communication Tagged Articles

Ten Hallmarks of a High Trust Organization

We tend to think of trust in one dimension, but there are several different ways trust plays out in organizations. My favorite definition of trust is that when I trust someone, it means I believe he or she will always do what is thought to be in my best interest (even if I do not particularly appreciate it at the time). We can contrast some dimensions of trust by considering what it is like to work in an organization with high trust versus one with low trust on several dimensions

Communication, Negotiation and Bargaining in Business

Decide on a negotiating style. You may be a competitor, looking only for the best deal; others are compromisers, seeking middle ground; or are you the collaborator, valuing good communication and a fair solution for both parties? Try to asses which style works best for your personality.

Leadership Assessment #4 – Lack of Fear

There are hundreds of assessments for leaders. The content and quality of these assessments vary greatly. You can spend a lot of time and money taking surveys to tell you the quality of your leadership. There are a few leading indicators that can be used to give a pretty good picture of the overall quality of your leadership. These are not good for diagnosing problems or specifying corrective action, but they can tell you where you stand quickly. Here is one of my favorite measures. It is the absence of fear.

Leadership Assessment #17 – Optimize Communication

There are hundreds of assessments for leaders. The content and quality of these assessments vary greatly. You can spend a lot of time and money taking surveys to tell you the quality of your leadership. There are a few leading indicators that can be used to give a pretty good picture of the overall quality of your leadership. These are not good for diagnosing problems or specifying corrective action, but they can tell you where you stand quickly. Here is one of my favorite measures. It is the ability to communicate well.

E-Mail Tip #7 - Accomplish your Objective

It is amazing how many e-mails miss the mark and cause reactions in the reader that the writer did not intend. How can you prevent this from happening to you. Te secret lies in clarifying your objective before you compose your notes. It takes very little time and will improve the quality of your communication immensely.

3 Ways Women build great partnerships

There is something to be said for the way great friendships are formed, especially between women. The unique way women communicate and build relationships create the potential for strong business and lucrative partnerships when three simple guidelines are followed.

The 5 Love Languages

People express and receive love in different ways. Dr. Gary Chapman identifies these as the five languages of love.

Importance of Culture and Communication in Leadership

What importance does culture and communication play in effective leadership?

Entrepreneurial Environments: How to Make Them Fast, Fun, and Free

Is it possible for your employees to leave their problems at home? How do you, as their employer, help create an environment that allows for communication and increased productivity?

Help! My Team is Broken... You are not alone

What does communication, or lack there-of, cost your company each year? How many people on your team, at the moment you are reading this email, are doing a task that in some way will have to be reworked or redone? Funny, we always seem to have time to do things "right" the second time around.

3 Ways Around Workplace Roadblocks

Is your cash flow your #1 roadblock to success? Think again......about workplace relationships! Read Sylvia's approach to finding the way to removing those roadblocks, and the way "OUT" of the situations that sit in the way of your dreamed-about ultimate success.

Two Fundamental Traits of Leaders Who Stand Out

Most of the people I hang out with are continually striving to become better leaders. This article focuses on two of the most essential traits of successful leaders

Being Genuine: Stop Being Nice, Start Being Real - A Book Review

Being Genuine is simply stated, one of the best books I have read all year. It very clearly and effectively conveys a process for communicating with others in a genuine and non-judgmental way. Anyone who learns and practices his four simple steps will quickly discover that their everyday communication becomes clearer, less judgmental and less conflictual because they are taking responsibility for their feelings and actions and creating a space to connect. I have never come across an easier way to show people how they can get their needs met without fear of conflict.

Communication Skill Areas

Effective communication is critical for building trust. This paper is about the skills required to interpret incoming communication without ambiguity. I address this from the point of view of the leader, but the concepts are applicable to all people in the organization.

Communicating with Large Groups of Employees

Some leaders have a knack for communicting with large groups of employees well and others stink at it. In this paper I outline some of the variables in this equation and offer many tips for improving your skills in this area.

Manage the Rumors

Rumors are a daunting challenge for any organization. Wherever there are people, there is an issue of reality. One of the largest schisms between management and workers is the issue of accurate information. Rumors deflect energy from the vision and values. This paper discusses the origin of rumors and some antidotes to this common problem.

Read Between the Lines

The majority of feedback on your leadership performance, especially if it’s negative, will come between the lines, not explicitly or literally. You need to develop a sixth sense for sniffing out signals and decoding them. Reading body language well is a good way to accomplish this. This article highlights some tips for reading between the lines.

Self Awareness and Success

Successful people build and maintain strong, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in their lives. Self awareness is the first step in relationship building. While it's important to know yourself, it's more important to know how you are similar and different from others, and to use this knowledge to help you become more influential with them. The more you understand your style and needs, the better you will be able to understand others' styles and needs. The more you can adapt your preferred style to other people, the better able you will be to build relationships and resolve conflict.

What Do They Think?

What do others think about you and your organization, and how might you impact the way they think and feel? Does it really matter? See the "Top 10" answers.

Put On Your Listening Hat

We have always had problems with people hearing but not listening. I believe with the electronic world, we are getting worse rather than better. This article focuses on a way to make sure the other party is focused on understanding your message.

How Much Eye Contact

Eye Contact is a fascinating thing. We know it is important for good communication, but too much of it can be very distracting. What are the techniques for establishing the right level of eye contact? This article focuses on this fascinating subject (no pun intended).

Summarizing As a Communication Tool

As managers, we need to create the best interactions with our employees as we can. Understanding each other needs to be the goal, after which, everything else follows...

GOOGLE WAVE PART 2: Grab your surfboard and catch a Wave

So the Google Wave has crashed onto the world shore. It’s the latest online sensation, but how exactly can it help your business? It’s all about collaborative communication – something that can be the key to success in you relationships with customers or colleagues. By using this unique system of communicating, you can enhance your business identity, relationships and overall efficiency.

15 Tips for Career and Life Success

In my work as an executive coach, keynote speaker, leadership consultant and author I have spent the last five years studying what it takes to succeed in your life and career. I have found that successful people share five traits in common: 1. Successful people are self confident; 2. Successful people have positive personal impact; 3. Successful people are outstanding performers; 4. Successful people are excellent communicators; 5. Successful people are interpersonally competent. If you follow the 15 common sense pieces of advice I've presented in this checklist, you'll be able to build a successful life and career.

Basic Eldercare Realities

I always say that for the best results, talk early and often with your aging loved so you can resolve your eldercare issues by choice, not crisis. The earlier you start talking, the easier it is to get plans in place. The better the planning, the easier it will be for them and you in the long term.

Audience Analysis and Presentation Success

Successful people are dynamic communicators. Dynamic communicators are great presenters. If you want to become a great presenter, you need to spend time analyzing the audience for your talks. My successful colleagues in the National Speakers Association do this. They learn everything they can about who is in the audience and what they are expecting prior to crafting a talk. If you do this, you'll be able to create and deliver solid presentations that will meet the needs of your audiences, and in the process, gain a reputation as a great speaker and dynamic communicator.

How to Begin a Conversation

Successful people are dynamic communicators. Dynamic communicators have mastered three basic communication skills: conversation, writing and presenting. Inviting people to participate in a conversation and getting their agreement before jumping in is an important, but often overlooked conversation skill. People who are invited to join a conversation, and choose to do so, are more likely to be better participants. If you want to become an excellent conversationalist, take a few minutes to explain why you want to have a conversation. Ask the other person if he or she has the time and is willing to participate in a conversation on that topic. Your conversations will be better and more productive if you follow this simple common sense advice.

E-Mail Tip #30 - Avoiding Inappropriate Counterpoints

Online exchanges can become traps for rancor if we are not careful. It is easy to take something written the wrong way and fire back a snippy reply. Then, we are off to the races. If you watch the tone of your counterpoints, you can avoid many problems online. This article provides examples of the problem and suggests some antidotes.

E-Mail Tip #31 Make Your Point Clearly

A lot of the e-mail traffic cluttering up people's inboxes is a result of prior notes that gave the reader an incorrect understanding on what was meant. To avoid this, heed the ideas in this article.

E-Mail Tip #34 - Use Neuro-Linguistic Programming

The study of how people take in information is fascinating. This article highlights how some people communicate on predictable channels. It really can help improve the accuracy of communication online.

E-mail Tip #35 - Don't Communicate Through a Third Party

Some people try to get messages to other people through a third party. This practice is dangerous at best. You need to be direct in online communications to avoid all kinds of problems. This article explains the dynamics.

About Sales, JV Partners and Wet, Sloppy Kisses

Do you hate sales, or have a lukewarm affinity to it? What if sales wasn't such a big deal? Could you then fall in love (or at least like) with it? This lighthearted account shows you how to approach your prospective clients or Joint Venture partners in a fun, authentic, and effective way.

Three Key Elements to Improving Leadership

Great leadership is the key to success. Great communication is the key to great leadership. Think of any great leader in modern time: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and John F. Kennedy come to mind immediately. They were powerful leaders because they could inspire people to follow them. It was their ability to articulate their vision that made them successful in achieving their goals.

Tips to Improve Your Business Communication Skills

Learning and practicing effective communication skills can greatly increase your success in business. Learn how to avoid common mistakes that hold other business people back. Attract more clients and build stronger relationships with other businesses.

