C-Suite Network™

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Category: Entrepreneurship

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Skills Women In Business

5 Recommendations to Effectively Interact with Visual Aids

Click here to watch 5 Recommendations to Effectively Interact with Visual Aids. 

How many times have you found yourself struggling to pay attention while the speaker spends most of the time talking to their visuals aids?  They give you permission to do anything but listen to them.

Your visual aids are not your notes. Instead, they should add impact and emphasis to your message, increasing what your listeners remember and how long they retain it.

Grab these 5 surefire ways to make sure your listeners stay connected with you while increasing their understanding through your visual aids.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Health and Wellness Management Women In Business

Achieve Peak Performance – Pay Attention to Your Well-Being

Some of the smartest and most successful people I know understand in order to have the ability to work at peak performance levels requires incredible energy and stamina. To have that consistently, one has to schedule recovery time. It’s as important to your bottom line as landing that big client or making the next sale. Let this sink in:  According to SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management, 85% of talent managers agree employees who use most (or all) of their vacation time are more productive and focused.

See, part of taking care of yourself is being a champion for your own physical and mental well-being. That’s why you’ll see extraordinary leaders plan and take vacation down time. That means disconnection from responsibility, technology, and even emails! (That last one scared you a little, didn’t it? Studies show that over 50% of employees check work-related emails after hours, on vacation and during holidays. STOP.) While it’s not always possible to completely “unplug”, it should be a goal to use your down time as true time away. To replenish the mind and spirit. To shake out the cobwebs. Find new perspective. Renew energy levels. And make quality time to pay ATTENTION to loved ones the top priority.

I read an article not long ago in Fortune Magazine that shared how Europeans think Americans are crazy because while they take up to six weeks of vacation per year, statistics show that US employees leave 429 million vacation days on the table annually. Interestingly 40% of executives think employees would be more productive if they took vacations. Yet among those same senior managers, 72% said if offered unlimited vacation time they wouldn’t take it! What’ THAT about?

If what you REALLY want is to be better at what you do, and have a better life while you’re doing it – try these three strategies for scheduling recovery and downtime: 

Plan early: One thing we do as a team, is review calendars at the first part of the year and plan a variety of trips during that year and might include cars, bikes, pool time or trips back to Australia to see family and friends. It’s a practice we have followed for many years to ensure the majority of vacations are scheduled to give us experiences to look forward to. Can you review your calendar and book time to enjoy something that you love to do with people you love being with?

Create variety: Look for ways you can mix it up – with a variety of destinations, adventures and times of year based on your needs and budgets. I’m not a stay-cation kind of gal. My office is in my home (maybe you have one there too.) That means I would just work the whole time, so that doesn’t work for me. For some people, it works. Consider visiting a new spot, driving instead of flying, build in adventure, art galleries visits, or a walking tour of a city. With so many online tools to help plan your visit, you can leverage community events, support local initiatives and experience cities and towns in a completely new way. We often use the site HomeAway.com, as I prefer an apartment or a house than a hotel when traveling for extended stays. We have used this service around the world and have loved it every time. My career allows me the luxury of travel to incredible places staying in lovely hotels and yet some vacations the idea of getting on another plane or staying in another hotel. Can you and your family choose a new adventure in the next twelve months that everyone can help plan to enjoy a trip together?

Go offline: This is the toughest ask for many of our clients (and me) but it’s not impossible! Can you create an out of office message that bounces back to manage email providing an alternative person to help while you are away? Can you stay off social media and instead focus all that time and attention on creating memories with those you love? I am a huge fan of a digital detox; your vacation is a great time to do that.

Get outside. There’s something incredibly life-affirming about getting outdoors in beautiful new space. Think mountain hikes, a walk on a nature path, collecting shells on a beach, or catching fish on a lake. Have you ever noticed how much better you feel, how much deeper you sleep and how much healthier you feel on vacation when you invest time to be active while you are relaxing?

