30 Days of Social Connection | Day ELEVEN: Phone Skills 

Today’s Power Skill: Phone Skills

Hello? Hello? Today we are talking about elevating our Phone skills, taking them from Good (which is what you’re already doing) and elevating them to BEST! Of course when you are talking to your friends on the phone it’s okay to be casual, however there are times when we need and want to elevate our behavior and knowing / practicing the skills will be very helpful.  YOUR challenge this week is going to be to 

Phone Skills (The Leadership Academy Phone Printable):

• Schedule Call
• Before Calling, Limit Your Distractions
• What if they Don’t Answer: plan what to say if you leave a message
• Come Prepared: write Down a few Tell Me About questions so you can keep the conversation moving along and avoid awkward silence and have a pen and paper to take notes
• Smile: this might sound crazy, but when we smile we actually sound happier.
• Friendly Opener: when we call someone it’s always nice to set a happy tone as it helps the other person to feel. When the person answers say, “Hello __________, this is __________” Even though they most likely know who you are, sometimes when you call an office (again we are preparing for future) the person may not have caller ID
• What to Say: plan to have something to say right away to avoid the awkward silence in the beginning of the call.
• Closing: practice Wrapping Up the call, so it doesn’t get into an awkward space where people don’t have anything more to say
• ALWAYS: say “Good Bye” … don’t just hang up

Family Dinner Table Talk Questions / Conversation Starters:

1. Share an Awkward Phone Conversation You’ve had
2. Explore the steps above and discuss why the Power Skill is important
3. Set “Someone to Call” Goals Enjoy the Connection…
4. Remember, Practice Makes PERFECT. Or at least just less awkward:)

Printables:

Looking for an easy way to have your teens feel productive during the day? Here’s our Ten-a-Day sheet that teens can fill out. This chart includes five blank spots that your teen can fill in and five family responsibility “nudges”  pre-written in to help give teens ownership and independence during these days that seem to run together… oy vey!

Printable:  Leadership Academy 10 a Day

HERE’S WHAT WE HAVE COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS…

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30 Days of Social Connection | Day TEN: Listening to Learn

Today’s Power Skill: Listening to Learn

Ok friends, listen up, today’s skill might be one if the THE most important POWER skill of our 30 Days of Social Connection: Listening to Learn! Why, you might ask? Well, as we explore interpersonal skills, the ablity to listen to not only learn ABOUT but learn FROM others is the foundation to all interactions. Not only will it help with your relationships with friends, parents, teachers and coaches, it is a skill that will help you towards longterm Professional Success as studies show that 85% of a reason a person gets a job, keeps a job or advances in a job is related to his / her people skills. It’s said that people won’t always remember what you’ve said, but they will always remember how you made them feel… and Listening to others makes them feel good.

So, one of the best ways to exercise this skill is to practice in conversations that don’t really interest you. And no time like the present while you are home with parents and siblings. LOL! So let’s practice making the habit of truly engaging with the interest of Listening to Learn!

Listening to Learn:

• Names
• Hobbies
• Interests
• Stories
• And Feedback

are just a few ways that we grow our skills. 

Here’s how we listen to learn from our siblings and parents… especially in times when we are bored, irratated or uninterested. START TODAY…

1. Check yourself, what physical feelings are you feeling and the non-verbal habits you communicate when you’re not interested. Idenifying how you treat your family will help you identify your baseline habit. Chances are, if you treat your family this way… you might just treat a teacher or a coach this way and although it’s not our desire, disinterest can feel like disrespect. 
2. How can you change your habit with your family? Doing this with the people you are most comfortable with will only help you when you encounter this feeling outside of the home, but don’t want your “home habit” to show.
3. Try to listen to find aspects of the conversation that interest you and ask questions to learn more or engage in whatever they are saying… even if it’s THE MOST BORING topic you can imagine. Yes, even then! 

Family Dinner Table Talk Questions / Conversation Starters:

1. Have Each Family Member share a story from the day or even a favorite moment of his / her life. Take turns telling them what you heard and learned from what they had to say! 

Printables:

Looking for an easy way to have your teens feel productive during the day? Here’s our Ten-a-Day sheet that teens can fill out. This chart includes five blank spots that your teen can fill in and five family responsibility “nudges”  pre-written in to help give teens ownership and independence during these days that seem to run together… oy vey!

Printable:  Leadership Academy 10 a Day

HERE’S WHAT WE HAVE COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS…

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Happy DAY NINE of our #30DaysofSocialConnection…

Today’s Power Skill: Conversation Starters

We’ve all been in that situation where we’ve asked a question only to have it answered with one or two words and followed by a looooog pause. Most likely it’s because we had asked a CLOSED conversation starter (who, when, how, what) that only requires a ONE or TWO word response. However, when we ask an OPEN question using THREE Little Words:

“Tell ME About…”

we open the gateway to an actual conversation. I think we can all agree that the best and most comfortable conversations consist of multiple words being exchanged. 

Here’s how we put Conversation Starters into Practice

1. Ask a question with “Tell ME About…”
2. Listen to the answer and let your curiosity lead the way
3. Find other questions that you have or aspects of the answer that you don’t know to deepen the conversation and learn more from the other person.

Family Dinner Table Talk Questions / Conversation Starters:

1. Start with a closed question “how was your day”
2. Then change the question to a “Tell Me About…” quesiton that you can ask to deepen the conversation.

Printables:

Looking for an easy way to have your teens feel productive during the day? Here’s our Ten-a-Day sheet that teens can fill out. This chart includes five blank spots that your teen can fill in and five family responsibility “nudges”  pre-written in to help give teens ownership and independence during these days that seem to run together… oy vey!

Printable:  Leadership Academy 10 a Day

HERE’S WHAT WE HAVE COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS…

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Happy DAY EIGHT of our #30DaysofSocialConnection…

Today’s Power Skill: CURIOUS Questions

One of the most important pre professional skills I teach at the Junior High and High School level is the art of Informational Interviewing. Informational Interviewing, quite simply, is the social habit of asking questions of others to learn about THEM. Since we currently find ourselves with A LOT of time on our hands, there is no time like the present to connect friends and family intentionally to learn about them and sharpen our social skills.

Here’s how we put Curious Conversations into Practice!

1. Print our Curious Conversations Worksheet
2. Identify Friends, Family Member in your Home and a Family Member Outside of Your Home to Connect With
3. Decide How You’d Like to Connect with Them, Phone or FaceTime (Obviously, Not The Family Memeber in Your Home… You Can Just Talk to Him / Her Face-to-FAce)
4. Think of a Curious Question You Have About Him / Her to Ask to Learn More About Them
5. Reach Out

Family Dinner Table Talk Questions / Conversation Starters:

1. Have Each Family Member Think of ONE Curious Conversation Question to Ask another Family Member. Enjoy Learning Something NEW About Each Family Member.

Printables:

Looking for an easy way to have your teens feel productive during the day? Here’s our Ten-a-Day sheet that teens can fill out. This chart includes five blank spots that your teen can fill in and five family responsibility “nudges”  pre-written in to help give teens ownership and independence during these days that seem to run together… oy vey!

Printable:  Leadership Academy 10 a Day

HERE’S WHAT WE HAVE COMING UP IN THE NEXT 30 DAYS…

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