Booher BanterBusiness Communication Consultant

I found a great blog for those interested in sales and marketing.  It’s called S&MM SoundOff (http://vnutravel.typepad.com/soundoff/2006/09/readers_soundof_1.html) and it posted one of my blogs today about the merits of professional salespeople publishing a book in their field of expertise.  This site is the online home of Sales and Marketing Magazine and provides links to several other quality publications, like Training, Incentive, Presentations, and Potentials.

In addition to credibility, the article describes how businesspeople-turned-authors can realize greater earnings, attract more speaking opportunities, watch their business grow, and receive recognition as an expert in their field.

If you’re in business, the S&MM site provides excellent reading material. Share any interesting articles you discover by sending me a "comment."

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Posted at 12:03pm in Publishing Keys | Permalink | Add Comment » |

The Ottawa Business Journal recently published a study in which chief financial officers (CFOs) offered their opinions about the value of communication skills in the corporate world.

Here’s the question that was posed by Accountemps to CFOs: "Compared to five years ago, do you think verbal, written, and interpersonal skills have become more or less important for accounting and finance professionals?"

Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said those communication skills are more valuable now than five years ago.  Why is this so?

Here’s my take:

1. We have less face-to-face contact during our work day, so we are getting less practice at those daily interpersonal skills.  So those who present themselves well and "connect" prove to be a greater asset than those who don’t.
2. More work is getting done in a written form: emails, proposals, text messages.  Now your reputation (and promotion possibilities) rest on how well you write.
3. Verbal, written, and interpersonal skills are more valuable today because of increased scrutiny in the corporate workplace.  Remember the Enron debacle?  Emails, memos, reports, meeting minutes, and recorded interviews were major pieces of evidence in the courtroom.  The way we communicate can be our best alibi or our shortest route to a guilty verdict.

Your turn:  Do you think communication skills are getting better or worse than they were, say, five years ago? Your reasoning? Care to share your experiences?

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Posted at 7:33am in General Communication | Permalink | Add Comment » |

PersonnelToday.com reported on new research that shows more than one in four people (29%) would swap their manager if they could (source: Investors in People).

Some 1,700 employees polled across the UK spoke loudly and clearly as to the source of their dissatisfaction: poor communication by managers.  The ability to communicate effectively was listed as THE most important quality for a successful manager, but 32% of the respondents said their manager didn’t make the grade.

Honesty was ranked a close second as a managerial virtue, yet 1 out of 5 respondents felt that their manager, at some stage, had actually claimed credit for the employee’s work! 

How do these findings square with your work experience?  Have your managers always been good communicators?  How or when has a manager taken the credit for your great idea or project?   Click on "Comment" below and share your experiences (please omit the manager’s name to protect the guilty).

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Posted at 8:53am in General Communication | Permalink | Add Comment » |

It all started with one of those out-of-control emails that got forwarded along the Internet to family and friends.  John Cole, a big cheese at the Veteran’s Administration (actually the Director of Benefits Academy for the US Department of Veterans Affairs www.VBA.VA.gov) and father of a recent graduate of High Point University, Hillary Cole, sent an email to his former military buddies updating them on his life and whereabouts. In that email, he mentioned how pleased he was with his daughter Hillary’s recent experience at High Point University (www.highpoint.edu), where an admired consultant and speaker in my industry, Dr. Nido Qubein, serves as president.

My husband, a recipient of Mr. Cole’s email, forwarded the note to me because of the Nido Qubein connection. In fact, along with a group of other members of the Speakers Roundtable (www.SpeakersRoundtable.org), I was scheduled to tour the High Point campus in late August. And as Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story.”

After learning of the connection between my husband and Mr. Cole, Dr. Qubein made arrangements for Hillary Cole to meet my husband and chat on campus. 

Why would he go to the trouble?  Eighteen months into his tenure there—where Dr. Qubein has raised a $100 million and spent $82 million in renovations, breathing new life and excitement into the student body—why would he take the time to ensure that a 22-year-old former student has a chat with her father’s old army buddy? 

That’s his nature as a leader. 

Here’s how Hillary and her dad first connected with Dr. Qubein.  After my recent trip to High Point, John Cole called to confirm the signicant connection and impact Dr. Qubein is making in the lives of students and parents alike. 

“During Hillary’s first couple of years at the university, I was always proud of her education at High Point. But after Dr. Qubein took over in her junior year, I quickly noticed a marked change. The buildings, the atmosphere, the campus—it all took on a new life.  Hillary sent me a copy of his tape series.  And I began to listen to him on the way to and from High Point to pick her up.   I got to know him from those tapes.  So the next time I was on campus, I saw him out walking, recognized him from his photos, and decided to introduce myself.  I said, ‘Hi, I’m John Cole.  I’m known by many titles, but here I’m just Hillary’s dad.’

Dr. Qubein smiled, shook my hand, and said, ‘And around here I’m just known as the president of Hillary’s school.’”

Yep, that’s Dr. Qubein.  That’s connection with a father’s pride.  And that’s why kids are standing in line to enroll at High Point University.

My colleague Terry Paulson also blogged about his trip to High Point:  http://terrypaulson.typepad.com/leaderline/2006/08/president_nido_.html
Read Bert Decker’s observations at http://deckercommunications.typepad.com/experience/2006/09/the_great_commu.html

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Posted at 8:38am in General Communication | Permalink | 2 Comments |