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Category: Personal Development

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Growth Leadership Operations Personal Development

Deliver the Kind of Customer Service That Would Make Radar Proud!

Do you remember the hit TV show M*A*S*H, which played from 1972 to 1983, and was based on the novel and movie by the same name? While you might consider the show a sitcom, many critics viewed it as a “dramedy,” instead of a comedy, because of its heavy dramatic setting, which was a medical unit during the Korean War. Sure, the show created a lot of laughs, but the message behind the show was very serious. But what does M*A*S*H have to do with customer service?

One of the characters of the show, Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, played by Gary Burghoff, actually was the customer service department for the M*A*S*H unit. Radar worked for Colonel Potter, who led the unit. It always led to laughs whenever Colonel Potter barked out a request for a file, only to have Radar walking into his office with that file, even before the Colonel had finished making his request. It was as though he could read his leader’s mind, or as his nickname indicates, as though he had radar.

This frequently-played humorous incident from the show reminded me of another incident – an interview I had recently with a potential employee who was applying to be my assistant here at Shepard Presentations. During the interview, I asked her, “What makes a good assistant?” She simply replied, “Radar O’Reilly.” When I asked her to explain this unexpected, brief answer, she said, “Oh, that’s the kind of assistant I want to be – knowing what you want before you even ask for it.”

I thought it was an excellent response. Whether you are assisting an executive or assisting a customer, one of the many attributes of someone who delivers outstanding customer service is the ability to anticipate a customer’s needs – like Radar, knowing what he or she wants even before they ask.

This doesn’t take E.S.P., Extra Sensory Perception, which is the ability to read minds. Instead, it takes what I call E.A.P., or Extra Awareness Perception, which is the ability to know more, because you are simply more aware and are paying closer attention than the average employee. That’s it. Just pay close attention to your customers, their behaviors, and their habits. When you begin to study your customers, and get to know them and their habits, you’ll be able to anticipate or predict, with uncanny accuracy, what they will ask for next – sometimes even before they know they need to ask.

So, as we think about Radar O’Reilly’s uncanny ability to anticipate Colonel Potter needs, see if you can also determine what your customers are going to ask for next. If you try it, you may find that your guess is more accurate than you think. Take the initiative and deliver a standard of customer service that would make Radar proud. The result will be … customer amazement!

Categories
Growth Management Skills

The Dirtiest Word In Business – Multitasking

There is one word in Corporate America that makes my blood boil. It’s not the typical clichés like synergy, think outside the box, right size, paradigm shift, or leverage. It’s a word used in job descriptions as a positive skill and one used as an excuse too many times to count for why someone is not listening during a meeting.

The word is “multitasking”! I hate this word more than any other word in business and in life for that matter. “Multitasking” is what society has decided means it’s OK to stop listening to those you are talking to. When did that become a skill to be proud of?

Keep reading if you feel that you or your team could be more productive, but you are not sure how. Let’s talk about why multitasking is not real, why it’s not an asset to your organization, and then examine what you can do about it so that you and your team are more productive and more effective.

“I’m sorry can you repeat yourself? I was multitasking,” was a phrase I would hear at least 5 times on each call with one particular client. As a consultant I politely said sure and repeated myself while in my head I was screaming, cussing, and thinking, “How rude are you to waste my time and everyone else’s time on this call by making us repeat ourselves because you have more important things to do. Well excuse me for interrupting your day with what I believe is your job.”

That’s an example I’ve experienced on phone calls, but it happens so often in conference rooms too. There is the one person sitting in the conference room with you and your team looking at their phone whether for text or email. They look up when someone says their name for the second time to blank stares of the people waiting for them to answer a question. They of course say, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I was multitasking,” and the person repeats the question.

If you are going into a meeting and you are not responsible for keeping the lights on or the network running there is really no reason to have your phone. I’ve heard the excuse, “Well, I have to look at my calendar so I know where my next meeting is.” Great, then look at it between meetings or write it down on a piece of paper like we used to. 99% of the time you don’t need your phone during the meeting. I believe there should be a no phone rule in all meetings and that goes for everyone in the room.