A Fresh Start

There is no magical solution to solving your business problems. But, I will share a nugget of information with you that would help ensure that your company could obtain a unique competitive advantage. Many of these solutions will only cost you a little time and a minimal amount of money.

Retention: Learn How You Can Create a Competitive Advantage for Your Company

There is no magical solution to business success or solving business problems; however, with a little time and money, many solutions are obtainable! The people are a company's most important resource-not a disposable resource to cut in economy downturns.

The Power of a Willing Mind

According to the Gallup organization, only 30% of employees are fully engaged in their work. That means 70% are merely earning a paycheck. What does this untapped opportunity cost an organization? And, why are so many companies oblivious to this loss? Are they blind to the unrealized opportunity that is left on the table daily? What would this extra potential do for us as individuals, organizations and even countries? Imagine the impact of fully engaged workforce on the economy. Consider the productivity and profit that is simply there for the willing organization to take.

How To Control Your Bottom Line By Showing You Care

It's all too easy to overlook the obvious! To be a good business leader, you need to understand and practise a few basic 'relational skills'. Be a good operator, yes. But if you ignore the 'soft' skills like listening and acknowledging, your bottom line will suffer significantly! The best business leadership includes building the very best relationships with your teams. Here's a few ideas.

Sexual Jokes, Innuendos and Banter: A Kind of Workplace Bullying?

Got an employee who’s funnier than Saturday Night Live? Be careful; as funny as some folks find raunchy humor, it has an edge that can cut out some of the enjoyment at work – even for those who are engaging in it.

13 Known Strategies that Stop Employees From Screaming

Have you ever wondered why people thrive in activities not related to their work but fail to have the same enthusiasm and/or output in what they are paid to do? Their morale is low, no personal accountability and their creativity in minimal from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday-Friday...Because the workplace has changed, employees need a new leadership approach to overcome their challenges. Unlike the Kamba women who expected their men to rid the community of the attacking forces, today's employees need the tools themselves. The workplace has become an unpredictable jungle and leadership needs to know why people with talents and experiences are dissatisfied and not using their potential-thus damaging the bottom line.

Are you an Active Listener?

Using good listening skills is very important in our personal lives as well as our professional lives.

Aggression or Assertion

How to be assertive and stand up for what you believe in without becoming aggressive. Don't avoid confrontation, learn how to deal with it.

Understanding People Through The Way They Communicate

Have you ever wondered why someone's words don't always match their body language? Observing the way people communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, can help you to assess what they might be feeling at the present moment. It can also help you to get to the heart of the issue, make someone feel more comfortable, or diffuse a potentially explosive situation. This article provides some tips on recognizing and understanding verbal and nonverbal cues, and using this information to improve communication.

Be your best, not stressed: 3 entrepreneurial communication styles

This article, which teaches you how to leverage your Personal Communication Style to your advantage in your business or work, is especially for people with high standards and/or who expect a lot from themselves. Which of the three styles best describes you?

Dangerous Conversations

How to have great coaching conversations.

Overuse of the Pronoun I

Have you noticed that the over use of the pronoun "I" can lead to all kinds of difficulties. Many people who have this habit do not even realize they are doing it, nor do they comprehend the damage that is done to relationships. This article shines a spotlight on this fascinating area and offers some guidelines to prevent problems.

Keeping People in the Loop

On the surface, it seems like a simple matter to keep people in an organization informed of things they need to know. Unfortunately it is a conundrum that is rarely mastered, even by the most talented leaders. This article explores the issue of keeping people informed.

A Different Approach to Diversity Training

Lots of companies and organizations get bent out of shape when they try to develop diversity programs. This happens because everyone is focusing on the differences between people so much that they forget to look at the things we have in common.

Business Transparency & Social Media

Four shifts that businesses of all sizes make by focusing on Social Media Optimization (SMO) and their positive effects.

Integrating Social Media Into Your Small Businesses?

More and more small business are incorporating social media to help interact with customers and fans and have open channels of communication.

Check Mark Thinking Gives Executives False Sense of Accomplishment

Achievers can fall into the trap of check-mark thinking. They view corporate change as a to-do list. Mission statement - check, Vision - check, Told them what I expect - check, Metrics in place - check. The busy executive then moves on the other things because he or she thought they had "done" everything on the list. Then they begin to see things start to unravel and quickly blame others for not executing properly.

The Art of Communication

The Art of Communication

Success: One Conversation at a Time

Success: One Conversation at a Time

The Secret to Resolving Workplace Conflicts

During a workplace conflict, it's human nature to assume the problem is the other person. Here's why that isn't the case - and how to keep workplace conflict from turning into workplace combat.

How Sound Design Affects Customer Response and Action

If you've spent a small fortune on graphic designers, search engine optimizers, social networking experts and still find that your website conversions are low, then perhaps your website suffers from the marketing equivalent of Capgras Delusion, a failure to make a connection between your online content and your emotional value proposition.

Taking the Ouch Out of Relationship Conflict

Whether you love conflict or hate it-it won’t ever go away. As long as you’re living and breathing, there will be conflict. Understanding the essence of conflict is really good for you. Read on for the road map to resolve conflict quickly and with less pain. Follow the 5 core concepts to make yourself conflict competent.

DAN's HELPFUL TRAINING TIPS

Training is important communication. The trainer must transmit the information carefully so that it is received by the trainees. No matter how good your message, if it is not received, nothing has happened.

Do you have effective key messages?

In PR we are always going on about key messages. We use them in everything from prepping for a media interview through to writing websites and corporate brochures. But what are they?

Live Consultant Thinking: A few Ideas for Supervisors and Managers on Communication

We want people to be comfortable with us, and be comfortable with what we say. You must have comfort, everybody must be comfortable, before you have acceptance. For comfort, for acceptance and success, we should present our facts, information and sales points in three bite size pieces. We all have some answers, things that work for us, and we all are looking for more answers. It seems that the better we communicate and collaborate, the more progress we all make.

Delegating in a Distributed World: New Demands on the CEO

In a distributed world, a CEO is called upon to adopt new methods of delegation. There's a higher level of writing, documentation and communication skills demanded of the CEO. I recently interviewed Mark Levi and Mark Henricks for a Cisco BizWiseTv interview: "Keys to Delegating in a Distributed World".

Tough Times Need Laser Focus

The word on the street is that we are in the middle of a tough economy. Some even say that we are involved in a recession and that sales are tougher to come by now than they have been in many years. With fuel prices soaring, commodity pricing all over the board, the financial markets in upheaval, and the real estate markets still reeling, many companies, in a lot of different industries, are trying to recover from slumping sales.

Social Media

With all of the recent buzz over Social Media, many people are left to wonder if this is just “another passing fad.” I seem to remember similar conversations just a short 15 years ago about that silly email thing. (“What the heck is a Yahoo?”) I recently saw a quick little YouTube video regarding Social Media and thought that I would share some of the staggering statistics it contained. I also thought I would throw in some running commentary for you as well (in parentheses).

5 Ways to Manage Employees with Success

Are you, as an entrepreneur out of touch with your employees? Did you ever note that they come first, even before customers? You can only keep customers if you manage your employees with the right tools. Research on human development shows that throwing money at people is not enough. Here are some universal rules to guide you to being an outstanding employer.

The Science Behind The High Five (and how to make it work at work)

Organizations invest thousands of training dollars on verbal and electronic communication. Yet, even in this wired world, the most important connection is the human connection. The most significant aspect of this connection surprisingly is often unspoken. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have proven this on, of all places, the basketball court.

Managed Chaos

Could be an oxymoron couldn't it? Chaos is disorder, confusion, commotion, disarray and turmoil. When a leader manages something, it's an effort to handle, cope, control, or direct it. For absolute clarity in this situation, here are two practical tips

3 Rules for Integrating New Employees into the Workplace

There are certain cardinal rules to follow and they are as important as filling out the required forms for insurance and all the other parts of business. There are emotional factors at work whether you want them to be or not. If you tackle these areas you are guaranteed to have a better chance of new employees ready to sprint from the starting gate.

Don’t Be a Trash Talker

I was recently reading a study that found that close to 95% of people are unskilled, unpracticed or amateurs in the art of interpersonal communication. That shocked me. In essence, this study is saying that 95% of people “talk trash.” Here’s how to stay (or move into) the top 5%.

Communication Is Key

Most people do not quit their jobs, they quit their supervisors. This article discusses the importance of supervisor/employee communication; especially in this day of "twittering" & "linking".

What's Your “Management” Color?

"Why won't people listen to me?" - "It's not that difficult." - "Why is this taking so long?" Do those statements sound familiar? Maybe the problem has to do with personality types... Do you know your staff's "colors"?

Managing the Transition: How to Face Employee Resistance Head On When Introducing Workplace Changes

3 Ways Leaders Can Face Employee Resistance Head On to Make the Transition Easier for Everyone Involved

If You are a Leader, are You a Peacemaker?

A good leader creates an environment of peace that compels people to walk in that direction...Here are characteristics that make leaders effective peacemakers.

How You Walk Your Talk Directly Affects The Money You Make

Tips and strategies to help you walk your talk in an authentic and profitable manner.

Create A Culture of Consistency!

First published in Food & Drink Magazine in January 2010, this story focuses on 6 steps to create a choiceful business culture. Choice: High performance, engaged team members; nothing less.

3 Tips for Healthy Change at Work

The only constant at work is change. So why do we spend so much energy clinging to doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. Below you will find 3 tips for healthy change in the workplace.

