Category: Leadership

Tips for Business Women to Help Fine-Tune Persuasion Skills photo

Tips for Business Women to Help Fine-Tune Persuasion Skills

Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

Super Girl has x-ray vision and Wonder Woman has the lasso of truth. What does the woman in business have as a superpower? The art of persuasion. This power, unlike x-ray vision, isn’t simply given at birth but learned, honed and sharpened. If you are a woman looking to add to your business success, follow these 7 tips to refine your persuasion powers.

Use Empathy

Many women have the natural attribute of empathy, a valuable tool in perfecting persuasion abilities. Empathy can be used to read the reactions of others and apply that information in a way that appeals to the listeners’ concerns. Empathy requires gentleness. Instead of pushing others to see a certain point of view, gently reasoning with empathy can be highly effective.

Use Names Often

A customer or client will react when they hear their own name. Learn the names of your clients as quickly as you can and use those names often when working with them. It will compliment their egos and therefore, build connections. Persuading your clients becomes that much easier since connections already exists.

Use Reciprocity

We tend to feel obligated to return favors after people do favors for us. Using this principle in business is a foundation for persuasion. Sales, coupons and special promotions are obvious reciprocity tools. Dr. Robert Cialdini, Regents’ Professor of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University and author of the book The Psychology of Persuasion, says “The implication is you have to go first. Give something: give information, give free samples, give a positive experience to people and they will want to give you something in return.”

Use Images

What we see is often much more important than what we hear. Because of that truth, it is important for business women to be aware of what their clients are seeing. Make a professional first impression. Pictures that tell a story can be used to harness emotional responses. In order to become the best persuader you can be, master the art of creating images through words. Be specific and use language that can make your client “see” what you want them to see.

Use Undeniable Truths

Build trust with your client by beginning discussions with an undeniable truth like “Asking is the beginning of receiving,” or “If you don’t believe, why would they?” By doing this you are offering your client a statement they can agree with, since it is true. You are immediately building trust with them by starting off on a point on which you agree. Undeniable truths lead to further agreements, making persuading your client to your way of thinking easier.

Use Social Proof

Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media, in an article that published the results of six of Dr. Cialdini’s persuasion principles remarked, “Many television commercials say ‘If our lines are busy, please call again,’ instead of saying “Operators are standing by.” The first response implies that other people like your offer so much that the phone lines are busy, which may persuade others to act similarly.”

When people are unsure about a course of action, they look around for guidance. They want to see what other people are doing or deciding to do. This is a fact of human nature that is fundamental to know and use in persuasion. By using social proof that others have agreed or are agreeing to your approach, you are in effect using peer pressure to guide their decisions. We never fully grow out of peer pressure. Testimonials from satisfied customers show your target audience that people who are similar to them enjoyed your product.

Use “Manifesting the Next Step”

Cohen-First’s technique takes your customers out of their own limitations. It persuades them into the next steps, even if there is a barrier.

In an article titled Women in Business: Being Persuasive in Customer Meetings, Rena Cohen-First wrote, “After I complete an informal presentation, I love to ask the million-dollar question, ‘I’m curious to know, what do you see as the next step?’ This is my favorite technique of all! If they cannot answer this question (for any number of reasons or objections), then you can ask the following: ‘I see. Out of curiosity, if that issue (the budget, the personal change, the holidays) were resolved, then what would the next step be?’ This is what I call manifesting the next step.

The power of persuasion is a super power when used in business and can propel your career to new heights. Fine-tune your skills and watch as clients and customers say “Yes!” more and more. You don’t need a cape or an invisible plane, just a determination to employ persuasion in your practices.

 

Resources:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244195

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/03/26/the-21-principles-of-persuasion/

http://www.influenceatwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/E_Brand_principles.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rena-cohenfirst/women-in-business-being-p_b_8127318.html

 

 

7 Tips to Establish a Professional Presence photo

7 Tips to Establish Professional Presence

Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

We live in a society where “Casual Friday” has morphed into Casual Everyday. Some companies have even begun a “Formal Friday” to target dressing professionally. As our workplaces become more casual, is our behavior following suit?

Professional presence is vital to any company getting and keeping clients. Having a professional presence can help you stand out in the crowd of emails, voicemails, business meetings and social occasions.

Poise, self-confidence and self-control make up professional presence. Follow these seven tips to establishing a professional presence:

1.Be Positive

A positive workplace increases productivity. Everyone has bad days, but taking it out on anyone at the office—be it your coworker or a customer—will produce negative responses and results. The first step to having a professional presence is to be optimistic.

2. Be on Time

Being late communicates that your time is more important than someone else’s. Everyone is busy. Punctuality is vital to a professional presence. And if you are late, blaming the traffic, your family or your car is simply making an excuse. Apologize sincerely without excuses if you are late. Being professional means being on time.

3. Get Names Straight

If you can remember someone’s name after only meeting them once, you will make a great impression. However, few of us have that talent. It is much better to say “Please tell me your name again” than to guess and call your potential client or coworker the wrong name. Calling someone by their name is courteous and professional. When sending an email, spell the name correctly.