It seems that people have turned to technology for everything, but most business problems are really people problems. That means technology cannot always solve our problems and it is time to put the technology down and step away. It is time to get back to the human connection that built this country and economy. It is time to start communicating and respecting each other again and that cannot be done behind the screen of your phone, tablet, or laptop.

When people say they are multitasking, they are typically talking about doing two things like reading and listening or listening and writing at the same time. They make claims – to themselves and others – like, “Keep talking, I can listen while I type this report,” “I can be present on the conference call while reading the email that just came in,” “I can write this presentation while watching the news.” Can you really do those things simultaneously? The answer is that you cannot and there is a scientific reason why.

The reason you cannot do these things at the same time is because all those activities are being handled by the same part of the brain and your brain cannot do multiple things at the same time that are processed from the same place.

Yes, you can walk and talk, or read and walk on the treadmill, or listen to music and clean the kitchen at the same time. You can use different parts of your brain at the same time for those activities. But you cannot use the same part of your brain for multiple tasks at the same time.

It might feel like you are doing them at the same time, but in reality your brain is switching back and forth between the two tasks. One moment you are writing and the next you are listening and then back and forth. That means you are hearing half of what is being said and slowing down your thoughts around what you are writing or working on. You are most likely increasing your error rate while decreasing your effectiveness and productivity, neither of which are benefits to you or your organization. Don’t forget the fact that you are being rude in the process.

Did you know that on average people look at their phones nine times an hour and 110 times a day? That’s once every six to seven minutes! That is not my definition of productivity. If you stop what you are working on that frequently to look at your phone, how long does it take you to get back on track once you stop looking at your phone? If an employee is working on a project, how much is your company spending on them to check their phone when they could be working on the project, delivering it faster and for a lower cost? How about you? How much is it costing the company when you do the same thing, at your salary?

This is not just about work and meetings; it’s also about life and how we treat our family and friends. Nowadays, it’s commonplace for people to look at phones while at the dinner table; to hold their phone during a conversation indicating that something more important might show up in the form of a text, email, or call; or to read email while chatting on the phone. I am guilty of this, and I am working to do better. The first step is admitting that something needs to change and then observing our patterns so we can change the actions.

Start to take inventory every time you stop to look at your phone. When you think you are multitasking, what is it costing you and your company? What about the conference call that could take 20 minutes that ends up taking 40 minutes because people have to keep repeating themselves? How much focus and money are you actually losing to multitasking?

Every time you catch yourself saying “what?” to someone, check in with yourself to see what happened. Were you truly unable to hear or understand what they said, or were you not paying full attention? Become more self-aware of your own habit around multitasking.
Decide what kind of leader do you want to be and then be that leader. Be the change you want to see in your organization and then lead by example, walk the talk and create an organization of respect where everyone is more productive and more present. Only good things can happen if you chose to take this journey, so will join me in debunking the multi-tasking myth?

For more resources or to contact me please visit www.c-suiteresults.com

Categories
Leadership Marketing Skills

5 Reasons Every Business Owner Needs a Book

Are you wondering how to expand your business? Has a major segment of the market shifted away from buying your products or services? Are you questioning your marketing plan? There’s one simple answer you probably haven’t considered:

Write a book.

It’s true. This one thing—especially if it’s an actual printed book rather than a Kindle or eBook—has the power to grow your business beyond your expectations. You’ll experience a whole new world of opportunities simply by having your name on the cover of a book.

Authority

Imagine you’re at a conference or local networking group and you meet two CEOs who both specialize in business branding—something you know you need help with.

One CEO says all the right things. She’s been in business for years and worked with some top-notch business owners. She has great ideas for how she can help you solidify your branding and assist you with marketing.

The other has a similar history and story, with one added bonus: she’s just handed you a copy of her latest book. It’s a professionally printed, substantial publication that practically exudes confidence.