Create memories: Truly, isn’t one of the biggest reasons we work so hard is to create a lifestyle for our loved ones? Keep this in mind – recovery time is not always just about your taking a break, it’s about taking the time to create special experiences with family and friends. It’s about connection. It’s also NOT negotiable for any leader who wants to excel. If you want to accelerate your leadership and be a productive contributor on your team? Take time off. You will be more fun to work with, more focused and energized and you will create memories with people you care about, and isn’t that the reason many of us work?

Here’s my challenge to you: Pay attention to what matters. You, your health, and your loved ones all benefit from scheduled recovery, book yours today.  Need more convincing or ideas how you can achieve peak performance through regularly scheduled recovery time? Check out this video and learn how professionals can achieve maximum productivity results, focus and dedicated attention to goals and priorities through recovery time.

 

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Personal Development

Your Brand Promise Depends on Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is just that. Your customer is assured that the products he expects are exactly what he gets. We’ve noticed that despite having the trademark and being the producer, you don’t own your brand or your brand promise. Your customer does—period!

He expects certain dependability, consistency, availability, and quality in your product. His expectations are developed by personal history with your brand, not by your advertising, labeling, and catchphrases. If you, your distributor, your supplier, or even your retailer let him down, he will blame your brand, and start shopping for an alternative. But, the trial-and-error process of finding a new brand creates anxiety and potential disappointment, so he doesn’t really want to shop. Yet, he feels obligated since the quality assurance has faded, and therefore the brand’s promise has been broken.

When your faithful customer wants to depend on your brand, why take the risk? Guarantee him availability, dependability, and quality, and he will never leave. Your brand will be his brand, the one he buys time and time again—and the one he recommends to family and friends!

Quality assurance is a promise to your customer. If it is challenged for any reason, we recommend giving an apology, an explanation of how you will fix it in the future, and, rather than refunding his money, giving your customer more of your products at no charge. This says, “Please give us another chance, and allow us to show we can exceed your expectations.”

Then, put new procedures and policies in place, add clauses to your production agreements, and create a signoff sheet or a new form to improve quality control and reestablish your value in the customer’s mind.

We once incorrectly labeled a 1.5L bottle with a 750ml-bottle UPC code, which is double the volume and almost double the price. This led the retail store to charge customers almost half of what they should have. This particular store had already scanned hundreds of bottles, costing them thousands of dollars in lost profits by the time we found out! We took complete responsibility, despite it being our contracted bottler’s mistake. Our sales manager brought a check to the buyer’s office to cover his losses, fortunately before he was aware of the issue. Not only did we have a check in our hand—we also had a schedule to replace the mislabeled products with properly labeled products. Then, we gave the buyer something even more important—a report of how we would prevent this from happening again. We earned his respect for that, and he gave us an ad then and there. Now that’s quality assurance!

Quality assurance is essential, especially when handling outsourced services, processes, and goods. We were always wondering why some contracts were so long. Our bottling contracts were only 3 pages long when we started Barefoot Wine, but when we sold our brand nineteen years later, our contracts were 37 pages long!

Quality assurance is not an endpoint; it’s a journey. Once you realize your reputation and brand promise are on the line, make sure your company constantly looks for ways to prevent issues from reoccurring. This is the key to persistently improve quality assurance.

Don’t make your brand’s customers cry, “But, you promised!”

For more, read on: http://csnetworkadvis.staging.wpengine.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Personal Development Women In Business

What a 5-Year-Old Can Teach Us About Listening

We’re told from a very young age to pay attention. From our parents. Teachers. Then bosses and gurus.  But I don’t think it means what we think it means. At least I don’t after a very smart lesson from my young friend Donovan.

I was sitting in the kitchen having coffee with my next-door neighbor Eileen, while her 5-year-old son Donovan, dressed courageously in his Superman costume was engaged in quite a heated debate about why he couldn’t wear his costume to school.

