This morning the @mt.zionilceo & @sangamonvalleyceo students joined our class for a session with Honey Zimmerman from @westerniluniv on the topic of conflict resolution.

As all 3 CEO programs are beginning their group businesses, this topic could not have been more timely.

The overarching theme was communication, which includes verbal & nonverbal, and both are critical to achieving negotiation goals and to resolve conflicts.

Honey stated “the biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”

She also shared the following statistic:
“Only 7% of the message received is in the words you say.” She asked the students what’s on the other 93%?
Body language, touch, use of space, time, physical appearance are 55% and 38% is vocalics or tone.

Honey stated that in order to improve conflict resolution-> communication must improve!!Putting it into practice, as the students get into their group project, she challenged them to be more aware of their emotional intelligence by
🔸asking clarifying questions
🔸try to put your biased aside & see it from their point of view
🔸actively listening

Lastly, Honey shares this quote
“We should all practice becoming better listeners because active listening is a distinguishing characteristic of good communication.”

Thank you WIU & Honey for providing us with this training! It was a great morning with 48 young professionals from the central Illinois area and exciting to see these individuals learn these important skills, because when implemented, they go from a good leader to a great one!