Which person do you think shows more authority in her field? The one with the book, of course. There really is nothing better when it comes to establishing your authority in any niche than having a book with your name on it.

At this point, I have written or coauthored more than 800 books, articles, online courses, chapters or case studies. This factor more than anything else helped people in my field get to know me.

Expertise

Why does a book speak so highly of you and establish your authority so well? Because it gives you a platform to show off your expertise. It’s like being invited to present on any topic you choose on the world’s largest stage.

Not only that, but your readers are a captive audience. They’re listening—in that moment—only to you. That’s a powerful position to be in, and one that gives you an opportunity to really show off your stuff.

Market Reach

No matter how many readers Google sends your way, no matter how much traffic your YouTube channel receives, nothing will ever compare to the number of potential readers Amazon and other online booksellers can bring your way.

Positioned correctly, your book can reach millions of new readers, and thousands of potential clients. Combine that with the expertise and authority we know comes with being a published author, and that’s a recipe for success that can’t be beat.

Better Than a Business Card

If you’ve ever been to a conference, you’ve no doubt collected a stack of business cards. You get home and toss them in a drawer, and six months later you throw them out, without ever having contacted the people who gave them to you.

But if one of those people handed you a book instead, what happened? You’ve likely read it (or at least leafed through it). You almost certainly didn’t throw it away. And you remember it—and the person who wrote it.

Press Opportunities

Turn on your television to any interview show, browse through Huffington Post, or listen to any of a number of popular podcasts or radio shows, and you’ll quickly see that most of the guest speakers and interviewees have written a book.

The fact is, interview shows depend on interesting, insightful guests to keep their audiences listening, and there’s no better applicant than an author. Writing a book will open up many, many opportunities for appearances that you may never have without your name on that cover.

Do you have to write a book to be successful? No. But there’s no denying the fact that a published author will find she has a much easier time growing her business than the business person who keeps putting it off until later.

Do you have a book in you? Contact me to discuss my editing and ghostwriting services. I’d love to see your book take shape.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Skills Women In Business

Homage to the Master Storyteller

Nope, it’s not Steven Spielberg, or even Dr. Seuss. It’s Hans Rosling.

Never heard of him? After today, you’ll not only have heard of him, but you’ll wish you’d done so years ago.

The late, great Dr. Hans Rosling passed away on February 9, 2017. A professor of public health, he was the master of taking arguably mundane data – and lots of it – and one of the most boring forms of visual presentation – the graph – and transforming them into a mesmerizing story that made you forget you were learning.

So for anyone out there who uses the excuse that the information you have to share “isn’t all that exciting” to defend why their presentations are uninspiring, after reading this post, that excuse no longer exists.

See for yourself in this BBC video where he analyzes the life-expectancy-to-income ratio of 200 countries over 200 years… in about four minutes. As you watch, you’ll be amazed at not only how much he accomplished in those four minutes, but at how much you actually learned… not to mention how much you enjoyed the experience in the process.

The key lesson for our purposes here is something he states in the first few seconds of the video: “I know that having the data isn’t enough. I have to show it in ways people both enjoy and understand.”

Talk about a one-two punch; let’s face it, most people are satisfied if they can get people to understand their data. The idea of combining that with having the audience actually enjoy hearing about it… that seems almost as likely as finding a unicorn.

There is huge differentiator that most people fail to grasp: the amount of information you present in no way naturally correlates to the amount of information the audience absorbs. That part is 100% up to you to make the information both comprehendible and ideally interesting, so it’s not just that the audience can understand what you’re saying, but they actively want to understand it, and then ask for more.

That’s why Professor Rosling was the master. For most of us, we’ll claim that of course global public health is important to us on a general level, but it’s not something we’ll go out of our way to learn about. But from the moment he starts talking, we are practically compelled to keep watching, genuinely curious to see where he goes next.

So what’s the secret sauce to being this good?

