 /

Nancy Duarte has published several books on presentations. The last one is the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations. Here are some of her tips on creating and delivering presentations.

We all know what it’s like to sit through a bad presentation. We can easily spot the flaws — too long, too boring, indecipherable, what have you — when we watch others speak. The thing is, when we take the stage ourselves, many of us fall into the same traps.

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Illustration by Andrew Joyner on Businessweek.com

Here are five of the most common, along with some tips on how to avoid them.

  1. Failing to engage emotionally : Try opening with a story your audience can relate to, for example, or including analogies that make your data more meaningful.
  2. Asking too much of your slides: Create handouts from all that text you’ve pulled off your slides and moved into “notes.”
  3. Trotting out tired visuals:  Brainstorm lots of visual concepts — and throw away the first ones that came to mind.
  4. Speaking in jargon:  If they can’t follow your ideas, they won’t adopt them.
  5. Going over your allotted time:  There’s nothing worse than a presentation that seems like it will never end.

Read more at http://goo.gl/jE9dq

9 Rules to Avoid Murder by PowerPoint

23/04/2013 /

Have you ever done a PowerPoint presentation? Probably yes. Do you think it has always been compelling and memorable? We do not think so!              Many presentations are boring and quite bad.

In his article, Aaron Couch provides a list of advices to make PowerPoint more enjoyable to read and simple to understand.

  1. Begin with an outline
  2. Be consistent with the theme and layout
  3. Forget clipart, crazy sounds and fancy transitions
  4. Do not read your Power Point
  5. Get to the point
  6. Use media but quality media
  7. Use the resources available to you
  8. Practice. Practice. Practice
  9. It all lies on you: the presenter

Read the full article at : http://tiny.cc/zl7snw

Image source: http://tiny.cc/f28snw

E-Diplomacy

30/10/2012 /

Use of remote participation through videoconferencing has become a normal activity for diplomats; the use of this Internet tool is increasingly standing out to the practice of diplomacy.

This is one of the many interesting illustrations on e-diplomacy that DiploFoundation created to better describe the changing diplomatic world.

Illustrations focus on:

  • Internet driven-changes of environment in which diplomacy is conducted.
  • Impact on the two pillars of diplomacy, information and communication.

You can see some illustrations of the original gallery at: http://goo.gl/O01gC

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