Web Marketing Ideas You Can Actually Use

If you're like me, always trying to improve, learn, and grow your business, then you've probably been frustrated in your search for truly useful information that you can actually use to improve your marketing, branding and sales efforts.

Body Language

Learning to project confidence as a leader can be learned through increasing a self awareness of posture and speaking habits.If one behaves in a confident manner, he actually becomes more confident and effective.

7 Must Know Motivators Employees Appreciate at All Times

So often when I am contacted to work with a group of leaders I am asked, "What can we do to keep our employees motivated, focused and increasing productivity?" Then that question is followed by the comment, "We have goals that we want to achieve."

YOUR TURN DUDES

Suggestions to men regarding pleasing their women and the secret to making them happy.

Powerful Communication: Apology Do’s and Don’ts

Article explaining the importance of the appropriate delivery of an apology and tips on what to do and what not to do when it comes to apologizing

3 Ways to Keep “Pattern Spills” from Hurting Your Business

Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same things over and over and expecting different results". Think about your business. What do you keep repeating hoping it will turn out better this time? Do you ever feel "duped" by a colleague or even a customer? Do you keep knocking your head against the wall saying "I can't believe this happened again?"

Orient Yourself Towards Others And Relieve Pressure In The Workplace

Do you orient yourself towards others or yourself? To inspire trust and innovation, it is obvious which type of person is most successful.

Flying high, flying far.

“What me? Sell myself? You have to be joking!” This was the response I received from one of my clients when I suggested that she needed to get out there and promote herself. She had to “network”.

Micro-managing or managing minutely?

I’m involved in a lot of change management just now, particularly as the economic climate is forcing managers to look closely at getting the very best out of their people. Change often prompts fear for many; fear of the unknown, fear of losing their job. But if you, as the manager, have communicated clearly with your staff, then there will be no room for misunderstanding and doubt. One of the Prime Minister’s buzz words is transparency – making sure his communication strategies are clear and fair. Can you say the same for your own work practice?

Permission to Speak!

There are many ways to communicate. Do you know how you communicate best? We express ourselves explicitly by speaking in a direct fashion. Yet many of us say one thing and mean another. We illustrate a lot of what we say by hand gestures, and other body language. This is implicit communication, and relies on us being able to observe the speaker at all times.

Poisoned Ivy?

“It’s not fair! I hate my job. Why should I do that?” All too often there is a member of staff in your organisation who is uttering this. He may not say it to your face. Worse, he may be complaining behind your back.

The Right Words at the Right Time

How often do we hear, “But it is not my fault. I told you what time it was on/where to go/how to do it”? One of the biggest problems we face today is a lack of effective communication. This applies both in the work place and at home.

Three steps to creating a successful team

How well do you know your staff? Are they happy? Are they heading in the right direction, or is each one following his/her own agenda with no reference point?

United, we stand. Divided, we fall.

Most of us need other people. Whether it is a good friend, a lover, or an astute business colleague, most of us need to maintain relationships with others.

What lies beneath?

Personal stereos, radios, television, mobile phones. In today’s high-tech world there are so many distractions. All compete for our attention. So what does it take to make you listen? To really understand the issues your child is having, or the problems your staff member is facing? You can learn to listen, not just with your ears, but with your eyes, and by using your intuition as well.

8 Must Haves to Make Every Conversation Authentically Compelling

One of the main things that hold people back from deliberately making change is uncertainty around how to communicate change to others. Our communication patterns, like everything else, evolve over time and are prone to habits. This article helps you check in with how you speak with yourself and others and see where you can upgrade and feel even better about how you “talk your walk.”

People ARE listening! The question is – Are you saying anything worth hearing?

Are you communicating something compelling that is short and concise? Does it give anything of value? Or are you becoming a victim of “light listening” as you fail to get to any point in a timely manner?

Do you have difficult clients or are they just different?

Style adaptability is where a person can read another person’s preferred communication style and adjusts their own communication style to that of the other person, thus making shared communication and understanding easier. It is imperative to the principle of exchange and critical to any sales role, yet it is often one of the most poorly executed skills. Time after time we come across teams of sales people who have no conscious idea about how to adapt their style to that of another. Instead when they come across differences, communication usually breaks down and they will speak about the other using derogatory terms such as calling them an idiot, or moron, etc. Sound familiar?

Lead the way

Sales needs to be led from the top and it needs to be on the agenda of the ‘C’ suite, and this will mean from the CEO down, including the CFO, COO, and CIO. Even if the ‘C’ suite never has contact with an external customer (which I strongly advise against) they need to know how to lead, sell in, and support the sales effort. Why? Despite millions, if not billions, of dollars being invested in sales training, CRM systems and the like, many leaders are realising that their frontend processes, backend systems, culture (including those staff who have not traditionally seen themselves involved in sales), and sales methodologies are not aligned with their customers.

Want to Get Along Better With Others - Try the DISC Approach

Ever notice how much of your business involves people? And, sometimes, they don't follow the script you have written for them! Learn how and what to do to achieve your results by understanding why others behave the way they do ... and how to react appropriately.

Collaboration – The New Competition

Over the coming years, we will see collaboration become the new competition. Markets around the world are crying out for collaboration as innovation and differentiation become scarce in a sea of commoditised products and services. Sales people who see themselves as collaborators, both internally (colleagues, departments) and externally (customers, competitors), will prosper more than ever.

How's Your Communication?

In order to be as successful as you want to be, you must have greatcommunication skills.

Reading Between the Lines is for Dating

Forcing your audience to read between the lines to understand your value is ineffective at best. You'll lose your listener before you ever connect.

5 Steps to Writing an Effective Email

It’s a scenario we’ve probably all been in at one time or another. You’re working on a project when you realize you don’t have everything you need to complete it, so you fire off a quick email to request the required information. You watch for the reply, and when it arrives, you open it immediately. Unfortunately, you’re still unable to proceed with your project, because the details you were waiting for are missing. In many cases, this situation could have been avoided by taking a little extra time to compose your email effectively. The following guidelines will help you to improve your electronic communication skills and help you to be more productive.

How To Minimize Future Collection Problems

Learning how to recover more of what is currently owed is a highly productive process. Learning to avoid collection problems from future business also makes a lot of sense. This article describes exactly how to clarify the expectations about payment so that customers are not only far more likely to comply but also will become more appreciative of you as a supplier of your product or service. This strengthened relationship often leads to a wonderful bonus; namely, more referrals from happy customers.

M is for Marketing Strategy

Do you have a marketing strategy in place? No, by this I don’t mean a marketing plan (although that’s great if you have one of these). I mean a marketing strategy – something that tells you end to end where each of your marketing fits in.

Communicating for Success

Communication is vital for success and in the NEW Economy it will prove to be of immeasurable value in getting and keeping customer. Customers are in the driver's seat and customer service is now the mandate. The first line for most companies is the phone. Make mistakes here and you will see it reflected in your Profit and Loss statement.

Role Playing - For More Effective Debt Collection

A good analogy to the value of role playing is how they make movies. Typically, the director of a movie shoots far more film than what shows up on the finished movie we see. The rest winds up on the cutting room floor - the "outtakes". Role playing is like the outtakes. You can make the mistakes in collecting where there is no harm done, through role playing. The end result is a professional collector who produces accelerated cash flow.

Six Steps to Managing a Negative Work Environment

How to manage and decrease negativity in your life and environment

Stop Being So Defensive!

If this article’s headline caught your eye - yes, it was meant to be provocative and somewhat ironic. Check out the full article below for tips on how to be less defensive and more powerful in your personal and professional communication.

The Art of Instant Rapport

Establish rapport with anyone, anywhere and anytime

Fax to Wall

The fax is dead, long live the fax. In these days of high tech marketing even email is beginning to seem old hat. Reading an article about fax marketing revived an old idea - fax to wall.

The Business of Coaching Communication

Communication is often overlooked as something one can learn. Everyone thinks that they know 'how to communicate'but not everyone can. This article gives some tips for Coaches and Clients.

Are Your Prepared to Lead?

To lead is a verb. It implies action. The leader acts, the follower reacts. The leader is the one who steps out in front and says "Follow me; I know a better way." If he's convincing or trusted, those who relate to the message will follow. There are those who say leadership can be learned -- and I definitely agree with that. There are, however, natural strengths and talents within each of us which are not the result of learning.

A Smile - The Universal Language

A smile is a universal language that will engulf everyone coming in contact with it. The verbal words we use won’t affect lives as much as a genuine smile given to others. Many people are burdened with enormous problems today but the smile they receive from someone else is a bright spot in a darkened existence.

The 3 Secrets of Knowing When to Say “YES”

Entrepreneurs are known for their high energy, willingness to tackle stress and saying yes to opportunity after opportunity. They are also known for by-passing the burnout syndrome until that proverbial stress straw knocks them on their rump one too many times. You know the saying about the higher you fly the harder you fall. Well, how do you prevent that hit to the ground that lands you in bed or worse, in the hospital? Here are 3 keys to open the doors to new possibilities.

The Right Frame

How we frame our message makes a big difference. Depending on the frame, we can enhance the beauty of our message or diminish it. We can make it come alive or fall flat.

Three Simple Techniques to Increase Sales

When it comes to sales, how you interact with your customers is everything. Salespeople need to be engaged, always communicating and always present.