4. Make Clients Feel Valued

Having a professional presence includes developing the ability to make others feel valued. Using the correct name is the first step. Asking your client questions communicates that you care. Everyone enjoys talking about themselves. Listen and repeat back little bits of the information they give you. And always include a smile in your conversation. When people feel valued, they are more likely to trust you and come back again.

5. Create Well-Written Communication

There is no excuse for sloppy emails or badly written business letters in a professional environment. Have someone edit written communication before it leaves your business. Spelling mistakes can be a strike against your professional presence. Avoid bad grammar. Create professional letterhead. Design a standard and clean signature for office emails. An impression will be established through your written communication. It is up to you if it will be negative or positive.

6. Use Etiquette and Skill on Phone Calls

Speak slowly and clearly. Put energy and a smile into your voice so that the warmth of it will be communicated. Be prepared by having whatever information you might need close to you. Think about what you are going to say before calling anyone. A brief and business-like phone call projects a professional presence. Finally, close your call as professionally as you began. Wait until they hang up before you do.

7. Dress Appropriately and Groom Well

Even though many companies are much more casual than they used to be, make sure you are following the dress code appropriately. Ask the human resources team for clarification if needed. Being fashionable at work does not always make for a professional presence. Being well groomed does. Good taste and fashion are not always synonymous. Follow the rules carefully.

 

A professional presence is one that exudes confidence. By following these seven tips, you can establish yourself as one who takes care of others and themselves in order to create a workplace environment that propels the company to success. Whether your company has Casual Friday or Formal Friday, work to make a professional presence every day.

 

Resources:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-etiquette-commandments-idUSTRE81C10F20120213

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-People-Feel-Good

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/486/Increase-your-professional-presence-on-the-phone.html

photo for 5 Time Management Secrets to Teach Your Employees

5 Time Management Secrets to Teach Your Employees

Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

Time. We all wish we had more of it. Yet no matter how hard we try to conserve it, it seems to slip away from us in drips and drabs.

This is especially concerning if you’re in charge of a team of people responsible for ensuring your business runs smoothly and efficiently. If you can help every team member become more effective, think how much time you’ll save overall! Here are five time management secrets to teach today.

  1. Shorten Those To-Do Lists

One of the biggest time sucks is the endless to-do list. Filled with small and often nonessential items, to-do lists are only useful if they serve the purpose of helping people be more productive. Teach team members easy way to shorten to-do lists, like getting rid of all items they’ll do no matter what. Think “check email” or “get lunch.” Scratch easy tasks that don’t need to happen right away; they often become tempting due to their simplicity, and end up taking precedence over harder but more crucial chores.

Belle Cooper recommends moving tasks that depend on other people somewhere else (to a follow-up list, for instance, or a shared project) so that you don’t have to feel the nagging pressure of tasks you can’t complete on your own. Teach your employees how to distinguish between tasks they can and should do right away, and those that should be filed somewhere else or ditched altogether.

  1. Take Time to Be Creative

Creativity is crucial. It makes people feel happier, more productive and more in charge of their own work lives. It’s an amazing way to give your workers a little freedom, boosting their brainpower and making them more efficient when they return to regular tasks. Of course, creativity must still fall within the scope of the job, but giving workers time to explore, read, create or invent can immeasurably improve attitude, moral and time effectiveness.

  1. Create a System for Email

Ah, email. To reduce mental space and inbox space wasted by email, teach employees to deal with it right away. “Inbox Zero” should always be the goal, so read, reply or file instantly to reduce inbox clutter and improve efficiency.

  1. Handle a Task Once, and Once Only

The “One-Touch Rule” can significantly limit the amount of time employees spend waffling between tasks and feeling mentally burdened by chores that seem to haunt them forever. We all know that feeling of picking up and putting a task down so many times that it becomes a huge monkey on our backs.

Instead, teach employees to process each task as soon as it reaches them. If it’s an email: read, reply or file. If it’s a piece of paperwork, they should complete it, photocopy it or file it away. Whatever the task, when it comes across an employee’s desk, they should know how to handle it immediately.

Note that some tasks can’t be done at that moment, in which case processing it means filing it in the right place for later, then putting a date on the calendar for when it will be dealt with and how. Some tasks are also large, in which case processing can mean breaking the task into steps and waiting until there’s enough time to complete them. Whatever the case, ignoring the task is the No. 1 time-wasting no-no, so offer better alternatives.

  1. Have an End-Of-Day Routine

At the end of the day, teach each employee to create a short to-do list for the next, containing only the highest priority tasks, and unclutter their work space so it will be fresh and ready for the following day.

Time management doesn’t need to feel impossible when you institute these tips in every worker’s daily routine!

Put Yourself Back in Leadership School

3 Ways to Put Yourself Back in Leadership School

Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

It’s Fall!

New clothes, new folders and new sharpened number 2 pencils are signs that the bell for the first day of school has rung and kids everywhere are back in their desks and ready to go. Summer has ended and autumn has ushered in the season of change. It is time to learn.

