Fear of Feedback

Posted on May 15, 2012 by charlotte

One of the biggest problems identified on training programmes on giving feedback is dealing with fear.  I have long thought we should be running workshops on how to ask for and to receive feedback rather than how to give it.  This is because most people I speak to have had such bad experiences from being given bad feedback they are afraid to give any themselves.

Everyone knows that badly given feedback creates defensiveness and confrontation and often focuses on what went wrong.  This kind of feedback does not improve skills or knowledge and usually undermines self-confidence and self-esteem in the recipient.  They may or may not respond in the heat of the moment but I have no doubt they will inwardly plot revenge.  Some of the senior managers I meet today still carry the scars and the hatred gained in earlier times from bosses with no sensitivity or skill.

To give feedback effectively we need to be sure there is going to be something in it for the receiver.  There is absolutely no benefit in giving feedback to someone who isn’t willing to listen.  Good feedback creates trust and co-operation.  It should focus on improvements, those which are possible and on those which are already achieved.  Good feedback needs to be able to help someone to increase skill or knowledge as well as improving the receiver’s self-confidence in his or her own ability and potential.

The ideal is to create a climate of trust where people seek out feedback on their own performance and ask for help in finding new and different ways of working. This can be achieved by creating and agreeing a contract to openly discuss issues. Inviting the recipient to assess their own performance first before offering ongoing support leaves them feeling helped and their feelings acknowledged.    Benjamin Zander, the business guru and Boston Philharmonic conductor believes that if you treat everyone who comes to work for you as A grade they will respond to tuition as A graders do by expecting and requesting feedback.  Why not try it and see.

Posted in Appraisals, feedback | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Numbers Game

Posted on May 8, 2012 by charlotte

So here you are  and you have nearly finished your blog, press release or report and you are  ready to edit it.  And then it occurs to you to wonder if there are rules about how we present numbers.  Well then try these for size.  The norm when writing numbers is to spell out the word for numbers from one to ten and for those of 11 and upwards you can use the actual numbers.  However if your document, letter or blog contains both over and under 11 numbers, then you should be consistent and write them all or only use numbers.

However what is the difference between amount and number?  And when do you use them?

Well we use ‘amount’ for things which cannot be counted and number when you can.  So for example you would say: “There was a vast amount of food on the table as they were expecting a large number of people to attend the function”.  Here we can count the people (if we wanted to!) but the food covers so many items it becomes impossible to count it.   We could say “there are a number of plates of food” and here, because we can count them (the plates of food) we can change it from amount of food to number of plates.

The other little problem that caught out the supermarkets a few years ago is ‘fewer’ or’ less’.  But which one is which?  Well the rule here is to watch out for the plural nouns.    So when you have a plural of things which can be counted we use fewer, “Fewer children, fewer people, fewer families, fewer dogs”.  But if it’s a plural of something you cannot count then you use less, such as ‘less work’ or’ less food’.   There is an exception (don’t you just love the English language and its exceptions) and that is when we use the word ‘than’ in front of it.  Then we use less as in:  ‘Less than five miles’  ‘less than six hours’ or ‘less than a week’.

And that’s numbers for you.

Quicklearn runs workshops in all aspects of business writing including refreshers for grammar and punctuation.  More details on our website www.quicklearn.co.uk

Posted in Business Writing, Communications | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Making the most of networking

Posted on May 1, 2012 by charlotte

Social networking is the buzzword of the moment. The likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are playing an increasingly important part in business marketing.

But let’s remember the old-fashioned kind of networking, where you go along to a breakfast or lunch, for example, and meet people who you may like to do business with and who – you hope – will want to do business with you.

Face-to-face networking is as important for businesses now as it ever was but, as with everything, there is an element of skill involved. You have to be able to communicate, something we are passionate about here at Quicklearn.

We’ve been to a fair few networking events and noticed many different types of approaches, some more effective than others. Here are some top ten tips on how to get the best from networking:

1. If possible, investigate beforehand who is going to attend, then you can decide who it would be best for you to get into conversation with. But, at the same time, keep an open mind. It’s not just about who you meet at events but about who else those people may know.

2. Have some goals, such as deciding to chat to three new people. You’ll never be able to talk to everyone.

3. Wear the right clothes. This doesn’t have to mean a suit. Smart casual is the best approach; networking is about socialising, it’s not a business meeting.

4. Try to arrive early to make the most of the opportunity, plus it’s easier to enter a room with a few people in than if it is packed.

5. Always wear a name badge, pinning it on your right lapel, as that is the direction the eye is naturally drawn to.

6. Go into the event with confidence – take a deep breath first – and remember your objectives.

7. If you’re not sure who to talk to, or find you are on your own, learn how to politely joining in a conversation. You just need to approach a group and ask if they mind you joining – nobody is going to say no.