Communicate the Results

At some point, the decision is made. The next step is telling people the results and explaining the rationales behind the decision.

Ready, Set, Go! Get Strategic on Values

Imagine this...your company spends dollars, time and energy to refine your mission, vision and values in a long needed retreat to reorient the team toward business success. Similar to the evangelist that comes to town to rev everyone up, the passion can often dissipate as the evangelist’s tent is disassembled and goes off to the next town. How can the passion become self-sustaining long after the retreat and into the future? The answer rests in getting and remaining strategic around the values you and your charges spend so much time identifying and marketing.

Trust Keeps Leaders off the Slippery Slope

There are numerous advantages when leaders can build an environment of high trust. One important one is that the employees in the organization become helpful watchdogs to help prevent ethical dilemmas, but that is only one advantage. Here are 10 key benefits of building a high trust organization: 1. Lower risk of ethical debacles 2. Higher productivity 3. Lower costs 4. Less conflict 5. Focus on the vision 6. Trust is evident to customers 7. Focus on development 8. Improved communications 9. Better reinforcement 10. More efficient problem solving

New Leadership Challenges in the Workplace

New technology and 'old school' CAN mix in a multi-generational workplace.

Getting Fired In Voicemail

A co-worker is fired in voicemail. How does that affect the remaining team members?

Improving Listening Skills

Reflective listening (also called Active listening) is the best method for people to improve communications. The technique works, but it requires skill and a lot of practice to do it well. This article focuses on this topic and gives a few pointers.

What’s the difference between a member, a client and a customer?

What’s in a name? Well, there seems to be some confusion in the market place around the terminology used to describe those people who pay us money for goods, services, experiences, donations, etc. Different industries can have different terms for the consumers of their products and/or services. We see terms such as customer, client, patient, guest, patron, member, subscriber, donor, etc. used to describe a person who buys our products or services and intends to use them directly. In short, these terms are referring to the same person – the ‘end user’. However, not everyone ‘consumes’ our products or services or is the intended ‘end user’. Some people or businesses buy our products or services to ‘on sell’ them to another party, often the final end user, but not always.

Achieving Goals: A Process Approach

If you find yourself continually struggling to reach your goals, it may be time to look at the process you use. Whether you are working in your own business or in someone else's, Leslie Allan has cemented together five key steps for successfully achieving your objectives.

Change Leadership: The Keys to Success

Responding to and initiating change in today’s organization is a prerequisite to maintaining or gaining competitive advantage. Yet many organizations fail in bringing about worthwhile change. If you are tasked with leading a change initiative in your organization, then this article is essential reading. Leslie Allan provides a starkly honest and compelling overview of what it takes to be a change champion in today’s business environment.

Workplace Change in Six Steps

Managing change in today’s organizations is not easy. Those companies that get it right win a significant strategic advantage over their struggling competitors. Leslie Allan shows how you can apply a practical change management process that will help you gain success on your next change initiative.

Perceptual Style Expert Provides Strategies for Conversations that Work

Simple differences in perspective can create chronic conflicts between two people – and drive them apart. Arguments or disagreements that start out small can fester and create serious resentment on both sides. This article highlights strategies for adjusting conversations so they provide the necessary information for both people involved – and therefore, they stop conflict before it starts.

Are You Putting on an Act?

Lights! Camera! Action! When the spotlight of life is focused on you, what do people see? Are you an actor just playing a role or are you the “real thing?” Are you willing to let people see who you really are? Hollywood actors are paid big bucks to portray a make believe character on the silver screen, but there are many people outside of “Tinsel Town” who put on a very convincing act every day without ever being paid a dime. In fact, many of them pay a high price.

Four Essential Strategies for Effective Communication

In this article, Mike Friesen describes describes effective communication as an engaged, useful exchange of information. With this in mind, great communication must engage compassionately, logically, with presence, and systematically and Mike explores each strategy in turn.

The Facebook Future

Almost twenty years ago, the President of the company that I worked for made the statement, "If I catch any of my managers wasting time on a computer, I will fire them!" I can still recall the days of memorandums that copied others as the primary form of internal business communication. Wow, so much has changed so fast that it is almost impossible to absorb.

Successful Communication – 4 Key Categories

There are four key categories to remember when thinking about whether you are maximising your communication with your target market.

Relationships and Communication: Sender vs. Receiver

In relationships and communication, who’s more responsible for avoiding misinterpretation, the person speaking or the person listening? The answer depends on which of the 6 innate Perceptual Styles describe the person speaking-and which one describes the person being spoken to.

Are You Committing Lateral Violence?

How to be more assertive and gain respect

Make achieving goals a part of life

Bill Wynn, Managing Director of Project Resource Limited looks at how you can communicate with your employer effectively and work together to help achieve both your goals.

The Latest HR Issues

Workers Comp - Dress Codes - Social Media - Misunderstandings... oh, the pleasures of HR. Here are Betsey's suggestions on handling these issues.

6 Questions That Uncover Your Brilliance

When I work with clients, I use a series of processes that leads them directly to the magic of their work that they can express in their Signature Talk. Today I want to share with you six of the questions I use with clients that will help you explore the message that underlies your brilliance.

Communication: Insular to Cellular

The cellular telephone, or cell phone, has evolved from humble beginnings to a device that can be compared in usability and productivity to a home computer.

Decline of Landline Phones

As cell phone popularity continues to rise and cell phone prices and monthly service contracts continue to drop, American consumers are discontinuing their telephone landlines in favor of cell phones as their household phone.

From Samuel Morris to Martin Cooper – The History of the Cell Phone

Every modern phone communication can be traced back to Samuel Morris's first telegraph signal transmission.

What is a Phone Tree

A phone tree is a highly structured method to pass important messages to large groups of people. Though phone trees are efficient, they have their drawbacks including multiple opportunities for the phone chain to break down through message transmission.

Satellite Communication & Internet Access

Communication is an ever growing industry. With the broad spectrum use of satellites for the purposes of communication, internet access is able to be offered to customers in remote areas with no access to LAN type plugins sich as DSL, Cable, or Fios connections.

The Need for Pagers Continues Even Today

Pagers used to be the favored communication method for doctors, physicians, and technicians in in the 1980's and early 1990's. Though smart phones have replaced pagers and beepers in many cases, there is still a need for those devices.

Internet Telephony Has Changed Communications

Internet telephony has grown and changed the landscape of telecommunications. WIth such services as VoIP, internet telephony is a force to be reckoned with

Communication and Business: Are You Sending Mixed Signals?

Offering resources is how we build community and make friends, while offering transactions is how we make money. If you’re offering one in the guise of the other, watch out: your mixed signals could be hurting your business in a big way.

Book Review: A Master Class in Gremlin Taming: The Absolutely Indispensable Next Step for Freeing Yourself from the Monster of the Mind

Rick Carson’s Taming your Gremlin is a classic book of self-development, written over 25 years ago. It has helped hundreds of thousands quiet negative voices in their heads that hold them back. Although Rick has revised the original work, his Master Class goes deeper with new techniques for freeing yourself from the “Monster of the Mind”. Rather than focusing on what’s going on in our heads, the Master Class is more focused on being genuine with ourselves and responsible in our relationships. His writing couldn’t be more clear, his techniques more elegant, practical and effective for achieving intimacy with yourself and others in your life. Time and time he reminds us to focus our awareness and being aware of our breath. So let’s take this one breath at a time.

Communication Styles in the Workplace: Goals vs. Flow

It’s a classic case of a “hired gun” brought in to save a failing company-blocked by managers opposed to drastic change. It’s also a classic case of the Goals Perceptual Style versus the Flow Style.

Traditional Media Obsolete by 2030?

More than half of Americans familiar with digital media predict that newspapers, magazines and network television will be dead by 2030.

How to Deal With a Bully

Article of 1292 words explaining the techniques to use when dealing with a bully and the importance of maintaining your composure to demand respect.

Build Rapport and Build Great Relationships

All of us rely on our ability to communicate effectively with our colleagues and clients. To be the best you can be you need to discover the magic of rapport.

Four Essentials of Effective Communication

Learning how to communicate effectively is crucial to the survival of your business; unfortunately there’s no other way to cut it. If you approach people too casually, don’t take the time to communicate clear information, or don’t appear cordial, you are risking the success of your business. This article contains four essential tips along with action steps to ensure effective communication.

How To Deliver A Marketing Message On Your Website

If you want to be the market leader you have to control the conversation and you do that with the language you use. If you can control the words you can dominate the market. The words you use make a difference. Use the right words in the right way, and you’ll own the conversation, and put your competitors at a distinct disadvantage.

Interpersonal Skills

To succeed as a manager, you need to be able to communicate well with anybody in the workplace. Read this article to discover 7 of the interpersonal skills you need.

It's What You Don't Say that Runs the Show

I learned so much from my first life and business coach; lessons that I'm still using today in both my business and in my life as well as with my own coaching clients, some 20-plus years later. Now that's lasting value. (Thanks Judy B.) One of the most valuable lessons revolving around communication was the principle -- "It's what you don't say that runs the show." To say it a bit more accurately, it's those things we feel like we can't say for fear that we'll get into trouble with the other person that end up shaping the relationship and often in ways that ultimately are unhealthy for everyone involved.

