I have a confession to make. I am a terrible listener. And you know what? I’ll bet you are, too. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we try hard. We think we’re being understanding, maybe even helpful. But we’re blowing it! A terrific book I read recently is The Lost Art of Listening, by Michael P. […]

Need a job? Want to get promoted? Like to have a date? You’re going to have to communicate! Introverts of the world – arise! Here are some tips to get you started: 1.)Decide you want to communicate. It all starts here. If you don’t truly want to communicate with others, your efforts will be doomed. […]

FireStar can do more than just deliver training. Recently we worked with a client to help improve their customer service. They have a phone system that allows them to record calls, and they sent me three randomly selected calls from each of their customer service representatives (CSRs). I reviewed them and did assessments. Their leadership […]

Like most consumers, from time to time, I have to call customer service. The strange thing is, the companies that offer the most promotions and fight the hardest to get new customers, seem to have the worst service. Hmmmm……. Out of frustration (but also because I do customer service training), I felt compelled to write […]

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Vail Carter with the Centralina Workforce Development Board. He shared with me the results of a survey of over 330 firms in North Carolina. One of the items asked about current skills needs. Number one was communication and interpersonal skills. (Second was leadership and third was customer service—and […]