A new young worker at a construction site sat down to eat his lunch with the rest of the crew. As an older fellow opened his thermos to pour out coffee, the young worker asks, “What’s that?”

The older fellow says, “It’s a thermos bottle.”

“What is it for?” the young worker asks.

“It keeps hot liquids hot and cold liquids cold,” the older fellow said.

The next day the young worker arrives at the construction site with his own thermos.

The older fellow asks, “Whatcha got in your thermos?”

“Two cups of HOT coffee and a glass of COLD iced tea.”

“Communication does not begin with being understood, but with understanding others,” said W. Steven Brown, founder and chairman of the Fortune Group International.

Avoiding misunderstandings is fundamental to a successful workplace, not to mention life in general. Getting along is largely dependent on your communication skills. If doing your job is important, you need to let people know what you’re doing, and you need to understand what they want from you.

Curious though it may seem, good communication starts with listening, not talking. Expressing yourself is vital, but understanding what others are telling you allows you to make your arguments more persuasive.

If you want your views to be respected, you must show equal respect when others express their opinions. Show that you understand their words and ideas, even if you disagree with them. A little empathy goes a long way.

Not only is brevity the soul of wit, it is also a demonstration of respect for others’ time. Going on and on, even when you’re right, turns people off. Learn to make your points clearly and concisely, then let others respond. No one likes to be lectured to.

Watch your tone. So much of two-way communication depends on both sides feeling like they are not in hostile territory. Even when two parties disagree, getting rude and personal is never acceptable. Never. Ever.

Body language often speaks louder than words. Nonverbal communication sends a powerful message. Be aware of your hand gestures, eye contact, stance and tone of voice so you don’t undercut what you’re trying to say. And pay attention to the other party’s cues. Adjust your approach if necessary.

With so much of our communication written rather than spoken in person, don’t ignore the impact of texts, tweets, emails, posts and letters. You would think that because you actually have to take the time to type and transmit, it would be easier to choose your words more carefully. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Messages committed to print are eternal, it seems, so it pays to read and reread what you are expressing before you hit the send button. How many times have people had to take down a post because it didn’t say what they meant? Can you or your business afford a misunderstanding?

“Words have meaning beyond the obvious. Words have consequences beyond intention,” said John R. Dallas Jr., author of “We Need to Have a Word: Words of Wisdom, Courage and Patience for Work, Home and Everywhere.”

Let that sink in for a minute. A simple combination of letters can change the course of progress. A poorly chosen phrase can end a working relationship -- even if you didn’t mean quite what you said.

In other words, think before you speak.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius is said to have once been asked his views on the importance of good communication in getting things done. “What,” asked the questioner, “is the first thing to be done if good work is to be accomplished?”

Confucius replied, “Getting the definitions right, using the right words.” He elaborated that “when words are improperly applied, issues are misunderstood. When issues are misunderstood, the wrong plans are devised. When the wrong plans are devised, wrong commands are given. When wrong commands are given, the wrong work is performed. When the wrong work is performed, organizations fail. When organizations fail, the people suffer.”

And so he concluded, “The first thing is to achieve the proper naming of things.”

Here's a joke to further illustrate my point:

Two men went into a diner and sat down at the counter. They ordered two sodas, took sandwiches out of their packs and started to eat them. The owner saw what was going on and approached the men.

“You can’t eat your own sandwiches in here,” he complained.

So the two men stopped, looked at each other and then swapped their sandwiches.

Mackay’s Moral: It is wiser to choose what you say than to say what you choose.

A major league batter has approximately two-fifths of a second from the time a baseball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches home plate. In that split second, the batter must attempt to gauge speed, trajectory and placement of the pitch.

Those batters who can do it well enough to hit safely three out of 10 at bats become millionaires. Those who are a millisecond slower and can do it only two out of 10 times have to find another way to make a living.

Companies and their employees face similar challenges. They may have a little more time to deal with their problems, but if they expect to stay in the game, they have to be able to make rapid adjustments. Fortunes are made and lost by those who disregard the importance and power of time.

People have been talking about time for centuries. Proof positive is this excerpt from a book titled “Zadig or the Book of Fate,” by the 18th-century philosopher Voltaire: “Of all the things in the world, which is the longest and shortest, the quickest and the slowest, the most divisible and the most extensive, the most disregarded and the most regretted, without which nothing can happen, which devours everything that is little, and gives life everything that is great?

“The answer is time. Nothing is longer, since it is the measure of eternity. Nothing is shorter, since it is lacking in all our plans. Nothing is slower for him who waits. Nothing is quicker for him who enjoys. It extends to the infinitely little. All men disregard it. All men regret the loss of it. Nothing happens without it. It makes forgotten everything unworthy of posterity, and it immortalizes the great things.”

I have a saying that I’ve often used: Killing time isn’t murder; it’s suicide. We all start out in life with one thing in common; we all have the same amount of time each day, each week, each month and each year. Now it’s just a matter of what we do with it.

