Amy Lindgren

Do you ever sense that you’re not being listened to, or that your points are being disregarded? Of course you do! That’s practically the human condition. When it happens at work, though, you might have a problem. Communication miscues can reflect badly on you, even when they’re not your fault.

If this happens frequently, it’s time to make some adjustments. Since you can’t change the people you’re communicating with, you’ll need to focus on your end of the equation.

Here are four steps that can improve your workplace communications.

1. Identify your message or goal for the conversation

This can be done in most circumstances, with the exception of random hallway encounters or other situations where you weren’t expecting to talk. We’ll focus here on planned conversations.

As a starting point, ask yourself why you’re attending or requesting the meeting. For example, if you’re expected to present a report, your goal is obvious: Survival. Past that, you can add persuasion if you have a point to make, or just stick to the goal of informing others. For extra credit, however, what about making an impression on someone who’s going to be there, such as your boss’ boss? If you think this report-giving presents an opportunity for something larger, expand your goal accordingly.

On the other hand, if you’ve requested a meeting to talk with a difficult co-worker, or you’re participating in your annual review, your goals will be more personal. By prepping your messages in advance, you’ll be more able to keep the conversation on track if things get emotional.

2. Create your strategic plan

Say you called the meeting, perhaps to ask for a raise — you’ll want to control the logistics. Have you chosen a setting with limited distractions? Did you reserve time on your boss’ calendar? The company isn’t doing layoffs, right? Of course you can’t control everything but doing what you can will improve your odds.

3. Troubleshoot

This is where you ask yourself what could go wrong, and how you can keep that from happening. With luck, you won’t need these precautions but having them in your back pocket could raise your confidence in the real conversation.

4. Practice

Since it’s usually fine to use notes, rehearsing isn’t about memorizing. That said, the more awkwardness you expect, the more you should practice different scenarios. You can do this on your own, but having a trusted friend play the other part might be more revealing.

Helpful resources

When it comes to difficult communication issues, books are my go-to resource for advice and sample dialogues.

These titles are straight off my shelf, so it’s hardly a comprehensive list. Even so, there’s a good range of relevant topics. All are still available online (new or used), and some may have a more recent edition available. Those marked with asterisks are books I turn to often for specific ideas and counsel.

• All You Have to Do Is Ask, by Wayne Baker, 2020. A guide to asking for help at work.

• *Better Presentations, by Jacqueline Farrington, 2023. Clarifying look at issues of confidence that impact effectiveness.

• *How to Say It for Women, by Phyllis Mindell, 2001. Helpful for to speaking more powerfully.

• It’s Not Just Who You Know, by Tommy Spaulding, 2010. Building rewarding work relationships; networking.

• The Job Interview Phrase Book, by Nancy Schuman, 2009. Answers, buzzwords and phrases.

• *Perfect Phrases for Dealing with Difficult Situations at Work, by Susan F. Benjamin, 2008. Short, handy guide.

• Perfect Phrases for Meetings, by Don Debelak, 2008. Includes organizing meeting content.

• The Power of Positive Confrontation, by Barbara Pachter, 2014. Processes for handling difficult conversations.

• Radical Listening, by Christian Van Nieuwerburgh, 2025. A guide to using listening skills to improve connections.

• Running Effective Meetings for Dummies, by Joseph A. Allen, 2023. Process guide for all parts of a meeting.

• *Suddenly Virtual, by Karen M. Reed and Joseph A. Allen, 2021. Process guide for remote meetings.

• *Talk is Not Cheap, by Beverly Inman-Ebel, 1999. Using nonverbals, voice, content, etc. to build communication.

That’s a lot of books, and of course there are podcasts, coaches, classes and any number of additional resources to give your communication a boost. Luckily, you don’t need to try everything at once. If you can find an exercise or tips for a specific situation, you’ll be getting a start on making your communication more powerful.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

With temperatures heating up and summer break on the horizon, it’s that time of year again for a beloved Dakota County tradition: Rick’s Bike Sale.

Each spring for the last 16 years, Rick Anderson, the namesake of the sale, and Randy Bailey have poured time, sweat and elbow grease into fixing up donated bikes in order to turn a profit for local organizations. The 17th annual Rick’s Bike Sale kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 10, in Apple Valley.

There will be some 450 bikes to choose from with all proceeds going to DARTS, a West St. Paul organization that helps seniors live more independent lives, and Kids ‘n Kinship, a program that matches youth with adult volunteers.

“It’s a terrific day that goes by way too fast,” Anderson said in a news release.

Still in Apple Valley, the event will take place at Dick’s Valley Service facility for the second year in a row, rain or shine.

Bicycles for all ages will be for sale, ranging from $20 to $500, including models from Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, Schwinn, Raleigh, Giant and Fuji, per the release.

