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Monday, October 8, 2007
First Impressions – blink
I am reading the book “blink” by Malcolm Gladwell and he starts by talking about how people draw conclusions about other people in the first few moments of meeting.
First impressions, we’ve heard it all before: be ready, be prepared, this is a lasting impression, etc. But how can how be proactive about how you project your first impression? Think first. How you act is how you think. Before you meet that person for the first time think about how you feel about that person (it should be positive if you are trying to make a sale), think about what you would like from the encounter (good dialogue, agreement to negotiate, etc.), and think through the process. When you actually meet this person it may or may not go as you constructed in your head, but your attitude will shine through as they draw a conclusion about you in these first few moments.
Use this technique for any first meeting – how you act is how you think – what are you thinking about the people you are meeting?
First impressions, we’ve heard it all before: be ready, be prepared, this is a lasting impression, etc. But how can how be proactive about how you project your first impression? Think first. How you act is how you think. Before you meet that person for the first time think about how you feel about that person (it should be positive if you are trying to make a sale), think about what you would like from the encounter (good dialogue, agreement to negotiate, etc.), and think through the process. When you actually meet this person it may or may not go as you constructed in your head, but your attitude will shine through as they draw a conclusion about you in these first few moments.
Use this technique for any first meeting – how you act is how you think – what are you thinking about the people you are meeting?
Friday, October 5, 2007
Be courageous
The quality of your mind or spirit makes you courageous. (definition adapted from dictionary.com ) I want to draw your attention to the fact that it doesn’t say you are not scared or nervous or frightened – it simply talks about the quality of your mind or spirit.
A previous blog talked about leaders walking the unknown path…this takes courage. Are you a leader? Do you know the quality of your mind or spirit?
What types of characteristics make up this quality? Post a comment and let me know what you think.
Here are some of the qualities I think make up a courageous person:
-Integrity
-Strength of conviction
-Optimism
-Well grounded beliefs
A previous blog talked about leaders walking the unknown path…this takes courage. Are you a leader? Do you know the quality of your mind or spirit?
What types of characteristics make up this quality? Post a comment and let me know what you think.
Here are some of the qualities I think make up a courageous person:
-Integrity
-Strength of conviction
-Optimism
-Well grounded beliefs
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Hone Your Instincts
I was teaching a course the other day that involved decision making techniques. It turned out that the folks in the class with years of experience felt secure about making instinctual decisions. And, it turned out, that those faced with the same decisions for the first time question their ability to make instinctual decisions.
I was advocating avoiding making instinctual decisions. However, I do believe in them and they can serve a leader very well if you understand where this decision making process is coming from.
An instinctual decision, sometimes called a gut decision, comes from some emotional side of you in a rational world. It is a very rapid process and if you trust your instincts you can make quick decisions. The peril is that these are not reliable decisions. Sometimes it can be a good decision and sometimes a bad decision. So how do improve your odds at making a good instinctual decision?
Listen, read, and learn. The more you understand your subject matter the better you can determine what works and what doesn’t work. Figure out how your experience generates common threads on different subjects. Is there a way that dealing with your kids is similar to dealing with your co-workers? These common threads create behavior patterns in your mind that become tools for you to use to make decisions. Read about other people’s experiences, read the newspaper, internet postings, watch tv, read a book, or read a magazine – just something everyday. Listen to the story and think about what worked and what didn’t work? Someone else has made a mistake and now they are sharing it, learn from it and grow.
How does this help? You are building a toolset in your mind of different patterns so when a new experience comes up it is likely you are already familiar with some of the elements. You appear to make a quick and rapid instinctual decision but that is only possible because you did your work to develop your mental toolsets.
If you make a bad decision you can go back and take a look at the information that went in to the decision making process and compare it to your toolset. Learn from your experience and next time you will likely get better results.
I was advocating avoiding making instinctual decisions. However, I do believe in them and they can serve a leader very well if you understand where this decision making process is coming from.