Questions that I am repeatedly asked are: How can I get everything done with so many interruptions, distractions and shifting responsibilities? What’s the trick to prioritizing? Where’s the balance between work and personal time?

My primary advice is to first get organized -- really, really organized. I don’t mean just tidying up your desk, although that might be useful for some. I’m talking about defining your immediate needs and long-term goals, and planning your time to accommodate both.

Start with a daily planner. Electronic or paper, it doesn’t matter. Choose a system that gives you at least one page per day, and then make sure you pay attention to the commitments. If a distraction is going to put you off-schedule more than a few minutes, either reschedule your prior commitment as soon as possible or plug the new item into the planner.

Then get rid of your to-do list. Why? Because there is a better way to use it. Transfer the items to a particular time and day in your daily planner. You’ll be amazed at how much your stress level goes down and how much you accomplish when you actually schedule a specific time to achieve certain things.

Give each item on your calendar your full attention during the assigned time. Don’t multitask when you deal with people. It seldom pays off. Whether talking on the phone or in face-to-face conversations, make the other person your top priority. Don’t page through your email or texts, or shuffle papers when you’re talking to someone. Make sure that your communication is clear and focused, which will reduce the need for clarification and other time-wasters in the future. Before you sign off, make sure you have a mutual understanding of next steps and make note of deadlines, which you will naturally add to your calendar.

Reserve enough time so that you don’t have to rush through things or do them over, which is a giant waste of time. Taking your time can sometimes be the best use of your time. Give your brain time to reboot and reprogram for the next challenge.

Finally, once a project is completed, let it go. Channel your precious minutes and hours into the next big (or small) item that demands your attention.

Mackay’s Moral: The race against time is a marathon; never stop training!

We all try to do our best, at least most of the time. And when we don’t succeed, often we are our own harshest critics.

But if you never give yourself a break, even doing your best is never going to be good enough.

Don’t get me wrong; demanding excellence of yourself and your performance at work are admirable goals. But we all mess up occasionally, despite the best of intentions. How you respond to failure is what determines whether you can figure out what happened and move on or put yourself in a negative downward spiral.

Six helpful questions from Ruth and Gary Namie's “The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job,” can help you assess how you handle missteps at work.

-- When you make an error or an oversight at work, do you criticize yourself harshly?

-- Before important meetings, job interviews or work assignments, are your thoughts negative -- do you focus on all that might go wrong?

-- When you are running late, do you bombard yourself with harsh criticism, even before anyone else notices you are late?

-- Do you worry you will be found out and others will discover you’re not really able to do what is expected of you?

-- Do you lie awake criticizing yourself for anything that went wrong during the day, even though you didn’t have much control over what happened?

-- Have you ever said or thought to yourself that you are your own worst enemy?

The Namies say that if you answer yes to even one of these questions, then your inner critique is in overdrive.

An article in Psychology Today suggests that low self-esteem is a natural result of overactive self-criticism. That leads to a variety of problems that usually result in failure: you stop taking risks to avoid making mistakes; you don’t express opinions in case you say something stupid or boring; and you compare yourself to others and are never satisfied with your achievements.

Then larger issues surface: You stop asking for help; you think about hurting yourself; you get defensive; and you can’t forgive yourself or others.

If you see any of these characteristics in yourself, you need to take action to reverse the negativity. Don’t waste one more minute demeaning your worth.

Remind yourself that you have plenty of valuable qualities that others depend on. Forgive yourself for mistakes, repeating: “If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken a different approach.”

List your accomplishments and refer to that list when you feel a pity party coming on. Take a break! A change of scenery can do wonders to lift your mood.

Tell your negative inner voice that you aren’t going to listen anymore. Turn self-criticism into self-correction. Repeating a proactive message, such as: “We often learn as much from our failures as our successes,” is a great place to start.

Here's a story to illustrate my point. A teacher challenged his class, “Raise your hand if you would like this $20 bill.” Predictably, all hands went up in the air.

He crumpled the cash into a little ball. “How about now? Who still wants it?” All the hands stayed up.

Next, he dropped the crumpled bill into a cup of coffee. “Any takers?” Not a hand went down.

The teacher fished the $20 bill out of the cup, dried it off, then dropped it on the floor and stepped on it. “Does anyone want this dirty old thing?”

The students waved their hands wildly.

“But why?” the teacher asked.

“Because it’s $20!” one student shouted out.

“That’s correct,” the teacher replied. “This bill retains its value even though it’s been put through all sorts of situations. That’s what I want each of you to remember.

“The circumstances you find yourselves in, the obstacles you overcome and the failures you endure cannot diminish your value. Always remember how special you are, and hold your head high so others will also recognize your value.”

Mackay’s Moral: Life is full of ups and downs. The trick is to keep getting up when you are down.