Road bikes, mountain bikes, cross bikes, city bikes, cruisers, hybrids, BMX and vintage classics can also be found on the lot.

Since its inception, Rick’s Bike Sale has sold thousands of bikes and donated more than $567,000.

“It is very rewarding to see the results of all the hard work volunteers do throughout the year and at the sale,” Anderson said.

Rick’s Bike Sale

What: Over 450 bikes for sale, $20 to $500

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 10

Where: 5905 Upper 147th St., Apple Valley

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Every year since 1986 – good weather and bad – Tim Lyon has tested the waters of Lake of the Woods or Rainy River on the Minnesota Fishing Opener.

A charter boat driver for Ballard’s Resort on the south shore of Lake of the Woods north of Baudette, Minn., Lyon says he still looks forward to opening day. The Rhode Island native started his career as a Lake of the Woods fishing guide at the Northwest Angle before moving to the south end of the lake, where he’s been a charter boat captain since 2000.

As the May 10 Minnesota Fishing Opener approaches, Lyon says he’s optimistic about fishing prospects on the big lake.

“I’m always optimistic,” said Lyon, 66. “That’s me by nature – not me by biology. I mean, I get to fish (in early) May. I’m always excited about that – especially when you’ve gone through that sort of catharsis of nothing going on over the course of the last several weeks.”

While most Minnesota lakes are ice-free – or will be by the Fishing Opener – Lake of the Woods could be an exception. As of midweek, the U.S. side of the big lake still had a substantial covering of ice, although satellite imagery showed significant areas of open water and cracks. Warm weather in the forecast will erode that even more.

Later ice-out often means lights-out fishing on Lake of the Woods, especially for big fish, as spawning walleyes linger in the Rainy River and adjacent Four-Mile Bay before returning to the main lake.

No promises, but this could be one of those years.

“I always look forward to late springs,” Lyon said. “If I don’t have to go out on the lake and try to chase fish around out there, it’s nice to have that first week in the river. And I think we’ll probably get that, just based on the amount of ice that’s still out there.

“The (water) temperature should be cold enough to still have spawning fish in the river, which always throws some bigger fish into the boat during the course of the opener.”

During years when that happens – 2013 and 2014 stand out in the minds of many anglers – Four-Mile Bay and the mouth of the Rainy can be “just a frenzy of big fish and probably not that many fish the size you can keep,” Lyon said.

Anglers on Lake of the Woods and Rainy River (to the dam at International Falls, Minn.) can keep an aggregate limit of six walleyes and saugers, of which no more than four can be walleyes. All walleyes from 19½ to 28 inches in length must be released, and one trophy walleye longer than 28 inches is allowed.

“I’m more than happy to fish for ego” over eaters, Lyon joked. “So, I look at it optimistically.”

Options abound

As with previous openers, the 500,000 (or so) anglers who hit the water for the storied Minnesota Fishing Opener won’t lack options, whether it’s walleyes or other species such as northern pike, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, panfish or catfish – a perennial favorite among anglers who fish the Red River.

Undated courtesy photo of Marc Bacigalupi, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Northwest Region fisheries manager in Bemidji. Minnesota’s 2025 fishing season opens Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Courtesy of Marc Bacigalupi)

No doubt, though, walleyes are the stars of the show on opening day. Fisheries crews for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are wrapping up their annual walleye egg take operations to supply state stocking programs, said Marc Bacigalupi, Northwest Region fisheries manager for the DNR in Bemidji.

“It’ll be a nice, two-week period where fish are getting ready to bite again” by opening day, Bacigalupi said.

According to the DNR’s spring fishing outlook, Lake of the Woods has a strong population of walleyes in the 13- to 16-inch range, smaller 9- to 11-inch fish and a “high” abundance of walleyes larger than 25 inches.

Anchoring and jigging with a minnow or frozen shiner is the go-to technique for early season walleyes – at least on Lake of the Woods and Rainy River.

“It’s hard to stress how little you want to move and how soft that bite is when it’s cold,” Lyon said.

Another favorite

Upper Red Lake also will be loaded with boats on opening day. For this year, the DNR upped the walleye limit on Upper Red to five fish, with only one over 17 inches allowed. In 2024, anglers on Upper Red were allowed three walleyes, with one over 17 inches, from the May 11 opener through June 14; beginning June 15, 2024, the limit increased to four walleyes, with one over 17 inches allowed.

The limit remained at four walleyes, with one over 17 inches, for the winter 2024-25 fishing season.

According to Evie Evarts, area fisheries supervisor for the DNR in Bemidji, this year’s increased open water limit reflects a series of recent strong year-classes that has resulted in an abundance of smaller walleyes in the population.

