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Archives for February 2013

What Did You Say?

February 26, 2013 By Change Masters Academy Leave a Comment

assessment98% of all men rated themselves as being in the upper half of the population in terms of their listening skills.  Huh?  How does THAT math work?  Of course, women would be much more accurate in ranking their own listening skills, right?  Not!

We hear more about poor listening skills at work than you can imagine. Most people think they are much better listeners than others do.

What is a big payoff for your perception? Engaged listening can make you stand out in a very positive way. It makes you stand out because so many people do it poorly!  Here’s a slice of how one client increased his impact as a listener:

  • Acknowledge the speaker with more slowly delivered filler words (e.g., “Ahhh”, “Got it”)  so you’re not sitting there silently.  The quieter you are, the longer they’ll talk to try to get a reaction from you!
  • Show you are interested with your facial expressions. Many people look like they’re scowling when they are just concentrating. Avoid impatient nodding or negative head shaking before the speaker has finished.
  • Draw others out, ask more questions of them – you get huge credit for wisdom by asking great questions.
  • Acknowledge what you heard so people know their comments had an impact.
  • Acknowledge the other person’s point of view thoroughly. You can summarize what you heard them saying in neutral wording … even when you disagree with some, or all, of what they said.

Listening in a more engaged manner can minimize your boredom and give you far more useful information to help you make great decisions. Even though they’re stressed and busy, many people are bored at work.  An active conversation can help them, and you.

 

Change Masters’ frugal innovation = high value + low cost

February 14, 2013 By Change Masters Academy Leave a Comment

Today is the day we officially launch Change Masters Academy! We are expanding the reach of our mission. We are very excited to provide the kind of help our individual coaching clients have found so helpful, in a form that can be experienced by many others. This allows us to further our mission to improve the workplace one person at a time. My mission statement when I started Change Masters was to help make companies and leaders more into ones I hoped my children would experience. After more than a quarter century, I can now strive to do that for my grandchildren. The Change Masters Academy allows us to extend that mission on a much wider global level. Thank you for your support of our beta release!

 

ChangeMasters.com

We now have three websites where there was one before. In addition to the past ChangeMasters.com, we now have ChangeMastersExecutiveCoach.com for individual coaching and ChangeMastersAcademy.com for the online learning and membership site. In addition to updating the content, they are now mobile friendly to make it easier to access on smartphones and tablets.

 

23 Mundane Moments

We have had very positive feedback about the “23 Mundane Moments that Can Make or Break Your Career” videos:

 

“Tom, I continue to be so impressed with the messages you and Carol pass along here. The clips are short, concise, and include content that can have a big impact. A difficult combination. Really well done. Thank you.”

Sr. Manager of Training & Organizational Development

 

“I love the idea of the Mundane Moments!  The topics are right on.  The video was great.  I can definitely see an application here. This is a very ‘real life’ set of moments – and I have had many of them myself.” 

Vice President, Corporate Quality Assurance

 

“I’ve been enjoying the 23 Mundane Moments videos greatly.  I see a ton of relevance in these segments for people at all levels in the workplace. It’s great practical advice – so practical they’re easy to miss in your day to day world. site analysis You’re sitting in a relaxed environment having a conversation so you feel like you’re a part of the conversation – you’re not being lectured to – eavesdropping. Even though it’s a video it doesn’t feel like a video – it feels connected.  It’s perfect for geographically dispersed locations.  They can reach a broader group of leaders in a more cost effective way.”

Vice President of Human Resources

 

“These videos are fun, fast and so informative.  This series is rich with opportunities for learning.”

Operations Director

 

“I think that this is a fantastic idea as it will allow you reach that currently does not exist in face-to-face and even video conference interactions.  Mundane Moments is an extremely interesting concept and these can be extremely helpful to navigate as we all grow to become more effective business leaders.  These helpful tips and tricks will help people to be more aware of their potential blind spots.”  

Director of Sales

 

“I love it… the “Mundane Moments” provide continuous coaching and gives sound practical interactional advice.  Transformational, transactional and simple!”

CEO of a Medical Center

 

“I was delighted that I could watch the videos on my mobile devices. I can’t wait for the next video.”

Marketing Director

Communication Briefings…

February 14, 2013 By Change Masters Academy Leave a Comment

In the past, our newsletters have been very well received … we just haven’t sent them very often. Going forward we will be more regular in sending you valuable, concise information you can use. We will also keep you updated as we progress with the Academy.

