“I found that every day I had an opportunity to make a small difference. I could have coached someone better, I could have listened better, I could have been more positive to people, I could have said ‘thank you’ more often, I could have . . . the list just went on. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed with the discovery of how many opportunities I had in a single day to act as a better leader. But as I have gotten to put these ideas into practice I have been pleasantly surprised by how much improvement I have been able to make by being more conscientious and intentional about acting as a leader.” (Sergey Nikoforov, of Stack 3 Inc. as quoted in the book, The Leadership Challenge, by Kouzes and Posner). Read more…

While Tony Rutigliano might think he can make the sweeping statement that training is of little…

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Another wall poster I use in my sales presentation and speech communication client work is ‘Repeated attempts with feedback build skill’. It’s important to practice a discrete behaviour and then get feedback on how you performed. You can give yourself feedback on how you think you went (ie. subjective feedback), or get objective feedback. Objective feedback is the most powerful form of feedback. Read more…

Following on from last week’s post, another wall poster I hang in the room as a ’frame’ for my sales presentation consulting work, reads as follows:

A ‘Speaking a Message’ Structure’.

1. (full one second pause)

2. Open (eg.’Let me tell you about . . .’

3. (full one second pause)

4. Middle (eg. ‘Number One, they like . . . Number Two, they like . . ‘

5. (full one second pause)

6. Close (eg. ‘that’s what they like about me.’ Read more…

In my speech communication, sales presentation and senior executive personal communication consulting, one of the wall posters I hang in the room as a ’frame’ for the consulting contains the following: ‘What matters is what the ‘customer’ perceives’. In the next few posts I’ll elaborate on other wall poster frames I use to in my consulting work. Read more…

Picture this . . . you’re walking out of your office and you spy one of your organisation’s senior executives entering the office. This person is someone whom you’ve been trying to meet with for the past two months, without success. Read more…