5 September

Negative feedback – different strokes for different folks*

Have you ever given a colleague from another country some critical feedback and then been surprised by their reaction to it? Perhaps they even asked you for your opinion and then seemed taken aback by what you had to say. The reason could be the style in which you gave your negative feedback. One size […]

13 June

Five types who derail meetings – and what to say to them

Posted in staying on track

Are meetings always a waste of time? Of course not. And definitely not if you deal with disruptions and unhelpful behaviour calmly, firmly and constructively early on. In the following I look at five types whose behaviour can prevent a meeting being successful. Then I suggest what you can say to deal with them and […]

18 August

Clearer emails. Part II: Writing times

Posted in staying on track

In Part I we looked at how to write dates clearly, this post follows on from that and deals with the correct formats for times. The 24-hour clock The first point to mention is that the 24-hour clock is much less common in English than in German, for example. It’s basically only used in timetables, in some computer […]