By Adrian Miller
{Editor’s Note: Adrian is a Sales Training leader in the NY Metro Area who also runs a world-class virtual networking group called Adrian’s Network. Check it out at www.adriansnetwork.com}
You would think it wouldn’t have to get mentioned but yes, there are still people that think it is 100% okay to check email and texts, as well as send same, while they are engaged (correction, not so engaged) in a meeting or networking event.
I don’t mean that they politely excuse themselves and go off to a quiet corner or rest room to attend to their electronic communications. No, I mean that they inexcusably work their devices when sitting at a meal, at a conference table or milling about at a networking function at which one of the sole reasons for attending is to meet the attendees live and in person.
It’s just plain rude and it happens much too often.
I’ve participated in networking meetings where it seems that half of the attendees are staring at their laps with their thumbs moving feverishly over a keyboard. I’ve been at luncheons where the hum and buzz of text messages is totally distratcting and the “live” conversation seems almost “in the way”. And, I’ve even been speaking with someone at an event who every minute or so pulled out their phone to scroll down the new incoming messages. It’s just plain rude.
I haven’t gone so far as to ask the offending person to stop. Maybe I should. Rather, I find myself glowering at them hoping they will pick up on my not-so-subtle cues. But that rarely happens. Seems that subtly goes nowhere when dealing with a person like this.
So, if you feel that something critical is happening and you must engage with your device, then play it straight and let the other people know so they won’t have the same negative impression that I have.
But if it’s just a case of an addiction to electronic communications, well maybe you ought to just plain quit. You just might be sending a text when your next new business opportunity appears, and then decides to walk by, rather than disturb you and your electronic companion.
“I spent the best years of my life in useless business meetings…” Go ahead, admit it, there are times when you feel that way. I know I do.
In business communication, meetings are a real paradox. On one hand they are forums to galvanize the team, function collectively and act as one. On the other, they’re wasteful, time consuming and frustrating. Think about it: we put a bunch of people in a room or on a conference call, trap them for hours, and call that “management”.
Time is the one resource that is always in short demand. In the spirit of continuous improvement, businesses must embrace effective meeting dynamics.
Here are two suggestions to keep your meetings productive:
1) Try Huddles. These are great tools for team building where the objective is to share information, but not solve issues. They’re short, highly “agenda-ized” meetings that move fast and never last more than thirty minutes. I did them for years and my team loved it. We identified important topics but instead of solving we put them on the list for later action in another venue. Everyone’s time was respected. {And on occasion we actually stood up the whole time. Amazing how focused people get when they’re not sitting.}
2) A Disciplined Process. As the name suggests, we allocate our precious time with care and discipline. My “How to Have Great Meetings” guide is a 6 step process to do just that. They are:
- The Purpose – Clearly stated reason why we are meeting.
- Appoint One Leader – This person drives and facilitates to achieve the purpose.
- Select The Team – Only those who are relevant to the issue.
- Aggressive Preparation / Agenda – Do the prep work up front and use a tight agenda.
- Timing – High sensitivity to starting/finishing on time.
- Documentation – Get the minutes out within 24 hours.
Again, it’s a deep respect for the scarcity of our most precious resource: time. Most businesses struggle with this big time.
We can help. Our Team Communication training dives into important issues and offers up tools for immediate action. The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business and instill communication skills that will last a lifetime!
Let’s talk soon…JT John W. Tinghitella www.humbleconfidence.com
The #1 concern cited by employees in nationwide surveys is Poor Communication. People want to know the company’s direction, and simply don’t get enough information.
That’s a problem because in businesses everywhere, it is crucial that the full team take ownership for success. For that to happen, management must willingly, openly and gladly share information. Here’s why: Success happens when the team is fully engaged. And full engagement only occurs when people are “in the know”.
We call that the Engagement Equation:
- Information = Access to decision making
- Access = Full Engagement in the process
- Therefore … “I will give my best”
So…if information brings access…and then access allows for full engagement… it stands to reason that informed team members will do whatever it takes to make the business a success. The most successful businesses are those in which this happens every day.
Unfortunately, there’s another side to all this: the disengaged equation. Information is closely guarded and not shared. So there’s no access to the “know”…which then kicks off the disengaged equation:
- “What I don’t know = I will invent”
And that invention is always negative. No news is bad news. There are whispers and hushed comments like, “there must be a problem, or they’d tell us…” The sinister…they. Ownership. Management. “They” are bad. The barking chain starts, causing a downward spiral and failure is sure to follow.