8. Don’t get stuck with one person for too long; think of ways of politely excusing yourself. You are all there to network and so are they, so they will probably be keen to move on too.

9. Take your business cards but only give these to people if they ask for them. If you give them out without being asked first, the chances are they will end up in a drawer or the bin.

10. Remember to follow up afterwards by contacting people you have got on with – a simple “it was nice to meet you” will do. Don’t just email everyone regardless or you may end up contacting someone who was on the list to attend but never made it!

Networking is simply a matter of communicating effectively. At Quicklearn, we’re here to help with all areas of business communication, so please get in touch for a no obligation chat.

 

Posted in Communications, Public speaking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

In praise of the apostrophe (in its right place)

Posted on April 24, 2012 by charlotte

I despair every time I see a misplaced apostrophe because this little mark carries so much significance in aiding people’s understanding of the written word.  I guess I was lucky.  My primary school English teacher so loved the language she wanted us to grow up able to express ourselves clearly and unambiguously in everything we wrote.  The structure of grammar and punctuation rules were emphasised in every subject in school.

During the seventies and eighties many schools appeared to ignore teaching grammar and punctuation preferring to concentrate on creative writing.  I fear that nowadays teachers who did not learn the language at school are faced with teaching structure again but without the experience of using it.

So let’s return to the apostrophe.  Why is it believed that a group of capital letters when pluralised need an apostrophe?  MOTs or rather MOT’s for example seen on signs outside countless garages.   Since in this example the MOT belongs to no one it doesn’t need an apostrophe.  Then there are CDs and DVDs you only need the apostrophe if there is a possessive element such as the CD’s label.

To check out the ‘belonging to’ rule possession ask yourself does this belong to anyone or anything.  If the answer is NO then there is no need to add an apostrophe.

Some people just love them and use them quite indiscriminately.  I have a friend who insists on putting an apostrophe into any word which ends with an s.  Why?   This practice is sometimes described as the green grocer apostrophe because of the tendency to do just that leading to signs reading tomato’s, potato’s and leek’s!!

As you know S is added to many words to make the subject plural such as schools, photos, friends, and mothers.  There is no excuse to add an apostrophe here because they do not belong to the subject.  However if you have a sentence saying the friends photos you add the apostrophe to friends because the photos belong to them but if there is more than one friend the apostrophe must go on the outside of the s.   If we read “the friend’s photos” we know there is one friend.  If we read “the friends’ photos” we know there are a group of friends.

The other time we use the apostrophe it’s to replace missing letters such as don’t, instead of do not, can’t instead of cannot and did not instead of didn’t.

Of course it wouldn’t be the English language if it didn’t have one trick up its sleeve and that is ‘its’ when the rules are reversed. “ It’s mine”  “It’s sunny”  uses the apostrophe.  “The house and its grounds”, “the company is proud of its building” does not.

 

 

Charlotte Mannion is the founder and a director of Quicklearn, a communications consultancy and the author of a number of Useful Guides published by Pansophix www.quicklearn.co.uk  including Report Writing

Recommended reading

Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss ISBN 1-86197-612-7

What Not to Write Dos and Don’ts of Good English ISBN 0 9552798 0 1

More information here

 

 

Posted in Business Writing, Communications | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Making time for contingency training

Posted on April 17, 2012 by charlotte

If everything is going well at your company and your team are pulling together nicely then training is probably the last thing on your mind.

But in fact, this is just the time to put some thought into it training, to assess where you may have gaps and to investigate suitable solutions. All is well now but it can take only a small change – such as one of your team going off sick – to change the balance.

Take this scenario. One of your team members has booked a three-week holiday of a lifetime, with your blessing. She is a crucial account manager, with all the information at her fingertips for your most important clients. How will you manage when she’s away? Are the rest of your team able to take up the reins?

Or what if this happens? A key member of your team goes off sick for what may be long-term. Can the rest of your staff cover his workload?   Should you call in a temp?  Will that temp have the right training in, for example, customer services?

We call this contingency training; training you have in place so that your business can carry on offering the excellent service to customers if a situation, such as we’ve outlined, arises. It means your training is planned and in place rather than being reactive and (in all likelihood) more expensive.

To help you assess what training needs to be carried out to ensure you are ‘covered’, why not download our white paper on running a training needs analysis.   This will help you find out where you might be short of a particular skills set.

Then you can take any necessary action, which may not even involve bringing in an outside learning provider. You may find all you need is for each member of your team to give his or her colleagues a few hours training in his or her particular area of expertise. This will improve the skills of you team both for their benefit and that of your business. It will also enhance their overall knowledge and respect for each other.

If you’d like any advice on contingency training call Charlotte or Matt on 01793 790331 or email enquiries@quicklearn.co.uk

 

 

Posted in Communications, Customer Service, Random acts of thinking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Are you keeping your customers satisfied?

