Category: Communication Skills

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Communication Skills

Thinking on Your Feet

Article Contributed by The Balanced WorkLife Company

You’re in the weekly department meeting when Donna, VP of Finance asks you a question about the effectiveness of the marketing event that has come in over budget, and she wants an immediate answer. You’ve got an answer, that’s not the problem; often the problem is how to articulate the answer logically, without rambling; to ensure you look in complete control.

Use PREPO to organize your thoughts quickly and concisely.

POINT. First, make your point. This is your major statement and should cover only one idea.

“Actually Donna, I believe the event was extremely well received and well worth the cost.”

REASON. Next, give your reason for making the point. By answering the question, “Why do you say that?” you can expand on your first statement.

“I say that because I heard a number of both prospects and customers comment on how it was both entertaining and informative and it gave them a new perspective of our company.”

EVIDENCE. Third, offer supporting information. You might include data, demographics and examples that reinforce your point. Evidence should be specific—it’s where the proof lies.

“For example, John Stanton, CEO of ABC Furniture, said _______. In addition, the preliminary results from the post-event survey are indicating that we’ve generated at least 20 very promising leads which we’ve turned over to sales who are following them up as we speak.”

POINT. Now make your point again. Good evidence will lead you directly back to your main point. Use the same words, or better yet, rephrase your point but don’t change your content or attitude.

“So, I believe that when the dust settles, the investment we made in this event will have an extremely good ROI and we will want to consider running it again.”

OUTCOME. This is a quick, action oriented wrap-up. Use it to state an action you’ll take, something for your audience to do or simply to balance and close your argument.

“If you can get me the final costs associated with the event, I will have an ROI report for you in terms of the leads closed by the end of the quarter.”

This technique, if practiced, is an excellent way to handle questions from an audience or meeting participants. It is also extremely useful when presenting a new or potentially controversial idea to any group.

About the Author

The Balanced WorkLife Company is dedicated to helping the best get better while they enjoy the journey. Our programs give you access to tools and methodologies that allow you to break through the barriers and achieve your goals while also helping you enjoy a balance between and within your job, your career and your personal life. Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting your career, the Balanced WorkLife Company can help you achieve your ultimate potential. To learn more, visit www.balancedworklife.com and download our free report “The 16 Most Common Networking Mistakes to Avoid,” which is jam-packed with information to help you develop and build long-lasting business and social relationships.

Categories
Communication Skills

Business Leaders: Here’s A Simple Communication Strategy to Improve Employee Performance

In a recent leadership workshop participants were asked to share all the things their peers, subordinates and bosses do that drive them crazy and make their jobs more difficult. Two full flip-chart pages were filled.

Next, the same group of participants was asked to identify the things they wish they would do instead. There was dead silence for what seemed liked an eternity.

It seems to be human nature to focus on the things we don’t want, the undesirable behaviors that we wish others would refrain from engaging in.

Parents are notorious for using this communication style when attempting to obtain behavior changes from their children, and many end up stressed and frustrated by their lack of success.

Instead, parents and business leaders must focus on and consistently ask for the specific desirable behavior they would prefer to occur.

Although leading employees in a business or non-profit is not ‘parenting,’ when trying to influence the behaviors of direct reports and subordinates, it is still vital to focus on desirable outcomes. This includes both focus on goals for the organization and even more importantly focusing on desirable behaviors of our team members.

Most people can articulate quickly and clearly the behaviors that drive them crazy. The behaviors they wish their co-workers, bosses, significant others or children would stop doing. There seems to be no end to the list of these undesirable behaviors.

There are three problems with this approach.

1. It focuses everyone’s energy on the behavior that is undesirable and wherever your focus goes, that thing grows.

2. It lacks specificity and asks the person being told what “not to do” to mind-read and guess as to the specific desirable action(s). For the individual it’s a trial and error approach until they figure out through environmental feedback the acceptable behavior.

3. There is no positive reinforcement when an employee does engage in the desirable behavior so it can be repeated. Many leaders wrongly believe that if someone is doing things right they don’t need to comment since the individual is doing things correctly. They assume they only need to address and correct undesirable behavior so that’s where the focus and comments go. This can be a very demoralizing approach for the subordinate.

Whenever providing feedback to request a change in behavior to achieve greater, more positive results, it is vital to communicate with a focus on the new, desirable behaviors and actions.

Here is a three-step exercise to help you transform any list of undesirable behavior into the preferred desirable behavior:

1. On a sheet of paper draw a line straight down the center of the page, making two columns. Label the left column “Undesirable Behaviors.” Label the right column “Desirable Behaviors.”

2. In the left column write a list of the things that you wish people would stop doing, all the undesirable behaviors that drive you crazy.

3. In right hand column write the alternative desirable behavior you would prefer to have people engage in. Ask yourself “what do I wish they would do instead?” There must be at least one alternative desirable behavior for each undesirable in the left hand column.