I’ve worked with a lot of people in this area, and there are some really important commonalities regarding the challenges that they face, and where Professor Rosling excels. Let’s break down the ingredients into three categories: Visual, Verbal and Vocal.

First: Visual. This one’s easy. As the adage says, “A picture is worth 1000 words.” When graphs or other visual aids are easy to see and understand, the audience just “gets it,” allowing you to share more information much more efficiently. His body language also flows with the picture, and matches his level of enthusiasm as he speaks, which makes it all feel very natural, and draws you in.

Second: Verbal. He’s a globally-renowned expert, but he doesn’t try to prove this by using lots of technical terms or speaking over the viewers’ heads. He uses language everyone can understand, and breaks his points down into distinct sentences with a clear beginning and end. It’s not a rambling stream of consciousness as he figures out what he wants to say. He is crystal-clear on what each point needs to be, and he delivers them on a silver platter, one by one, making it easily digestible for the audience.

Third: Vocal. Without looking at his script, how can you tell where sentences (and points) start and end? Because you can hear it. At the end of his sentences, you can hear where there is a period or exclamation point based on the intonation changes in his voice: there is a low drop for periods, and the sentence or last word may rise in pitch until the very last second and then quickly fall to indicate excitement, i.e. the exclamation point. Where a phrase is not the end of a sentence, his pitch often goes up to indicate a comma, and then the rest of the sentence follows, culminating in the voice-drop. And at the end of his sentences, there is a brief pause, which allows you to process what he just said, and prepares you for the next nugget to come.

(For those of you who need to hear/see some examples of these vocal concepts and the ones that follow, check this short little video here.)

Intonation contrasts – otherwise known as tonality, i.e. where you put the high and low pitch points in your speech – have an additional value beyond implying punctuation and grammar: they are chiefly responsible for conveying interest. He “punches” important key words with higher pitch and draws them out a bit in a way that sounds more enthusiastic. It captures the audience’s interest, and even makes it easier for them to cognitively process the key points, aiding in comprehension.

Plus, the audience will feed off the speaker’s energy before they process what they heard. Dr. Rosling genuinely loves his subject, and his passion for it comes through with each fact he shares, and it’s contagious.

As a point of contrast, reflect back on actor Ben Stein’s most infamous character, the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, who epitomized the world’s most boring teacher. While that was funny in the movie, the sad truth is that he more accurately reflects the typical speech style of people at your average office meeting or presentation than Professor Rosling.

The good news is that the typical standard of mediocrity in how people share data can be raised, and I challenge you to do it. While you may not have all the fancy computer graphics at your disposal, you can use these simple verbal, vocal and visual strategies to tell the story of your data rather than just plod through your statistics one by one.

Better yet, you can also use his software to bring your data to life if you so choose. At Dr. Rosling’s site, Gapminder.org, he gives it to you for free through open licensing, and even shows you how to use it.

So thanks, Dr. Rosling, for inspiring the world in two ways: with all that you have done in the world of public health, and for modeling how to make even the most “boring” data compelling through the art of storytelling.

********

Do you have questions or comments about the issues in today’s post, want to know how to apply them, or how to help others with them? If so, contact me at
laura@vocalimpactproductions.com or click here to schedule a 20-minute focus call to discuss them with me personally!

Categories
Growth Human Resources Leadership Personal Development

“Don’t Say Anything But…” Four Reasons Why People Won’t Have Fearless Conversations

As a leader, has an employee ever come to you and said, “Don’t say anything but my co-worker isn’t doing his/her job.” Or, “My co-worker, is being disrespectful to us (the team).” Or, “Sarah is avoiding me and I need information from her.” Somehow, because you are the leader, you are supposed to magically solve these complex people interaction issues without any data other than hearsay comments.
What are the consequences of this lack of communication and/or the avoidance of challenging conversations? Certainly, there will be wasted time; possibly poor quality products or services; likely delays to customer services. It is nearly impossible to measure the negative impact of a lack of communication. Intuitively we know it increases costs, causes delays and damages relationships, and damages employee engagement.

