High caliber leaders and communicators know how important it is to communicate positively as opposed to negatively. One effective way to check yourself and determine if you are actively communicating in the positive is to monitor your use of the word “don’t” or the phrase “do not” in your email or other writing. Select a handful of recent emails, preferably those with extensive text and run a search for “don’t” and “do not.” Check to see if you how many times you used those words and if you could have communicated in the positive as opposed to the negative.
Perhaps you wrote “don’t be late to the meeting” and could have communicated more positively by writing “be on time to the meeting.” Perhaps you wrote “don’t forget” when you could have easily written “please remember.”
These skills of writing and communicating in the positive can easily be cultivated by starting with your e-writing at work. For more tips to improve your e-writing at work watch the on demand webinar “E-Writing @ Work” which is part of the Administrative Assistant Advantage webinar series.
To learning more tips to communicate with emotional intelligence, please tune into our live webinar May 19, 2016. You will learn what “EQ” is, why it matters, and how to leverage it to decrease conflict, eliminate stress, improve relationships and your leadership skills. Register here.
Pamela Jett is a communication skills and leadership expert who knows that words matter! In her keynote presentations, workshops, books and online learning programs, she moves beyond communication theory into practical strategies that can be implemented immediately to create the kind of leadership, teamwork, and employee engagement results her clients want.