Non-Verbal Communication

We all use non-verbal communication. It is the oldest and most basic way of expressing ourselves to others. But if you are a manager with responsibility for managing others, you need to do more than just use body language, you need to become an expert.

Hollywood and Teamwork

Movies are one of the greatest ways to grow and develop. That's right movies, and I don't mean training movies although they do have a place in growth and development. I'm talking about the movies you can get from Blockbuster or Netflix. Hollywood and Teamwork

2D Communication

Communication these days is all too often via the 2D method of email and text messages (also blogs and chat). While not ideal, they provide a quick and easy way to connect and keep in touch but be careful what you say and how you say it. You might think you know what you’ve said, but have you? The message you write isn’t necessarily the message that gets read. What you intended to say it isn’t necessarily what comes across.

Creating Your First Newsletter

Part of any successful business is building a relationship with your contacts and any prospective clients. A newsletter can be a useful way to keep in touch. Not only does it act as a reminder of who you are and what you do but it provides an opportunity to add value and let them know about your services and products.

Are your listening skills costing you or making you money?

Who is really listening? … Genuinely, sincerely and honestly listening? I’m noticing a lot more telling and a lot less listening lately. You only have to watch the ABC program ‘Q&A’ to see the number of politicians who have great trouble listening – to anything except themselves. They interrupt others giving answers to questions that were never asked. No wonder we are a bit jaded and cynical.

How do I lead and manage a virtual or remote sales team?

More and more organisations are adopting virtual teaming and remote working. They are doing this to achieve wider reach and tighter integration, reduce their carbon footprint, decentralise operations and allow their staff to benefit from less travel and more home working. This type of work environment has been around in sales teams for a long time, and with the advent of technology, a sales person may not even have to come into the ‘office’ for weeks.

Why hiring or keeping the 600lb sales gorilla is a mistake

For many years the legend of the 600lb sales gorilla or Alpha sales superstar has been strutting the hallways and boardrooms of businesses. Often revered for achieving top of the league ladder sales results, yet feared by many for their aggressive, manipulative, ego centric, demanding, intimidating antics, countless CEO’s and sales managers have allowed these sales prima donnas to remain in their sales teams but at what cost to their sales team and their business?

Business and Communication: Almost, but Not Quite

There are six distinct Perceptual Styles that determine the ways that different people see the world, what they value, and how they communicate. Some Styles are more similar than others in their communication-but that doesn’t mean they’re saying the same thing.

SME's - why communication is good for innovation

A look at the link between communication and innovation

Leadership Starts With Giving: Three Secrets to Attracting More Success in Your Life by Making a Difference

I share this story to illustrate the power of the leader within us. We are all leaders, and we can make a difference in our lives by giving more. The following are three leadership secrets to being more successful by giving more.

Don't Underestimate the Power of Communication

Establish rapport and build trust.

Exceptional Listening Skills

Improve your listening skills and improve your charism factor.

Power People - Control People

If you are not in charge of your life, someone else will be.

Success Tips for More Effective Communication

BENEFITS: You will build a better relationship with family members, be more popular and become a more trusted friend and employee. You will be able to influence people easily and showcase your leadership skills. People of influence experience more happiness, are more confident and benefit from greater job security.

Ten Ways to Make Yourself Promotable

Being promotable may be easier than you think!

The Power of Words

Words can build you up, tear you down or make you look around and wonder what is really going on.

Benefits of Intranet

Benefits of Intranet:- There are various benefits of intranet to business which can be broadly classified as under:

Few Employee Surveys Work

If you are tired of dealing with employee satisfaction surveys because they do not work, you need to read this article. In it you will find 10 tips to improve the effectiveness of any employee satisfaction survey.

R-E-O Improves Your Listening & Management Skills

Active listening skills are important to utilize in your everyday life in the workplace or at home. Passively listening while multi-tasking several things will give the impression that you are not paying attention, and could cause people to avoid you or maybe even resent you! If you are an entrepreneur or a manager, then you need people to trust you and follow your vision and direction. People must feel that they are being heard and respected, in order for them to return the favour!

Trusted Internet ID Obama’s top priority

The Obama administration is currently working on a scheme that will make a cyberspace utopia where financial transactions and exchanges of information are conducted in a secure environment.

When the Heat is On, It’s time to CHILL “5 Steps to Help You Handle Any Situation”

This article will teach you how to handle any stressful situation with your boss. These 5 steps just make get you your next promotion!

Perspective is Everything

Reality can be best defined as one's perception based upon their own perspective. Recently, I was enjoying an old, rather antiquated spy novel in which four opposing secret agents are sitting around a table, engaged in a card game. One of the agents was to receive a secret coded symbol that he was to write on the tablecloth. The secret coded symbol was to be picked up by a hidden camera in the ceiling of the card room. The other three secret agents were to observe the secret symbol as soon as it was written on the tablecloth and then report back to their respective spymasters.

Morse Code

Morse Code is a way to sand and receive information by a series of dots and dashed. In the early days of telephony communication, Morse Code was used to relay messages along telegraph lines.

A Look at Voice Disorders

A voice disorder is classified as some type of imparement which can inhibit a persons ability co communicate.

How to Choose Business Success Instead of Failure

Anyone who has ever started a business knows there is work involved. It takes a clear vision, strategic planning, marketing and more to be successful. The two traits of successful businesses that I see most often (regardless of the type of business) are consistency and communication. To truly choose success, you must incorporate both into your overall strategy.

Is Something Weighing You Down?

In any professional relationship, issues inevitably arise from time to time that have the potential to create tension and conflict. It’s not the issues themselves that are the main cause for relationship breakdown but how you go about resolving them. Many of us struggle to effectively speak up about the issues that cause feelings of resent, frustration or downright anger, with the end result that what isn’t talked out gets acted out … in cheap shots, innuendos, moodiness or the “silent treatment," but these things often worsen the problem.

Essential Keys to Team Success

There are four essentials that govern a team's success - leadership - Goals - Norms - Roles.

Legal Marketing: Is your communication effective?

Getting your message across to your various audiences seems like an easy task. But for many law firms what they are saying and what is being heard are two different things. So how do we avoid some of the pitfalls of poor communication and make sure your messages are interpreted as intended?

IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

I bet there have been times in your life and I am sure there will be times still to come when you feel depreciated, angry or drained. Have you ever wondered why that is? Now you might be inclined to think that it is quite simply that you are tired; worn out from to much work, to little sleep, from eating the wrong foods, driving yourself to hard, trying to do to much, from not living a balanced life. Any of the above may be the case at least some of the time but have you ever stopped to consider that; “it might be because people are not open to your energy!”

10 Ways to Empower Your Communication

The Blarney Stone is a historical stone, or actually part of the Blarney Castle in Ireland where it was believed that kissing the stone can grant you the gift of gab. Yeah, it seems strange in this day and age, but who are we to question tradition? It's not like I'm saying that Santa Claus doesn't exist (OOPS!).

Employee retention – Look after your staff, look after your business

A business needs to know how to look after its people, and have them committed to their work and highly motivated. Its true strength lies in its people. This article gives 10 essential keys to keep your team loyal and enthusiastic about their organization. They are important to build team spirit and engender a desire to ‘give of one’s best’ They are all very simple to activate, but, having worked in industry in an advisory capacity for many years, I can tell you that they are essential for any organization that wishes to build productivity, retain staff and ‘stay the distance’. No business can afford to ignore them.

Check Your Ego at the Door!

Why do people do one thing when they profess to believe another? Here are four reasons/solutions when it comes to checking egos.

Neon Hypocrisy

Many organizations have a value that states "employees are our most important asset." The value hangs in the lobby on a plaque, but it is not reflected in the actions of leaders, so it shines like a neon sign that lowers trust. This article suggests some things that can change the pattern.

40-Year Old Communication Myth Busted, Words Not Body Language, Are the Foundation of Successful Communication

Join the debate about whether words or body language are the more powerful form of communication. People can fake body language signals and they can tell verbal lies, so which of the two forms really are the most powerful and reliable?

3 Skills New Team Leaders Need To Master

As a new team leader, it is important that you grasp key concepts that empower you and your team to achieve goals on deadline and with high standards. In this article, we explore the top three things you need to know, providing you with the skills and knowledge on what it takes to be a great team leader.

Keeping Clients Happy in Hard Times

We all face difficult times at some point. When problems come our way we can become so occupied "fighting the fires" that we forget our clients in the process.

Spring into Happily Ever After: Debunking Olds Myths About Love and Marriage

Living happily ever after in marriage passively, or with little effort, is a myth passed down to us from old stories from past generations. There is much more to creating lasting relationships than there was in times gone by. Today's modern marriage needs to be a conscious one, where we actively communicate and listen to our partners with an open mind and an open heart. Spring is a great time for new beginnings, so start living your fairly tale relationship now!

Do You Know Your Customers Personality Type

Research in the field of psychology tells us that we are born into one of four primary temperament styles (Aggressive, Expressive, Passive or Analytical). A person's temperament style is determined genetically and has nothing to do with his or her astrology sign, age, gender, birth order or childhood experiences.

Senior Management and Critical Information

When did Senior Management become sacred?

Without Truth You Can’t Have Trust

"We hold these truths to be self-evident." With that one statement our Constitution calibrates at a level of 700- enlightenment.

