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If you want to be a more effective communicator, have more productive meetings, and have people respect you more – skip the verbal hugs. “Sounds good Jim, but what the heck is a verbal hug?” Good question.

A verbal hug is used to soften the blow of a message you believe is going to be difficult to hear. By adding extraneous information that you may or may not believe, you offer a verbal hug, hoping it will make what you are really trying to say more palatable.

This can become problematic because the true message is no longer clear and can be disregarded or not even heard.

Do you have accountability issues in your company? If you said “No,” you’re in the minority. Accountability is usually one of the biggest issues that hold organizations back. However, people talk about a lack of accountability and yet I find that many don’t really know what is meant by the word. Let me see if I can help.

Have you ever struggled with letting someone else do something that you can do faster, better, and with less effort? If you really think it through, you know that if you don’t pass the task on, you’ll be doing it yourself forever.

If this task is in fact the best use of your time, then maybe the staff member isn’t needed. But if there’s a better use of your time, then you have delegate it to someone else who will do it slower, not quite as good, and with more effort. You have to let go of the vine*.

How much of your week is spent doing these types of tasks?

Here is a great story from Les Brown where he draws an interesting analogy.

One day, a man was walking down the street and sees a dog on a porch that was just sitting there, whimpering, whining and moaning. The man was curious as to why he was whimpering, so he went and knocked on the door and a guy came out and said, “Yes, how may I help you?” He said, “Sir, is this your dog?”