by Paul Quinn | Oct 15, 2021 | Communication Skills, Presentation Skills
Many years ago, I lived in a large apartment building and had an upstairs neighbor, “Dave,” who was a compulsive talker. With Dave, there was no such thing as a conversation “in passing,” because every conversation quickly turned into a hostage situation. An affable...
by Paul Quinn | Oct 1, 2018 | Communication Skills, Healthcare, Workplace Etiquette
Anyone who has spent a few nights in a hospital knows how stressful the experience can be. In addition to physical pain or discomfort, nighttime interruptions by hospital staff and the steady beeping of bedside monitors can make sleeping difficult. Worries about one’s...
by Paul Quinn | Sep 26, 2018 | Communication Skills, Interviewing Skills, Presentation Skills
Hey, America—why this massive, meaningless, middling overuse of “kind of” and “sort of” (aka kinda sorta) in public and private discourse? Like uptalk, that ubiquitous rising inflection that makes statements sound like questions, kinda sorta is the death blow to...
by Paul Quinn | Jun 21, 2018 | Communication Skills, Healthcare, Human Behavior
Photo by Elien Dumon on Unsplash My elderly father once discreetly—and rather desperately—asked a nurse to tell his visitor, a caring but high-strung chatterbox, that visiting hours were over (they weren’t). He just couldn’t bring himself to ask someone to leave who’d...
by Paul Quinn | Jun 13, 2018 | Communication Skills, Handling Conflicts, Human Behavior, Integrity, Personal Development, Relationships, Work-Related Stress, Workplace Etiquette
Oh, the possibilities are horrible. And endless. During your pitch presentation, you realize that your prospective client’s name is misspelled on every slide. You tell the boss you’re coming to her retirement party—and then remember the party was supposed to be a...
by Paul Quinn | Jun 8, 2018 | Communication Skills, Human Behavior, Relationships, Uncategorized
Many years ago I was strolling the French Quarter in New Orleans when I noticed the slow approach of a small, mule-driven flower cart. The man seated on the cart kept it close to the sidewalk, making it easier for passersby to stop and select from his buckets abundant...