What You Are Doing To Undermine Your Authority

The session was to begin at 8:30 AM for the executive leadership team. At 8:30 AM we were missing two of the key members and the CEO asked me to wait for them. At 8:45 the CEO got up and went to look for his two team members that were missing. He came back at 9:00 and said, “They’re big boys so let’s get going.”

Firing Without the Headache or Heartache

It is Friday afternoon and you call John Thompson in to your office.

How to Lead and Influence Change

You know for years we have held the majestic eagle as our sign of a good leader. It soars so high above everyone else, has a beautiful wingspan, eyes that can see its prey from miles away and uncanny accuracy in getting its food.

The Building of a Leader

“I am organizing an Easter Egg Hunt for the neighborhood today and I wanted to know if your children will be coming?” said the confident voice on the other end of the phone. With a smile on my face I told Megan that absolutely Rory and Ce’Anna would participate. I was told to bring nothing but the children and to be there at one o’clock.

Leadership: A Way of Thinking, Not a Position

Leadership is not a position but a way of thinking. When you recognize and embrace that it will change how you view yourself as well as others.

Where Do You Stand As A Leader?

45% of your company’s reputation is based on the public’s view of your CEO. Staggering isn’t it?

Does a Leader’s Communication Really Impact the Corporate Culture?

I have watched many corporations tumble due to the communication and character of their leaders. Why is it that just a few people can have such a big impact on the culture of an organization?

Building Strategic versus Tactical Leaders

IQ is your intelligence-your ability to capture information and store it in your brain and then extract it when needed. But all of us have run in to people that are highly intelligent but that lack common sense. So if you are looking for a great leader what are the essential ingredients that make a great leader?

Your Invitation to Greatness: The Top 10 Traits of a Leader that Instills Trust and Accountability

Are great leaders born or made? That is a question that has been plaguing people from the beginning of time. It is the issue discussed in books such as “From Good to Great” and “Winning.”

Feet in the Fire or Feet on Fire?

The missing secrets to making your corporate culture come alive!

What Do Leaders And Winter Have In Common?

I love Summer, I enjoy Spring, Fall is okay but Winter, man I am not a fan. For me Winter is too cold and too long. In my mind, I think let’s just get rid of Winter.

Critical Thinking and the Wizards

What's Feeding Your Thoughts? Do you look at the news, read books or magazines that stretch your thinking?

Do you invite thinking or evict thinking?

It amazes me how many people feel the necessity to strongly inflict their opinions on others. For me that is always a clear signal that they need to have other people validate them.

How to Lead a Transformation of Your Team

Carol Ann Tomlinson said, “Excellence in education is when we do everything we can to make sure they become everything that they can.” The same is true about leading a team to transformation.

Why What You Say Is NOT What Your Employees Hear

He walked into the room to deliver the news that the company was going to be looking at the possibility of outsourcing parts of their IT services. It was actually a part of their database management that IT hated and openly talked about hating. So he knew they would be glad to hear that the company would consider outsourcing it. He walked into the room, delivered his news, and was soon flooded with the resignations from his top talent.

How to Make a Decision That Sticks Rather Than Gets You Stuck

One of the most frustrating experiences we can all face is how to make effective decisions especially when you feel there is a lot of risk at stake. You wonder how much risk you should take on without putting yourself out on a limb or how much risk you share without looking like you are trying to pass accountability or be too cautious.

7 Steps to Developing Principles, Values and Premises

“Why can’t people just do the right thing? I sometimes feel like I am babysitting!”

Authority & Authenticity- Do You Extract or Elicit?

Zig Ziglar is a master. His stories, his humor and his excitement in his voice carry over you as he weaves his life lessons.

Which are you, the Ant or the Grasshopper?

Do you live with the Pain of Regret or the Pain of Discipline?

When You Should Promote From Within And When You Should Hire From Outside The Company

Their company was on the rise. They had gone from $50 million in sales to $250 million in just 10 years. They had a softball team, a family picnic every year, and a Christmas party that was so loved by everyone that groups of people would get blocks of rooms and stay the night to party together. Almost every Thursday the entire office would end up at a local bar for a few drinks together. Most of the Senior Vice Presidents made it on Thursday night as well. And then the CEO decided to retire.

The Body of a Leader: What is Said Without You Speaking a Word

As an executive it is crucial that your body language always matches your words so people correctly interrupt what you said. If people have to chose between your body language and your words they will intuitively listen to their gut reaction to your body language, not your words.

The Tipping Point of a Great Leader

What does the movie Coach Carter, the book The Tipping Point, and great leadership have in common?

How much does good training really cost?

I just completed a weekend of training that cost me $13,000. Sounds like a lot right? I mean really, can’t I find the same information at a lower cost?

Can a garden produce top fruit if it is never weeded?

There is an eerie phenomenon going on in our society. It is starting at a tender age and creeping into the business world as well. If left alone, it will eventually lead us to mediocrity.

Creating a new inspiring mood

Leonardo da Vinci said “Sometimes genius does best when it works the least.”

Can you have high accountability if you don't have consequences?

"What should I do if the leaders in the company whom I need to make the decision come in late to the meeting?"

THE TECHNIQUE OF "CONSCIOUS PERCEPTION"

Do you want to be a better communicator? Use the powerful technique of "Conscious Perception" to help you.

Is Being a “Mind Reader” Part of Your Organization’s Job Descriptions?

Tired of second guessing and making incorrect assumptions in your organization and then being punished for it?

The 5 Cs of Change

Understanding how to coach, challenge and inspire others around us to change is so valuable in our daily lives, whether we are at work or play. You can have the most compelling personalities or the most extraordinary creative ideas driving the change – yet to no avail, without coupling them to the ‘5 Cs of change'. LiveChange’s 5 Cs of Change help any change to take place in our lives, be it in or out of the workplace – and you have to navigate all 5 steps in the right order….or you risk wasting your time. So what are the 5 Cs of Change?

Effective Listening Skills

"I listen fine. It's everyone else who has a problem." Unknown, unsuccessful, entrepreneur One of the cardinal rules of business is listen to your customers and most businesses hear their customers. However, only a few successfully interpret what their customers are saying. So the issue is not listening to "hear" but listening to "understand".

NLP Model of Communication--4 Pillars to Getting Desired Results

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is an approach to understanding and directing human experience, communication and behaviour. Find out what the 4 Pillars of NLP are and how knowing them can help you create the results you want in your life.

NLP--The Study of Excellence in Communication

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is an approach to understanding and directing human experience, communication and behaviour. Find out why NLP is important to know about, what it is and how knowing NLP can help you get what you want in life.

Making The Most Out Of Live Chat

Using live chat can be one of the most effective pieces of your website, but it is important that you make the most of it and use it to it's fullest advantage.

The Art of Asking Questions

Mastering the Art of Asking Questions is essential if you want to succeed. It's not simply a matter of getting in the habit of utilizing questions in your interactions with people. It's really about learning how to ask the right questions at the right time.

Are You Really Client-Centered?

There are many factors that go into building a successful business. However, one of the most important, yet one of the most ignored, is focusing on creating client satisfaction. Create a client-centered business and you'll ensure that your business gets only rave reviews, while setting it up for success.

4 Reasons Women Entrepreneurs Thrive

Ideals surrounding traditional careers are changing, if not completely dissolving. Today, women are taking control of their destiny and financial wealth by becoming entrepreneurs. With the focus shifting from Corporate America to Entrepreneur America, it is projected that small businesses will lift the U.S. out of the current recession into a new economy supported by entrepreneurs - not corporations. Let's talk about 4 Reasons Women Entrepreneurs will Thrive in the New Economy.

Hold Me Tight – Book Review

Business is all about relationships and yet many of us are novices when it comes to maintaining and deepening our relationships. Sue Johnson has written a terrific book about how healthy relationships function. Although it was written as a guide to repairing and maintaining healthy primary relationships, it can be used as a guide to many of our other relationships.

8 Ways You Can Become More Valuable to Everyone you Meet

It's one thing to talk about being the change you want to see in the world but quite another to put it into action. Where do you start? Just what is involved in becoming a better person and making a positive contribution?

Want Better Results? Have Better Conversations

The importance of having good communication skills

The Technology Trap for Talking Takes a Toll

Professional speaker, Eileen McDargh, reminds readers that face-to-face or telephone conversations are often the best choice when speaking with your peers or your clients.

Lessons in Leadership: What NOT to do...from a Canoe!

Eileen shares the wonderful lessons on how leaders can unknowingly screw up that she learned from her husband during a canoe trip on the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota.

Lack of Confidence Causes the Costly “Avoid & Tolerate” Leadership Style

Avoid and Tolerate leadership stems from a lack of confidence in one's ability to lead and communicate effectively. What do companies need to do to create stronger, more confident leaders?

Are Your Communication Strategies Really Engaging Employees?

Employee engagement is a shared understanding of the issues that affect the business, and that understanding leads to changes in employees' attitudes and behaviors... help employees truly understand the issues and make a meaningful connection between their jobs and those issues...

How To Get Change Management on the Project Management Agenda

Change is successful when it is seamlessly integrated into the way the organisation operates... the essential ingredient for any successful change program is management and leadership commitment to the proposed strategy.

Is the Baby Ugly?

Well of course all babies are beautiful and there are very few things more precious than a new life in this world. Yet the analogy of a baby to our work is very interesting to consider. It is difficult, if not impossible, to not see extreme beauty in what we helped create. When we work hard on a project or invest a significant amount of time on anything, we become blinded by the emotional investment we have already made. We lose our objectivity and in some cases "fall in love" with the ugly baby we have created.