But not just for children. As adults, it is important to keep learning new skills, be it for your current occupation, a new job or an old hobby. Acquiring new knowledge is especially important if you are, or want to be, a leader. Leaders are life-long learners. They know the importance of keeping up with the ever changing world we live in. How do they do it? How do adults who are not enrolled in an official class keep in school?

1.They Adopt a “Growth Mindset”

Liz Wiseman, a leadership expert and author of Rookie Smarts, advise those who want to study as adults to set their minds to learning. It’s akin to flipping a light switch to “on” that many adults leave in the “off” position. In the Harvard Business Review, in an article titled “How to Keep Learning and Still Have a Life” Wiseman notes that a predisposition to learning often gives inexperienced people an edge over their more seasoned colleagues. Flipping that switch to a “growth mindset” causes leaders/learners to prepare to receive and master new skills.

2. They Challenge Old Assumptions

Dr. Kathleen Taylor, a professor at St. Mary’s College of California, encourages learners to “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are opposite to their own. In doing so, you wrestle your brain connections and develop your learning abilities. Leaders who hang around with only those who agree with them and leaders who only read what they already know do not stay leaders for long. In “How to Train the Brain,” a New York Times article, writer Barbara Strauch stresses that stretching the brain is what keeps it in shape.

3. They Cultivate the Lessons of Failure  

Bill Gates, one of the world’s leaders of technology development, said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Leaders who continually enroll in learning make their failures their teachers. They look at their mistakes and instead of crumpling up those errors like bad homework and throwing them into the trashcan, they unfold the creases and study what they did wrong. Leaders learn from failure. As Thomas Edison famously stated, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

If you are a leader or aspire to be one, you must engage in learning. A mindset of growth will alert you to new lessons every day. Challenging old methods and beliefs will keep your brain sharp and ready to meet new tasks. And studying your failures will teach you fresh ways to succeed as well as make you a better leader. School is in session now. Get your brand new backpack that doesn’t smell of old lunches yet, and begin.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03adult-t.html?_r=0

https://hbr.org/2014/11/how-to-keep-learning-and-still-have-a-life

How to Lead People

Being Human: How to Lead People

Shannon Cassidy Leave a comment

Your organization has sent you to leadership training and nurtured you through their fast track program. You know the disciplinary policy like the back of your hand and the you could recite state labor laws in your sleep. While these things are important to know and understand, the true foundation of effective leadership lies in inherent human qualities. In simple, great leadership boils down to being human.

Be Honest

Good leaders are honest with their employees, clients, and managers. They own their mistakes and oversights and actively work toward a solution. They don’t say anything behind an employee’s back that they haven’t said to the employee’s face. Their subordinates respect their honesty and trust their words. Sugar coating performance deficits causes confusion for the employee and fails to promote success. Be honest.

Be Friendly

Employees who connect with their leaders are more likely to respect and follow their leaders and feel satisfied in their role. Take time to learn about your employees’ families and hobbies; they make wonderful friendly talking points. A simple, “Good morning, Shirley! How did Bob’s appointment go yesterday?” goes a long way. Always take a moment to establish eye contact and make a connection.

Be Real

Show your employees that you are a real person not so different from themselves. Laugh at work often and smile whenever you can. Let your employees into your life a little by sharing information about your family and hobbies. Leaders who are real with their employees are more approachable, and therefore receive more valuable feedback and suggestions.

Be Supportive

Good leaders are those who are supportive of their employee’s ambitions and goals. Support each employee in their role, assist individuals in understanding the value of their contributions to the organization, and encourage every employee to pursue in-house positions that interest them. Take time to discuss an employee’s career planning so you can work to keep the best in the organization. Identify leaders early and share your plans for their advancement in the organization.

Be Empathetic

Experience in the leadership industry can harden even the most compassionate of hearts. However, a leader should go to great lengths to see every employee as a human being, take every concern seriously, and genuinely empathize with the employee expressing his or her dissatisfaction. Furthermore, the effective leader shows empathy with the grieving employee and encourages as much family time as possible.

Be Rewarding

Statistics show that employee satisfaction increases more when non-monetary rather than monetary rewards are issued. Commit to complimenting a minimum of three employees daily on their performance. Telling the janitorial staff, “It sure looks great in here! Thanks for the hard work!” or your administrative assistant, “Thanks for keeping such an organized schedule!” takes mere moments but their effects are lasting.

Be Open Minded

Be willing to consider the viewpoints of others and entertain new ideas or suggestions. Good leaders understand the value in new and differing opinions. Furthermore, employees respect and value a leader who is open to their thoughts and opinions and who considers them seriously.

Be Inspiring

An effective leader shows employees what he or she expects of them by displaying the same commitment and drive every day. A leader’s boots should be the first to hit the ground and the last to leave. Policy should be followed fervently and eagerly. Strides should be taken every day in the direction of success and advancement of the organization.

In conclusion, a good leader requires some textbook knowledge but an abundance of quality characteristics. A good leadership mantra is, “Always do the right thing.”