Clear Communication

I volunteer for a few organizations and spend time helping out wherever I can. At a recent event, one of my fellow volunteers was talking about one of the other people working with us. She was relaying a story about how hurt she felt when she was trying to make small talk with this other person and the person turned around and said, in an aggravated tone, “Please stop talking to me. I don’t need any more friends.”
 

I am doing a presentation for a large client that offers a series of “career talks” for their employees. My topic will be Values – our attitudes and beliefs. What motivates us? As I prepare the presentation, I am again reminded how easy it is for us to fall into the trap of right versus wrong depending on what we believe and care about.
 

I feel very fortunate to be the mom to three wonderful kids. They aren’t perfect – by any stretch! And I don’t have fantasies that they are better than others, or above the norm. But they are my kids and I adore them. Today I was teaching my oldest daughter, age 16, to set up an online banking account. We were going through the process together and she had to choose a picture and pick a phrase that was meaningful to her for security purposes. We sat at my computer, and I was next to her while she typed in “My mom rocks” as her phrase.

I find that many of us are getting so tired of being treated badly, especially by those organizations we give our money to. I was reminded again this week how frustrating it can be when I wanted to do a simple thing – buy tickets for my kids to go to Water Country in Portsmouth, NH. Water Country advertises that you can obtain a $5.00 per person discount by simply buying online. But here is what really happens – you cannot do it, because they have a security system in place that makes it virtually impossible to get approved.
 

Today I answered the phone in our office. We always say our company name and then our own name. The person on the other line hesitated for a long time, then said “Mike Slemmer.” I couldn’t quite understand what he meant. I have a business partner named Mike Slemmer but did this person mean he was Mike, or that he wanted to speak to Mike, or just that he liked Mike’s name and so wanted to say it?

With the upcoming release of the movie “Bully,” due out on March 30th, I have been interviewed on 20 plus radio shows over the last couple of weeks, being asked about my opinion on what we can do in our schools about bullying.