Do you ask enough questions?

“Across three studies of live dyadic conversations, we identify a robust and consistent relationship between question-asking and liking: people who ask more questions are better liked by their conversation partners.”

The above vignette is from a research article in The Journal of Personal and Social Psychology “It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask: Question Asking Increases Liking”

How well do you ask questions?

Do you ask follow-up questions?

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Impactful quotations to improve how you communicate

Last year a client, in a Delivering memorable messages program, said he wanted to receive the various quotations I had shared in the program.

Here are some of the quotes** I share in my work with clients:

  • Reduce the speed at which you gesture to increase your level of authority.
  • The better you communicate the more intelligent you appear (James Clear).
  • The substance of one’s remarks becomes irrelevant if one cannot say them effortlessly.
  • There is a hidden battle for dominance waged in almost every conversation – and the way we modulate the lower frequencies of our voices shows who’s on top.
  • Seniority is signalled by response time.
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How to kick-start your presentation

Recently I heard a great tip on how to kick-start a presentation.

Of course, this tip will be bolstered if you do the following:

  • Have deeply understood your audience.
  • Craft a simple key message(s) that you wanted the audience to retain and/or act upon.
  • Craft a hook to listen and craft a structure for the presentation.
  • Project energy and certainty through your facial expression, body language, gesture, voice and speaking cadence
  • For Q&A, nod engagingly as the question is being asked, take time to form a response and never losing your cool.

Here’s the tip.

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Compulsory reading for Start-ups

Do you lie about closing deals with big-name clients?

Do you paint a picture that is rosy and perfect?

Do you inflate your financial projections?

These are some questions Walta Kazzi – 2014 BRW Rich Young Lister – maintains are common mistakes Start-up founders make in fund raising, shared in his excellent post, Start-up fundraising – Lessons we learnt, the dos, don’t, how to, tips and examples.

HERE are other points from the post that resonated with me:

– Your mindset matters. This reminded me of the quote of the legendary author of the Little Red Book of Selling, Jeffrey Gitomer…If you are not on fire, you’ll lose to someone who is.

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How accurate is your perception of yourself?

Ten plus years ago I asked a group of my business friends the following question.

Here’s the question:

How do I fool myself by holding a perception that is greater or lesser that reality?

Only one friend friend responded – but his responses were invaluable.

My view is, that the syntax of the question was a key to prompting my friend to respond and providing great feedback.

By the way one of the valuable pieces of feedback was…

“Michael you come across as a bit of a know-it-all.”

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