I believe in a linear, sequential thought-line known as: Communication. Alignment. Success. The first part, Communication, is all about a good engagement equation, which paves the way for Alignment and Success.
Our training programs get teams aligned. The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business and instill communication skills that will last a lifetime!
Let’s talk soon…JT
John W. Tinghitella
When was the last time you took a rental car to the carwash? The answer is of course, never. The message is clear enough…we nurture, develop and protect those things we own. Because ownership is powerful.
In business only a few people actually “own”, while many more support that owner. The challenge is to get the many to feel a sense of ownership and generate all that wonderful nurturing that comes with it. Or in other words, to think and act like owners.
I believe that the key here is alignment. Aligned teams succeed. Misaligned teams fail. Aligned teams bring a sense of ownership to everything they do. I’ve seen it, felt it, and lived it. It is an amazing state.
I define alignment as “people working on teams, in sync, across disciplines, achieving success and enjoying the ride”. And the main ingredient that allows alignment to occur is effective communication. At all levels. In all directions. Because when information flows to where it needs to go, the team meshes. Enter alignment.
Our training programs are about achieving alignment through great communication. By incorporating new disciplines into how we work together…to eliminate waste, laser in on issues and win as a team.
The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business and instill communication skills that will last a lifetime!
Let’s talk soon.
JT
John W. Tinghitella
Great leaders share a common and powerful trait: the ability to get the best performance from the team. This ability almost always comes from women and men who are great communicators. That doesn’t necessarily mean eloquent or smooth…but effective.
Why is communication important? Because the team craves information and knowledge about the business. In fact, the single greatest concern of employees nationwide is poor communication. *
What does a great communicator do? They translate the vision to the team in everything they say and do. This means everyone understand the big picture all the time.
Great communicators do this very well, and the result is full engagement. Which leads to alignment. Which paves the way for success.
I believe effective communication is core to success. If you check out the Humble Confidence logo, you’ll notice in our tagline there is a sequence of 3 words: Communication. Alignment. Success. That linear thought-line encapsulates a leader’s key role in business.
The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business and instill communication skills that will last a lifetime!
Let’s talk soon…
JT
John W. Tinghitella
*International Association of Business Communicators
I’m a firm believer in starting at the beginning. I mean … the real beginning. As in revisiting your vision regularly. The Vision: that thing up on the lobby wall that’s often confused with the mission.
Webster defines vision as: The act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be; the vision of an entrepreneur.
Your business started when some entrepreneur connected ideas with opportunity, threw in some money and a bunch of courage, and voila! A vision!
It’s easy to forget because we get so wrapped up in our own niche of business, that we lose sight of why we are here in the first place. I worked for a real visionary guy who wouldn’t let that happen. He was a CEO who saw business from 30,000 feet and forced us to do the same. He insisted we always revisit the vision. We started every important meeting by connecting the issue of the day to why we were in business. It was a great discipline. And by the way, our business soared.
The best businesses are both strategic and tactical, where great execution follows great planning.
But here’s the key to making it happen: it’s a one-way sequence. Tactics follow strategies, which follow objectives, which are driven from the vision.
Every strategic plan should emulate the shape of a martini glass:
- Extremely broad at the Vision…
- Narrows down to Key Objectives to attain the Vision…
- Narrows further for Strategies to meet the objectives…
- And ends up in the stem with Tactics and Action Plans to implement the strategies.
This is a great methodology for carrying out the plan.
But then it dawned on me…why can’t we do the same in our communication? Start out strategic by linking all issues to the larger purpose, the vision. Then remind people regularly that we are bonded by this vision. Finally, let the message flow through objectives to strategies, and right down to action plans.
Our training programs are full of great ideas that make a difference. The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business and instill communication skills that will last a lifetime!
Let’s talk soon.
JT
John W. Tinghitella
I had a terrific mentor in my career that convinced me to embrace Continuous Improvement. We worked together for years and partnered on countless missions. But early on our relationship was not so smooth because we are quite different in our approach to communication.
I’m a “leap-frog” thinker. I jump to the end and work my way back to the beginning.
