{"id":4536,"date":"2017-08-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/?p=4536"},"modified":"2017-07-29T13:36:20","modified_gmt":"2017-07-29T18:36:20","slug":"your-but-is-too-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/2017\/08\/14\/your-but-is-too-big\/","title":{"rendered":"Your But is Too Big"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is your “but” too big?<\/p>\n

No, that’s not a typo. I’m not talking about the size of your booty. In fact, I’m not even sure if too large a butt is a thing these days. I’m told the Kardashians have somehow made big tail ends all the rage. Trends are always too little too late for me, but I digress.<\/p>\n

I’m talking about the “but” in your sentence.<\/p>\n

“You did a great job on this story, but…”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I love this idea, but…”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Your staff enjoys working for you, but…”<\/em><\/p>\n

The problem with the “but” in your sentence is that your staff doesn’t hear anything that comes before it. Instead of the positive\/negative format you intended for constructive feedback, all your staffer hears is the negative. Using the word “but” impedes your communication. Instead try:<\/p>\n

“You did a great job on this story. I think it needs just one more interview with the provost. Here’s a list of questions that still are unanswered.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I love this idea. We did something similar last semester. Here’s that story. How do you think we could develop it for this semester? I want to make sure we’re not reporting the exact same information.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“You staff enjoys working for you. I think you’re doing a great job with them. I would like for you to avoid using the word ‘but’ when you’re communicating with them. It shuts them off to the positive part of your message.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Your “but” probably is just a habit. Focus on removing it from your communication and observe the positive results.<\/p>\n

\n
\"profKRG\"Dr. Kenna Griffin is an assistant professor of mass communications and director of student publications at Oklahoma City University. She is the author of the\u00a0Prof KRG<\/a>\u00a0blog, which serves as a practical resource for student journalists. She is a journalist, reader, shoe lover, wife, mother of two, and the spoiler of a couple of adorable dogs.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is your “but” too big? No, that’s not a typo. I’m not talking about the size of your booty. In fact, I’m not even sure if too large a butt is a thing these days. I’m told the Kardashians have somehow made big tail ends all the rage. Trends are always too little too late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[65,162,31,158,161,159,27,25,76,163,160,18],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4536"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4546,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536\/revisions\/4546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/acp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}