He kept inserting himself into our conversation. He was continually asking me questions:

“Neen do you like to play outside or in?”  OUTSIDE. “Neen, cats or dogs?” CATS! “Neen, Obi Wan or Yoda?” YODA of course!

Then he said, “Neen you’re not listening to me!” I replied, “YES, I AM, HONEY.” He assured me I was not, then jumped in my lap, grabbed my face in his tiny little hands, turned it towards him, and with great Superhero passion and intensity, he said the words I will never forget.

“‘NEEN, LISTEN WITH YOUR EYES!”

He was FIVE. It took a 5-year-old to remind me, that we don’t listen with our ears, we listen with our eyes, our hearts, and our souls — and I think that’s what it truly means to pay attention.

It’s a combination of all these things.

Too often, we pay attention to the to-do lists in our head.  Or we’re waiting to respond. Or trying to work out what to say in response to someone, instead of listening intently.

To truly pay attention — or as Donovan says, listening with our eyes, — is being intentional. It’s holding our own agenda at bay. It’s looking someone in the eye. It’s being fully and absolutely present.

In that precious moment, Donovan helped me realize why it’s so important that we pay attention, and why our parents and our teachers and everyone, kept reminding us of this valuable life lesson. Intentional attention is a gift. One you give the people in your world, and one you give yourself.

It’s a game-changer in your relationships. From your friends and family to the people you work with, to the teams you lead, to the customers you support. Make the shift to be more INTENTIONALLY attentive. And watch as your business and life become much more AH-MAZING. Thanks Donovan!

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Personal Development

How to Use Conflations to Negotiate More Effectively

“Conflation in a negotiation can be the bridge that leads you to the discovery of success”. –Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

When you negotiate, do you consider how you can tie (conflate) your point to prior or current situations that the opposing negotiator already holds as being valid? Conflation for the point of this negotiation strategy is the act of associating two or more thoughts that link your perspective to one the opposing negotiator views as having validity. Conflation can be used in any phase of the negotiation.

The way to use conflation is to draw the attention of the opposing negotiator to a point he’ll immediately recognize as being valid. This can be something that is or has been in the news recently or any source that he believes to be valid. If you can’t direct his attention to such a point via something that’s current, search for something in his past that he’ll agree to as being valid; something that’s closer to your current negotiation time frame will have more sway with him and impact him more. Then, mention how your point is tied to that occurrence and allow him the time to mentally let that association seep into his mind. When such has occurred (watch his body language to gain insight that it has occurred), ask him if he sees the logic in your point. If he says he doesn’t ‘get it’, be sure that he’s not ‘playing dumb’ (different negotiation strategy to be aware of), and seek to clarify his lack of comprehension until he ‘gets the point’.

Conflation is a tactic that sounds overly simple to utilize and therein lies why it’s is so effective. The other negotiator has already made the mental connection to the point that you’ve highlighted as being valid, which becomes more difficult to deny or argue against, since he’s accepted it as being valid. Thus, it’s a logical step for him to connect your point to the position you’ve adopted, which gives your point more validity in his mind.

To become more dynamic at the negotiation table, always consider how you can conflate points that are perceived as being valid, with the points you’re attempting to make. Once the opposing negotiator senses the validity of your conflated points, he’ll be more apt to accept it and feel a kinship with it. After all, the subliminal thought is the fact that you’ve shown the viability of your point that he’s already accepted as being valid from another source. For him to deny such, he’d be arguing with himself. That alone would make the score two against one (i.e. him and his faulty logic against you). Thus, by using conflation in your negotiations, you position yourself to win more negotiations … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development

11 (Pain Free) Marketing Tips for Business

Marketing, yuck!  The daunting task of selling your products, your services, your brand…yourself.  You went into business not because you are a natural sales person but because you are good in your specific industry.  The sad reality is that in order to be a successful entrepreneur, you must also be a successful marketer.  You may have the best business in the world but it means nothing if no one has heard of it.  If the idea of sales makes you shudder, read these pain free tips for marketing your business.