When you focus on desirable behavior it gives you something measureable. It is easier to judge if the desirable behavior was fulfilled. Trying to prove a negative, that something you didn’t want to happen didn’t happen, is much more challenging, it’s subjective and can be open to debate.

Additionally, catch people doing things right. Make specific comments regarding what you liked about the actions an employee took to complete a project or task. Tell them you’d like to see more of that type of behavior. This will reinforce positive behavior and make it more likely it will be repeated.

Failure to focus on desirable behaviors when communicating is just one of “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication.” If you or other leaders in your organization are struggling to get greater results from your personnel at any level, the problem can be just one of two things, either habits of communication or how performance is managed throughout the organization.

For other issues of leadership communication you may want to visit www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com and get a free special report “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” that will show you how to fix these sins, communicate like a champion and build a championship organization.

About the Author:

Skip Weisman works with organizational leaders to improve personnel, productivity and profits by helping them “Create a Champion Organization,” now you can get his latest white paper “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” at www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com this will help your organization communicate effectively and take action with commitment towards a shared compelling vision.

Categories
Communication Skills

How Communicating With a Lack of Specificity is Sabotaging Results in Your Organization

Article Contributed by Skip Weisman

Communication is a catchall phrase for things that go wrong in companies and relationships. Unfortunately, the concept is too ambiguous to do anything constructive to fix it.

There are seven communication mistakes that lead to mis-understandings, and cause conflicts between co-workers, and bosses and their subordinates, which lead to low morale and toxic work environments.

They are called the “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication.” This article will address the least understood and most common of these leadership communication sins, a “lack of specificity.”

The “Law of Specificity” states, “the level to which communication lacks specificity is the level to which individuals are required to become mind readers, guess and assume. We all know what happens we assumptions are made.

Three of the most common areas for non-specific communication, which will be addressed in this article, are:

  1. Lack of Specific Details
  2. Lack of Specific Direction
  3. Lack of Specific Meaning

Lack of Specific Details

This is one of the most regularly violated. It’s a simple as leaving out dates, times, and locations, etc. when making a request. Even when one believes they are being specific, often times they are not.
A recent client, who has embraced adding specificity to his communication, and has effectively integrated this strategy into his senior leadership team’s culture, sent me this e-mail recently:

“I will be in the office working on two projects Thursday and Friday. I can take a break to speak with you, though. To be specific, can you call me at 11:30am?”

He thought he was being specific. You may, or should notice, that although he was specific regarding the “time” he wanted a tele-coaching session, he forgot that he gave me two days to choose from.
This type of communication happens all the time. Double check your communication for specificity and ask for clarification when you feel you need it.

Lack of Specific Direction

Another client, a CEO, had a habit of moving things off his desk by putting them in his office manager’s in-basket. Because of his position, the office manager assumed that if he was giving her something “it must be important.”

Every time she would immediately stop what she was doing to work on the latest thing he had given her.
This seems like a very proactive assistant getting things done. The challenge is that it was causing stress and frustration for the office manager, as it prevented her from accomplishing her other priorities.

The problem was solved in 30-seconds by asking the CEO if everything he put in her in-box was an urgent priority requiring immediate attention. He said, “no,” that he was just trying to get stuff off his desk.

Moving forward the CEO began putting notes on items identifying the required level of urgency. This allowed the office manager to prioritize and schedule those items around her work without having to assume and mind-read.

Lack of Specific Meaning

A wife recently accused her husband of leaving the front door to their home “open” when he came home from appointments during the day. Her meaning for the word “open,” as it pertained to the front door of the home, and the husband’s meaning were found to be very different.

Upon further discussion it was learned the wife meant the door was not “locked” so as to seal the door to keep the cold winter air from seeping through the weather stripping. The husband’s meaning for an “open” front door was that the latch was not shut and the door was truly open so one could see outside.

Words have different meanings to different people in different contexts. Often times we assume the other person has our same point of reference. That is often not the case, causing misunderstandings and trust to break down.

A lack of specificity is just one of seven communication mistakes organizational leaders are making when interacting with their peers, direct reports and those they answer to such as shareholders and board members.

About the Author

Skip Weisman of Weisman Success Resources, Inc. of Poughkeepsie, NY (www.WeismanSuccessResources.com) works with organizational leaders to improve personnel, productivity and profits by helping them “Create a Champion Organization,” one that communicates effectively and takes action with commitment towards a shared compelling vision. His latest White Paper Report is “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” available free at www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com

Categories
Communication Skills

Negotiation Checklist to Ensure a Successful Outcome

1.  Never negotiate with anyone who is not qualified to negotiate. If in doubt, ask your contact how they’ve handled a similar type of negotiating in the past.  Listen for names, dates and other details that will provide clues as to their level of responsibility.

2.  Never put things into writing unless you’re prepared to live with them. Once an item is put into writing, it becomes an anchor either for you or the customer. This is especially critical when negotiating with a professional buyer who will use anything put into writing as leverage.