In 2003 the Columbia Space shuttle reentered earth’s atmosphere at 18 times the speed of sound. The 7-person crew died seconds after the ship disintegrated. The left wing protective tiles had been damaged by a large piece of insulating foam that broke off during lift-off. The super-heated air entered the wing and then the cabin eventually destroying the Columbia and killing the crew.
This was the physical cause of the accident. Lost was human life, millions of dollars of government property, and untold knowledge from the 80 life-science experiments the crew had conducted. But, there was also a cultural cause. “Organizational barriers that prevented effective communication of critical safety information” contributed to the accident. (Howell, 2013) In most organizations, people will not die if communication is stunted. But, there will be waste and waste is always damaging.

Furthermore, why does this type of communication dysfunction happen in most organizations?

I have identified four root causes of the lack of willingness and lack of ability to have fearless challenging conversations.

Cause #1: The context is not safe for honesty. It is a leader’s job to make it safe for people to talk to one another. This unsafe context is deeply seated in how we learn to interact with each other during school and in our families. Unfortunately, the authoritarian structure in schools where the teacher is above the student, the administrator is above the teacher and the superintendent is above the administrator is a barrier to open and honest communication. The fear comes from the high probability of some form of retaliation for telling the truth when the communication involves bad-news.

Cause #2: There is no clear problem solving process. The leader and/or the employee knows something is wrong but there is no clear adopted problem solving process to address it and so the employee goes to the manager for a solution. What if a clear process was available so the employees could act on their own to address it? Why does the manager/leader need to resolve basic communication problems?

Cause #3: There is a lack of understanding of how to use process improvement tools. If the leader and/or the employee don’t have process improvement tools to address complex issues they fall back on guessing. They rely on quick action or a lack of action, which may in fact make things worse. This is exactly what happened with the Columbia.
Cause #4: The culture prevents a disciplined thoughtful approach to problem solving. The leader and/or the employee do not take disciplined time to address the real root causes but instead they continue to react and guess and/or blame. This is exactly the approach we are taught in school. The school system is dysfunctional but the children are the ones who get the grades. The teachers must teach to the test or face consequences. There is little time for introspection and innovative thought.

It is not easy to address these issues but being a leader is not easy either. One of the very first responsibilities of a leader is to create a culture which allows employees to solve their own problems. These four steps will help. Otherwise, be prepared for employees to come to you and say “Don’t say anything but…”

Howell, E. (2013, February 1). http://www.space.com/19436-columbia-disaster.html. Retrieved from www.space.com: http://www.space.com/19436-columbia-disaster.html

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal. Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP. Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.

OptimumLeadershipTV

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Nothing to Fear

A great quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt “the only thing to fear is fear itself” rings loud and true today. There are so many people that I hear speaking from a place of fear. Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of speaking up, fear of being judged, fear of public speaking, and fear of rejection to name a few of the fears I often see stop people from reaching their goals.

What are your fears? How much do they affect you and your decisions? How have they held you back?

Have you ever stopped to think about whether fear is real? Can you see, touch, eat, smell, or hear fear? Can fear even hurt you? Since the answer to those questions is no, why do we spend so much time living with it? People and situations can injure you physically or emotionally, that is true, but fear cannot, and fearing situations that are not life threatening and pose no actual harm will stop you from reaching your true potential in life and in business.

Fear makes sense from the fight or flight response that we needed when and bears and neighboring tribes were the enemy. Without laying out all the science of the hormones behind your fight or flight response, what is important is to understand is that your body releases stress hormones when you have to take action around something you “fear.” These hormones increase blood sugar, heart rate, and blood pressure, while shutting down nonessential systems like digestion and immune and hampering our focus on small tasks. This all made sense because we needed the increased blood sugar and heart rate for big tasks like running or fighting, rather than small tasks like digestion or focus on details.