  1. Start Posting More on Social Media

Want to get some buzz on your page? Posting updates, links, photos, and retweeting is the best way to organically generate interest on your page. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, do some market research and look at what your competitors post on their social media pages. A few posts a week is a good start.

  1. Join Relevant Facebook & LinkedIn Groups

Joining groups on social media introduces you to new people and helps you target potential customers. Use LinkedIn’s search function to find the groups most relevant to you. People often use groups to pose questions or ask for advice. This is where you can demonstrate your skills and expertise but don’t be too salesy. Remember, you want to add value and help people, but you must also be patient. If you provide solutions to people on a regular basis, you will be top of mind and they will look to you for advice in the future.

  1. Start a Blog

According to Entrepreneur, a blog is a place where you find your customers, feed them information, and position your value. You have a lot of knowledge that could help people. Write about your business, your customers, and frequent problems customers have that you can shed light on. Think about the kinds of things your customers would want to read or that they would look up and create posts on those topics.

  1. Write a Guest Post on Another Blog

Don’t have the time to make your own blog?  Submit a guest article on someone else’s blog. Many bloggers accept guest content so just email them and ask. (For example, http://brainhackers.com/contributorguidelines/ looks for contributing writers all the time!) Find a blog with an audience similar to the demographic you are looking for. Make sure that the host blogger includes a link to your company website in the post. This is called a “back link” which over time this improves your SEO (search engine optimization.) The more places your website link is posted, the easier it is for people to find you via Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines.

 

  1. YouTube Ads

Running YouTube ads is a great way to get your message in front of a target audience and it may also help your SEO. (Google owns YouTube, so these videos are often ranked high in the search algorithm.) Google makes it incredibly easy to set up and monitor ads. For more info check HERE.

  1. Be a Guest on a Podcast

Much like writing a guest blog post, this will you get your message in front of a new group people and will only take an hour out of your day. How do you become a guest on a podcast? Simply contact the host and ask. Do NOT be overly salesy with the podcast host because you will be offered paid ad space instead of a free guest spot.  Rather than selling them on your product or service, sell the information and value you will provide to their audience.

  1. Optimize your Site for SEO

Does your website show up on the first page of a Google search…or the tenth? Did you know there are often simple things you can do to improve your ranking? For example. some things that affect your website SEO are the quantity and quality of photos used, the titles and descriptions of your pages, the way the pages are categorized, etc. Not sure where to begin?  Check out this article in Forbes for some tips to improve the SEO of your business.

  1. Create A Yelp Listing

Many businesses grow through word-of-mouth marketing and Yelp is the digital version of this. Customers turn to Yelp more than any other site to make buying decisions so it should be an essential part of your online portfolio. First check to see if you are already on Yelp. (The platform pulls information from different places so you may be without realizing it.) For more information on how to optimize and manage your Yelp listing click HERE.

  1. Offer a Free Giveaway

Everyone loves free stuff. This is a great way to get customers familiar with your brand. It can also help you build a mailing list of contacts. Offer a free download on your website (like a tip sheet or a report) that you must opt in to receive. Discount your service on Groupon and post on Facebook about the sale.

  1. Get Press

Getting your name to appear in the media raises brand awareness and it also builds credibility. Unlike advertising which immediately puts people on the defense (no one likes to be “sold”) earned media frames you as an expert and allows you talk about your brand in a discreet way that is much more effective for making sales and building brand advocates. Check HARO for media requests, send an opinion editorial piece to publications, or you can outsource the work to a professional PR team.

  1. Host a Webinar

Webinars are a way to build trust with customers/leads and help you demonstrate your expertise. Your webinar should provide useful information around your subject area. For ideas, you can look at what other people in your industry have done in the past. (Yes, someone has done a webinar on your topic, and if you search you will find it.)

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Skills Women In Business

Are you Consistent Monday to Monday®? 4 Steps to Commitment

Click here to watch Are you Consistent Monday to Monday®? 4 Steps to Commitment

Consistency is a key element of influence. Inconsistency leads to a lack of trust. If people don’t trust you, they won’t act on your recommendations or follow your lead.

