Once a person convinces himself/herself of something, the voice, face and body ‘play along’. This is what I saw and heard demonstrated, by Craig Thomson, when he delivered his speech in Federal Parliament last week.Continue reading
How to give feedback – proven ways
‘There is no failure – only feedback and learning opportunities’. This is a key ‘frame’ around my sales presentation and speech communication work. People openly give each other feedback about the messages they deliver, and about how they speak and present those messages.Continue reading
Craig Thomson victim performance
An easy way to understand what you’re clients think of you
Imagine this scenario. At a restaurant, a client of yours is having lunch with another person. You happen to be at the same restaurant and briefly drop by your client’s table to say ‘hi’. Then you go on your way. Once you’ve left, the other person asks your client, “What does he/she do?”Continue reading
A concise definition of what the best leaders do
“The best and most memorable leaders create the conditions for people to be encouraged, challenged and supported, so they can become stronger and more capable in what they do.” Meg Wheatley, Management philosopher.Continue reading
Learn the characteristics of an emphatic voice tone
Whether you’re negotiating your own salary, or you’re the boss determining what salary to give a person, a consistent, emphatic tone conveying confidence is critical. These are the results of an experiment conducted by Jared Curhan et others, quoted in The science of subtle signals, Mark Buchanan, Strategy+Business, Autumn 2007/ Issue 48. http://www.strategy-business.com/article/07307?gko=4a97aContinue reading
Why you need to learn with a process – not an event
“Historically, a great deal of leadership development has focused on the importance of an event. This event could be a training program, motivational speech, or an offsite executive meeting. The experience of the eight companies we studied indicates that real leadership development involves a process that occurs over time, not an inspiration or transformation that occurs in a meeting”.Continue reading
A great question to counter your overconfidence
Harry Beckwith in his landmark book Selling the Invisible (Thomson Texere, 2001) comments on the Overconfidence bias. From pages 74-75 of the book I’ll quote and paraphrase him:
“On answers of which people say they are totally – 100 percent – certain they are right only 85 percent of the time. In other words, 15 percent of the time you think you are absolutely certain you are absolutely wrong.Continue reading
Do you make any of these first impression mistakes
It is said that ‘whatever can be seen or heard – will be seen or heard.’ How you speak, listen and present yourself and how you present your products and services might be excellent, but if the ‘customer’ perceives you as sub-par, even slightly, in regard to any of the below points, you might be giving your ‘competitors’ an edge.Continue reading
How to give your audience a controlled stretch break
If you conduct or attend meetings, you know that you remain seated for too long at one stretch, before taking a break. (for most of you).
This can cause you and others in a meeting to lose focus and listen and interact less effectively. But if you have too many breaks you know you won’t get through the meeting agenda items.
One technique that you can use for more productive meetings is a ‘controlled stretch-break’.Continue reading