An instinctual decision, sometimes called a gut decision, comes from some emotional side of you in a rational world. It is a very rapid process and if you trust your instincts you can make quick decisions. The peril is that these are not reliable decisions. Sometimes it can be a good decision and sometimes a bad decision. So how do improve your odds at making a good instinctual decision?
Listen, read, and learn. The more you understand your subject matter the better you can determine what works and what doesn’t work. Figure out how your experience generates common threads on different subjects. Is there a way that dealing with your kids is similar to dealing with your co-workers? These common threads create behavior patterns in your mind that become tools for you to use to make decisions. Read about other people’s experiences, read the newspaper, internet postings, watch tv, read a book, or read a magazine – just something everyday. Listen to the story and think about what worked and what didn’t work? Someone else has made a mistake and now they are sharing it, learn from it and grow.
How does this help? You are building a toolset in your mind of different patterns so when a new experience comes up it is likely you are already familiar with some of the elements. You appear to make a quick and rapid instinctual decision but that is only possible because you did your work to develop your mental toolsets.
If you make a bad decision you can go back and take a look at the information that went in to the decision making process and compare it to your toolset. Learn from your experience and next time you will likely get better results.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Office Politics Getting You Down
Some days it seems as if there are so many agendas and side deals going on that no productive work can get done. Office politics will happen as long as there are people working together. Many times the politics are destructive but sometimes it can create productive synergies.
Today I was involved with a bunch of different agencies designed to help out business development in the local community. All the parties recognize that they need to work together to make the town stronger yet something is holding them from collaboration.
A friend of mine is working with a project team that is supposed to have the best and brightest working to a common goal. Instead it is slow going and it seems to be a long way from true collaboration.
Why does this happen? The answer is easy, actually, there is no trust. The tough part is what to do about it. This is the toughest part because the first person to start a trusting relationship is you. You need to learn to recognize how your communications can lead to mistrust. And you must learn how to be transparent in your goals.
Will politics ever go away? No. But trusting each other can help make the politics less frustrating and maybe even lead us to high performance teams.
Be strong. Be transparent.
Today I was involved with a bunch of different agencies designed to help out business development in the local community. All the parties recognize that they need to work together to make the town stronger yet something is holding them from collaboration.
A friend of mine is working with a project team that is supposed to have the best and brightest working to a common goal. Instead it is slow going and it seems to be a long way from true collaboration.
Why does this happen? The answer is easy, actually, there is no trust. The tough part is what to do about it. This is the toughest part because the first person to start a trusting relationship is you. You need to learn to recognize how your communications can lead to mistrust. And you must learn how to be transparent in your goals.
Will politics ever go away? No. But trusting each other can help make the politics less frustrating and maybe even lead us to high performance teams.
Be strong. Be transparent.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Effective Writing – What’s the point?
This article provides you insight into the most important part of writing your business document to get the action you desire. If you have been following the “effective writing” threads you know that you are writing a business document to guide the reader into taking action. You are writing the document to their viewpoint and you are including only enough information to support the reader’s decision to take action. The next step is crafting a single statement that tells the reader exactly what to expect from your document.
Purpose
Your document must serve a purpose and that purpose needs to be communicated clearly and succinctly. As an example I began this blog with a purpose statement which states for your action (writing a business document) I will give you (reader) a tool to be more effective (my objective).
This is the most important step in wiring and is the key step to link your thought process to your writing process. The purpose statement is the very first sentence in your business document. It communicates the message to the reader that you are certain about the action this document is meant to influence. It communicates to the reader that you are empathetic to their viewpoint. It communicates that you are not going to waste their time. In the very first sentence you can build credibility and improve the likelihood the reader will read the entire document. The purpose statement tells them why it is important.
Imagine something simple like an email – the first sentence in your email to a colleague is crafted as a purpose statement. “The email contains the new business proposal for your review and comment by Thursday at noon so that we can submit this to production on Monday.” What does this do for me? It tells me that my opinion and critique is important, it has a timeline and production is dependant on my review. It tells me I need to open up the attachment and do my part of the job. This example is not fancy, not complicated and that is the best part. Written communication borders on information overload most days so how do you stand out? Write an effective purpose statement for all your business documents. People will notice and appreciate you taking the time to understand their point of view and as a result more people will take the time to read what you have written and hopefully take the action you expect.