The summer regulation allows anglers to keep abundant walleyes while maintaining breeding fish at a level that continues to produce successful year-classes, Evarts said. A year-class refers to fish recruited to the population from a particular year’s hatch.

“We’ve had good year-classes every couple of years now,” Evarts said. “When we had really high brood stock, we weren’t seeing the year-classes, so we’re back to getting good year-classes in there, which is always good for Red.”

By all indications, fishing on the state’s 48,000-acre portion of Upper Red should be good for the opener. The ice on Upper Red was all but gone April 29, with just a small band of shore ice on the south shore of Lower Red, all of which is in tribal waters. Larger post-spawn walleyes likely will be concentrated on the first shoreline break for the opener, so the DNR recommends that anglers have a proper measuring board in the boat to accurately measure the fish they catch.

Walleyes on Red could be “at the tail end of their spawn” on the opener, Evarts says.

“I think it’s going to be good,” she said. “The later the ice goes out on Red, the better it is for fishing. We’re right in that window, so it should be good.”

Closer to Bemidji, shallower lakes likely will offer the best fishing prospects, Evarts says.

“We just lost ice on Lake Bemidji this week – I think it’s all gone – so the water is still going to be pretty cold, I think, for the opener,” she said. “I would say that any of our shallower lakes like Plantagenet and Blackduck, those would all be good starter lakes for the walleye opener.”

Cass Lake, because it’s larger and deeper, generally isn’t a destination lake for the fishing opener, Evarts says, though smaller lakes in the Mississippi River chain, “such as Kitchi and any of those,” would be good bets.

“They’re pretty shallow, and they’re in the river (chain) so they’re going to be warmer,” she said.

Walleyes should be even more recovered from the spawn farther south in Minnesota.

Leech Lake, the other large lake in the DNR’s Northwest Region, also looks promising, with walleye numbers “within or above various management objectives,” the DNR said in its preseason outlook. Anglers can expect to encounter several year-classes of walleyes ranging from 10 inches to 27 inches in length, with the majority being from the 2021 year-class, fish mainly between 15 and 17 inches long.

The DNR offers a full statewide fishing opener preview on its website at mndnr.gov.

Steeped in tradition

Bacigalupi, the Northwest Region fisheries manager, says he’ll be participating in the Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener, which this year will be held in the Crosslake chain of lakes area near Brainerd. As an avid walleye angler, he’ll be among the volunteers taking event participants fishing.

The Minnesota Fishing Opener “is a great tradition,” Bacigalupi said.

“It’s about fishing, but it’s also just kind of celebrating the arrival of spring and the tradition of fishing and families having a good excuse to get back together,” he said.

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Maybe the tradition is getting up early; or hitting the water at 12:01 a.m., when the season officially is underway. The Minnesota Fishing Opener is set by statute to open the Saturday two weeks before the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which this year is May 24.

“It’s something to celebrate,” Bacigalupi said. “You know, our politics are polarized, but it’s still about people knowing that this is still a great place to come and visit and recreate and for our citizens to enjoy our resources that we do work hard at maintaining.”

The Twin Cities may have escaped the severe weather forecast by meteorologists earlier this week, but the metro wasn’t so lucky 60 years ago.

An outbreak of five tornadoes tore through the western and northern suburbs on the evening of May 6, 1965, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds more in what the St. Paul Dispatch described on its front page as a “night of terror.”

A sixth twister struck the area between Glencoe and Lester Prairie, just west of the metro.

The storm’s path of destruction stretched from Sibley County northeast to Anoka County, laying waste to entire neighborhoods in Mounds View, Fridley, Blaine and the area around Lake Minnetonka. Minneapolis and St. Paul were virtually untouched.

The most destructive storm in the metro’s recorded history, it left an estimated $51 million in damage in its wake — more than $500 million after adjusting for inflation.

The tornadoes were spun up by a line of supercell thunderstorms that rolled through the metro that evening, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The terror lasted three hours, from the time the first twister touched down shortly after 6 p.m. until the last one dissipated about 9 p.m.

Winds exceeding 200 mph leveled houses, tore trees from the ground and tossed automobiles around like toys, the Pioneer Press and Dispatch reported. About 1,700 people were left homeless, according to the DNR.

In Mounds View, which was among the hardest hit communities, entire blocks along Lois Lane were reduced to kindling.

Area hospitals were inundated with injured people. Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, which received about 100 tornado victims, issued an urgent call for surgeons from across the metro. Fifty responded, working until 4 a.m. treating patients.

“The call went out and people came immediately,” assistant administrator Thomas Mattson told the Dispatch. “It goes to show that when tragedy strikes, people do care.”

The death toll likely would have been much higher if not for warnings issued by Civil Defense officials, who for the first time used air raid sirens to alert metro residents to tornadoes in the area, according to the DNR.

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