From the first cry we make as an infant to the meeting you had with your team yesterday, the ability to communicate effectively directly impacts outcomes. Your success in navigating relationships with others and conveying salient points in business communications directly impact results, both for you personally and for your business. Those interpersonal communication skills are the true key to success.

Creating and maintaining an environment that engenders role clarity has a number of positive impacts that directly impact the success of organizations. This article discusses five of the main positive outcomes for businesses if they effectively generate and manage role clarity. What is Role Clarity? The simplest way of describing role clarity ties back to the basic question of whether an organization can clearly describe the duties and responsibilities associated with a role and the accompanying baseline requirements that an individual needs to have in order to effectively perform the role.

We have all seen those straight out of the movies scenarios on the news when tragedy strikes at work. An active shooter comes in and wreaks havoc on anyone and everyone. The haunting images of people running for their lives or the aftermath usually stick with me for days after. These events generally leave you with the feeling of sadness and also thoughts about what if it happened at your workplace. How likely are you to be exposed to this situation?

Regardless of the nature of the transaction, during a merger or acquisition, all employees find themselves surrounded by change, impacting everything from organizational culture to the snacks in the kitchen. From here it is an exercise in simple logic - with change, comes uncertainly - with uncertainty, comes attrition. Is there no way to interrupt this equation?

As a consultant in the field of Human Resources, I am often approached for guidance on how to conduct a difficult conversation in the workplace. I’ve had COO’s come to talk through how to share with their CEO (and boss!) that their contributions in staff meetings are negatively impacting employee morale and undermining their position as COO. I’ve had employees come to me and ask how to talk to their manager about why they feel overwhelmed and underpaid in their role. I’ve had friends call me up and ask about best practices for approaching their manager to let them know they will be resigning from their position. These topics, along with a number of other topics in the workplace, are never an easy conversation to approach and I have found myself consistently providing the following advice in each scenario. Added bonus, these tips apply to those not-so-easy conversations at home as well!