Top Ten Things You Need To Know about Conflict Resolution

Most people view conflict as a bad thing. It's unpleasant, but rather than being bad, maybe we should be viewing it more positively.

What Your Boss Tells His Dog About You

Your boss may be an excellent leader and be totally transparent about his or her moments of frustration with you. Chances are you are not getting the entire set of information at all times. I have been fascinated with how you can tell if your boss is holding back information about you for some reason. This article will provide some ideas on how you can tell.

Indirect Communication and How It Undermines Trust in Organizations

One of the most destructive communication sins when it comes to matters of trust within an organization is "indirect communication". Do you know what that is and how to deal with it?

Do You Want to Train Your People or Do You Want to Fix the Problem?

Training is not a panacea for all the ills of an organization. Often companies consider training to solve their problems but sometimes it is just a bandaid fix which only lasts as long as the bandaid!

What People Say to Dogs!

Communication is the key to most success in todays challenging business environment. It doesn't have to be hard, in fact we can sometimes learn from the cartoon section of your local newspaper. Using one as an example, we will discuss four easy Rules of Communication to use when working with any prospect or customer. And come to think of it, the rules apply when communicating with anyone on any level.

LISTENING SKILLS IN COACHING

When is listening not really listening? Coaches need good listening skills but very often, find they fall short of being good listener. Find out the most important ingredient for listening success.

Great Leaders Master \"The 3 Levels of High-Performance Leadership Communication\"

Level 3 Leadership Communication is about connecting with the individuals on a team so that the leader understands what uniquely motivates each. Discover what Level 3 entails and what the major roadblock to its successful implementation is.

Focus on What You Want Rather Than What You Fear

We create our own realities by how we think. Take charge by refocusing on how you want things to be. Ground yourself in reality and focus on what you want to create rather than what you fear.

But I Sent an E-mail on That Last Week

I know many managers who believe if they send information out by e-mail they have communicated it. In many cases that assumption is not true. There are several reasons why information in an e-mail may not get the message across completely. This article explains some of them and offers suggestions.

Creating a Culture and Brand That Makes and Actually Keeps Brand Promises

A positive brand and cultural alignment is a powerful competitive strategy! Identify your market and building a strong base your clients and customers will notice and will reward your efforts...

Engage my emotions and I'll follow your lead

Creating engagement and change in people requires the ability to tap into their emotions, rather than presenting facts and figures. This article explains why this is an essential skill for todays leaders and how they can go about it.

Can You Really Quit Your Job?

Escape artists. Retirees. Dream weavers. Can you really quit your job and live the good life? It’s unlikely that you’ll want to quit just yet…without the right set of skills.

Assessing Our Ability to Influence Others

In our personal and leadership development workshops we often conduct a 'degrees of control' exercise. We ask participants to come up with examples in the following areas: 1. Direct Control; 2. Influence; and 3. No Control. While there's often lots of debate and not always full agreement, examples under No Control generally include things like the weather, the economy, natural disasters, freak accidents, and the like. Discussions about my degree of Direct Control usually boil down to just one thing - me. However, some autocratic people fool themselves into thinking they have direct control over their teams, kids, or people reporting to them. Many other people are quick to surrender to the Victimitis Virus and declare they have no control or even influence over the behavior of anyone else.

Authentic Communication: Dealing with Moose-on-the-Table

Imagine a team meeting around a conference-room table. They are reviewing progress and making plans. Charts are reviewed, slides are projected, documents are handed out, and calculations are made. Now imagine that standing in the middle of the conference-room table is a great big moose. No one says a word about the moose. Everyone carries on polite and earnest conversation as if this situation is very normal. Meanwhile the moose is eating papers at one end of the table while plopping out moose pies at the other end of the table splattering a few participants' business suits. Team members are passing papers around the moose's legs. They shift in their chairs to make eye contact with each other under the moose's belly or to see past it to the front of the room. Papers need to be pried out from underneath the moose's huge hoofs.

Addressing Differentiation: Can You Turn Today’s Tough Economy into Your Best Year?

Getting clients and building your base through referrals is essential in the insurance field. Yet, it is harder than ever to be able to do just that. Clients guard their time and seem more reluctant than ever to release their friend’s names even if you have done a fabulous job for them. As technology has taken over, many clients have turned to the Internet to scan companies and prices putting the major control of the situation in their hands, not yours. So can you turn this around?

Dealing with Difficult Discussions

Where are you when your best ideas come to you? If you are like 90% of all people you get your best ideas when driving, in the shower, in the morning, when falling to sleep or when working out. Notice what is absent… the office. Your best ideas don’t come to you at work!

Effective Networking: Personality Partnering

Let your networking be defined by your personality and life style, not by your work. Networking is no longer the “good ol’ boys” club nor is it appropriate to pass your business card out to everyone you meet. Networking is a much more savvy market today. Networking is not something you do; it is an art you perfect. True networking will increase your business and give you a solid base for years to come. So how do you network?

Five Steps to Being Assertive So You Get Things Done Without Being Aggressive

She looked at me and said, “I’ll do whatever it takes to make it right. What do you want me to do?” The right words but her hands were on her hips, her legs were spread apart and she was looking down her nose at me. Everything screamed, “Lady, you really are the problem. Just tell me what it takes to get rid of you.” And everything in my body tightened for battle.

FOUR COMMON SITUATIONS AND HOW TO USE OUTCOME THINKING® TO SOLVE THEM

First Situation HOW TO GET ANSWERS FROM AN UNRESPONSIVE PERSON VIA VOICE MAIL

How to Manage Perceptions so They Work For You not Against You

60 seconds is not a long time. Yet that is all it takes for a customer to gain a quick perception of your store and of you. This perception then becomes a reality to the customer. All in 60 seconds. It doesn't seem like much of a chance. Yet, if we know it only takes that amount of time, why don't we manage that time better?

OUTCOME THINKING®: Getting Results Without The Boxing Gloves

Your employee Jill, is often late to work and leaves early. Her work is behind and other employees in the department seem to always be picking up the slack for her. Jill is polite and friendly and, while she's at work, seems to be concentrating. She rarely socializes with anyone at work, preferring to keep to herself. How would you handle this situation?

Ten Tips for Working Remotely with Your Clients

A few years ago, I decided that if we wanted to grow our business, we’d have to look for clients outside of Ottawa. I am fortunate enough to work in a business where it is not always necessary for me to meet my clients in person, so I decided to take advantage of some of the great tools out there and try to have more remote meetings.

Are You Afraid of Speaking Your Mind?

Being able to speak your mind is one of the hardest tasks to achieve in your career. This article gives great tips on how to speak your mind 'correctly' in the business world.

4 Killer Tips for Building Effective Teams

People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and my team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. This article will help you do exactly that.

Customer Service is NOT a Department

The average attendee in my seminars states that they have had mostly "average" customer service experiences, a few "horrible" experiences and just one "fantastic" experience in the past month. Tony Alessandra calls these Moments of Mediocrity, Moments of Misery, and Moments of Magic. It has been my contention that every company has the ability to stand out by simply striving for the WOW experience that Alessandra calls a Moment of Magic. While I agree that the customer service professionals on your team do absolutely drive the customer experience, I would like to challenge those of us in the sales side of the business to take a closer look at our role in this process. Let’s break down that MAGIC into an easy-to-digest (and apply) acronym: Managing Expectations, Assessing Needs, Growth vs. Maintenance, Interest and Communication.

Seven Steps to a Drama-Free Office

This article helps you stop energy-draining drama in your office and redirect it toward productive endeavors. Using the step-by-step guide, you can end the infighting, water cooler talk, meaningless meetings, turf wars, etc. and get to a Drama-Free Office!

Communications and Safety Culture: I heard it through the grapevine.

A grapevine scenario could be triggered post-accident, if appropriate information (status of the injured, corrective action planning, etc) is not given to staff on a timely basis.

Vocal Grooming: Gossiping in the Workplace

While it is not realistically feasible to suppress gossip in the workplace, what can we do to mitigate its harmful effects? This article provides 9 helpful tips.

Accept Responsibility in Every Conversation - or Be a Victim

Our choice in every conversation, every day, is to accept responsibility for the result or be a victim. Accepting responsibility requires three skills: Planning Every Conversation, Speaking the other Person's Language, and Using Responsible Listening to Control the Conversation.

What Communication Habit(s) are you Addicted to?

Contrary to physical addiction, most communication habits fortunately can be eliminated by discovering their roots - and by mastering a new communication behavior.

Communication Strategies, Systems, and Skills

Communication is both a symptom and a cause of organization performance problems. Over the years, we've heard hundreds of managers use communication as a vague catchall for every type of organization and team problem imaginable. Generally, the root cause of many "communication problems" was deeper than that. Poorly designed organizations, ineffective processes, bureaucratic systems, unaligned rewards, unclear customer/partner focus, fuzzy visions, values, and purpose, unskilled team leaders and members, cluttered goals and priorities, low trust levels, and weak measurements and feedback loops all cause communication problems. Whenever a manager contacts us to solve a "communication problem," we always know we have some digging to do.

Great Leaders Master \"Level 2 Leadership Communication\" - Motivating the Team as a Team

Learn the 3 T's of Leadership Motivational Communication: what to say, when to say it and how to say it!