Posted on April 10, 2012 by charlotte

Businesses need to be more aware than ever that customer service is vital if they are to retain and attract clients, so it never ceases to amaze me that many still get it wrong.

I blogged recently about my experience in a department store: when I asked an assistant if they stocked other sizes of a dress her response was little more than “we might have” with no offer to help.

Since then, I have come across numerous other examples of poor customer service, one of which I will share here. A friend whose father had died wrote to inform a tour operator, with which he had been due to travel, of his death. One of their staff rang to confirm cancellation details and asked to speak to him so she clarity that he no longer wished to travel!

With the economic downturn, customer service is ever more important, as consumers become increasingly selective as to where and how they spend their money. When companies run into problems the staff will become concerned. They’ll start to keep an eye open for other jobs and they will become de-motivated. The first thing to suffer? Yes it’s the customer service.

So here are some tips for getting the most of the staff:

Take advantage of business being a little quieter to carry out customer service training.

Remind staff to listen carefully to customers when they visit or call

Make sure customer calls are dealt with thoroughly even – in fact especially – if they have a complaint

Explain to staff why customer relations, and their role within that, are so important

Sometimes just small tweaks in customer service delivery can make all the difference.

Consider this scenario: a well-known mortgage lender was about to close all its high street branches and the day this news was announced what did the manager of one do? Did she sit about, worrying about her own job, waiting for the calls from worried customers? No, she got on the phone and reassured them that their current or pending mortgages would be safe. That was real customer service.

Quickearn runs a number of tailored workshops to meet your customer needs from building relationships to handling complaints; from handling angry customers to conflict resolution

Posted in Communications, Customer Service, feedback | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Making your body talk for you

Posted on April 3, 2012 by charlotte

In the last blog I outlined the link between feeling confident and being confident and how those states inhance the way we communicate with people.

So here are some quick fixes and recommendations that you should start to put into practice:

Dress to win – Look at your appearance and ask yourself:

    • Do I feel confident?
    • Do I look confident?
    • What could I do with my appearance to give me the edge?

Handshakes – Never give a limp wrist handshake, make sure it is firm but not too hard

Smile a lot more than you have been doing – even if you are a comedian!

Walk tall with your head and shoulders back. Walk at a brisk pace

When you talk to people look them straight in the eye

Keep on moving – Motion creates emotion

If you are ever feeling down, just look at your body language and change it immediately even if it is false – YOU WILL start to feel better and more confident immediately.

First impressions count – so when you are going to meet people for the first time, think what first impression you want to give them.

Take more notice of others’ body language. You can normally tell what others are feeling by the way that they are moving and using their body too. When you are more aware of it you can use this to your advantage.

Quicklearn  provides one to one coaching in confidence building especially if you are preparing to give a presentation or speak in public.  Charlotte is the author of the Useful Guide to Public Speaking packed full of ideas for improving the way we communicate

 

Posted in Communications | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The way you move your body…

Posted on March 27, 2012 by charlotte

Yes the way  you move your body and the way you walk has an enormous effect on the way you feel and your confidence levels.

You know, your feelings are linked to what is going on in your head and how you are moving your body.  The way that you move sends subconscious messages to your mind and this either helps or hinders the way that you feel.

Emotion is created by motion. If you sit still for a long period of time your natural energy levels automatically lower. What happens when you get up, walk around and return to your seat?  You have more energy and you’re given a boost.  I can’t stress how important it is to move and act confidently and positively.  You will give off all the right vibes to everyone around you and it will make them think that you are confident even if you’re not feeling it inside.  Yes, that’s right. Even if you’re not feeling confident, act as though you are.

So, how do you do this?  Well, walk fast and with a purpose. Don’t saunter along, walk like you know exactly where you are going and when you get there you mean business!

Gesture with your hands as you talk, it will create motion and you know what that leads to – EMOTION!  The right gestures also have a major impact on building rapport as long as you’re not shaking your fist!  All it takes is a smile!

Think for a moment about your confidence role model.  One thing that confident people have in common is that they all probably smile a lot and are happier than their negative counterparts.  It may sound silly, but there is a lot of power associated with a smile. What I would like you to do is to start smiling more often. Now, that doesn’t mean that you have to walk around with a silly grin on your face all of the time. But smile as you walk down the street, when you talk to someone, even when you look in the mirror at yourself.  You will be surprised at how better you will feel for it, and it will project a positive image to all others – one that will attract opportunities and people. Remember that confident people are happy people and negative people are not.  Happy people are also seen as more attractive than unhappy and sad people so that is an added bonus!

You know, the way that we communicate in our appearance, posture, gesture, gaze and expression can be such a powerful tool in the way that we feel and when communicating with others.  The manner in which you communicate and the interpersonal skills you demonstrate are also very important. Effective communication is vital if you are going to succeed no matter what you are doing.

