After 20 years of working in sports, I’m frequently asked, “Who’s your favorite player to interview?”

I’m sure the answer, “I can’t name just one,” disappoints everyone, but it’s the truth.

I’ve been blessed and fortunate to meet a number of incredibly talented and incredibly wonderful human beings.

Every single one of the them has reinforced that people are people.

The athletes I’ve covered have taught me a lot about how to relate to people from different backgrounds, the importance of developing relationships and ways to leverage the relationships you already have in making new ones.

It’s something I talk about often during presentations I give corporate clients and it’s the subject of one of the Mentorship Moments I posted to inspire young women, aspiring journalists and up-and-coming leaders.

Take a look.

Leadership skills aren’t acquired, they’re developed and encouraged.

Which means you can’t sit back and wait until you’re ready to be a leader. In fact, if you want to identify a leader – look for initiative. That’s according to Beth Knox former President and CEO of Seafair and the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games.

Beth joined me recently for my Learn from a Leader online leadership development series and shared these thoughts on identifying leaders.

“Initiative to me is someone who is curious. They ask questions.” Taking initiative includes asking questions about what the end result should look like.

Take this action: Build business relationships. It’s easier to have conversations with established leaders regarding their vision for a specific project or company objectives when there’s an exsisting relationship in place. Starting conversations is a way to show initiative. Use small talk to develop business relationships.

“They give me status reports and updates.” Taking initiat...

Conversation skills, confidence and competency. They’re all connected.

Speaking with confidence conveys your knowledge or mastery (i.e. competency) of the information you’re sharing, and it makes a difference in the way people see you at work.

It might not be fair but it’s true.

So speak with confidence and practice out loud what you think you’re going to say in critical conversations.

As someone who talks for a living, I do it.  All. The. Time.

I rehearse questions before post-game interviews.

I practice scripts before going on-air.

I verbalize the introduction I’m going to make when I meet a new player or coach in the locker room.

Saying the words out loud helps you to be more confident in your approach and that is how you win at business communication.

Suspense in a movie keeps you interested and intrigued. Add the element of suspense to conversations and your colleagues will be confused and frustrated.

When you keep people in suspense and fail to reveal the reason for the conversation or what you hope to accomplish, you give them the opportunity to make up a story.

Their narrative might not match your objective. In fact, I can almost guarantee it won’t because you don’t work (or live) with mind-readers.

Effective business communication requires the ability to communicate a message clearly which is the opposite of leaving colleagues in suspense by saying things like: “I’ve got an idea. Let’s talk tomorrow.”

Seems simple enough. Except the person receiving that message could be thinking:

“Got an idea about what?”

“About how to help me finish a project ahead of schedule?”

“Is it an idea that’s going to add more work to my plate and make my life difficult?”

“What if the idea is a way to replace me?”

You might not realize yo...