The challenge is that we are now constantly putting ourselves into this state of stress when we create fears around non-life threatening events. You don’t often have to run for your lives anymore, but our bodies and brains do not know that. We still have the caveman part of our brain and our fight or flight response has not changed. As a result, all the fears that do not threaten your life are not only causing you to waste time and energy in reaching your goals, but are also causing physical and emotional issues as well. I am not saying that having a healthy sense of fear is bad, you do need to know when to step back from the ledge, when to jump out of the way of a speeding car, or when to grab a child away from a rabid animal; and fear or the flight or flight response gears us up to do all of that.

However, how many times have you worried about or feared a situation, conversation, or outcome, only to find that what ended up happening wasn’t even close to what you had created in your mind? I’ve spent more time than I would like to admit having made-up conversations in my head, causing stress and fear out of nothing and wasting precious time and energy that I could have used being happy and productive. I have also been able to trace digestive and join pain issues to stress caused from fears that I created in my mind as well.

One of the things I have learned to do is to observe the fearful thoughts and stop them in their tracks the minute I notice them happening. When you observe your thoughts you can change them. The next time you start to worry or fear something ask yourself “what evidence do I have of the outcome?” What’s another outcome or story that could be just as true as the one you are telling yourself? The old acronym for FEAR is good to remember – False Evidence Appearing Real.

Because your brain translates what you see into perceptions based on the filters you have created, you really do create your reality. The filters are the stories you use to explain the world around you. These perceptions feel like reality, but they are only as real as you want them to be. You can always change the story.

Some people see a rain cloud and think, “Oh man, it’s going to rain and ruin my day,” while someone else sees a rain cloud and finds gratitude because their garden is dry. Different perceptions = different realities. Someone gets on stage excited because they get to share something with a group and make a difference while someone else sees the same group and the same stage as a place of judgment and thinks, “What if I mess up and look stupid? What if I fail?” The events are the same, speaking on stage and sharing information. The only difference between these two speakers is their thoughts. My bet is the person who is excited will be a much better presenter than the person who is afraid of failing or looking stupid even if they have the exact same information to share. They are indeed in control of their outcome and through their thoughts create their reality. Just like I said before the more you start to observe your thoughts and ask meaningful questions of yourself, the more you can change your thoughts, change your story, and change your reality.

The reason I like the quote “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” is because it is the fearful thought itself that is debilitating not the thing you fear. Of course bad things can happen that you cannot control. You can make an investment that goes south where money is lost, you might loose a job, not get the second date, and great opportunities are sometimes missed. While you can’t completely control these situations you can control how you respond to them, how you might plan in the event that they happen, or use them in your basis for making decisions. And since you cannot predict them or completely control them you should not live in fear of them.

When you stop doing new things because of a fearful thought, now that is something to be afraid of. When you are able to let go of the fear and live your life, magic happens. Or you can decide to “feel the fear and do it anyway” as Susan Jeffers discusses in her book with the same title. Whether you let go of the fear or do something despite the fear, your results are going to include more fun, more joy, more love, more abundance, and more wealth. You are going to continue moving forward and towards your goals and dreams.

When you live in fear you question those around you and you don’t let new people or new experiences in. You miss out on the journey and experience of life and when you really think about it that is the purpose of being here. You don’t get to take any of the material things with you when we go. Most likely we will only be remembered for a few generations at the most, I honestly cannot tell you my great grandparents names, so why spend the precious time you have in this beautiful life fearing anything that is not real?

None of us know what the future holds, we never will, regardless of how hard we try to predict the future by creating scenarios in our head. So if you are going to spend time trying to predict the future by telling yourself how something is going to turn out, change the story so the ending is one of happily ever after. After all you do create your own reality so choose one that is fun and fulfilling.

For more resources or to contact me please visit www.c-suiteresults.com

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Startling Revelation! Tell More Jokes To Get Ahead in Business


When I was a kid, my teachers labeled me the class clown. I wasn’t one for long winded jokes, but I was always ready with a snappy comeback, a sarcastic comment or a funny observation. My classmates loved my wisecracks, but I have to admit that I spent more time honing my sense of humor than reading my textbooks.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve held onto my wisecracking ways and yet, I’ve been successful in business.