When I receive an email, I like to quickly gain value by reading a brief summary and following a link to additional information when I want it. That will be our format for providing helpful information and keeping you up-to-date on information that will be of value to you.

 

Blog and Social Media

We are building this blog which will be filled with articles, tips, and answers to frequently asked questions. We welcome your questions!

Finally, we are moving into social media to effectively communicate with more people. We will focus on LinkedIn initially and we are also on Facebook and Twitter. Getting a “Like” from you would be great!

We hope you will join us in our new adventure, and as always, your feedback and comments are welcomed.  If there are any topics you’d love to see featured, just let us know!

 

Why Don’t They Appreciate Me?

February 13, 2013 By Change Masters Academy Leave a Comment

happyWhy do some people get so much credit when they do less than you?  You work hard and get great results, and it is hardly noticed. We hear this often from talented leaders who have progressed quickly early in their career and then seem to stall out in their progress.

“My work should speak for itself,” is often the mantra.  “I don’t want to be a brown-noser or stuck-up,” or “I don’t do politics,” is the comment that usually follows close behind.  Our Asian clients will say they do not want to be the “shoeshine boy”.

Why? We hate the idea that we might come across as phony or superficial.  We have all seen the “empty suit” who gets recognition and promotion when others know they are not that good.

 

So how can you be authentic and still get the recognition you deserve?

If you invented a really great product and did not tell anyone about it or what it does for them, would you expect people to buy it? Of course not. What you do is much more apparent to you than to others. If you do not communicate how your product benefits others … they are not likely to buy it … if you do not let others know what you and your team are doing … they are not likely to buy you either.

I am not talking about the old time “Snake Oil salesman” who sold worthless product that would do nothing. That is closer to the empty suit.  You need to craft your honest marketing plan for you and your team if you want others to recognize and appreciate what you do.

It is your responsibility to promote yourself – you can’t outsource this responsibility!  Some people are fortunate to have a champion to do their marketing for them. You cannot plan on that continuing, nor should you.

You need to help your boss promote you. If your boss’s boss and your boss’s peers do not see how good you are, your boss takes a big risk to promote you or recommend you to others.  If you are promoted and do not meet expectations … it reflects poorly on the one who recommended you. That is a high risk. The higher you go in the organization … the harder it is to measure success and the higher the risk.

What if your champion is transferred, leaves, or retires? Your reputation is what you have left. Make it a good one that is well known.   Assume that people are too busy to automatically pick up on what you’re doing.   If you do so, your courage to tell your story will be doing yourself, your career and your paycheck a big favor. secure web hosting . If you have value to bring to the organization and nobody knows about it … you are also hurting the organization. They will promote someone else when it should have been you.

 

You don’t have to be slimy to build advocacy or market yourself at work

How can you show that you are on a different glide path?  If you do this right, you can segue more smoothly into your self-marketing so it doesn’t have that slimy factor we all hate.  Here’s how we encourage our clients at Change Masters, our global leadership communications company specializing in executive presence, to make their capabilities known in their organizations.  This template works around the world – in fact, here’s an example from a Western European leader now working in Asia.

 

First, make your progress known in the three big areas every company is interested in today, How are you making progress in these three areas:

–          Driving business results

–          Driving breakthrough innovations

–          Driving people development to the next level of performance

Just thinking of these things allows you to start to recalibrate your language and your actions to focus yourself in the right direction.

 

Second, if they don’t know what you’ve done it’s almost like you haven’t done it.  Get the word out.  You create a product or generate an idea, but stick it on the back of the bottom shelf and let it get dusty, no one will ever buy it. You have to socialize your ideas to get heard within your circles of influence. Don’t let your comfort level be your guide – let their ability to register and retain your message be your guide.

 

Third, when you socialize what you’ve done, concisely focus on some unique nuance of your approach or what you did that made it work because of your unique perspective on the situation.  Don’t assume they know!  When you do so, cut out the “blah blah blah” of providing excess background.  You just want to hook them with one brief, intriguing statement.  As one client of mine, a Dutch engineer, said, “Take them by the hand and give one line of background for context, not the history of the world!”   He had great results with this approach, saying, “You made a Dutch engineer half-Italian!”

 

Bottom line: Engage your senior leaders in topics that are meaningful to them and remember – if you did it and you said it, you’re not bragging!

 

For a tip sheet on how to craft your authentic message with a hook line to capture their attention, visit www.ChangeMastersAcademy.info/v00-0006_01

 

Tom Mungavan and Carol Keers

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