He is a “linear” thinker. He starts at the beginning and moves sequentially to the end. To a guy like him, sequence really matters. He expected me to follow a logical path that always started with the most important issue, followed by the second, the third and so forth. He needed to know I was seeing the priorities correctly.
So…I went against my instincts and did that. And you know what? It worked! I am still a leap-frog thinker, but I can communicate in straight lines. We call it “going linear”.
I tried it with other people and realized it made sense. Linear communication became a regular discipline on our team. And amazingly…it reduced wheel spinning, saved time and even limited the hyperbole we all loved to spew. By doing this we sorted issues by priority and focused on what mattered.
At Humble Confidence our training is loaded with cool stuff we learned in the trenches. Because that’s where business really happens.
The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business by pumping up your communication skills!
We get it. Let’s talk soon.
JT
John W. Tinghitella
“When dealing with people, remember, you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion”. Dale Carnegie
Emotions drive us more than anything.
There are mountains of research on this issue. Here’s the key, people filter every bit of stimuli through their own background and experience which creates memory. And the most powerful memories are those that have been impacted by powerful emotions. They’re called emotional markers.
I highly recommend a great book entitled “Neuromarketing” by Morin and Renvoise. In it the authors substantiate this belief , “Researchers have demonstrated that human beings make decisions in an emotional manner and then justify them rationally.”
In my Team Communication course, we explore the power of communication on teams, for the purpose of alignment. We employ a tool called AlignUp which helps people find their audience’s emotional state and base of understanding. There are 3 stages of AlignUp: Find ‘em, Remove Yourself, Frame It. The whole idea is to essentially “become the audience” so you can communicate effectively “with the audience”.
I believe in the sequential thought-line: Communication. Alignment. Success.
Communication is the ignition point. Alignment is the lynchpin in the process. Success is the state we crave.
My definition for alignment is simple: teams of people, working in sync, across disciplines, achieving goals and enjoying the ride.
In business, there is nothing quite like alignment. It’s a “high” unlike anything you’ve ever experienced, because it’s more than just you. It’s a community of people exceeding their potential. And when you channel the power of this collective emotional state, success happens. The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business by pumping up your communication skills!
Let’s talk soon…JT
Years ago I had the opportunity to hear the world renowned economist Dr. Barry Asmus speak on the hot topic of the day, the emerging global economy. His point was powerful: “capital disregards geographic barriers and flows to where it is best taken care of”.
In business, information works in much the same way. In aligned businesses, teammates communicate effectively and information travels to where it needs to go. Then watch as the sequence of success unfolds: people sync up, goals are achieved, success is realized. Amazingly, communication is the jet fuel that ignites this sequence. Alignment is a beautiful thing.
Isn’t it time to embrace the process in your business?
Most businesses need advice and direction to get the process started. That’s where we come in. The Humble Confidence Team Communication course will ignite alignment in your business by pumping up your communication skills.
It’ll be a difference maker in your business.
Let’s talk soon…JT
John W. Tinghitella
“We lost the business”. Those words send chills up our spine and immediately make us think our price is too high. Did our customer get a better deal from a competitor? That fear works on the psyche of sales people everywhere.
Relax. Calm down. Slow down.
Truth is, only 9% of the time will customers leave for a better deal. And what’s really amazing is that a whopping 82% of the time, it’s due to Perceived Indifference (68%) and Unresolved Conflict (14%).*
In the Sales business, there is a disproportionate amount of worry given to price.
Think about that…if perceived indifference and unresolved conflict represent the significant majority of lost business … that’s clearly not about price. Those issues are self-induced problems that should be manageable. Maybe all that worry is misplaced…
I’m a firm believer that success starts with humility. The humble person would never allow a customer to walk for those reasons. The Humbly Confident person takes the time to see it through the eyes of the other side by getting into their world.
The Humble Confidence Team Communication training seminar focuses on a tool we call AlignUp, which is the process of finding your audience’s base of knowledge and preparing the message at their level of understanding, not yours. A key part of AlignUp is to “Remove Yourself” by suppressing your own ego, and becoming the audience.
The Humble Confidence Team Communication course is the jet fuel that will ignite alignment in your business by pumping up your communication skills.
Our programs are filled with tons of useful stuff. Let’s talk soon.
JT
John W. Tinghitella
* Statistics provided courtesy of Roger Harrop of www.rogerharrop.com. Roger is a world renowned speaker who delviers change inducing presentations on business leadership.