Research confirms that my success isn’t just an accident (though of course I like to think that I am exceptionally witty). According to a study conducted by the Harvard and University of Pennsylvania business schools, using humor effectively can actually bolster your status at work. If you can make people laugh, they’ll think you are more competent and confident than you might actually be.

“If you are brave enough to tell the joke you want to tell, whether it succeeds or not, people ascribe confidence to you because they see you as efficacious” for taking the risk, considering all the ways a joke can go poorly, said one of the study’s co-authors, Allison Wood Brooks of the Harvard Business School.

I’ve experienced this firsthand. Back when I had a corporate job, I showed up for one of my first senior level meetings and sat waiting for the meeting to start. The room was silent. It was weird, and I felt uncomfortable, so I said something funny. I asked these senior level execs how their weekend was. They looked at me like I had two heads, but I ignored them and went on to tell a funny tale about my own weekend. Lucky for me, they laughed, and the funny remarks I made during that meeting made a big difference in my career.

Since then, I’ve learned that it’s good to use your sense of humor in business. I don’t think people do it enough. If you can make people laugh, they’ll enjoy being around you, and they’ll want to do business with you.

The Harvard and Penn study bears this out. Interestingly, though, the study found that telling a joke that flops doesn’t hurt your status as much as you’d think because you’re still seen as a confident risk taker. But if you use humor inappropriately – say, making a joke about 9/11 while visiting a Manhattan skyscraper – your status can fall dramatically!

My Tips for Using Humor When Conducting Business

After a lifetime of wisecracking my way through business meetings, presentations and the like, I have some advice on when to use humor for the greatest impact:

  • When you’re building a relationship. Bantering with clients helps “break the ice” and create a better rapport. If someone likes you, they’re more likely to trust you and want to do business with you.
  • When you’re giving a speech. People remember things better when they’ve had a good laugh, so I try to get the audience laughing at my keynote speeches. Since I work in the customer experience field, I’m always able to find a funny story of a customer’s terrible experience!
  • When you need the audience to focus on something serious. This sounds counter-intuitive, but if you’re making serious points, audiences can start to tune you out. Throw in a joke and they’re more likely to stay engaged long enough to take in the real message. In our Customer Experience Management Training, we use stories of truly horrendous customer experiences to get them laughing while also absorbing a key concept.
  • When you want to create a better work environment. No job is fun all the time, and humor can do a lot to lighten the workplace atmosphere. And a happier environment means a more engaged, cooperative and productive team.

Making Humor Part of Your Customer Experience

When you use humor in your customer experience, you trigger an emotional reaction in your customer, whether it’s amusement, surprise or delight. These positive emotions engage customers in ways that add value to your business. Here are some ways to incorporate humor into your customer experience:

  • Find the right time and place. Wisecracks may not be well-received if they come from the representative who handles customer complaints. But your customers may love funny quips from front-line staff.
  • Always be tasteful. Remember that inappropriate jokes reduce your status. That goes for your brand as well as you.
  • Train employees on what’s tasteful and what’s not, and especially avoid jokes that can demean or insult any group of people.
  • Be natural. Scripted jokes don’t go as well as natural and genuine banter that lets personalities shine.
    Laugh with them, not at them. You can joke about yourself, but never make jokes at other people’s expense.

Humor is a great business tool that’s not used nearly enough. It can improve your status within an organization, help you win more business, and strengthen your relationship with customers. And I for one would enjoy having more business people to joke around with.

How do you use humor in your business? Tell me about it in the comments box below.

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Colin Shaw is the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world’s leading Customer experience consultancy & training organizations. Colin is an international author of six bestselling books and an engaging keynote speaker.
Follow Colin Shaw on Twitter @ColinShaw_CX

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How Strategic Pauses Will Engage Your Listeners

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BIG VISION for Small Business

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