Quicklearn specialises in coaching and small group training to improve the way we communicate.  In next Tuesday’s blog read some ideas for improving your confidence levels and enhancing your communication skills.

Posted in Communications, feedback | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is the difference between a presentation and public speaking?

Posted on March 20, 2012 by charlotte

A colleague of mine called me last week because he had received an invitation to be a guest speaker at a big social event. Although he had spoken in public before it had always been about work and normally about presenting a report of his project. As he started to prepare for the event he realised that he firstly didn’t know what he wanted to talk about and secondly that as this was an evening event with a three course dinner first there would be a huge expectation that he would be entertaining. This was something he never attempted to do before. I could see he wanted to make an impact but not crash out so we agreed to meet and plan his speech together.
Planning your speech
Firstly you need to know how much time you have for your talk. If it’s for 30 minutes for instance you can allow four to five minutes for your opening and the same for your conclusion leaving you with 20 minutes of actual content. The content needs to be planned well in advance. Don’t ever leave a speech to the last moment. It needs time to mature.
Do your research
Interview all those people who are close to the subject of your speech to find out their best stories. Check out with your hosts what they are looking for and whether you can link your talk to things the group are involved in or are there people you can mention. Having an insider view will impress. So set aside time to research all the eventualities.
Writing the speech
Always base your speech around three key areas. If you are speaking for an hour you may need six topics but deliver in groups of three. Think about all those references to three in our language and go with the flow. Three blind mice, three musketeers, bad luck always comes in threes etc. You can remember what you are going to talk about if you just have three key areas and your audience will remember your three main points too. A diagram such as a mind map can also serve as your notes or prompt.
Practising your speech
Speak slowly and clearly and moderate your tone and don’t be afraid to pause to allow people to think about your point or laugh at your joke. Control your breathing and therefore your nerves. Anyone can project their voice with the right breathing technique and that saves all embarrassment with microphones which may break down on the day. If you do use a microphone you definitely need to try it out first. Hand held mikes will lose your words if you turn your head. Lapel mikes have led to public relations disasters when not switched off in time. Remember Mr Brown on the campaign trail!  Finally, practice, practice, practice and then rehearse the whole speech to a willing friend or faailing that your children or the family pet.
On the day
If you can arrive before the evening begins you can suss out the room and the lay out, check any equipment you may be using and meet your hosts with confidence. Only one other point – try to avoid the alcohol until after your speech. It may make you feel more courageous but will wreck your performance!

 

charlotte is the author of the Useful Guide to Public Speaking  ebook and the hard copy workbook How to Give the Perfect Wedding Speech Follow the links for more details

Posted in Public speaking | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sometimes face-to-face communication is best

Posted on March 13, 2012 by charlotte

Emails are fantastic ways of communicating – they’re quick, instant and save time that might otherwise have been spent picking up the phone or holding a meeting.

But they aren’t always the best form of communication. They can be open to misinterpretation and, by their very informality, can sometimes be confusing and misleading.  I recently was privy to a series of emails which ended in almost out right war.  It is so easy to sound offhand or patronising or worse critical in a written document.  What is worse it’s there forever and the injured party can mull over it for hours as well as share it with others at the flick of the ‘forward’ button.

The other day I was told this story of an email which was not received in the way the sender had meant.   One colleague (let’s call her Mary, because it’s an old-fashioned name and we like it) was waiting for some information to be emailed from another colleague (we’ll call her Gladys – that’s one we’ve not heard in a long time). The information was some time in coming, when suddenly colleague number three (Faye) sent the information instead but asked Mary to pretend it hadn’t arrived because Gladys was supposed to be emailing it. Mary’s email in reply to Faye was a joky “that’s a bit sneaky”.   however and very unfortunately, Faye took offence and said she wasn’t being sneaky but that Gladys was busy!

This email ping-pong – if you were able to follow it – showed some very poor communication between two colleagues, Mary and Faye. If they’d spoken face-to-face, then Mary’s “sneaky” comment would have been taken in the light-hearted manner it was meant. If Faye was unsure of the meaning from the words, then body language and light-hearted tone would have told her.   But via an email – with no accompanying body language, facial expression or tone – the comment went down badly.

There’s a simple lesson to learn from this: choose the right form of communication to fit your message. If you’re not sure, then don’t press the send button but pick up the phone or, if possible, walk down the office to see your colleague.

At Quicklearn, we can give you advice on what you should and shouldn’t say in emails, how to write emails, how to address people, and even when to hit delete rather than send. It’s just one service we offer in a whole host of communication courses and coaching.  Read more about our workshops and coaching programmes 

For more information why not call us on 01793 790331.

Posted in Business Writing, Communications | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment