Attention members of the training industry!
Come visit me at the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition – New Orleans, Louisiana, June 28 - July 1, 2009!
I’ll be speaking on Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30 (4:00-5:15 p.m. both days).
I hope to see some of you in New Orleans!
With help from Twitter and YouTube, the youth of Iran struck a cord for freedom and took on the ayatollahs. With phone lines cut and foreign journalists banished, protestors captured the words from their own signs, “Where’s my vote?” and uploaded them to the Internet. They trusted friends, family, and colleagues to spread the word to the outside world about their struggle.
That’s week-old news. But Peggy Noonan in her Wall Street Journal column this weekend (June 22) raises two interesting questions: How would modern technology have changed the past, say, the Revolution, during the Terror? What if word of the extreme violence and guillotines 1790-95 have “twittered” out? Would that have affected the French support and the world’s support for the Revolution?
The bigger and more intriquing question she raises is this: How will modern technology affect the future? Is it the enemy of tyranny? And how will leaders of other countries around the world be able to “look the other way” when human rights are being violated in other countries and pretend they do not know about it?
And not to be too flippant about such a gravely serious situations, Noonan makes one suggestion: If you intend to invent important new technology to be used in such noble and historical causes, don’t give it babyish names like Twitter, Google, Facebook, MySpace, Digg.
She has a point. Those names served their companies well in infancy—drawing a crowd to a fun and novel idea. Now that they have more noble and serious business applications, maybe they’ve outgrown their names. (Okay, before all you marketing gurus come after me, I assure you that I know the value of a catchy company name and all that changing one entails. Just food for thought here for those entrepreneurs in start-up mode.)
Check out Noonan’s complete article for a thoughtful discussion of whether U.S. leaders should or should not speak out on what’s happening in Iran.
“Everybody’s house smells different,” Grant, my nine-year-old visitor said to me last Saturday. “Logan’s house smells one way. Brian’s house smells one way. Yours smells a little bad today.”
Nothing like kids for candid feedback. My husband had been repotting plants in the garage and had tracked fertilizer in through the patio area and utility room. With the windows and doors closed, well, let’s just say Grant was right. I immediately turned off the air conditioning system and opened a few windows for the rest of the day.
Ah, were it so easy to correct other flaws and habits.
But it might just be.
If we were aware of them.
Sure, many of us participate in 360° feedback processes in our organizations. But those generally focus on complex issues involving our leadership style, management abilities, project management skills, interpersonal relationships, and so forth.
With so many tracks to cover in such broad areas, sometimes we fail to get feedback on the little things that people notice every day—things that annoy, confuse, or amuse people—simple things that we could easily and quickly correct.
So here’s my suggestion for feedback about your communication style and substance: Ask a trusted colleague to give you candid feedback to some tough, specific questions. (In fact, write them down so the colleague can give each some thought before answering. Notice, too, that the questions are phrased so that the colleague can respond tactfully as he or she thinks “most people” see the situation.)
- Do I have any signature phrases, gestures, or tics?
- Is my facial expression more often pleasant/relaxed or angry/tense?
- Do I routinely “over answer” questions?
- Do you think my body language increases or diminishes my credibility when I speak?
- Do you think others see me as a positive or negative person because of my comments in group meetings?
- Do I organize my voice mails concisely?
- Do I organize my emails clearly?
Thank your colleague for their opinion and gift of candor. Then decide if there’s anything you’d like to change to meet your personal goals.
“You’re so critical,” one husband said to his wife after a long silence as they drove home from the party.
Taken back, his wife asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well, I was just thinking that you’re so critical to our entire family. I don’t know how the kids, or my parents, or any of us could get along without you.”
This conversation comes from Cracking the Communication Code, an excellent book by Dr. Emerson Eggerich on how couples can figure out what each is asking for with the words they use.
I remember a similar “discovery” discussion between my daughter and me several years ago. It went something like this:
Lisa: Why do you always refer to me as a child psychologist when you introduce me or write about me in one of your books?
Me: What do you mean?
Lisa: My master’s degree is called “Childhood Specialist.”
Me: Well, I guess that’s why—I never remember the official title. You have a psychology degree and you specialize in children. Childhood Specialist is so vague—that could refer to a kindergarten teacher or a daycare worker or a babysitter. I’m proud of you and want everybody to know you’re a well-educated psychologist.
Lisa: Oh. (She looked a little sheepish.) I guess I should’ve asked a long time ago.