3.  Always have room to give something the other person will deem as a perceived benefit. This is why it is so important to sell first and negotiate second. By selling first, you have the opportunity to ask questions and validate the key benefits for which the customer is looking.  During the negotiation phase, a customer will attempt to mask the benefits they desire, making it harder to determine exactly what the customer wants.

4.  Know when to walk away and be confident in doing so. To execute this requires the walk away point being shared in advance with others to ensure accountability is in place if and when this tactic has to be used.

5.  Know at least 5 things the other person wants that you can offer. Again, this is why it is so important to sell first and negotiate second. By doing so, it will be possible to know in advance of the negotiation phase what can be offered.

6.  Know at least 5 things you can say that will discount what the other person is offering (price not included). Never negotiate on price. Negotiate using other items, such as technical performance, operational efficiencies, etc. that will provide the leverage needed to avoid a price-oriented discussion.

7.  Always treat the other person with respect and dignity. Negotiate over things and services, not personal matters.  Never allow the negotiation to become personal in nature. This even applies to those situations where a close personal relationship may exist.  A quick rule to keep in mind:  If the relationship is so good, then why is anything being negotiated anyway?   If a negotiation does become personal in nature, do not hesitate to step away and arrange a follow-up time to resume negotiating.

8.  Never enter a negotiating process until both sides are clear on what is being negotiated. At the start of a negotiation session, it is appropriate to state exactly what is up for discussion. By doing this up front, it’s possible to avoid a waste of time and, more importantly, inadvertently negotiate things that don’t need to be discussed.

9.  Use the sell/buy approach first. Only move to a negotiating phase if you are unsuccessful closing the sale first.  Minimally, no negotiating should begin until the customer has rejected the close at least twice and the customer has provided you with at least one buying signal.

10.  Never offer up options until after you’re deadlocked on price and the customer has provided you with additional information. This includes providing you with a buying signal and credible benefits as to what the customer is looking for.

11.  Always put the negotiated outcome in writing immediately. Do not leave issues open for further discussion.  The person who puts the outcomes in writing first wins by being able to position things in the manner they want them to be.  Putting things into writing first also provides the opportunity to make one final modification with minimal risk.

12.  Upon reaching an agreement, thank the other party, but do not celebrate! Celebrating the outcome of a negotiation sends the signal to the other party that they have been taken advantage of. Sending this signal will jeopardize the long-term potential of the relationship.
About the Author:

Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” is a sales expert who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability.  For more information, to receive a free weekly email sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit www.TheSalesHunter.com. You can also follow him on www.Twitter.com (TheSalesHunter), on www.LinkedIn.com (Mark Hunter), and on his Facebook Fan Page, www.facebook.com/TheSalesHunter.

Categories
Communication Skills

When Everyone Is Right, Who’s Wrong? Uncovering the Mystery of Perceptual Styles

When%20Everyone%20Is%20Right%2C%20Who%27s%20Wrong%20Uncovering%20the%20Mystery%20of%20Perceptual%20Styles.jpg
Each of us perceives the world differently, not only because of differing perceptual styles, but also because of the various circumstances, goals, aspirations, ages and lifestyles we have. These individual experiences create different realities, each of which represents only part of the whole picture.
Recently a friend of mine who runs a retail business asked me to look over an email exchange that he had with one of his suppliers. Tom had produced a marketing campaign that the supplier felt was an attack on his products. Tom wanted me to analyze the interaction and tell him where the supplier had gone wrong in his thinking.
What’s interesting is that as soon as I started reading the correspondence, it was clear to me that each of them had a different point of view – and each of them was defending his own position without giving any weight to the other’s perspective. And, the really funny thing was, both viewpoints were perfectly valid.
So, who was right and who was wrong?
The answer is that both were right and both were wrong. Both were right about the points of view they were defending, however both were mistaken in thinking that theirs was the only legitimate point of view.
Since we only have access to what we perceive, we tend to defend our perception as the Truth (with a capital T), and overlook the ways other people see the situation. The way we see it is “right” and the way others see it is “wrong.” Tom was defending his view of the Big Picture and his inability to see things from the supplier’s perspective. This is what caused the miscommunication and conflict to arise.
It can be important to explain your perspective to someone else as a way to reach agreement. But trying to explain your point of view so that they will see things “correctly” rarely, if ever, leads to a positive outcome. Accepting that different views represent different aspects of the truth and that all contribute to a complete understanding is the way out of such “unsolvable” conflicts.
Try asking yourself the following questions when thinking back to the last disagreement you had.
* Who is that person, and how often do disagreements occur?
* As you think back, what was the major point of disagreement?
* Now that you are out of the heat of the moment, where can you find validity in the other’s point of view?
* What evidence can you see of how that person might not have been able to understand your point of view?
Stretching your understanding of different points of view is key to improving communication and limiting conflict with others. Limiting conflict with others will give you more time for constructive interaction and decrease the stress in your life.
About the Author:
Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley. He’s the co-founder of Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents. For more information, visit www.vrft.com.