Rituals of Success
When you travel frequently, your time home with your family becomes that much more important. Recently, my wife and I realized that if we didn’t have a good greeting at the airport, then our time together would be off as well. Not bad, just off. So we decided to create a ritual. I put together a playlist of songs that she and I both like and put them on our respective iPods. When the airplane touched down, I texted her to start her playlist and I started mine. That way we were both listening to the same songs and we...
read morePowerful Messages Connect the Dots
You may recall when you were a kid or when playing with your kids the activity of connect the dots. The fun of this game is that as you connect the dots, assuming you do it correctly, the dots come together to reveal a bigger picture. The same thing goes for communication. In fact, if you want people to really “get” what it is you’re communicating, you have to connect the dots. People only understand ideas in relation to ideas they already have. All memory and knowledge is built this way. When we were young, we...
read moreAn easy way to spot nonverbal communication in your audience
Have you ever had a meeting with someone or attend a presentation in which it felt like it wouldn’t matter if you weren’t there. Even if you got up and left, they would still be doing their thing, talking away. That is clearly a one-sided form of communication and they’re clealry not paying attention to you: the customer (listener). And that is a big mistake. To be a good communicator, you have to listen to your audience. I know it sounds backwards but it is true. Yes, you are speaking with your audience but you...
read moreBetter Late Than Never
The best form of customer service is getting it right the first time. But as we know, that doesn’t always happen. In doing training and consulting, I get to fly all over the world. And as unbelievable as it may be, when it comes to commercial travel, sometimes things don’t go as planned. Shocking…I know. But on this particular occasion, I had to call Delta customer service to get an itinerary issue resolved. I called after hours and worked with a representative for about an hour. At the end of that time, she informs me that...
read moreThe “Suck” in Success
Certainly success is a good thing. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t have negative consequences. (Is that a triple negative?) Anyways. In the real world, success is not always clear cut. Could we have been more successful? How might our current success impact future success? What tradeoffs did we make? In the academic world, success can easily be evaluated based on grades. I sometimes teach university classes and when I do I am always fascinated by how students evaluate their success and respond to feedback about their...
read moreWhat does nonverbal communication from your audience mean?
Even if you’re not a professional speaker, you may have to make a presentation from time to time. Whether to your company’s Board, your boss, or even your customer. A lot of times we get so caught up in what we want to say that we overlook an the most important part: the audience. Think about it. Someone crosses their arms and leans back during your presentation. Does this mean that they don’t like what you just said, don’t like you personally or that they’re just cold? The truth is, you don’t know...
read moreOptions: Honing In or Running Out
Growing up, I was always a fan of options…choices. Clearly having more choices gives you more options and more chances of accomplishing your goal. But it has become clear that not everyone views options in the same way. I was recently speaking with a friend of mine who’s trying to start a family with the help of modern medicine. Fortunately, they’re both in good health and have several options from which to choose. They started pursuing their first option last month and blood work revealed that it wasn’t working so they...
read moreMotivating people at work
“Either you made a mistake or you don’t know what you’re doing. Which one is it?” One of my friends found himself on the receiving end of this question during a monthly financial meeting with the CEO, his boss, his colleagues and some of his direct reports. How do you think he felt after this incident? As you know, by now, properly delivered feedback is a great way to help keep your workforce motivated. In addition to what you say while giving feedback, how you choose to deliver feedback is also important. First...
read moreWill I succeed vs. I will succeed
“Will I?” or “I will.” Which one seems stronger. At first glance, the “I will” has a much stronger stance. It is solid. Stronger or not, the real question is, “Which statement produces better results?” Now it is not often that new ways to approach goal setting make their way onto the scene, but psychologist Ibrahim Senay has done just that. In his research, Senay studied the impact of self-talk on goal attainment in a variety of contexts. One of his goals was to compare the difference...
read moreFail Your Way to Success
While we all want success, sometimes the best path to success is through failure. Tom Peters popularized the idea of “Fail. Forward. Fast.” While we understand this on an intellectual basis, where it really becomes valuable is in creating a culture that values and rewards risk taking. There is no doubt that success is great but the problem with success is that we become emotionally invested in the particular way that we succeeded. But we all know that what worked yesterday, may not work today, and is unlikely to work...
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