I can’t help wondering how many colleagues and neighbors would stay out of court if one or the other would ask—and listen—to the real meaning of the words and their context before interpreting the message.
How many business partnerships would continue peacefully rather than fracture if one or the other person would clarify exactly what the other wanted out of the deal rather than assume objectives and intent based on hastily spoken words, emails, or letters? How many politicians would still be in office if given a chance to explain their meaning for a statement before the press grabbed it and garbled it?
Make “assume positive intent” a motto in your communication approach. When the words seem contradictory, upsetting, confusing, or offensive, assume the other person has goodwill toward you. Probe, listen, clarify, and ask for or provide information before drawing conclusions. A relationship may depend on it.
Attention members of the training industry! Come visit me at the ASTD 2009 International Conference & Exposition – Washington, D.C., May 31-June 3, 2009! I’ll be speaking and doing an autographing session on Sunday, May 31, at 1:45 p.m.
· Creating Personal Presence: Communicating with Confidence® in the C-Suite (1:45 – 3:00 p.m.)
· Book signing at the bookstore (3:15 p.m.)
The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Strategies Every Leader Needs to Know
Booher’s Rules of Business Grammar: 101 Fast and Easy Ways to Correct the Most Common ErrorsI
Speak with Confidence
Communicate with Confidence
The conference also provides a great opportunity to benefit from countless concurrent sessions and participate in numerous certificate programs.
While at the conference and on the trade show floor, stop by our booth (#738) and say hello to our staff. If I’m not at the booth when you drop by, I’ll be milling around nearby. Just have someone in the booth call or text me, so I can catch up with you in person to find out what’s going on in your world.
If you haven’t already registered for the full conference, check out the ASTD International website for instructions on how to do so.
If you’d like to attend the Expo only, contact us for a complimentary pass.
See you there.
Sucking the Life Out of Strong Verbs
Almost daily TV broadcasters make announcements like these: Sydney Lancaster went missing yesterday after leaving work at 6:00 in his red Toyota. Went missing? Is this like gone fishing or gone to the movies? Whatever happened to Sydney IS missing. We don’t know that he went anywhere. In fact, he may have been dragged kicking and screaming by an ax murderer.
How many times a week do reporters tell you to “take a listen”? Is this like walking into a department store and taking a number?
Okay, okay, I’ll lay off reporters and broadcasters. But these phrases from the emails of your colleagues may sound just as familiar. The following are not errors; they just create wimpy writing.
Call and make a reservation. (Call and reserve …?)
Run a test to see if… (Test to see if?)
Carry out experiments to… (Experiment?)
Perform an analysis… (Analyze?)
Provide for the elimination of… (Eliminate?)
They experienced a reduction in… (They reduced…?)
Make a visual examination of… (Investigate?)
Strong verbs deserve a life of their own. Why sap their strength by turning them into nouns? The next time you hear “she went missing,” think voluntarily? AWOL? Hear that phrase as a reminder for strong verbs of your own.
The frantic caller on the other end of the line reported that the books we’d shipped for the workshop hadn’t arrived.
“Are you sure?” Polly, our coordinator, asked. “Because our records show that we shipped 28 copies of E-Writing to Steven Mosher’s office last week and verified delivery.
“Of course I’m sure,” the client’s administrative assistant snapped. “I need to order 28 copies of E-Writing—to arrive as soon as possible. Can you get them to me by Monday?” It was already Thursday.
“Yes I can. Who should I address them to and what name goes on the invoice?”
The client gave her an address, with mailstop number. Then, “I don’t know whose name goes on the invoice. I was just told to order 28 copies of the book for a workshop next week.”
“You know—that’s the exact same address that the shipment of 28 books went to last week. Are you sure those books aren’t for the same class?”
“I don’t know anything about those books. But I’m telling you that I need you to send 28 books to me NOW!”
“Okay. I can ship them out today, and they’ll arrive tomorrow. But the overnight shipping is going to be expensive.”
“Fine. Just send them.”
Polly shipped the second set of books.
A week later, the client contact for the original shipment called with this explanation about the duplicate order: “This whole situation is just ridiculous. You talked to Wanda the second time. She doesn’t get along with Steven’s admin. They don’t even speak to each other. So Wanda just refused to walk upstairs and verify that the original shipment of books was for the same event. The manager had accidentally told both of them to place the order.
Silly, yes. Much more sizeable costs than shipping charges can be chalked up to such senseless, uncivil behavior.
But interpersonal skills have a serious business impact. You may have had a sleepless night or two yourself, replaying a conversation with a boss, pondering how to respond to a terse email from a colleague, or planning your apology to a client for an inadvertent error or misstatement.