Influence comes down to two different elements that often collide; what you communicate, or the message, and how you communicate it, or the delivery.

Take action this week to make sure your personal brand is consistent Monday to Monday rather than making your listeners guess who is going to show up.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development

How Employee Engagement Can Be Smothered by Compensation, Compliance, and Corporate Structure

Today’s C-Suiters search for ways to enhance empowerment, employee engagement, and entrepreneurial culture. They can say they want a more innovative, entrepreneurial environment, but they need the tools to get there.

Our book, The Entrepreneurial Culture, 23 Ways to Engage and Empower Your People, is a companion to our New York Times Best Seller, The Barefoot Spirit, which gives you what you need to foster a dynamic, constructive, and progressive corporate culture. The Entrepreneurial Culture speaks to corporations, giving them successful entrepreneurial tools to engage their employees.

Developing a new corporate structure from scratch isn’t necessary—these tools can benefit a company’s present structure. In order for these tools to be successful, changes must start from the top, and tip-top management must be eager to make those changes. But, a common trait of many C-Suiters is that they are terrified of change. A C-Suiter might think that change will result in legal issues, wasted money, or an employee rebellion. What they might not realize is that they can prevent employee empowerment and engagement by praising the three sacred corporate cows.

1. Compensation: Salary is the most popular method of compensation among corporations. But salary does not pay for performance—it pays for attendance. With salaried pay, a raise is not personal. It’s not based on accomplishments, good ideas, or profits; instead, it’s based on tenure. Why should an employee care what they accomplished this week if their paycheck will look the same as it did last week? This teaches employees that they are unappreciated—they are not respectable assets to the company. Two or more employees might be paid the same salary if they do the same work. So, why would either of them put in extra effort when it won’t be acknowledged? These people will leave to find employment that pays in line with production. Who can blame them? How can an employee work to their potential if the company’s compensation plan holds them back?

2. Corporate Structure: Most companies operate in a pyramid shape, functioning from the top down. Within the company pyramid are several smaller pyramids. Each small pyramid ferociously defends itself from the other small pyramids, creating an environment susceptible to turf wars. This jagged structure can prevent great ideas from moving upward, potentially stifling any chance of real breakthrough. It’s tough to expect employee engagement when their ideas will be forgotten, withheld, or altered. How can anyone feel comfortable coming up with resolutions for other departments’ challenges if they are seen as forbidden territory.

3. Compliance: Compliance is designed to mitigate liability. Instead of finding reasons why things should be done, the legal department finds reasons why they shouldn’t be. Compliance is not a quick process—it creates a backlog, and employees know it. This alone can discourage them from proposing new solutions and ideas. Since the legal department is paid by the hour, they have an interest in running everything through compliance. Some legal departments go as far as to discourage public recognition for good work, fearing it could be used against the company in a legal dispute. What these legal departments fail to understand is that public acknowledgement encourages positive production, sets a standard for appreciation, and creates a respectful environment.

Want to discover how to achieve entrepreneurial culture by rounding up the sacred cows and removing the element of fear? Come back soon!

For more, read on: http://csnetworkadvis.staging.wpengine.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Women In Business

Putting the R.A.P. in Rapport – Mastering the Art of High Power Communication

Imagine hearing a conversation in a foreign language and immediately being able to understand what is said and communicate effectively in that language. How powerful would that be?  I’ve always had a secret fantasy of being able to do that. One of my favorite fictional characters is Lieutenant Commander Hoshi Sato, the Human Linguist from Star Trek Enterprise whose superpower is her ability to instantly connect with anyone.   I have always wanted to be it just like her.

Granted, speaking Klingon or Vulcan isn’t essential in the business world, or for that matter on planet Earth; yet the gift of being able to communicate effectively with anyone, at any time, in any given situation is extremely valuable.

