Expert advice to get your relationships back on track
Jim Ludwig is a longstanding student of communications and its various applications - relationships of all kinds, creative writing, ESL, and functional political discourse. Jim began to practice as a management consultant/trainer in the Silicon Valley in the early 90's. His all-purpose seminar "Communicating for Results" was utilized by clients for various needs - general communications skills, teambuilding, conflict intervention, sales, and executive functioning. As a communications consultant, Jim helped clients deal with all kinds of relationship challenges and related personal development. When Chase Morgan Bank bought a license to "Communicating for Results", Jim began doing train-the-trainer sessions and providing training materials, complementing his active consulting, coaching, and training practice. National clients included: Pfizer, British Petroleum, General Electric, PG&E, BMC Software, MetLife, and Eli Lilly. In addition to working as a consultant/coach, Jim now does blog writing on a subject called the "integral perspective". Briefly, the integral perspective is one which strives to integrate in political discourse the best of both the liberal and conservative perspectives so as to go beyond "culture wars", allowing for true social progress. It is an attempt to provide a "post-liberal" point of view to the many problems our society is currently facing. Jim has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and psychology and did one year of post-graduate work at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Menlo Park, California. He now lives in Santa Fe, NM with his wife Noriko and their three dogs.
Contact: Jim@integralinput.com
Website: http://norikostale.wordpress.com
2008
The topic of assertiveness has been popular for decades, and yet most of us still have major issues with asserting ourselves effectively in relationships. Before we can learn assertiveness skills, we need to become more aware of what we do instead of effectively speaking up. This article will provide a simple model for you to assess your behavioral tendencies as a starting point for growth as a communicator in all your relationships.
2008
Before we proceed to the art of listening, it may be useful to provide a certain interpersonal context. We hear the word “intimacy” quite a bit these days, so let’s consider for a moment what it really means. It is supposed to be something we value, but at the same time, many of us avoid intimacy, sometimes without knowing we are doing it. In order better to understand the double-edged nature of intimacy, let’s consider how it can manifest at three different levels, because this understanding can provide a context within which we can consider how to develop our ability to communicate with others.
2008
In this article we will continue with our study of listening blocks, for good reason: When listening blocks occur in conversation, it means that we are not hearing the other and are not aware of it. Thus retiring your listening blocks (and learning how to cope with the blocks of others) can be rewarding to all your relationships. The key to this growth is greater awareness, of both your inner process and your interpersonal process with others.
2008
It is common for relationship coaches to advise us as to the importance of listening. Indeed, the ability to listen is seen as truly fundamental to all kinds of relationships, and thus many of us attend listening seminars or read related books and articles. I certainly did, long ago when I became aware of my own limitations as a listener.
Fascinated by the subject, I began teaching listening seminars, and quickly discovered a curious problem: The people who most needed the training were the first ones to declare that their listening skills were “just fine”. Bob says he is a great listener but his wife and coworkers say his listening skills are non-existent. I was initially baffled by this strange state of affairs, but with time I began to figure it out.