Christine Porath and Christine Pearson polled several thousand managers and employees from a diverse range of U.S. companies about their responses to incivility in the workplace. Here’s what they discovered and reported in an article in Harvard Business Review (April 2009):
(See the complete article here.)
The general reaction among respondents: Why do your best for a bad boss or uncivil team leader or member with whom you routinely have unpleasant interactions?
In tough economic times, when layoff survivors already feel overloaded and overwhelmed, organizations would do well to refuse to tolerate the toxic employee or manager wreaking havoc on morale and the bottom-line. For that matter, all of us could put a smile on our face and pump a little kindness into the social engine.
After a day with a client, coaching executives on using the teleprompter, I came home on Monday evening to discover our top executive had his own prompter problems. When President Obama lost his place while reading from the prompter, came to a dead stop in his speech, and had to tell the operator to move up the script, his recovery wasn’t nearly on par with Bill Clinton’s ad lib during the 1994 state-of-the-union speech when he had prompter problems.
Glancing at the prompters as he began, Clinton shook his head, grinned, and turned back to the crowd: “I don’t know what speech they’ve loaded into the prompter, but I came to tell you about the state of the union…” And he did just that. He had rehearsed his speech enough to internalize what he intended to say, and he launched in, unfazed for 20 minutes without the prompters.
If you have similar tech glitches when your big day comes (or if an audience member faints—as happened in President Obama’s audience on Tuesday) the crowd often remembers your recovery more than your relapse. For those cases, you need specific techniques. Keep the following tips in mind to tackle your prompter problems.
Finally, connect brain to words coming out of mouth—just in case the teleprompter falls asleep!
With the increasing competition for available jobs, we can all take a cue from Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson.
In Sunday’s New York Times Corner Office, columnist Adam Bryant asked Mr. Anderson if there was any change in the qualities he looked for in candidates compared to 5 or 10 years ago. His reply focused on the intangibles:
“Typically, when you’re hiring a vice president of a company, they already have the résumé, and they already have the experience base. And so what you’re trying to find out about are the intangibles of leadership, communication style, and the ability to, today, really adapt to change.”
Ask any engineer, accountant, or sales professional and they’ll tell you that their week consists of communicating—emails to their colleagues, reports to their managers, proposals and presentations to their clients. But frequency doesn’t equate to effectiveness.
CEO Anderson continued to drive home his point about the increasing importance of communication today:
“People really have to be able to handle the written and spoken word. And when I say written word, I don’t mean PowerPoints. I don’t think PowerPoints help people think as clearly as they should because you don’t have to put a complete thought in place. You can just put a phrase with a bullet in front of it. And it doesn’t have a subject, a verb, and an object, so you aren’t expressing complete thoughts…”
If you read the same corporate reports, hear the same management briefings, watch the same slideshows as I do in and out of corporations daily, then you understand his point. Common-sense communication isn’t all that common—nor that clear.
Communicating clearly, concisely, and compellingly has become a core capability for the job candidate.
Suppose you are CEO and your VP of sales says to you, “The client rejected our proposal, and you may also be surprised to discover that our name has been removed from the bidders list.” You’d probably be wondering who removed your name from the client’s bidders list.
The sentence doesn’t provide that information. And therein lies the problem with passive voice. (Definition below) Does your VP have “an attitude” and just not want to be forthcoming with the information? Is the VP protecting someone? Or is she just a careless communicator?
Passive voice can become a way of life—or at least a bad habit of downplaying mistakes and shirking responsibility.
Politicians use it:
“Mistakes were made in that situation.”
Managers use it:
“The decision has been made to stop reimbursing employees for those expenses.”
Spouses use it:
“Your note got misplaced somehow. I didn’t see it.”
Here’s a brief refresher on passive voice: If the subject of the sentence acts, the verb is active. If the subject of the sentence receives action, the verb is passive.
Active-voice verbs generally make writing crisp, clear, and concise. Passive-voice verbs also have a place and purpose: They add variety, slow the pace, and focus on the results of the sentence if the doer is unimportant.
Passive-voice verbs often remove the doers or actors altogether from the sentence. The result is much like a theatre, with a voice-over and no characters visible on the set. Generally, who does what is important in business. That’s why passive voice often leads to clarity problems.
Unless you have an “attitude,” don’t create mysteries when you write. If passive voice doesn’t serve a specific purpose, put people in your prose.
border=0 />