Whether you have a product or a service, you are in sales. One of the biggest mistakes that people make in offering their products and services is working hard to sell something when there is no need or no perceived value.  When it comes to sales, proper communication is essential and can make all the difference between closing the deal or walking away empty handed.

What if you can look at your sales process in a completely different fashion? What if you were connecting to people and offering them solutions to their pain, suffering, and problems?

Delivering your message is more than just what you say. It is how you say what you say, when you say it, and why you say it and who you are when you deliver your message.

Whether in a one-on-one situation, on a stage or in writing, high power communication is an essential key to High Performance. It is a topic that I review with my clients both in sales and in relationships. Raising the level of your communication will deepen your connection with people and enhance your relationships, leading to higher affinity and increased sales.

Aside from choosing the proper target market, it is essential to make a connection with them. People want to feel valued and appreciated. Who do you do business with? People you like and care about. If you want people to do business with you, wouldn’t it help if they felt that you cared about them?  Show them you care, get to know them a bit, and build rapport.

We all have our own unique way of connecting and building rapport; look at it as your personal “Rap”. Most often it comes naturally and you don’t put much thought behind it. What if you made it intentional in order to uplevel your game and improve your results?

Let’s look at the strategy behind Putting the R.A.P. in Rapport.

R- Relate to Your Audience

A- Active Listening

P- Present Your Solution

R-Relate to Your Audience
 Your physiology and body language can help you make a connection. Keep your body open and your posture nonthreatening, give the other person proper personal space. Help them feel at ease. Remember like attracts like and connects to like.
Pay attention to your voice. Are your tone, volume, and pitch similar to your customer or audience?    How about your energy? Are you excited about making a new connection and the possibility of helping someone without overpowering them?

Are you speaking their language? Are you using terms that they can understand? One of the biggest mistakes is getting too technical by using professional jargon with someone who really doesn’t care.

A- Active Listening
What is behind the words? Are you truly listening to your audience? What are they asking for? Are they hesitant, do they have reservations? Remember, people will buy what they value and what they want, not necessarily what they need. They look for a solution to the problem, a relief for their pain or suffering. Are you listening to them and speaking their language?

Understanding your customers’ primary mode of communication will help you better relate to them. You can figure out their communication mode by listening to the words they use to describe things. People fall into the categories of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. In other words, some are more comfortable with seeing things, some need to hear things, and some need to feel things. Your primary mode of communication is the language in which you process information and connect to others.

Once you have successfully related to your customer or your audience, and actively listened to their problem, you can move to the third and final step by offering and presenting your solution.

P- Present Your Solution

People want solutions.  They want to know what is in it for them. They want to know that things will work and the problems will be resolved. Push a sale on them, and they will walk the other way. By using high power communication, you can connect with them, listen to them, identify their problem, and offer them a solution that will change their life.
Once the need and value have been established by understanding the problem, offering a solution is an easy process. Wouldn’t you give a fresh towel to someone who’s soaking wet? All they need is to dry off. You wouldn’t want to sell them Cologne, would you?

Effective communication in any situation is a combination of several actions. It is always a matter of having a good R.A.P.  Listening alone won’t build a good dialogue. However, when you listen and truly hear the other person, you have the ability to build better rapport with them. We all have the need to know we have a voice and are being heard. Practice all three aspects of communication and challenge yourself to master them. When you do that, you will build trust and a great following, and you will create loyal customers who will come back for more!

 

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Personal Development Women In Business

Understand Before Seeking to be Understood

 

In your negotiations, how much attention to you give to really understanding the needs, wants, and desires of the other negotiator? Do you understand why he’s really negotiating with you per the mindset he possesses, his values, his sources of motivation? A lot of negotiators don’t really understand the mindset of the opposing negotiator and thus, they lead themselves down a path that infuses the negotiation with more angst than what otherwise might be the case.

In your future negotiations, be more mindful of the mindset of the other negotiator. Seek to understand him before you seek to be understood by him.

www.TheMasterNegotiator.com