Active listening: why curiosity is the key
You are no doubt familiar with the phrase, ‘active listening.’ If you want to build trust, strengthen relationships, and resolve differences with your colleagues this is a tool you need in your kit bag …
Are you conflict averse? Everyone is.
Not a workshop goes by without a participant telling us that they hate conflict. Here’s the thing – none of us like it. Well, very few of us anyway. Confrontation makes us uncomfortable. When we dig a bit deeper the real issue is that people don’t feel confident having difficult conversations. The good news is …
Communicate better this Christmas
The festive season often comes with mixed emotions. While some people relish the celebrations and joy of having time to connect with family, it can equally be fraught with underlying tensions and unresolved conflicts. Guess what? This is the ideal time to practise your confident conversation skills. Work is often pressurised in the lead-up to …
Curious communication: why you should try it
Feedback from our Confident Conversations Workshops consistently reminds us just how powerful getting curious is – especially in triggering or emotional situations. Research tells us that this skill has been linked with psychological, emotional, social, and even health benefits. So, let’s talk about curiosity and how it may benefit you in the workplace …
How Leadership Coaching Can Create Meaningful Change
Strong leadership is partly innate but there is also much that can be learned. We all bring our strengths and weaknesses to a job and every work environment is different. Fiona approached me a few years ago after taking on an Acting CEO role in an organisation that was going through significant challenges including intense …
How To Design Training That Sticks
Over time many of us develop habitual ways of communicating. It is not until these ingrained behaviours are no longer serving us that we may decide to try a different tact. This was the case with John who elected to attend a Learnfully course due to communication challenges he was having in a new job …
How to improve your memory
It is a very real and human tendency to forget. In fact, the forgetting curve is a mathematical formula that describes the rate at which something is forgotten after it is initially learned. The idea is over 100 years old. It originates in the late 19th century, with German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, who was among …
Post workshop coaching is where the gold comes from
Almost always the feedback from our workshops says that participants were very satisfied or extremely satisfied with the session. Whilst this is good news, we are passionate about ensuring that the learning really sticks. We want to see them applied long-term to create meaningful change. We do this by giving everyone 10 weekly Learning Bytes …
The Power of ‘What’: A Simple Shift to Transform Your Conversations
Have you ever asked someone a question and been met with silence… or worse, defensiveness? You’re not alone. The way we ask questions has a huge impact on the tone, direction, and outcome of a conversation — and there’s one small change that can make a surprisingly big difference …
The Silent Superpower: Why Pausing After a Question Can Transform Your Conversations
We often think of good communication as the ability to find the right words. But sometimes, the most powerful thing you can say… is nothing at all. Especially in difficult conversations, the ones laced with strong emotion or high stakes, knowing when to stay silent can be a game-changer. It’s a skill that feels counterintuitive, but one that builds trust, calm, and connection. …
The Transformative Power of Confident Conversations
We are all human. Even the most senior, capable people can struggle with finding the most effective way to communicate in difficult situations. Lisa came to us recently as she felt she needed some communication skills to help her deal with high conflict situations at work. Instinctively she preferred to walk away and avoid dealing …
Why Listening is a Superpower
Recently I had the privilege of seeing an opera with our majestic Uluru as the backdrop. To top it off we also went to a morning tea with the conductor of the orchestra and one of the opera singers who were being interviewed. So, what on earth has all of this got to do with …