Teaching Interpersonal Communication in a Business Communication Course

Research shows that small talk is no small thing.

"It’s not impossible to make your argument stick. And there’s been some good scientific work on this. Here are two strategies that, based on the evidence, seem promising."

"Learn why interpersonal skills are important in the workplace and how they can benefit students' careers."

"Politicians and other public figures deploy particular rhetorical devices to communicate their ideas and to convince people, and it’s time that we all learned how to use them."

Social psychologist Heidi Grant shares 4 common ways that we inadvertently make things weird for other people when we request their assistance. Read this before your next ask.

Few things in life will help you more than knowing how to make an immediate great impression. Make note of these impressive habits.

Small talk is widely detested — but also hard to avoid. Use these tips for making casual conversation so you can feel less awkward.

It takes just three seconds for someone to determine whether they like you and want to do business with you. Make that time count.

"Most friendships develop so naturally that you don't even realize how or when they started.

"But sometimes you want to make an effort to befriend a new acquaintance or become a better friend to existing pals. Using tricks and techniques like mirroring, subliminal touching, smiling, and letting that other person talk about themselves can make you appear more likable.

We scoured the psychological research on the science of attraction to find strategies to get people to like you."

Want to stand out as a particularly collaborative colleague? Add these phrases to your office vocabulary.

"Empathy is the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. Research suggests that empathic people tend to be more generous and concerned with others’ welfare, and they also tend to have happier relationships and greater personal well-being. Empathy can also improve leadership ability and facilitate effective communication. 

"How well do you feel and understand what others are feeling?" Take the quiz and find out.

Neuroscience has found that gestures are not merely important as tools of expression but as guides of cognition and perception.

"It’s clear that artificial intelligence (AI) will be an important part of the way we communicate and collaborate in the foreseeable future.

"Tying in AI technologies with business communication applications such as team collaboration and unified communications can improve worker productivity, save time, and improve the overall business flow."

Bovee and Thill are the only business communication authors who include coverage of artificial intelligence in these textbooks:  Business Communication Today and Excellence in Business Communication. See for yourself. Visit http://blog.businesscommunicationnetwork.com/texts

"With the help of some Quora users and social psychology research, we were able to identify 14 social behaviors that could make you less likable."

Most of us want to believe we would have flagged Hitler and Madoff right away had we met them in person. But would we have? In a thought-provoking new book, writer Malcolm Gladwell argues that our …

Too many people succumb to the mistaken belief that being likeable comes from natural, unteachable traits that belong only to a lucky few—the good looking, the fiercely social, and the incredibly talented. It’s easy to fall prey to this misconception.

Improve your nonverbal communication to send the right message and set yourself up for success.

Here are several important facts about communicating when upset, followed by 6 practical steps for planning a calm and effective response.

A study analyzing TED Talks last year found that the most popular, viral speakers used an average of about 465 hand gestures, which is nearly twice as many as the least popular speakers used.

Other research has found that people who “talk” with their hands tend to be viewed as warm, agreeable and energetic, while those who are less animated are seen as logical, cold and analytical.

Likable people are are often more successful because they are easier to work with. Success for likable people can take many forms including success in business relationships."

Common qualities of extremely boring individuals include poor improv and storytelling skills, and not having any original opinions.

Technology can be dehumanizing. Even our day-to-day personal interactions conducted in digital bursts risk losing the heart of who are. Kareem Yusuf shows how people have aimed to embed emotional "tone" into their digital lives, from text-messages to data. He explores why, in today's fully digitized and globalized world, we must strive to incorporate tone into everything we do.

"Too many people succumb to the mistaken belief that being likable comes from natural, unteachable traits that belong only to a lucky few — the good looking, the fiercely social, and the incredibly talented. It’s easy to fall prey to this misconception.

In reality, being likable is under your control, and it’s a matter of emotional intelligence (EQ)."