Education and Communications Pathways and Pitfalls

"Communications help to keep people feeling included in and connected to the organization...give people information, and do it again and again." - William Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change You need to establish the few core messages you want to communicate throughout your organization. Use any and every communication channel you can to review, remind, and reinforce them.

Level 1 Leadership Communication - Becoming the Leader You Want/Need to Be

You'd think a 26 year old would be thrilled with an early promotion to VP/GM, right? Find out why I wasn't and what I learned from the experience and what YOU can learn from my experience!

You Have to Get the Cows Out of the Creek First

The importance of recognizing that there is a problem to be dealt with and the three most important steps to take to solve the problem, resolve the issues behind the problem and avoid any recurrence of the problem

Communication

Steve Job's approach to product design

One Letter Can Make a Huge Difference

It is hard to believe that just a single letter in a word can change the entire meaning of a note. It shows how electronic communication can leave us vulnerable to miscommunication.

3 Reasons Under-Performing Employees In Your Company Are Not At Fault

Learn the three primary mistakes business leaders make that prevent employees from being engaged in their workplace and contributing at higher levels.

Why 44% of Today’s Leaders Are Unhappy With Their Employees’ Performance

In a survey whose results were released this week, 70% of those struggling business leaders also believe they need a new approach to how they communicate.

Working Hand-in-Hand: The Importance of People in Your Business

The foundation of every business is its people, and learning to maximize the strengths, ideas and contributions of those people is essential. Here is a breakdown of the ways each person – yourself, your clients and your support team – plays a certain, equally important role, and the benefits of recognizing and embracing those roles.

3 Easy Steps To Stop Spinning Your Wheels With Your Brand And Start Making Sales

The first step in creating a brand that converts is to get clear. Without clarity, your brand is going to be confusing and too complex for your ideal clients to really understand what you offer. And, without clarity, your marketing and promotion – and, even just telling other people what you do - will be way too hard. What does brand clarity mean? Getting clear about your brand means that you know exactly how to simply, succinctly and snappily talk about who you are in your business, what you do, and what makes you different from everyone else out there.

Getting to the Middle of it: Building a Business From its Core

Building the core of a business is essential, but not always easy to do. Helping an entrepreneur to understand her role as the core of her company is important, and here, we explain the reasons why building a business around the core – yourself – is so crucial. In fact, that strong core leads to empowering all other aspects of business!

Top 7 Ways to Prevent Unnecessary Stress at Work

Stress plays a critical role in life. It can help you accomplish work timely and accurately, promote healthy competition, and force you to evaluate problems and formulate creative solutions. It can also hamper your ability to effectively perform your job, thereby reducing your chances of promotion; interfere with your capacity to sustain relationships; and lead to physical illness. So, how do you find balance? Start by preventing or eliminating stress that is unnecessary.

Top 7 Ways to Prevent Unnecessary Stress at Work

Stress plays a critical role in life. It can help you accomplish work timely and accurately, promote healthy competition, and force you to evaluate problems and formulate creative solutions. It can also hamper your ability to effectively perform your job, thereby reducing your chances of promotion; interfere with your capacity to sustain relationships; and lead to physical illness. So, how do you find balance? Start by preventing or eliminating stress that is unnecessary.

Marketing By Method Versus Vision

The companies that make a real impact in the marketplace are not the ones that produce what people think they want, but rather the ones that produce what people will want but don’t know it. The ability to know what people will want before they know it exists is not a result of intensive market research, focus groups, or telemarketing surveys. Knowing what people want is based on understanding the human condition: the motivating factors that move people from disinterest to action. Steve Jobs was unrelenting in this philosophy and it resulted in changing the computer, music, movie, and telecommunication industries and more significantly how people live, work, communicate, relax, and in some ways, think.

Five Tips For Translation Project Manager

Over the last few years, a lot has been written and discussed about project management, including translation project management. Due to increased certification and conferences, project management has finally gained recognition as a profession. There are even qualifying bodies that validate or certify people as project managers. The (APM) and The Project Management Institute (PMI) are just two examples. The purpose of this blog is to cover what are, in my opinion, the five key elements to being an effective project manager and attaining effective translation project management goals

The difference between Translation Agency, Localization Services and LSP?

All of us have heard or read terms like translation agency, translation company, localization agency and language service provider (LSP). Many people new to translation and localization are sometimes confused by the jargon. This blog post will help clear up the confusion with the often interchangeable terms "translation" and "localization" as well as other terminology connected with the translation industry. Although translation and localization have distinct meanings, the term localization has gained popularity and is sometimes used in place of translation.

Crossing the Grand Canyon

One of the most important steps in growing a client base is keeping connected with your contacts on an individual level. All it takes is a follow-up call, which can be done at various times throughout your relationship with your client. However, you have to admit that many of you just do not make that call, therefore letting business slip through your fingers. This is what I refer to as "The Grand Canyon."

Tough Conversations:Talking Over What Really Matters

Typically we enter into difficult conversations prepared to explain our own view points. What is needed is to hold off until we explore as much as we can the other’s person’s perspective. Enter into the conversation with a learning objective. Don’t assume that you understand enough to explain things. Tough Conversations begin with hard listening.

Is the United States of Africa already here?

The proposal to officially create a United States of Africa may not have come at a better time than now when international trade is dictating the pace of development thanks to technological innovation. You may not have noticed but recent trends indicate that the United States of Africa is already here. Through various communication technologies, Africa has transformed into a large business unit.

How SKYPE has changed the way we communicate

Communication is the act of transmitting thoughts, opinions, ideas, and information (the message) from one person (the communicator) to another (the receiver). It is a process that requires a medium. Traditional communication medium Traditionally, business management communicated with employees through written memoranda. The boss would dictate or type the message, make copies of the memo and distribute the same to the employees. This day and age, however, a person reads, hears and sees so much that his mind is simply incapable of retaining every piece of information that it has received. Among the information that a human being receives, written messages have the least chance of being retained. This means that written memos can be very ineffective communication media.

Take Off the Blinders! Coaching Based on Perceptual Style

Coaches know better than anyone that different people really do see the world differently. But not many of them realize that those differences in perception are, in fact, innate – and that understanding these deep-seated differences is the key to creating a real impact in clients’ lives.

How to Manage a Virtual Office

Are you managing your office away from the office? Virtual offices are becoming more regular as technology and the Internet are creating new business models. The following offers insight on how to manage a virtual office.

How to Manage a Virtual Office

Are you managing your office away from the office? Virtual offices are becoming more regular as technology and the Internet are creating new business models. The following offers insight on how to manage a virtual office.

Get Effective Communicaton Results in 7 Steps

In order to enjoy an agreeable business and personal discussion, the communication level has to be excellent. How does one communicate effectively? Simply put, say what you mean, say it clearly, and say it with respect.

How to Bullet-proof Your Salon or Spa during Downturns

When economic times are tough salon and spa owners need to use strategies to not only reduce costs and save money but also to learn ways to improve business operations. This article will help all salon and spa owners to streamline their business.

Online PR: Old wine in new bottles

The practice of public relations has always been about one thing: communicate a message persuasively to achieve a desired result. New techniques and media have come and gone, but the principles have remained the same. Simple, open and timely communication of a message designed to enhance and ensure the success of an organization.

A Plea to my Publisher

Sometimes life just happens. I have a book manuscript due on February 1st. In light of that looming date, I just sent this note to my publisher:

Twelve Tips For Strategic Business Communications According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach

Have you ever thought about the millions, no lets make that billions, of communications that take place each day in the world of business? We have e-mail, IMs, cell phones, PDAs, iphones, direct face-to-face communications in meetings, and on and on and on. Communication is taking up more and more of our time as we conduct business. So, having said that, let me ask you if you believe we really are using our time and communication strategically? And are we really thinking strategically about the most effective forms of communication for each specific situation? Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach believes you gain a significant strategic advantage in your business when you think more and act more strategically with your business communications. Here are twelve (12) tips for strategic communications in your business.

Tell the Truth to Get Through Unhappy Times

Bad things happen even in the best organizations. What do you do when things go wrong? Be truthful. It will be easier to recover from a setback than from a loss of trust in leadership.

Assertiveness

Whether one is passive or aggressive assertiveness is a great tool.

!@#$%^&*! HUH? WHAT DID YOU MEAN?

How hard can it be to say what you mean? It sounds easy but in fact is quite challenging.

You’re never too old to learn and grow (I hope!)

Are you being stretched outside your comfort zone? Change in the workplace – and in life – is inevitable. Embrace it and learn from it.

Is Your Open Door Policy Killing You?

What is your Open Door policy? Does it provide time to think, strategize, design and plan? Thinking requires uninterrupted time. Boundaries must be set to create space for uninterrupted strategy time, while leaving room for Open Door conversations.

Down Time is Productive Time

Operating at high intensity for long periods of time leads to burnout. Down time is crucial to employee morale and productivity. Make sure your team has the opportunity to refresh and renew between periods of high activity.

Flawed Marketing Strategy Destroys Relationships Instead of Building Them

My business is a marketing and B2B service company. The web site had referred me to a client who needed at 'pest control company' in San Francisco and recommended that I call the potential client immediately to offer my services and give a quote. The interesting thing is that I NEVER signed up for this site - but was added as a member (without my knowledge) by someone likely harvesting names from the internet or researching and locating small businesses.

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