Purpose
Your document must serve a purpose and that purpose needs to be communicated clearly and succinctly. As an example I began this blog with a purpose statement which states for your action (writing a business document) I will give you (reader) a tool to be more effective (my objective).
This is the most important step in wiring and is the key step to link your thought process to your writing process. The purpose statement is the very first sentence in your business document. It communicates the message to the reader that you are certain about the action this document is meant to influence. It communicates to the reader that you are empathetic to their viewpoint. It communicates that you are not going to waste their time. In the very first sentence you can build credibility and improve the likelihood the reader will read the entire document. The purpose statement tells them why it is important.
Imagine something simple like an email – the first sentence in your email to a colleague is crafted as a purpose statement. “The email contains the new business proposal for your review and comment by Thursday at noon so that we can submit this to production on Monday.” What does this do for me? It tells me that my opinion and critique is important, it has a timeline and production is dependant on my review. It tells me I need to open up the attachment and do my part of the job. This example is not fancy, not complicated and that is the best part. Written communication borders on information overload most days so how do you stand out? Write an effective purpose statement for all your business documents. People will notice and appreciate you taking the time to understand their point of view and as a result more people will take the time to read what you have written and hopefully take the action you expect.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Effective Writing – How much information?
You have started with the most important first steps in writing your business document: You understand that the purpose of the document is so that the audience can take an action. And you are writing to the reader's viewpoint and not to yourself. The next question is how much information needs to be included in the document?
Again, this is another area where you need to keep the reader in mind. Ask yourself, “What information does the reader need to know to make the decision?” Create a list for yourself and guard against including things on the list that you just want to share. Stay focused on what information the reader needs to make a decision.
Now that you have your subject areas outlined, the next step is to decide how much information to include to support the decision making criteria. Is your reader knowledgeable about the subject matter from their point of view? They do not need to be a technical expert, just an informed consumer – keep those separate. Include just enough information to support the decision making criteria and no more. Sometimes this information will be very detailed, sometimes less, it depends on your reader every time – know your reader.
Will the reader generally believe the information you provide? Surprisingly you should answer “Yes” most of the time. If the reader believes the information you are providing to them, then don’t spend time justifying your information. There are times when you will need to justify the informative elements but realize that you need to make a deliberate choice and know why you are providing justification.
Why do you need to carefully analyze the level of detail to provide? It is your job to keep the reader engaged, understand the decision making criteria and lead them to a decision. Too much information and your message can get lost leading to no decision. Too little information and the reader cannot make a decision. Both cases lead to inaction and frustration.
If you want to know more, drop me a line. I am happy to help.
Again, this is another area where you need to keep the reader in mind. Ask yourself, “What information does the reader need to know to make the decision?” Create a list for yourself and guard against including things on the list that you just want to share. Stay focused on what information the reader needs to make a decision.
Now that you have your subject areas outlined, the next step is to decide how much information to include to support the decision making criteria. Is your reader knowledgeable about the subject matter from their point of view? They do not need to be a technical expert, just an informed consumer – keep those separate. Include just enough information to support the decision making criteria and no more. Sometimes this information will be very detailed, sometimes less, it depends on your reader every time – know your reader.
Will the reader generally believe the information you provide? Surprisingly you should answer “Yes” most of the time. If the reader believes the information you are providing to them, then don’t spend time justifying your information. There are times when you will need to justify the informative elements but realize that you need to make a deliberate choice and know why you are providing justification.
Why do you need to carefully analyze the level of detail to provide? It is your job to keep the reader engaged, understand the decision making criteria and lead them to a decision. Too much information and your message can get lost leading to no decision. Too little information and the reader cannot make a decision. Both cases lead to inaction and frustration.
If you want to know more, drop me a line. I am happy to help.
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